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A day in the life of an Oracle Applications Consultant

Business Forms

Sunday, August 14, 2005

A Better Learning Environment (ABLE) at Harvard University

This post discusses the Harvard University systems support site and the use of Oracle 11i and Peoplesoft at this institution.

A Better Learning Environment (ABLE) is a support site for users of Harvard Universities systems. More specifically, the site provides support for Financial Applications (Oracle), HR Applications (Peoplesoft), Reporting Applications (Financial and HR) and for Harvard’s Central Administration Staff.

The resources available at the site include: -

• Forms
• Policies
• Rates & Schedules
• Work Instructions & Processes

Of particular interest is the section on Chart of Accounts (CoA) which outlines the account structure they implemented at Harvard.

For Financial Applications Harvard runs Oracle eBS and you can read about their upgrade to 11i from 11.0.3 in January 2003 here. According to the newsletter the upgrade introduced a new look and feel, new login techniques, and a new method of navigation for Web Voucher, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Budget Tool, AWS2, HUDINI, and Applications Administration.

In November 2004 the University upgraded from 11.5.5 to 11.5.9 which you can read about here.

The Universities Administrative Systems e-news is an interesting insight into how ERP systems are run and maintained. According to the site:

The Office of Human Resources publishes a semimonthly electronic newsletter for users of University financial, HR, and reporting systems, policies, and procedures. It contains:

• Updates on projects underway to build or improve University administrative systems
• Information about new University financial, HR, and reporting policies, procedures, and forms
• Reminders about upcoming deadlines and cutover dates
• Tips and tricks for working more easily or productively

On the e-news site you will also find back issues of the publication as well as a useful index by topic.

Friday, August 20, 2004

Oracle ERP implementation - the Douglas Omaha Enterprise Resource System 〈DOERS〉

This post contains a review of the Douglas Omaha Enterprise Resource System (DOERS) site and highlights useful documentation which can be downloaded. 

Last week I came across a really good site documenting an Oracle ERP implementation at the City of Omaha which has been named the Douglas Omaha Enterprise Resource Systems (DOERS). According to their site and related documentation: -

The City of Omaha, Douglas County, and the Omaha Douglas Public Building Commission are participants in a joint implementation of Oracle HRMS application suite, a project called DOERS (Douglas Omaha Enterprise Resource System). The DOERS project is a phased implementation and Oracle HRMS is Phase 3 of the total project.Phase 2, which includes Inventory, Grants Management, Projects and Public Sector Budgeting, began in early 2002. Phase 1, involving the Oracle Core Financials, began in early 2001 and includes General Ledger, Receivables, Payables, Fixed Assets, Cash Management, Purchasing and iProcurement.

Following is a summary and analysis of key areas of the site: -

HRMS

According to this section of the site: -

The City/County DOERS project continues building an Oracle Solution to integrate HR, Payroll, and Benefit functions with the new Oracle Financial modules. This initiative falls under the DOERS project umbrella specifically called Phase 3. This Phase of the Oracle implementation also named HRMS for Oracle’s Human Resource Management System has been made significant progress. Douglas County and the Omaha Building Commission went live on version 11.5.5 in January of 2004. Due to the complexity of this phase and limited resource availability the Go Live date for the City has been pushed back.

Here you will find two very good documents to download, namely the RD.020 documents for Human Resources and Benefits. The RD.020 Current Business Requirements is an Oracle AIM (Applications Implementation Methodology) document which is designed to identify and document current business processes and requirements. This document often incorporates a questionairre and is completed during the Definition phase of a project.

Inquiry and Reports

Contains business forms, chart of accounts and end user documentation and training material for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and General Ledger.

Chart of Accounts

Here you can download the latest Chart of Accounts which is structured according to the following segments: -

• Funds
• Orgs
• Activities
• Assets
• Liabilities
• Fund Balance
• Expense
• Revenues

Current Practices

Here you will find the RD.020 documents for the various modules implemented in each phase of the project.

Future Processes

Contains the RD.030 documents for the following future processes: -

• Payables
• Purchasing
• General Ledger
• Fixed Assets
• Accounts Receivable
• Grants and Projects

The RD.030 document is an Oracle AIM document which is used to establish a process and mapping summary for your organisation. It is normally completed within the Operations Analysis phase of the project lifecycle. In this task, you create the repository for key project findings and decisions that occur during the process and functional requirements gathering activities.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Implementing Oracle Tutor using Author and Publisher

This post explains what Oracle Tutor is and contains links to some very good online examples of organisations that have implemented Oracle Tutor using Author and Publisher

Tutor Overview

According to the Tutor Page on Oracle Appsnet: -

Oracle Tutor, a critical training product for the Oracle E-Business Suite, provides you with a powerful tool to document and track your business processes, determine workflow, and develop and deploy applicable training materials to end-users. It includes a repository of Oracle applications procedural and instructional content that can be dynamically customized to apply to a company’s unique business processes. The result is a set of job-specific desk manuals and student guides that are easy to update and can be deployed online.

The Tutor CD can be found amongst the 11i CD pack you will receive when you purchase Oracle E-Business Suite (a lot of people don’t know that it’s there!). After installing Tutor Author and Publisher as well as the associated documentation, probably one of the most important files to know about is the DOCREG.xls file which is normally located in the following directory \\Tutor11i\User Manuals. The DOCREG.xls file contains the following sheets: -

• Legend
• Procedures
• Instructions
• Business Forms
• References
• Coding Conventions
• EDUC Abstracts (abstracts related to the training slides)
• EDUC Powerpoints (generic training slides for each module)

Each of these sheets will provide you with a listing related to the sheet title. For example, the "Procedures" sheet will provide you with a list of all the generic Oracle procedures that you undertake to perform the processes in a particular module. The related procedural documentation as per the listing is delivered as part of the Oracle Tutor installation. The thing I like about having the procedures in this kind of listing is that you can easily filter and sort the listing to identify the procedures that are relevant to your area of business. Then you only have to find the associated documentation in the Tutor folders created when installing on your local machine.

Tutor Author and Publisher Examples

Despite Tutor being such a wonderful product I haven’t come across many organisations that have implemented. My guess is that with IT Budgets being cut
to the bone, businesses do not have the necessary resources to implement it. The following are some really good online examples of how Tutor can be implemented
for your organisation and distributed across the web: -

US Department of Transportation

Here there is an online implementation of Tutor for Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Management, Fixed Assets, General Ledger, Project Accounting, Purchasing and Reports (Web and Discoverer).

University of Virginia

Here, Tutor documentation is available for Oracle Financials, Human Resources and Payroll.

US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

According to the site: -

The USACE Project Management Business Process (PMBP) Manual was developed as an web-based on-line tool to assist the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operation as a team-based organization, operating regionally, and focused on delivering projects on-time, within budget and meeting both the customers’ expectations and public interests. The Corps culture must be closely aligned with the project management business process environment. The Manual provides the Corps with business processes that are applicable in every organization:

• to enable the Corps to consistently manage all work under the Project Management Business Process (PMBP), using corporate automated information systems
• to transcend organizational and geographical boundaries, resulting in more efficient and effective work relationships
• to promote a more project-focused organization, while also serving public interests
• to more effectively and efficiently use limited resources
• to enhance the use of cross-functional project delivery teams (PDT) and regional business centers
• to further guide the organization into a team-based, learning organization that operates corporately

The PMBP Manual was developed using Oracle Tutor to facilitate integration of the business processes with P2. This on-line software allows for continuous update and improvement and provides both written processes as well as a flowchart supplement designed to reach all users.  Tutor also provides for specific role identification, using the Tutor term “author,” to allow users to recognize their responsibilities.  As a web-based on-line tool, the PMBP Manual offers immediate access to policy documents, reference documents and an ease of navigation through the execution of a program or project from work acceptance through planning and execution to closeout.

Oracle Tutor will also allow the user to relate actions directly to software usage and provide screenshots of entry pages aiding in navigation of new software.By allowing users to quickly see results (incorporation of comments and feedback), Oracle Tutor will assist in the continuous improvement of the PMBP Manual.

You can read more about the development of the Project Management Business Process (PMBP) Manual here

Key areas of the USACE site that you should take a look at are: -

• Processes Index - here you can access all Process and Reference Documents by their phase in the project life cycle.
• Desk Manual - See the processes as they relate to different roles.
• “Tutor Best Practices” document

  The purpose of this document is to provide the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) with a reference guide that outlines general information regarding Oracle Tutor as well as some of the best practices as identified by the BP/P2 Project Delivery Team (PDT).This guide is not intended to be an Oracle Tutor User Manual, but a guide to aide in standardizing and implementing Tutor as a documentation tool for USACE. The Tutor tool, methodology, training, and roles and responsibilities will be covered along with information on support and installation requirements.

Related White Papers, Presentations and Articles

An article by Howard Penn of Solution Beacon in the R11i quarterly newsletter, entitled “Oracle Tutor 11i”, provides a brief explanation of what Tutor is and why it should be used.

This presentations page at the Perthos Consulting Site contains the following excellent Tutor presentations by Thomas A. Perkins: -

• Oracle Tutor - Product Overview (653KB)
• Oracle Tutor - Using the Product (284KB)
• Tools for a Successful Oracle Tutor Implementation (2.94MB)

This papers page contains the whitepaper on Tools for a Successful Oracle Tutor Implementation (506KB)

Lastly, you should take a look at the Tutor Special Interest Group (SIG) Home Page that is part of the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) - here you will find some sample tutor documents.

Friday, July 16, 2004

Online Business Office Environment at Yale University

This post takes a look at the Online Business Office Environment at Yale University, an ideal place for implementors of ERP systems to take a look at what types of documentation should be prepared when undertaking an implementation.

Recently I discovered the Online Business Office Environment (OBOE) Site at Yale University. I felt it’s the type of site that would give implementors of ERP Systems an idea of what types of documentation would need to be prepared. The thing I’ve always believed with ERP systems is that clients, implementors or consultants do not make enough effort to document the processes. Even if the processes are documented, the knowledge of how the new process is executed is not adequately transferred to those making use of them. Placing this information online and updating it frequently is one way of resolving these issues. It also ensures that continuous learning and education on systems and processes within the organisation is undertaken. Below I have highlighted the two major sub-sections of the Online Business Office Environment and provided a brief summary of what’s available in these particular areas. I am sure the information contained on this site will prove useful to implementors of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and in particular Oracle Applications.

Learning Modules

This section contains user guides, training scenarios, tutorials and presentations for each of the following functional areas.

• Procurement
 
• i-procurement
• VIP - Contract Purchases
• WIP - Web Invoice Payment
• SWAP - Simple Web Allocation Process
• General Procurement
• General Accounting
• Journal Staging Area (JSA)
• Custom Commitments
• Receipt Identification Form (RIF)
• Labor Distribution (LD)
• FPM - Financial Planning and Management
• Data Warehousing Portal
• Budgeting - with Oracle Financial Analyzer (OFA)
• HR/LD/Payroll Reporting Using DataWarehouse Portal and Brio BUG
• Other Training
• System & Technology Access Request Tool (START)
• Training Management System (TMS)
• Human Resources and Payroll
• KRONOS Time Keeping System
• C & T Payroll (Casual and Temps)
• Casual and Student Payroll
• Casual Hiring

Policies, Procedures, Forms and Guides

This section of the site contains policies, procedures, forms and guides for the following functional areas: -

• Accounts Payable
• Purchasing
• Internal Services
• Information Technology Services (ITS)
• HR Services
• Payroll
• General Accounting
• Financial Management

There’s plenty of good reading material on this site - enjoy browsing it!

Friday, June 25, 2004

Oracle Apps Implementation Documentation for a University

This post contains details of implementation documentation for an Oracle Applications Implementation at the Queensland University of Technology. In particular, I will discuss the Chart of Accounts documentation available at the Universities web site.

The Queensland University of Technology has some very useful Business Forms, Procedure Manuals and Training Documentation at the Division of Finance and Resource Plannings site. In particular the Chart of Accounts documentation clearly illustrates the accounting flexfield structure and associated values that should be used in such types of organization as a University.

Another sample Chart of Accounts can also be downloaded from my personal site.