COLLABORATE-13 Conference Highlights

Thank you OAUG, IOUG and Quest for a wonderful COLLABORATE-2013 conference in Denver, Colorado last week. It was an amazing experience as usual - Meeting all my friends, networking, knowledge sharing, Information Exchange etc.

Our OBISIG meeting was held on Sunday April 7th from 1:15 to 2:15 PM. Our SIG Meeting went very well. Glenn Hoormann from Ludus Inc, Our chairman for the OBISIG hosted the meeting. We had two customer panel sessions. Andrea Buckman from Humana shared her experiences about the OBIEE 11g upgrade details. I shared about the OBIEE landscape at Dell. There were a lot of questions from the audience. Very interactive session overall.

I attended a few more sessions and then comes the "Meet the leaders" kick-off by OAUG. It was great to get to know the OAUG board members and the various OAUG leaders. This is truly a unique User group. A group by the users for the users. Go OAUG, go! We had a fun filled event Welcome Reception at the Museum. Lots of knowledge sharing and networking there as well.


Monday morning started off with a key note from Aron Ralston, author, adventurer and the subject of the film, "127 Hours" who shared his perspectives gained from his harrowing experience of being pinned by a boulder for more than five days in a Utah canyon. It was a captivating speech.

I attended a lot of interesting Intercompany sessions and ADF sessions. We also had our OAUG customer support council meeting on the same day (IOUC Global support meeting). We had presentations from Oracle support. Oracle is trying to get feedback from customers through the Customer Advisory Panel. If you are an Oracle customer and are willing to provide your feedback through surveys, you can sign up at http://oracle.com/ORACLECAP

We had our OAUG Education committee meeting that evening. The objective of the Education Committee is to develop, implement and monitor educational offerings, separate from annual conferences, for OAUG members. It was a pleasure to get to know everyone from the OAUG Education committee in person.

Tuesday morning started off with a keynote from Mark Hurd, President of Oracle and Team Oracle Aviator Sean D. Tucker. Very interesting session.

I had my presentation on 'OIC at Dell: An Upgrade to Tell'  on Oracle Incentive Compensation. We had a very interactive session. Lots of interesting questions from the audience. I also talked through the Fusion co-existence strategy proposal especially Fusion OIC now has Quota management module which is not available in the R12 or other previous versions. I also went through some of the tips and tricks we learnt with the OIC module discovered during our POC sessions at Dell. Some of the audience came and told me that they learnt something very interesting and unique from my session - something they have never heard before. Lots of compliments. Overall it was a very interesting session.

I also participated in the Oracle Usability Feedback sessions this time. It was a really interesting and a unique way to participate in the 2 way communication between customers and Oracle.

Overall, I had a great conference. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Look forward to Oracle Openworld and other conferences.

Join me in Denver, Colorado at COLLABORATE - 13 - My presentations and Panel Agenda

1) 

Oracle Business Intelligence Special Interest Group (OBI SIG) Meeting

Date:
Sunday, April 7
1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
Location:
Room 111
Product Line:
Fusion Middleware, Oracle BI (OBIEE Suite), Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Oracle Data Mining, Oracle OLAP
Description:
Overview of OBI SIG - Oracle BI Roadmap, Direction & Vision - Customer (3 total) Panel where customers explain their BI solutions and take questions from the audience.
Objective 1: Attendees hear from 3 large Oracle Business Intelligence customers about their BI Footprint.
Objective 2: Hear about BI challenges and value received from BI Investments
Objective 3: Attendees can ask questions of customers in RoundTable format.
Objective 4: Attendees hear from Oracle about the Direction, Vision and Roadmap of Oracle Business Intelligence.
Objective 5: Attendees get to network with customer speakers, Oracle and OBI SIG Board.

Speakers:

Andrea Buckman
Humana
Glenn Hoormann
Ludus Inc.
Lakshmi Sampath
Dell

2)

OIC at Dell - An Upgrade to Tell

Date:
Tuesday, April 9
10:45 am - 11:45 am
Location:
Room 506
Category:
-- Not Applicable --
Product Line:
Fusion Applications, Oracle E-Business Suite
Track:
Customer Relationship Management
Description:
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the 11i to R12 Upgrade for the OIC module at Dell. It also delves into the functional overview of R12 Oracle Incentive Compensation (OIC) and its integration with Territory Manager and Resource Manager along with the undocumented secrets discovered and lessons learnt during our implementation at Dell. As an added bonus, this paper will also cover the aspects of co-existence strategy of R12 OIC with Fusion(Sales Planning module - Quota Management& Territory Man
Objective 1: Functional Overview of upgrade from 11i to R12 (Oracle Incentive Compensation, TM & RM)
Objective 2: Revealation of lessons learned and challenges faced during R12 (re)implementation
Objective 3: Setup & configuration of Multi-org concepts using MOAC; Role based access control
Objective 4: Comparison of OIC version 11.5.10, R12.1 and Fusion, new functionality and changes in features
Objective 5: step by step information on implementing R12 OIC ; its integration with other modules
Handouts:

1. Presentation
2. White Paper

Speaker:

Lakshmi Sampath
Dell

Look forward to a great conference. See you at Denver.

Regards
Lakshmi

Top 3 Reasons to consider R12 Upgrade

Based on 2012 OAUG (Oracle Applications User Group ) Survey on ERP Upgrade Economics,

As of 2012, About 46 percent of the OAUG survey respondents reported that they have already moved to the latest Oracle ERP solution – version 12.1 of EBS. Another 51 percent are still running version 11i (11.5.10). Also, 7 percent are running the latest version of PeopleSoft (9.1).  For many respondents, an upgrade is imminent. A total of 42 percent say that they are either in the process of an upgrade or planning to do so within the next 12 months. There is a segment,totaling 17 percent however, who say they either have no plans or aren’t aware of any plans.

ERP Upgrade Plans (as of 2012)

Among the segment of respondents who have no plans for an ERP upgrade, the main reason is a perception that their current systems are still adequate—as cited by about half. One-fifth are troubled by the lack of budget resources to execute an upgrade.

For those who have no plans for upgrading to R12 in the near future or those who are currently in the process of upgrading to R12, Here are some critical reasons to consider R12 Upgrade.

 

1) Oracle Support

EBS 11i is currently on Extended Support until Dec 2013. After that 11i will be on Sustaining Support. During Oracle OpenWorld 2012, Oracle announced an exception that will be provided for the first 13 months of Sustaining Support on Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10 (11i10), valid from December 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014.

This exception support will be comprised of components:

1. 1. New fixes for Severity 1 production issues,
   2. Critical Patch Updates (CPUs), up to and including the October 2014 CPU,*
   3. United States Form 1099 2013 year-end updates (for Oracle Financials/Accounts Payable product), and
   4. Payroll regulatory updates for the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia for each country’s fiscal year ending in 2014.

* POST OPENWORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: Exception for CPUs until October 2014 is newly added feature as of October 29, 2012. 

As per Oracle’s Lifetime Support Policy for Applications, E-Business Suite 11.5.10 is in Extended Support. There is an uplift fee waiver for all 3 years of Extended Support through November, 2013. As long as customers are current on their Software Update License & Support fees and renewals, their release version will automatically receive the Severity 1 Production Support Exception to Sustaining Support for 11.5.10. Customers must meet, or be above, the required minimum baseline patch level as identified in Doc ID 883202.1 - Patch Requirements for Extended Support of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10.

So it is highly critical that all customers who are currently on 11i plan and upgrade their system to R12 to keep their Extended Support active.

2) New Features

Better User Experience in R12

Reduced pop-ups and duplicate screens
Re-designed and streamlined entire workflows
Reduced the number of steps to complete key tasks
Improved overall look & feel and visual style
Increased personalization capabilities

Financials R12 New Features

Ledgers and ledger sets
Centralized rules-based accounting engine
Single, global tax engine
Centralized payments engine
Common global intercompany system
Shared services support with multi-org access
Centralized data model for suppliers and banks
Incentive Compensation enhancements
Improved Collections Functionality
New Project Management tools
Enhanced Rev Recognition
Enhanced Revenue Matching Subledger Accounting

XML Publisher Reports, Embedded BI

Other Features

iRep

Enhanced Patch Management and Cloning

Better Security

Simpler Management, Better UI

User Management, Globalization

UPK (User Productivity Kit)

3) Fusion Middleware

AIA, BPEL, SOA, ESB, BAM

Here are some additional reading materials on R12 - EBS Release 12 Information Center on Metalink:
The link for R12 Information Center

EBS Release 12 RCD’s (Release Content Documents) (Metalink Note: 404152.1): 
EBS Release 12 Documentation Resources Overview (Metalink Note: 394692.1):
EBS Release 12 Translation Matrix (Metalink Note: 412218.1):

My article in the OAUG Insight Magazine - Summer 2012 Edition (Cover Page)

Meet your SLA with SLA -

Service Level Agreement with Subledger Accounting

My White paper on “Meet your SLA with SLA”  is published in the OAUG Insight Magazine, a quarterly magazine published by the Oracle Applications Users Group.  

Here are some of the highlights of my article:

The article aims to provide a comprehensive knowledge and  understanding of the Subledger Accounting (SLA) architecture in Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) R12. It also uncovers some of the unpublished implementation tips and tricks and show how users can meet their financial and reporting needs on time using SLA. In addition, the article highlights how we used the SLA functionality to automate and control various accounting entries using specific business rules.

SLA is a new functionality introduced in EBS R12.SLA is a powerful and flexible rules-based accounting engine with a centralized data model and repository that generates accounting entries based on source transactions for all Oracle Applications transactions. With the introduction of SLA, customers now have a unified view of all the Oracle Application Subledgers across all modules with accounting entries. SLA helps to do a single-step posting to all ledgers and also provides realtime/online accounting information as well as an audit trail for all transactions

.

Subledger Accounting comprises five components: Ledger, Subledger Accounting Method, Application Accounting Definition, Journal Line Definitions and Sources 

Using SLA - Case Study: Prior to the EBS R12 upgrade, in our Order to Cash system, when an AR receipt was created, the existing process was mapping the receipt to the default cost center as per the system setup. There was a lot of manual effort involved to reclassify them to the correct customer cost center.

As a part of the EBS R12 Upgrade, using Subledger Accounting rules, we wanted to automate this and make the system automatically apply the receipts to the correct cost center for the customer. Basically, our requirement was to ensure that the create accounting process derives the correct accounting Flexfield segments based on the receipts applied to the customer based on the sales channel to Accounting Flexfield mapping. We wanted this to work for any cash application – receipt applied, receipt unapplied, receipt reversed, etc. The event type for this case study is receipt, and event class is applied, unapplied, reversed, etc.

Solution Steps we used to configure SLA rules:

1.      Create a PL/SQL code – to derive the correct AFF Segments based on receipt and other input parameters.

2.      Define Custom Sources – Associate the PL/SQL code to Custom Source.

3.      Define Account Derivation Rules (ADR).

4.     Define Journal Line Types (JLT).

5.      Define Journal Entry Descriptions (JED).

6.     Define Journal Line Definitions (JLD) – Associate the ADR, JLT and JED together.

7.      Define/Validate Application Accounting Definition (AAD).

8.     Define Subledger Accounting Method (SLAM).

9.     Assign Subledger Accounting Method to Ledger.
10.     Run the Create Accounting Process

After the accounting process completes, you should be able to view the accounting entries from the Receipts window

Co-existence Strategy in Fusion Applications

What is co-existence strategy? Is it just a myth?

Until EBS R12, Co-existence strategy was merely a product of some fancy imagination.It was indeed a myth.

 

The Myth has turned Real!

Oracle Fusion Applications has unveiled a new method of adoption called Co-existence with existing Oracle Product lines.In order to achieve value from Fusion Applications, customers don't have to upgrade or migrate their existing systems to Fusion Applications. Customers can protect their current investment on existing implementations while trying to add new functionality using Fusion Apps.

 

Where Does Co-Existence Stop?

 The co-existence processes extends across all major product lines, including Oracle's Siebel CRM, People Soft, JD Edwards and Oracle E-Business Suite.

 For example: Fusion Account hub is a new product in Fusion Applications which is supposed to co-exist with Oracle EBS R12 and the integration is supposed to be Out of box between R12 GL and Fusion Accounting hub.

 Some of the supported Co-existence modesl include Oracle Fusion Incentive Compensation with Oracle E-Business Suite CRM and HCM or Oracle Fusion Incentive Compensation with PeopleSoft HCM.

 

So What is the advantage of this Co-existence model?

* First of all, you dont need rip off your current deployments to take advantage of Fusion Applications.

* For Example if Company ACME Limited has Oracle R12 CRM and plan to add some of the Incentive Compensation capabilities in Fusion.

Why? Because of some of the new capabilities like Territory and Quota Management!

* Can ACME do it seamlessly?

YES. Because ACME does not need to migrate their current CRM to Fusion inorder to take advantage of Fusion Incentive Compensation modules.

*ACME can implement Fusion Incentive Compensation and co-exist with their EBS CRM module and take advantage of the modular approach.

* So ACME gets a lot of flexibility  to plan and implement projects in a small scale approach rather than go with a Big Bang approach on the implementation.

More about Fusion Apps in my next Blog.

COLLABORATE 2012 - Conference

I attended the COLLABORATE 2012 conference in Las Vegas (April 22 to 26 2012) just 3 weeks ago. As usual, it was an awesome experience - Great content, Excellent Networking and so on..

I presented a paper on "Road to Fusion" to talk about Dell's enterprise wide architectural strategy on Fusion Roadmap. I had the session from 2 to 3. The room was fully packed and the audience had a lot of great questions about Fusion and were surprised to know about the co-existence strategy as a part of Fusion. I will try to cover more about the co-existence strategy in my next blog. After my session I participated in an OBISIG panel to talk about our strategy on OBIEE and EPM suite of products.. Last but not the least, I attended the session on "Meet the leaders" with OAUG . I was awarded the "OAUG Member of the Year" for 2012 by Mark Clark, President of the OAUG for all my volunteer work with the OAUG. I was very much honored. Thank you OAUG for this outstanding recognition. That's all for now. More about Fusion in my next blog. Lakshmi ps: This was originally written in May 2012. But publishing it today...