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ImpLemenTATIOn Of A GLOBAL HRmS UTILIzInG

mULTIpLe LAnGUAGeS

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spring 2014

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“Excellent conference,

sessions, vendor experiences and entertainment.

All COLLABORATE networking

opportunities were awesome.”– 2013 attendee KEYNOTe SPEAKER

Adam SavageCuriosity: Asking the

Right Questions

Join the Conversation AT

COLLABORATE 14 –OAUG Forum

O A U G M e M B e R B e n e f i t

50 Tune in to the OAUG for education

spring 2014

T A B L e O F c o n t e n t s

O A U G l e a d e r s h i p

f e a t u r e s

O A U G g e o s & s i g s

46 SIG Update

48 Geo Update

18

G L O B A L u s e r s

52 OAUG Member Snapshot: New Board Members

54 New and Returning Members

O R A c L e d i r e c t i o n s 59 closer to Home – by Laura Schaulat

G L O B A L s o l u t i o n s 25 our sales cloud Journey

WhiteLight Group is one of the first 100 Oracle customers on Oracle Sales cloud. Share their journey to success and what they believe would be key reasons why other customers should consider adopting Oracle Sales cloud. – by Trudy Sturino and David Ghaowi

30 top 10 tips and tricks for oracle Business intelligenceThis article provides Oracle Business Intelligence enterprise edition (OBIee) 11g implementation tips and tricks, providing context and highlighting the value around the related 11g product features and capabilities. – by Patrick Callahan

36 lessons on hyperion epM implementationsDiscover some best practices for enabling Hyperion ePM technology into business processes that will allow you to enjoy success both during and after implementation. – by Arthur Forbus and Tammy Norton

56 Vendor corner: smarter database partitioning gives leading enterprises an edge with oracle e-Business suite

Find out how two companies leveraged a new approach for managing their Oracle e-Business Suite data based on Oracle database partitioning with Informatica to improve performance while lowering infrastructure costs and simplifying DBA operations.

oaug.org 1

2 OAUG 2014 Star Partners

4 OAUG 2014 Board of Directors

6 President’s Perspective

8 OAUG Viewpoint

10 implementation of a global hrMs utilizing Multiple languages In 2011, Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen began a year-long effort to implement a global

HRMS system. Learn how they were able to implement the first phase of the project

on time and within budget with the help of a strong steering committee, an expert

implementation partner and no security breaches. – by Laura Reynolds

18 success and lessons learned in a complex subledger accounting deployment

With Oracle Subledger Accounting (SLA), Sandia corp. was able to produce the

accounting for a secondary ledger (required for government accounting) at the

same time as their primary (company) ledger, reduce the custom lines of code by

more than ninety percent and significantly simplify the coding. This article covers the

implementation of SLA and lessons learned. – by Bill Klein

O A U G c o n f e r e n c e s

38 cOLLABORATe 14: Technology and Applications Forum for the Oracle community

41 education Tracks & Session Highlights

25

10

special conference issue

Oracle Sales Cloud

O A U G L E A D E R S H I P 2

oaug star partners

��

THREE-STAR PARTNERS

FIVE-STAR PARTNERS

TWO-STAR PARTNERS

FOUR-STAR PARTNERS��

��

The OAUG Star Partner program gives Associate members a bundled approach to active, integrated participation in the OAUG community. The program combines membership, advertising and conference benefits into a value-priced package that delivers recognition, premium advertising opportunities and outstanding conference visibility.

For more information on the OAUG Star Partner Program, please contact Christine Hilgert at +1 404.760.4234, or via e-mail at [email protected].

RISING-STAR PARTNERS

• FulcrumWay• FXLoader

SPECIAL THANKS• Oracle Validated Integration

(list updated as of press time)

TWO-STAR ELITE PARTNERS��

• API Wizard • Collabro Limited• Data Communications • Solutions• Dimensional Insight• interRel Consulting• KAYGEN• Q Software• SmartDog Services• SoftArt Solutions Inc.

oaug star partners

O A U G L e A D e R S H I P 2

O A U G L E A D E R S H I P 2

oaug star partners

��

THREE-STAR PARTNERS

FIVE-STAR PARTNERS

TWO-STAR PARTNERS

FOUR-STAR PARTNERS��

��

The OAUG Star Partner program gives Associate members a bundled approach to active, integrated participation in the OAUG community. The program combines membership, advertising and conference benefits into a value-priced package that delivers recognition, premium advertising opportunities and outstanding conference visibility.

For more information on the OAUG Star Partner Program, please contact Christine Hilgert at +1 404.760.4234, or via e-mail at [email protected].

RISING-STAR PARTNERS

• FulcrumWay• FXLoader

SPECIAL THANKS• Oracle Validated Integration

(list updated as of press time)

TWO-STAR ELITE PARTNERS��

• API Wizard • Collabro Limited• Data Communications • Solutions• Dimensional Insight• interRel Consulting• KAYGEN• Q Software• SmartDog Services• SoftArt Solutions Inc.

3 oaug.org

The OAUG Star Partnersare a vital force in supporting the OAUG’s mission of providing Oracle Applications users the tools required to enhance their productivity, maximize their investment, and influence the quality, usability, and support of Oracle

Applications. Participants in the OAUG Star Partner Program represent some of the

most experienced and most successful providers of services and solutions to the Oracle users community.

4 4 O A U G l e a d e r s h i p

oaug board of directors

2014 Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) Board of Directors. First row (seated): Joe Imbimbo, Patricia Dues, Donna Rosentrater, Alyssa Johnson, Melissa English, Peter Gee, Dana Bartolf, Ketan Thanki. Second row (standing): Karen Brownfield, Tammy Norton, Daniel McGarry, Steven Hughes, Rob Tudor, Mark Clark, John Bushell, Margaret Wright. Not pictured: Karl Kirsch.

Alyssa Johnson, OAUG PresidentROLTA

Melissa English, OAUG President ElectAlticor

Peter Gee, OAUG TreasurerRyerson University

Donna Rosentrater, OAUG SecretaryCobham plc

Steven R. Hughes Executive Director

Karl Kirsch, CAE Chief Operating Officer

Dana BartolfCH2M Hill Corporation

Karen BrownfieldInfosemantics, Inc.

John BushellJT&M Bushell

Mark C. ClarkO2Works

Dr. Patricia DuesCity of Las Vegas

Joseph ImbimboPPG Industries, Inc.

Daniel McGarry Parsons Brinckerhoff

Tammy Norton Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting LLC

Ketan Thanki Geokinetics, Inc.

Rob Tudor Individual Associate Member

Margaret Wright Southern Company

A Publication of the Oracle Applications Users Group

3525 Piedmont Road, Building Five, Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30305

phone: +1 404.240.0897, fax: +1 404.240.0998 email: [email protected], oaug.org

Steven R. Hughes, Executive Director

Cindy Force, Managing Editor

O’Neill Communications, Graphic Design

To contribute to OAUG Insight, send letters to the

editor, or obtain advertising information, contact:

Cindy Force, Director, Marketing Communications

3525 Piedmont Road, Building Five,

Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30305

[email protected]

Photographs appearing throughout OAUG Insight

courtesy of Meeting Expectations.

OAUG Insight is designed to provide members of the Oracle Applications Users Group with organizational and other information. The opinions and viewpoints published herein are not necessarily those of OAUG. OAUG, its article writers, directors, officers, employees, agents, and members and Oracle Corp. make no warranty for the accuracy, veracity, or completeness of any information herein, nor do they have any responsibility or liability for any losses or damages incurred as a result of reliance on any information provided herein or from the use of any program or program segment discussed herein. OAUG assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear herein. The information published herein is subject to change without notice. Acceptance of advertising is for the benefit and information of the membership but does not constitute official endorsement of the product or service by OAUG.

Copyright © Oracle Applications Users Group 2014. All rights reserved. OAUG is a registered trademark of the Oracle Applications Users Group. Oracle and Oracle Applications are trademarks of Oracle Corporation, Redwood Shores, Calif. Any other trademark cited herein is the property of its owner. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced without the prior written consent of OAUG.

Recruiting Policy: Contact information (on OAUG’s Web site or elsewhere) is provided to OAUG members for the sole and express purpose of enhancing members’ ability to network with other members. Unauthorized copying or redistribution of this information or use of company or contact names for recruiting or direct marketing purposes is strictly prohibited and could result in suspension of OAUG membership. This restriction applies to information in the Online Membership Database, lists of volunteer coordinators, lists of attendees at OAUG conferences, and any other member contact data. Recruiting in any form during conferences is strictly prohibited.

2013 Edition

usersapplications

the source for

oracle

Let the OAUG help you find the products and services that can help you improve the use and management of Oracle products in your organization.

Visit oaug.org to access the 2013OAUG Buyer’s Guide. Browse the searchable online listings forup-to-the-minute information.Or download a copy.

Contact [email protected] for details.

president’s perspective

aA new year often brings a refreshed enthusiasm for existing projects as well as excitement for new pursuits. During our first meeting in 2014, the OAUG

Board of Directors reaffirmed its dedication to the

OAUG’s mission of providing education, networking

and influence to Oracle for members of the Oracle

Applications users community. We also have an

eagerness to create new ways to deliver on that mission.

With a focus on innovation and involvement,

the board set a course to improve and develop

programs that will

further engage the

user community.

With the support of

the OAUG standing

committees and

volunteers, this course is a work in progress for the

remainder of this year and beyond – a steady climb.

Aligned with this strategy, I am pleased to

say that we started the year with some exciting

announcements and projects.

l As I’m writing this article, the OAUG is in the

midst of conducting an extensive needs

assessment. As many of you know, the OAUG

conducts yearly member satisfaction surveys.

However, this year, the process was broadened

to include the greater Oracle Applications users

community – members and non-members – and

to make a more targeted, in-depth inquiry into

the types of challenges you face, the information

you need, the services you want and your preferred

methods of engagement. Thank you to everyone

who completed the assessment. Your feedback

is pivotal to the OAUG’s future plans for

innovation and involvement, and I look forward

to sharing the results with you later in the year.

l With an educational agenda highlighting users’

real-world experiences with Oracle products

and unparalleled peer-to-peer networking

opportunities, COLLABORATE is one of the

most anticipated conferences of the year. Even

within an established, successful program like

COLLABORATE, innovation is possible. The

new COLLABORATE 14 Web and mobile

app allows attendees to search for sessions,

build an agenda, network with each other and

communicate via social media. Get the full

overview of COLLABORATE 14, beginning

on page 38 in this issue of OAUG Insight.

l The OAUG eNews monthly newsletter got a new-year makeover. The attractive new

design is contemporary, inviting and optimized

for viewing on various mobile devices. See

the new OAUG eNews at enews.oaug.org.

Steady Climb

O A U G l e a d e r s h i p 6

Alyssa Johnson

OAUG Pres ident

a [email protected]

Twitter : @alyssaeBS

l The new OAUG Conference Paper

Database is now more convenient and user

friendly. Enhanced features make it easier to

find information and answers from thousands of

conference white papers and presentations from

OAUG events dating back to COLLABORATE

2009. I encourage you to spend some time

browsing this rich resource. You can find

the Conference Paper Database under the

Education and Events tab on oaug.org.

l OAUG Connection Point®– AppsTech

takes place in Pittsburgh, PA, July 22-23,

2014. Designed specifically for technologists

that support the Oracle E-Business Suite,

the inaugural event in 2013 engaged a user

demographic that the OAUG had not previously

served. The response was fantastic, and this

year’s event will be bigger and better. The call

for presentation proposals is open until April 20.

Details are available at connectionpoint.oaug.org.

The OAUG is working on a number

of other initiatives involving educational

programming, community outreach, networking

and technology. Watch for announcements and

updates about those initiatives later this year.

Increasing users’ involvement with the OAUG,

with each other and with Oracle makes the entire

community stronger. I encourage you to become

more involved in the OAUG this year. This does not

have to be an overwhelming undertaking. Some of

the biggest gains can come from what may be simple,

seemingly insignificant adjustments to “business as

usual.” From wherever you are, you can engage with

other users or access valuable content in ways that fit

your schedule and level of interest. For example, if you

found the article Which Oracle E-Business Suite Release

Should You Target: 12.1 or 12.2? in the winter 2013

issue of OAUG Insight magazine to be informative,

you could amplify the value of that article by:

l Listening to one of the recorded sessions from

the Focus on Oracle E-Business Suite OAUG

eLearning Series.

l Or finding a related white paper in the new

OAUG Conference Paper Database.

l Or attending an Upgrade SIG meeting.

You don’t have to invest a lot of time and energy

to increase the benefits of your OAUG involvement.

Please share your innovative ideas or

suggestions for increasing involvement with me

by email at [email protected] or on Twitter

@alyssaEBS. I look forward to hearing from you.

Alyssa Johnson

You don’t have to invest a lot of time and energy to increase the benefits of your OAUG involvement. “ “

oaug.org 7

oaug insight l spring 2014

iIt’s that time of year: awards season. And while the COLLABORATE 14 conference may not get the same coverage as the Academy Awards, there are some spectacular performance categories. Here is my watch list:

Best Education – Developed by users for users,

COLLABORATE 14 education delivers the latest

information and practical tips from presenters with real-

world experience

using Oracle

Applications.

Many of the

sessions feature

real customer

success stories, lessons learned from challenging

projects, product-specific instruction and how-to

recommendations.

Best Networking – The entire week at

COLLABORATE 14 is full of opportunities

to meet other Oracle customers to exchange

knowledge and build professional connections.

From spontaneous conversations to scheduled

receptions, this conference is the place to meet

and greet. Some of my favorites include:

l The OAUG’s Geographic (Geo) and Special Interest

Groups (SIGs) will host more than 60 meetings.

These meetings are open to everyone and are a

great venue for connecting with like-minded peers.

l The Meeting of the OAUG Members and the

opening Welcome Reception on Monday evening,

April 7, kicks off the week with a little bit of

OAUG business on the front end followed by

a fun evening at the Dal Toro Restaurant and

Exotic Car Museum located at the Venetian.

All OAUG members are invited to attend.

l Networking Icon Buttons are back and give

attendees a fun, visual way to signify to other

attendees their interest areas. These colorful buttons

depict product- or process-related interests, such

as CRM, EPM, Fusion, Reporting and Upgrade.

Pick up one or more buttons to wear all week.

Best Influence to Oracle – The OAUG

Customer Support Council is one of the OAUG’s

strongest advocacy groups, representing OAUG

members’ interests to Oracle Support and

working cooperatively with Oracle to develop and

implement tools, resources and policies. Members

of the Customer Support Council will be staffing

booth #1059 in the Exhibitor Showcase. Stop

by to discuss your support-related questions or

suggestions. Lend your voice to the conversation.

Best Collaboration – Three users groups, serving

customers that use different Oracle Applications

and Technology products, come together to host the

COLLABORATE Watch

oaug viewpoint

O A U G l e a d e r s h i p 8

Steven R. Hughes

OAUG execut ive Director

[email protected]

annual COLLABORATE conference. While each

users group has a specific area of focus, their members

often need information and education that spans

multiple applications and technologies. The combined

educational content of the three groups gives attendees

a targeted yet comprehensive agenda from which to

build a unique personal conference schedule. Attendees

have access to all of the sessions presented by all

three groups, and with more than 1400 sessions in 23

educational tracks, there is something for everyone.

Best Technology – COLLABORATE 14’s

new Web and mobile app makes it easy to access

the best of the conference from your computer

or mobile device. It’s fast, easy and fun to search

for sessions, build an agenda, network with other

attendees, post comments and photos, ask questions

and connect with Facebook and Twitter.

Best Exhibit Hall – RadiOAUG returns to the

OAUG membership booth in the Exhibitor Showcase

with live broadcasts by session presenters, product

specialists, OAUG leaders and Oracle executives.

Stop by to play Name That Tune and compete to

win a prize. The Exhibitor Showcase also includes

more than 200 solutions providers. Visit them to

find out what’s new and what you can use in your

organization to improve efficiency and results.

Best Interaction to Oracle – In addition

to learning from fellow Oracle customers,

COLLABORATE attendees value the opportunity to

interact with Oracle representatives. Oracle employees

will present numerous educational sessions. The popular

Meet the Experts, Oracle Roadmaps Sessions and Hands-

On Usability Labs return to the lineup. New this year, the

Cloud Odyssey Program explores the journey to the cloud.

These are all winners in my book. I hope to see you

at COLLABORATE.

Regards,

Steven R. Hughes

oaug.org 9


An Excel Front End to E-Business Suite Data

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Save your finance users 3-4 days per month with GL Wand

10 O A U G f e a t u r e

oaug feature

By Laura Reynolds, Jeppesen

ImpLemenTATIOn Of A GLOBAL HRmS UTILIzInG

mULTIpLe LAnGUAGeS

For nearly 80 years, Jeppesen has made it possible for pilots and their passengers to safely and efficiently reach their destinations. Today, this pioneering spirit continues as Jeppesen delivers transformative information and optimization solutions to improve the efficiency of air and sea operations around the globe. Jeppesen is a Boeing subsidiary and part of the Digital Aviation business unit within Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. Boeing offers the industry’s largest portfolio of services, support and solutions, collectively known as the Boeing Edge, providing customers a competitive advantage by solving real operational problems, enabling better decisions, maximizing efficiency and improving environmental performance – intelligent information solutions across the entire aviation ecosystem.

In 2011, Jeppesen began a year-long effort to implement a global HRMS system. The functionality included Core HR, HR Self-Service (for managers and employees), Compensation, Learning Management and Performance Management for Phase I (launching in December 2011). HR Analytics and iRecruitment were scheduled to go live during 2012.

Securing Data during the Project The first concern was how to collect and secure employee data to be used for testing conversions, requirements and functionality during the project, as well as having employee records to use for training sessions. Each HR location (approximately 10) was using its own HR and payroll system. Conversion programs were written from the payroll systems used in the U.S. and Germany, which are Jeppesen’s two largest locations. All other locations are much smaller, and due to timeline, budget and resource constraints, those conversions were done with Excel/csv files. File extracts and loads were done on a regular basis throughout the project, which permitted testing with fairly current data. This also facilitated extensive testing of the conversion program itself. When it was time to load data into production, most issues had already been identified and resolved, and the conversion portion of the cutover during go-live was fairly uneventful. To ensure that personally identifiable information (PII) remained protected, all Oracle user accounts in the test instances created for the project were end-dated, except for the members of the project team. This prevented unauthorized users from accessing PII from the front end during the course of the project. The instances for the HR project were not available through any public PL/SQL user accounts. Within the IT organization, the individuals dedicated to the project were designated as authorized to access PII. Protocols were put in place to ensure that PII was protected. Team members were to not access tables or forms with PII unless there was a business need to do so. In most cases, team members used their own HR records for testing to minimize unnecessary exposure to PII and only used other employees’ records when their own records would not suffice. This was critical for the success of the project because there needs to be

reassurance throughout the organization that PII is being protected and treated with the appropriate care. Administrative members of the project team (e.g., the project manager, the project planning and control specialist) were not authorized to access PII. They did not participate in any meetings, working sessions or testing activities where PII would be discussed, accessed or displayed. Jeppesen used an implementation partner to assist with the implementation. The partner used its team in India for a significant portion of the development effort. Before that group could begin working on anything, legal agreements had to be in place, and they needed to comply with local statutory and legal regulations so that they would be enforceable, if necessary. This resulted in some lengthy negotiations regarding the contract and the Statement of Work. It is essential to start working on these agreements with the implementation partner as soon as possible, and have the details worked out early so there is no delay in moving forward on the project and no impact to project deliverables. For global implementations, it is important to get buy-in and representation from all the countries that will be affected. Europe has much stricter data privacy laws than the U.S., so it is critical to ensure that new policies,

oaug.org 11


Lessons Learnedl Carefully evaluate the need for

additional languages

l Ensure that the infrastructure can handle the additional patching requirements

l Keep new business processes and workflows as simple as possible

l Interfaces and reports should have dedicated resources

l Training, training, training!

O A U G f e a t u r e 12

procedures and business processes do not violate any local statutory regulations. Feedback from the HR team was solicited for this presentation, and one recommendation/piece of advice was “Don’t get ‘lazy’ with the data.” When project deadlines are looming, it can be tempting to take shortcuts to meet deadlines to keep things moving along. Members of the project team are immersed in PII, working with it every day. It’s easy to become immune to its meaning and forget how sensitive it is. Commit to performing regular “check-ins” with the team about privacy and the established process for protecting PII.

Post-Implementation Data Security Policies, procedures and protocols were put in place to ensure that PII remained secured as the HRMS suite was put into production. Access to the Core HR responsibilities is controlled with security profiles attached to Oracle responsibilities that limit access to employee records by location. HR personnel may only view information for employees in locations that their office supports.

Prior to implementing HRMS, the only information stored in employee records was the data necessary to utilize the Purchasing Approval Workflow and Journal Approval Workflow and to interact with Oracle Project Costing: employee name, organization, job, supervisor, ledger and default expense account. No PII was stored in Oracle HR. As part of the cutover activities during go-live, access to the core HR responsibilities was restricted to only the people in the IT organization authorized to access PII and the appropriate HR personnel. In the test and development environments used for providing organization-wide IT support, PII is encrypted and masked. Dates of birth have been changed, and the salary for each person has a default value of $50 per year. Tables with PII (people, assignment and salary information) have been removed from all public PL/SQL accounts used by people across the organization. There are also tables in the application that store sensitive information; those tables are empty when the application goes live. However, they may become populated after the applications have been in use. For example, the PER_ASSESMENTS table holds information about performance appraisals, including managers’ comments about/for employees. This table was empty when Jeppesen went live with HRMS. After the first appraisal period passed, this table was populated with private employee information, and the table was removed from the public PL/SQL user accounts. It is important to regularly review HR tables, and determine if PII or other confidential information exists where it may not have before. Data Cleansing Most Jeppesen employees were already defined in Oracle, with the minimal setups needed to use the Purchasing Approval workflow, the Journal Approval workflow and the PA_INTERFACE_TRANSACTIONS_ALL table. During the project, the decision was made to move employees to the correct business group. Jeppesen uses two business groups: Western Hemisphere (WH) and Eastern Hemisphere (EH). The WH is the default Setup Business Group delivered with the install and is a U.S. business group. It contains

project Successes Recap– On Time Under Budget

l Strong Steering Committee was instrumental in removing obstacles, allowing the team to continue working on project deliverables.

l Leveraging the expertise of the implementation partner allowed the team to keep the project moving forward.

l Protection of PII and sensitive information was a top priority at all times during the project.

l Many long hours worked by people committed to the project’s success.


13

the legal entities, ledgers and operating units for the Americas, Australia and Asia. The EH was created during the R12 implementation and is a U.K. business group. It contains the legal entities, ledgers and operating units for Europe and the Middle East. During the implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) R12 financials, all European employees in locations still using legacy financial systems were associated with the Western Hemisphere, as these groups report into the U.S. location for financial reporting purposes. At the time this was not an issue, as these locations only had general ledgers defined and were not using any other Oracle Applications. The implementation of HRMS was the right time to reassign these employees back to the Eastern Hemisphere business group. It was more logical for employee reporting relationships, and there is more uniformity between European countries regarding safe harbor/data privacy laws than with the U.S. As there were no subledgers, operating units, inventory organizations, etc., defined for any of these entities, it was the least painful time to complete the employee transfers. Therefore, this task was incorporated into the HRMS project plan. To move an employee between business groups, the current employee record is end-dated, and a new record is created in the new business group. When the record is committed, a “Potential Duplicate Record” message should be invoked, meaning that the person is already defined as a party in the Trading Community Architecture (TCA). The new person record may be associated with the existing TCA party_id, and both person records (the inactive one in the old business group and the active one in the new business group) will be associated with the same party_id in TCA. This data cleansing was done for approximately 700 employees and built into the conversion program.

Language Patches The HR team led the effort to determine which language patches should be installed as part of the implementation. Jeppesen installed four languages in addition to English: German, Polish, Russian and Canadian French. The location in Canada is fairly small, but there is a statutory requirement in Quebec that all HR-related materials (e.g., training, job postings, policy

and procedure updates) must be delivered in Canadian French, even if the employees there are fluent in English. Once the language patches are installed, they cannot be rolled back, so the decision to implement them is one that should be given careful consideration. Any future patches need to be applied for each installed language, which increases the size of the database and the application top. When the language patches are installed, any seeded Oracle information will be translated into the selected languages, including delivered menus and standard forms in the application. Translations for any additional user-defined items must be manually maintained. This includes custom lookups, value set values and custom menus. All non-seeded translation values must be manually entered and maintained using the globe icon on the toolbar in the core forms. There are some potential automation opportunities by designing a DataLoader template; however, if you are loading translations for languages with special characters or that use a different alphabet, the only option is to copy and paste. Value sets that will have translated values must be defined as either “Translatable Independent” or “Translatable Dependent” in order to enable the Translation function in the application. In retrospect, Jeppesen probably could have omitted the patches for German and Polish. Almost all the employees in those locations are fluent in English, and those that are not work with their managers. Installing Russian has added value since English is not as prevalent in that location, and the Canadian French language patch allows Jeppesen to comply with local statutory regulations. The language patches need to be thoroughly regression-tested to ensure that they do not hinder any other processes, both inside and outside of HRMS. During the system integration testing phase of the project, Jeppesen encountered some issues when the language patches interfered with the Advanced Pricing engine, which required some configuration and programming changes. The IT group clearly communicated to all existing Oracle users that the language patches would only be supported within the HRMS applications. For example, an error encountered in Payables while logged in using

oaug.org

German would need to be replicated in English in order for IT to be able to troubleshoot and support the issue.

Performance Management The Oracle Performance Management tool is a workflow-based application that routes objectives and performance appraisals between employees and managers. This tool was part of the first phase of the HRMS implementation at Jeppesen. The original process flow designed for Performance Management had many steps along the way:

l The goal setting period, with a set end-date;

l The mid-year appraisal period, with a set end-date;

l The year-end appraisal period, with a set end-date.

Also built into the process were some custom steps added to the standard workflow. Using end-dates for phases of the Performance Management Plan (PMP) is a decision that needs to be carefully evaluated. Once the dates pass, records are either purged or not updatable at all. For the goal setting period, any goals in an incomplete state when the end-date arrives are purged from the PER_OBJECTIVES table. Since this was the first time for Jeppesen using the Performance Management tool, numerous training issues were encountered. After the mid-year appraisal deadline passes, any incomplete appraisals cannot be modified any further, and the only option for managers who miss the deadline is to add their mid-year comments to the year-end appraisal document. Some custom steps were added to the standard workflow. These all worked as designed, and during testing with a small group of users, no issues were encountered. However, when the process was rolled out to the entire employee population (approximately 3,300 people), it quickly became much more cumbersome than anticipated. The custom step that caused the most issues was a requirement by HR that every employee receive a performance appraisal for each manager he or she works for during the year. The process required the manager to complete the appraisal for the former employee (for the appropriate portion of the year) and then manually transfer it to the employee’s new manager. The leaders in the HR group felt very strongly that receiving appraisals from all managers for the entire year was very important

(and rightfully so), but this step was time-consuming and confusing in the production environment. Appraisals assigned to managers who leave the company are frozen and not updatable once the manager’s person record is flagged as an ex-employee, and the appraisals must be moved manually. There was also a final Provide Feedback step for employees, which was required to update the performance appraisal to a state of Complete. This step was meant to serve as the employee’s electronic signature and was also the employee’s final opportunity to add his or her own comments to the performance appraisal. However, this notification is received after one telling the employee that the appraisal has been completed. Many employees did not realize that this additional step was required. The wisest course of action when implementing Performance Management is to keep the process as simple as possible, with the fewest possible number of steps, and use end-dates very judiciously. With Workflow and the Approvals Management Engine, anything is possible, but that does not necessarily mean that it is a good idea. A complex process may look outstanding on paper, with many controls, checks and balances in place, but managing it in the Production environment for a large employee population is burdensome and time-consuming. Starting simply, and adding more steps as new requirements are identified, is a much more prudent approach. Many users found this process to be too robust due to the number of steps involved, the volume of Workflow notifications generated and vague language in the standard notifications. Performance Management: keep it simple (See Figure 1).

Using an Implementation Partner Jeppesen engaged an implementation partner to help with the implementation and was able to leverage their expertise with Oracle HR Applications. The implementation partner was able to provide project team members with training on functionality, guidance on best practices and direction on using data in HR tables, which keep history, unlike the tables in many other Oracle Applications. Working with an implementation partner’s consultants is most successful when the client is able to challenge them to provide examples of how


15

other clients have handled similar situations. The consultants have the expertise on the applications and how they work, as well as experience with implementing Oracle HR for other clients. On the other hand, the client resources know the company, its culture, the data, how it will be used, and why. The most effective solutions are those developed when the consultants and the client collaborate and take both of these factors into consideration. While it is the consultant’s responsibility to provide guidance and advice on how to implement the application, it is the client’s responsibility to ensure that new business processes will meet the defined requirements, complement existing policies and procedures, and provide value to the organization. This can mean numerous discussions and asking many questions, but it is time well spent.

Managing Project Deadlines, Budgets and Resources The Jeppesen HRMS project was quite complex and impacted employees in 17 countries. It was crucial to have HR representation from each country on the project team. Ideally, they would have been dedicated resources for the duration of the project. Instead, they also had their regular job responsibilities to manage; almost everyone became overloaded. Virtually every ERP project is challenged with a finite amount of resources and funds, but if it is possible to use contract labor to help manage some of the day-to-day functions, it will allow the team members from the business side to stay focused on the project without becoming overwhelmed with additional responsibilities. In most cases, it’s difficult to manage shared resources because


15 oaug.org

Yes

No

No

Yes

Log into MSS and navigate

to Talent Management

Select appropriate appraisal function

(Mid-Year or Year-End)

Click “Appraise” icon for

employee

Add comments, feedback, etc. **

Give Final Rating

Approve Final Rating

Share withAppraisee

Add newobjectives

Additional objectives needed?

Receive appraisal from employee

and review

Appraisal complete?

Submit appraisal to employee

No

No Yes

Yes

Receive appraisal from

Manager

Update existing objectives

Adding comments or feedback at this point is optional. If a manager prefers to see the employee’s self-evaluation before sharing comments and feedback, this step can be skipped and the manager may proceed directly to the “Share with Appraisee” step.

Add additionalobjectives

Submit to Manager

Receive Final Rating from

Manager

Reject appraisal

Approve appraisal?

Click “Approve” button in

Notification

Provide final feedback

Additional objectives needed?

END

MA

NA

GER

EMPL

OY

EE

**

Oracle Performance Manager Performance Appraisal Process

Figure 1


there are always competing priorities and deadlines. If this can be avoided, it will greatly benefit the project. Jeppesen’s HRMS project included a significant number of interfaces. Some of these were internal interfaces, and others were to external systems. Some project resources were assigned to work on interfaces as well as other project tasks, such as requirements gathering and gap analysis. If at all possible, interfaces and reports should be assigned dedicated resources. When developing interfaces with external systems, the lead time required for testing can be much longer than for testing interfaces between internal systems. The external party’s employees have their own deadlines and responsibilities to consider and often cannot perform their part of interface testing on short notice. This is exacerbated when project team members have to manage other responsibilities in addition to interfaces and reports. Reporting requirements should be carefully evaluated, and resources should be assigned early on in the project to ensure that all custom reports are ready to use when the system goes live. Reports can easily drop down on the priority list since they can be created at any time, but users want to access the information they need in the proper format. If the reports users require are not readily available, it creates frustration. It’s difficult to change someone’s first impression of a new system, so every effort should be made to ensure a positive user experience from the start. If the project is phased and includes multiple applications, the implementation should be planned to meet the most immediate needs first. The first phase of Jeppesen’s HRMS project included Performance Management, with HR Analytics scheduled for Phase II. In retrospect, the Performance Management module could have been pushed to Phase II, and the Analytics tool would have been valuable to have as soon as the system was live in production.

Training For most projects, training is usually accomplished by following defined test scripts to execute specific scenarios. This is useful for educating people about basic functionality and form navigation, learning data-entry shortcuts and generally becoming comfortable with the look and feel of the forms. However, limiting

training to simply running through generic test scripts will not provide users with much insight about how the application works and interacts with other Oracle modules. When users transact in a test environment with real data, their confidence in the system and their ability to use it post go-live will improve. Even more important is learning how to care for the non-standard situations that always arise during the normal course of business. For example, it’s valuable for a user to know how to create an employee record. It’s more valuable to know how to create a person as a contractor, process a termination, re-hire that person as a regular employee, or accommodate a scenario of an employee needing active person records in multiple business groups. Using real data in a test environment to learn how to handle situations unique to the organization will help users adapt more easily, and they will (hopefully) view the new system as a good thing that helps them perform their jobs more effectively. Another challenge when implementing a tool that all employees will use is trying to deliver appropriate training for using the tool on a consistent basis. Users familiar and comfortable with Oracle, who regularly log into and use the applications as part of their standard job responsibilities, can normally learn to use the Self-Service applications on their own. However, users who access Oracle only to use the Performance Management module and other HR Self-Service products likely log into the application infrequently and may find the tools to be unintuitive. Determining the appropriate navigation path, the correct forms to use, and so on, can be tricky. Building an ongoing training plan into an HRMS support strategy is something to be considered. This includes things like refresher courses offered at the beginning of goal setting and appraisal periods, regular training for new employees and creating and maintaining online training materials that can be accessed at any time. It can be a challenge to find the time and right resources to do this, but it will help things operate more efficiently during critical points of the Performance Management Plan.

17 oaug.org

Publicizing the New HRMS System and its Benefits When a new system is introduced, people will naturally be apprehensive about it and may be resistant to the change. This is particularly true when new applications include a self-service component, as Jeppesen’s HRMS implementation did. The Manager Self-Service tool allows managers to handle transactions for employees in their reporting hierarchy without having to request assistance from HR or wait for someone to process something on their behalf. Managers are able to do things like initiate transfers, job changes, assignment changes and employment terminations. Some managers appreciate being empowered to handle things on their own, but others may perceive the implementation of a self-service tool as one group (in this case HR) simply shifting its job responsibilities onto other people. It’s important to educate managers about the benefits of having access to a self-service tool. For instance, by initiating a transfer, one manager can simply specify the effective date and submit the request to the new manager. Once the new manager approves the transfer, the process is complete, and there’s no need for follow-up emails or phone calls or checking the system to see if the transfer has occurred. By initiating a termination, the manager (and every other manager in his or her reporting chain) has real-time visibility to the employee’s end-date and can immediately begin the process to recruit a replacement and/or develop a contingency plan. When managers are able to handle some of the administrative responsibilities regarding employees, HR is able to spend time on more value-adding activities that benefit the entire organization: coaching people on performance management, performing more compensation analysis, providing guidance on corporate programs and initiatives, or offering more strategic direction to the business about organization design and skill assessments. For a significant change of this nature, it is imperative that the project and the new system have the full support and buy-in of the organization’s top leadership. There does not seem to be the same resistance to the Employee Self-Service tool, as employees generally like being able to access and manage their

own information any time they need to. And there is no perception of being asked to take on additional work. For example, if an employee moves, rather than sending an email to payroll, he or she simply updates their home address in Employee Self-Service.

Project Overview Jeppesen was able to implement the first phase of the HRMS project on time and within budget. The project had a strong steering committee that was instrumental in removing obstacles to help the team be successful. Leveraging the expertise of our implementation partner, who had prior experience in rolling out HRMS to global locations, helped keep the project moving forward and on track. The entire team also made the protection of PII and other sensitive employee information a top priority at all times during the project. As a result there were no security breaches during the project, nor have there been any in production to date. This was a huge contributor to the success of the project because there was no need to spend time assuaging fears that employee information was being compromised. And, like with any ERP project, launching on time would not have been possible without many long hours from dedicated people committed to the project’s success.

Laura Reynolds ([email protected]) is a system engineer at Jeppesen. She has been working with Oracle Applications for 15 years, as both a user and an implementer. Her applications expertise includes Financials, Project Accounting and HRMS.


Test with Real DataUsing real data in a test environment to learn how to handle situations unique to the organization will help users adapt more easily, and they will (hopefully) view the new system as a good thing that helps them perform their jobs more effectively.

Because of the complexities of being a contractor to the federal government, Sandia needs to report its accounting activities to DOE on a monthly basis. The accounting required by the government does not enable us to manage our finances, so we have a need for two accounting ledgers. Our primary ledger, which consists of three segments, is our company ledger. Our secondary ledger, which needs to be fifteen segments, is used for reporting to the federal government. Prior to Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Release 12, Sandia used a number of complex PL/SQL packages to extract and translate necessary data from most EBS modules, including manufacturing to meet federal requirements. Combined, these packages had approximately 100,000 lines of code. With Oracle Subledger Accounting (SLA), Sandia was able to produce the accounting for the secondary ledger at the same time as the primary ledger, reduce the custom lines of code by more than ninety percent and significantly simplify the coding. In order to reach this simplicity, Sandia took full advantage of using SLA custom sources. Using SLA custom sources requires significant effort, from requirements


oaug feature

Success and Lessons Learned in a Complex Subledger Accounting Deployment By Bill Klein, Sandia National Laboratories

Sandia National Laboratories employs

approximately 9,800 employees, most of them

at its Albuquerque, New Mexico, headquarters

or Livermore, California, laboratory. Sandia National

Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed

and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned

subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the

U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear

Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-

94AL85000. We are primarily a scientific and engineering

company providing scientific solutions and innovations

to various federal, state and local government agencies,

companies and other organizations. Being a primary

contractor to the federal government creates a complex

accounting reporting requirement that is different than

what is used to financially manage the Laboratories.

to analysis to coding to testing. This article covers the implementation of SLA and lessons learned.

Requirements Before starting the journey of setting up the SLA, there needs to be good requirements. Programmers and accountants need to set aside enough time to gather requirements for the secondary ledger. Because SLA is so complex, it is difficult to identify all the requirements before the setup, but unless most of the requirements are accurate and identified, the SLA implementation will be put in jeopardy of being completed on time. Holes in the requirements will be identified when setting up the SLA and during testing. The goal is to ensure that requirements have enough information and that staff is knowledgeable enough to make changes to the requirements quickly. The better the requirements, the more successful the implementation will be.

Setup Methodology and Technique Before beginning, we read quite a few documents about setting up the subledger accounting. In each of these, it stated that the steps must be followed in particular order. However, we found that it was more logical to complete the steps in a different order, and we had no issues with the setup. There are certain things that cannot be completed until another step is finished, but there is quite a bit of flexibility. When setting up the subledger accounting, it is recommended that you review different documents; this article is not intended to cover all aspects of the setup in great detail. Before starting any setup, it is recommended that there is a standard naming convention for all custom objects that are created. By the end of the setup, there may be a hundred or more custom objects, and it can get confusing, even with using a standard naming convention. For our standards, we always used ‘SL’ at the beginning of the name, followed by the module abbreviation (e.g., ‘PA’ for Project Accounting) and then gave as much description as possible for the remainder of the name. In many of the documents we read, creating the Subledger Accounting Method (SLAM) was near the end, a bottom-up approach. However, we found it easier to understand the picture by doing a top-down approach, so the SLAM was the first step. The only drawback for doing a top-down approach is that it is necessary to go back and complete the relationships later. The SLAM is very simple to create. The easiest method is to query an Oracle created SLAM and

hit the copy button. It is recommended that one use the copy button for most of the setups and then make any necessary changes. We used the STANDARD_ACCRUAL method as our starting point. The new SLAM will inherit the relationships from the method copied. Relationships can be deleted and new ones can be assigned at any time. Application Accounting Definitions (AAD) are assigned to the SLAM. For each application that generates any accounting transactions, there must be an AAD. Sandia needed to set up five definitions:

l Assets.l Cost Management (for all manufacturing transactions).l Payables.l Projects.l Receivables.

Even though we use Cash Management, all transactions flowed through Payables and Receivables, so a definition was unnecessary. Because the definitions are quite extensive, it is highly recommended that the copy button is used. There probably will be extra unused event classes, but if that event ever occurs, then accounting will still be generated with the defaults. Within the AADs are event classes. For each event class that is used in one’s operations, there must be a Journal Line Definition (JLD) assigned to it. Some of the event classes are very easy to identify. Other event classes may or may not need to have assignments. Testing will reveal event classes that need JLDs. As with the AAD, it is highly recommended that the copy button is used to ensure that all Journal Line Types (JLT) are associated with a JLD. Not all JLTs are used, and identifying which ones are used can be a challenge. For each JLT, there must be Account Derivation Rules (ADR). The first ADR will be All Segments, which defaults all segments that are not identified with

oaug.org 19


W ith Oracle Subledger Accounting (SLA), Sandia

was able to produce the accounting for the

secondary ledger at the same time as the primary

ledger, reduce the custom lines of code by more than

ninety percent and significantly simplify the coding.

”

”


other rules. All segments that need to return a value need to be assigned to the JLT and must have an ADR. The setup of ADRs is probably the most important and powerful part of the setup since this is where we define what values are to be returned. ADRs can have constants, conditions, custom sources or any combination of the three. When initially creating the ADRs, they were created as constants or conditions. If a custom source was to be used, then the rule was revised later to point to the custom source. Custom Sources were the last part of the hierarchy of our SLA setup. In most SLA setup documents, the Custom Sources are listed as first to do. However, they are the most complex and challenging part of the setup. If the Custom Source is not set up correctly, then one cannot even create any accounting transactions. If the setup is done correctly through the ADRs and Custom Sources are associated later, one can run the create accounting and add or revise Custom Sources later. Read more in the next section of this article for details on how Custom Sources are tied to the SLA setup. The last setup piece is the secondary ledger creation. The secondary ledger can be set up at any time as long as the SLAM has been created. This is completed in the accounting setups menu via any subledger accounting responsibility or general ledger super user responsibility. There are four steps that are needed for the creation of the ledger. The ledger can be modified later for certain attributes. Other attributes cannot be changed, so ensure that the requirements are known before creating the secondary ledger. When creating the secondary ledger, assign the SLAM that was created in the first step. It is probable that the primary ledger must also be updated. Sandia needed to assign a legal entity in the intercompany accounts and update subledger accounting options for the modules we use. For Sandia, we changed the Accounting Program Defaults (see Figure 1) mainly for testing purposes, but we kept

the same defaults in production as we use the product Control-M to run our jobs. We also updated the processor defaults and set them based on the number of expected transactions to expedite processing.

Custom Sources Using PL/SQL Functions As discussed previously, Custom Sources are very powerful, and they allow for processing transactions in a complex accounting structure to a secondary ledger. Custom Sources are not in themselves very complex, but they can be time consuming and frustrating. Custom Sources use PL/SQL functions to return values. It is quite simple to build a function and return the expected value. The complexity comes into play in determining what tables and what columns are needed for returning a value. Oracle provides a certain large number of parameters (there are more than one thousand parameters available in each of the modules) that can be used as inputs to a custom PL/SQL function. Of the parameters listed, some have very similar names, and it can be difficult determining with what table a particular parameter is associated. Many programmers will not be familiar with all the tables in each module, and some functions require multiple parameters to return the right value (See Figure 2 for an example). It may take many iterations of testing before one determines the correct parameter to be used. If there are many changes to multiple parameters, the SLAM may not even validate, making it difficult to determine where the issue lies. When programming custom PL/SQL functions, it is recommended that they be placed in packages based on the module. Separating the functions by module makes it easier to maintain, test and promote code. At Sandia, there are many instances that call a function multiple times, and so these functions were made as common functions and put at the top of the package. By creating the common functions, there is less

Figure 1: Subledger Accounting Options: Accounting Program Defaults

SLAM: Subledger Accounting M

ethod

code to rewrite if there is a change in the requirements. All the functions should have an “exception when” clause so that errors can be easier to identify.

Subledger Accounting Database Schema (XLA) Oracle delivers a new schema (XLA) with subledger accounting. These tables containing the accounting will be quite large and may even be the largest tables in the database. In the xla.xla_ae_lines tables, Sandia has nearly 300 million rows. Because these tables have millions of rows, several indexes need to be used when querying them. We almost always use application_id and ledger_id. We also built a custom index for accounting_date, which has sped up our queries tremendously. Some of the more important tables for tracing transactions in SLA include:

• xla.xla_ae_headers• xla.xla_ae_lines• xla.xla_distribution_links• gl.gl_import_references• gl.gl_je_lines• gl.gl_je_headers

When joining these tables, it is recommended that the following joins be used:

• xah.ae_header_id=xal.ae_header_id• xal.ae_header_id=xdl.ae_header_id• xal.ae_line_num=xdl.ae_line_num• gir.gl_sl_link_id=xal.gl_sl_link_id• gl_sl_link_table=xal.gl_sl_link_table• gjl.je_header_id=gjh.je_header_id• gjl.je_header_id=gir.je_header_id• gjl.je_line_num=gir.je_line_num

Some of the transaction source tables that one can use to join with SLA include:

• pa.pa_cust_rev_dist_lines_allpcrdla• pa.pa_cust_event_rdl_allpcera• pa.pa_eventspe• pa.pa_draft_revenues_allpdra• ar.ra_cust_trx_line_gl_dist_allrctlgda• ar.ar_distributions_allada• inv.mtl_transaction_accountsmta• wip.wip_transaction_accountswta• po.rcv_receiving_sub_ledgerrrsl• ap.ap_invoice_distributions_allaida• ap.ap_payment_hist_distsaphd• ap.ap_prepay_app_distsapad• fa.fa_adjustmentsfaa• fa.fa_deprn_detailfad


oaug.org 21

Figure 2: Custom Source Example


There are many joins to the various transaction source tables, but some of the key joins are as follows:

• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=pcrdla.expenditure_item_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_2=pcrdla.line_num• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=pe.event_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_2=pcera.line_num• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=pdra.project_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_2=pdra.draft_revenue_num• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=rctlgda.cust_trx_line_gl_dist_id• xdl.event_id=rctlgda.event_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=ada.line_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=mta.inv_sub_ledger_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=wta.wip_sub_ledger_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=rrsl.rcv_sub_ledger_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=aida.invoice_distribution_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=aphd.payment_hist_dist_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=apad.prepay_app_dist_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=faa.transaction_header_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_2=faa.adjustment_line_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_1=fad.asset_id• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_2=fad.period_counter• xdl.source_distribution_id_num_5=fad.distribution_id

There are a number of tables that contain the setup of subledger accounting. Below is a SQL query that could prove valuable to see the SLA setup by module:

select distinct fndapptl.application_name, xldaa.event_class_code, xldaa.event_type_code, xldaa.accounting_line_type_code, xldaa.accounting_line_code, xldaa.flexfield_segment_code, xldaa.segment_rule_code, xsrd.user_sequence user_sequence_1, xsrd.value_type_code, case

whenxsrd.value_type_code=‘C’then xsrd.value_constant else xsrd.value_source_code end constant_or_function, xsb.plsql_function_name, xsp.user_sequence user_sequence_2, xsp.ref_source_code func_parameter

from xla.xla_line_defn_adr_assgns xldaa, applsys.fnd_application_tl fndapptl, xla.xla_seg_rule_details xsrd, xla.xla_sources_b xsb, xla.xla_source_params xsp

wherexldaa.segment_rule_type_code=‘C’ANDxsrd.segment_rule_type_code=‘C’ANDxldaa.application_id=fndapptl.application_idANDxsrd.application_id=fndapptl.application_idANDxsrd.segment_rule_code=xldaa.segment_rule_codeANDxsb.source_code(+)=xsrd.value_source_codeANDxsp.source_code(+)=xsrd.value_source_codeANDxldaa.application_id=:p_application_id

S andia processes around

four million transactions

per month with most

of the transactions being

processed weekly and coming

from Project Accounting.

There was concern that

SLA processing would add

considerable time to the batch

processing. However, we are

now processing faster than we

did prior to moving to SLA.

Subledger Accounting Method

oaug.org 23


Export/Import The Oracle SLA setup can become quite complex. For Sandia, we created about 1,400 custom objects related to SLA. Getting the objects from one instance to another can be a daunting task. Fortunately, Oracle provides a great method to move SLA setups from one instance to another. The export and import will only move one module at a time. In requests, run the export by selecting Export Application Accounting Definitions. For versioning mode, select Standard, but if it errors, change it to Leapfrog. Once the export is successful, verify that any custom code has been promoted and custom sources are created before doing the import. Imports do not include custom sources. Custom sources need to be moved with a script or manually created. When importing, select Overwrite for the Import Option or it may leave residual objects. If after the import, one cannot see the accounting definitions tied to the SLAM, rerun the import with the Import Option set to Merge.

Processing of Create Accounting Sandia processes around four million transactions per month with most of the transactions being processed weekly and coming from Project Accounting. There was concern that SLA processing would add considerable time to the batch processing. However, we are now processing faster than we did prior to moving to SLA. Other than Project Accounting, the create accounting in the other modules all finish on average in five minutes or less. We break down the Project Accounting into two jobs with the accounting for revenue starting immediately after Generate Revenue finishes and the accounting for the remaining transactions starting after Generate Cost is completed. The revenue accounting takes about thirty minutes to run while the other transactions from PA take a little less than two hours.

Accounting Errors Occasionally an error is generated when trying to process accounting in SLA. This can happen for a variety of reasons. At Sandia, the number of errors has been minimal, and most of the errors occurred soon after implementation. Some of these errors would have been avoided if we had certain patches applied. Some of the errors that were encountered were a result of implementing SLA in the middle of the fiscal year, and SLA was trying to perform accounting on correcting transactions originally created in EBS 11i.

Oracle has released patches that have eliminated most errors. The two most common errors that we have encountered include revenue adjustment errors in Project Accounting and unable to derive accounting code combination in Payables. The revenue adjustment error has basically disappeared by changing processes, but the Payables error continues to occur about once every four months. Oracle has scripts to fix each of these issues. We set up a job that runs at the end of our job stream to look for errors after each night’s processing so we can resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Manual Journal Entries Subledger Accounting provides a method for creating manual journal entries within the subledger. However, these manual journal entries only create the accounting for the primary ledger. The secondary ledger does not receive any accounting from a manual entry. The same issue exists when creating a manual journal entry in the general ledger. We decided to build a trigger that would automatically create a manual entry in the secondary ledger whenever a manual entry was created in the primary ledger. This worked, but it took some intervention as we had to use contexts in the descriptive flexfields, and contexts are limited to ten attributes. So our solution was to assign contexts to two descriptive flexfields: Enter Journals: Lines and Enter Journals: Captured Info DFF. To enforce this, the accountants only enter manual journal entries using ADI and all uploads are validated for the attributes.

Benefits of Using Subledger Accounting There are a number of benefits that we received due to implementing SLA. As stated prior, we had around 100,000 lines of code used to produce the second set of books (ledger). The code was written over a number years, and it was quite complex with its many packages. When any changes were required, it took a very long time to analyze the code and make the changes. Plus, the certainty that all necessary changes were made was not one hundred percent. With the implementation of SLA, we have reduced the lines of code to 6,000 lines in five packages. Therefore, when changes are required, it significantly reduces the time to analyze and modify the code. Additionally, when we make the changes, we have certainty that every necessary change has been made. Creating both set of books (ledgers) in 11i took about four hours to run the accounting, with most of

Subledger Accounting Method

SLAM: Subledger Accounting M

ethod


the processing time being spent building the second set of books. By using SLA accounting, it builds both ledgers at the same time; we are able to finish in less than three hours of processing the accounting jobs. Prior to using SLA, it was difficult for our accounting staff to take the secondary ledger accounting transactions and trace them to the originating transactions. With SLA, the accountants are able to find a transaction, and with a few clicks, they are able to see the entire journal entry or the originating transaction within the particular module in which it originated. One of the most valuable features with SLA is the ability to run draft accounting. Prior to our implementation, Oracle sold the draft accounting as a way to view transactions in production prior to finalizing them. For some organizations that may be of use, but it is something that we have never used. Where we found a great benefit for draft accounting is in testing. SLA takes a considerable amount of testing and retesting. If users had to create new transactions each time SLA ran, it would add a substantial amount of time to the implementation. With draft accounting, simple changes can be made and tested in less than one hour, and there is no waiting for someone to create another transaction.

Lessons Learned Sandia was able to successfully implement SLA, but there are things we could have done differently that would have made the implementation much more successful. Some of the lessons learned in our implementation are listed in the sidebar at left.

Conclusion A successful implementation of a complex SLA is very attainable, but it requires a considerable amount of work. Before beginning an implementation of SLA, ensure that nearly all requirements have been gathered and are as accurate as possible. It is also necessary to understand how SLA is set up and the time required to set up custom sources. Remember that SLA has some tools such as draft accounting to help with testing and export/import to move setups from one instance to another. An organization can reap a number of benefits from implementing SLA.

Bill Klein has degrees from Weber State University and the University of New Mexico. He is an Oracle application developer at Sandia National Laboratories. He has worked with the Oracle E-Business Suite since 1997. Bill has presented at a number of Oracle conferences on a variety of subjects.

Lessons Learned l Requirements – Before starting the

implementation, we had requirements, but we did not realize how many gaps there were in the requirements. Because of the requirement gaps, we struggled to complete the implementation on time.

l Customer Involvement – The accountants had their normal activities to complete as well as the extra duties, such as requirements and testing, required as part of the SLA implementation. Management needs to commit and provide the necessary resources to perform the tasks.

l Setup – The setup is not perceived to take a lot of time. That is true for a great deal of the setup, but the custom sources take a lot of trial and error, and there must be enough time to discover the right parameters for returning the desired values.

l Testing – Testing begins with having identified nearly all types of transactions and including them in a test plan. We did miss a couple of minor event types, but the number of transactions was minimal, and manual entries could easily be made to correct them. Draft accounting makes the testing much faster and easier to perform. Resources must be committed to test at both the programmatic and functional level.

l Implementation – It is recommended that implementation be done at the beginning of the fiscal year. We implemented within the fiscal year, and this caused some issues with transactions. If an original transaction occurred prior to implementing SLA and that transaction is reversed after implementation, the secondary ledger does not pick up the new transaction in all circumstances. We have requested an enhancement of Oracle to have the secondary ledger always create accounting, but they have not implemented it in every module.

24

oaug.org 25

global solutions

About WhiteLight Group and Our Application Strategy

WhiteLight is an Oracle Gold Partner and Validated Integrator. We leverage best-in-class Oracle technology with a business-focused approach to implementation to help our clients use information systems as more effective, strategic business tools.

WhiteLight Group has specialized in Oracle business applications, such as JD Edwards, since its inception in 2002. Although a strong advocate for the value of leading technologies provided by Oracle, we were actually a user of Salesforce as a CRM solution for many years. In 2008, we made the decision to move to Oracle’s CRM On Demand. In addition to its strength in functionality, we felt

the implementation and daily use could provide better insight and deeper product knowledge to assist our clients with product selection and services. Our strategy for internal applications was to adopt and align our application portfolio with Oracle. This offered us continual education on other Oracle products and applications and demonstrates to our customers that we believe in what we sell.

Our Move to Oracle Sales Cloud – A Look Back at 2012

After Oracle Sales Cloud was released and became Oracle’s lead CRM application, we decided to migrate to this new platform. We were excited to begin our journey with the on-demand sales suite, with its rapid adoption, new user interface, social infrastructure and

Fusion architecture. With Oracle’s Fusion Applications becoming more robust and available, we had also added Oracle Fusion Applications services to our cloud solutions offerings.

Our business development team gained valuable features like mobile integration, integrated marketing management capabilities, standardized sales operations and embedded business intelligence. These features maximize revenue potential while adding value to the existing business application footprint used internally. (See Figure 1 on the next page.)

We appreciated the tremendous investment Oracle continues to make in the development of Fusion Applications to offer flexible functionality and ease of use with a powerful functional capability.

Our Sales Cloud Journey

By Trudy Sturino and

David Ghaowi, WhiteLight Group

WhiteLight Group is one of the first 100 Oracle

customers on Oracle Sales Cloud. We migrated

from Oracle CRM On Demand to Oracle Sales

Cloud in the last quarter of 2012. The project

was completed on time and was instrumental

in developing key Oracle Fusion Applications

expertise and ensuring our continued adoption of

the latest technologies from Oracle.

We’d like to share our journey to success from

a customer’s perspective. We’ll share priority

features and options, business decisions that

drove this change, some lessons learned and what

we believe would be key reasons other customers

would consider adopting Oracle Sales Cloud.

Oracle Sales Cloud

G L O B A L s o l u t i o n


26 G L O B A L s o l u t i o n

Building Our Fusion ApplicationWhiteLight Group opted to run our

CRM applications in the cloud. With prior success with CRM On Demand, along with other subscription-based applications, we feel it offers simplicity in operation and access, minimized system overhead and stability for our internal user group.

The releases are automatically updated to our Fusion instance, with prior notification from Oracle. Automatic, continued maintenance and patch updates are applied to our Fusion instance as well. We experienced minimal downtime through version updates, as we started on release 11.1.3 and now are on release 11.1.5.

What Makes Up Our Fusion Instance?

Our team determined that the initial release of Oracle Sales Cloud must have a common CRM configuration, lead management, opportunity management, territory management and the ability to import/export data. Our goal was to match the existing functionality of our Oracle CRM On Demand with any desired options we could incorporate without compromising the timeline.

Initially, we analyzed the volume of data in our current CRM On Demand environment to map to Oracle Sales Cloud. These data elements had to be incorporated into the Sales Account and be viewable in Sales and Opportunity screens. Our internal project implementer added fields, data and

screen changes without adding resources or spending additional dollars.

We also were using an industry database,

Inside View integrated with CRM On Demand, which had to

be similarly integrated with Oracle Sales Cloud.

This tool supports our internal sales staff, and with the open-standards architecture of Fusion Applications, allows for many “plug ins” to be added easily to a Fusion instance.

We were successful in our initial footprint of Oracle Sales Cloud and continue on with the addition of more options and functionality.

Organizing Our Fusion Project The WhiteLight team used

the same approach we use with our implementation projects. We utilized two part-time resources for the duration of the implementation project. Our internal business sponsor coordinated the project and led all change management activities within our organization.

After business requirements were identified, we determined the Oracle Sales Cloud core functionality required and identified potential gaps. Understanding the element needed for our project, the management team established the project budget. The last step in organizing our project was to determine the timeline and go-live cutover activities.

At the time, Oracle Sales Cloud was a relatively new application, and there was no precedent set for project adoption methodologies. We needed to create a strategy that made sense to our organization, addressing the requirements and aligning budgetary and time investments. We came up with the following strategy areas:

l Understand Fusion Offerings – You need to know the functionality and how it will be applied to your organization.

l Review all Fusion Options and Features – These will drive what functionality you will be using.

l Identify Report Requirements – Review the prepackaged reports with built in intelligence in Fusion; there should be very little custom report building.

l Understand Related Business Objects and Related Infrastructure – Know how the metadata and objects will relate and provide you with a baseline for data conversion.

l Establish Environment Setup – Determine whether On-Premises or On-Demand; this will drive how you support the application.

l Develop Application-Specific Knowledge – Spend time on key areas to develop knowledgeable internal resources.

Our Stepping Stones to SuccessIn order to proceed with setting

up Fusion Applications, it is important to follow Oracle’s path to adapting this application. Our first task was completing the questionnaire, which identifies the base information required to set up an environment. When completed, it allowed us to set up our environment with our company information, its core accounting policies and other key information. Oracle inputs this data from the questionnaire into our provisioned environment and then the environments were turned over to us to validate.

1) Building Our CloudSo, how did we create our cloud?

We initially contracted with Oracle for a selection of services, including the application and on-demand access. Oracle

ComprehensiveSales Suite

Role BasedUser Experience

Rapid Adoption

On-Premises orOn-Demand

100% Standards Based

InfrastructureWhy Oracle Sales Cloud?

Figure 1

prepares the shared components and the application utilizing information from our completed questionnaire. Access is granted based on how many licenses are contracted. An Administration ID was established, which allows our administrator to continue with the project through the self-service portal. Upon completion of the initial setup and configuration, Oracle provided us a notification. The system environments were now turned over to us.

We were ready to kick off our project! While waiting for our provisioned

environment, we had two parallel activities running. Our first activity was providing training to internal resources. The second activity was to begin reviewing our data in Oracle CRM On Demand and assess archive and purge requirements, additional data maintenance, what we needed to migrate over to Oracle Sales Cloud and any manual data management following the migration.

2) Training Our Project TeamOur training processes to develop

internal resources utilized Oracle University, and in turn, led to our resources passing the Fusion Certification exam. Because the certification process provided a core foundation of skills and specific product application knowledge that can be used on the expansion of other Fusion Applications, this was a key element in our project success.

3) Training Our Internal User CommunityWe identified what was different

in Fusion from our existing application and provided users helpful tools like User Productivity Kit (UPK) lessons for different processes. This allowed us to review the

user interface and any changes in tasks well before we actually started our core setup of the application. With the users’ input, we had time to adapt features or options, which led to stronger user adoption. We further developed small user training guides with references for application basics and user tools to assist with personalization.

We held live training sessions across multiple offices with our user community from our test or STAGE environment. They were able to identify any concerns, get their questions answered and have one-on-one time with our certified staff.

4) Utilize the Application ToolsetFunctional Setup Manager (FSM) is

used to implement all Fusion Applications through a consistent, standard process. This is the Self-Service Administration Tool, which allows your implementation team to configure Oracle Sales Cloud in the best way to meet your business requirements. The FSM gives the implementation team complete visibility to setup requirements through guided, sequential task lists. This contributes to a business intelligence model and allows full visibility to the progress and status of individual tasks. The team

validates requirements from built-in application reports that can then be sent to team leads for sign-off.

Our Project TimelineThe full implementation from a

provisioned environment to go-live was twelve weeks. Core setup and configuration lasted approximately eight weeks. Before we conducted approximately two weeks of user testing and retrofitting, all users were trained on the Fusion Application. The go-live and data conversion activities lasted another two weeks.

We allowed extra time in our project to develop our own Fusion implementation methodology for our in-house expertise. We also factored in time for deployments, holidays, data conversion without prebuilt templates and security setup of our sales team. The overall progress of our initial project was impacted only slightly.

We recommend that a customer look at starting with an eight-week timeline and adjust as needed for operation complexity, selected options and personnel availability. This assumes that there is already a sales methodology within the organization. We also suggest that customers:

Implementation Strategy Areas

Understand Fusion

Offerings

Review all Fusion Options

& Features

Identify Report

Requirements

Understand Related Business Objects &

Related Infrastructure

Establish Environment

Setup

Develop Application-Specific

Knowledge

Implementation 8 Weeks

Testing2 Weeks

Go Live!2 Weeks

Total Implementation Time = 12 WeeksExtra Time Allowed: In-house training with certification and

deployment scheduled during holiday season.

Our Project Timeline

oaug.org 27


28 G L O B A L s o l u t i o n

l Conduct a pre-plan audit of their system and data.

l Train their resources to support this technology.

l Understand business requirements and what their goals and objectives are.

l Allow enough time to test the Fusion Application.

l Make sure to start early on data conversion and scrubbing data.

The Smart and Adaptable User Experience Boosted Our Productivity

We found that Oracle Sales Cloud made each of our users feel at home by allowing personalization, customization and flexibility. By making an intuitive user-centered experience, Oracle Sales Cloud has effectively minimized the time our sales reps spend navigating. This increased the efficiency of our sales team while making them more productive and allowed them to do what they do best – interact with customers and prospects to present solutions!

While all these features are great on the desktop usage, they are not lost on the Oracle Sales Cloud mobile application offered to the field sales teams while out on the road. Changes made to the Oracle Sales Cloud internally are updated in real time to reps in the field while using the Oracle Sales Cloud Mobile application. This collaboration allows for sales teams,

sales management and executives to share information without any need for report generation and additional meetings.

Oracle Sales Cloud vastly improves real-time collaboration and organizes internal interactions by offering social networking capabilities within the organization, customer-specific discussion boards and activity streams. This real-time collaboration is essential for making the most of leads and opportunities, managing relationships and ultimately growing our win rate. In short, Oracle Sales Cloud is the ultimate tool to help sales people do

their jobs at peak productivity levels.

Lessons Learned Let’s review what we learned

from our Fusion Journey. Our company was able to execute our

project within the planned budget and project timeline using only internal resources. We experienced similar issues as with any new application release – adapting to the new technology and working some development challenges. We began our Fusion project on release 3 and 90 days later were on release 5. We have been receiving ongoing maintenance from Oracle with updates/patches that are automatically updated with minimal downtime. We are now on release 7. We have had no system outages since our go-live on November 26, 2012.

We utilized the FSM for most of our configuration, which provided a checklist and visibility to tasks and their status to our business sponsor, management team and implementation team. We did experience some challenges with security, which we overcame; our first pass at roles and assignments were not compatible with the actual user needs, and we determined the Administration ID should not be user specific.

We find the best approach is to start with a baseline of functionality and grow into your Fusion Application. You will want to spend time on the data

architecture and the concepts of related business objects. This is the foundation of the application and will drive much of your data conversion activities.

We now know that we may have introduced unnecessary complexity that manifested itself at go-live as a system design flaw. In reality, we needed to apply changes to our configuration to simplify some setups. Through our process, we developed deep product knowledge internally. By documenting and analyzing our challenges, mistakes will not be repeated, and a solid infrastructure has been established to build upon.

Our Fusion Journey ContinuesThe next phase of our journey

provided for an extended Fusion footprint and additional services for our user community. The group of features and functionality desired would add new abilities to our organization.

The enhancements included:

l Fusion Mobile Sales for iPad, iPhone and Blackberry to extend the arm of our sales team.

l Additional user personalization to provide cool tools for the user group.

l Microsoft Outlook to operate within one screen to increase sales productivity.

l Additional reporting to use built-in business intelligence to drive better decision making.

l Marketing campaigns to allow us to measure marketing’s impact and contribution to the overall revenue.

l Forecasting to enable the sales team to automate and turn opportunities into forecasted revenue.

We started this part of our journey just 30 days after go-live, which was at the first of 2013. We have been able to utilize the FSM to update our production environment with ease and in a short period of time.

“Oracle Sales Cloud has kept pace with other

applications by continuing to invest in enhancements,

new functionality and integrations.”

oaug.org 29

Accomplishments to Date We have not yet started the

Marketing functions of Sales, but are excited about this function in achieving alignment between Sales and Marketing, with a single view of our pipeline. This will allow our marketing teams to not only measure the outcomes from individual campaigns, but also measure marketing’s impact and contribution to the overall revenue of our business.

We have started our integration between Oracle Sales Cloud and Microsoft Outlook. This integration will allow us to have our sales team work within one screen and utilize the two-way sync for all data. This will also allow users full featured, off-line access and then synchronize back to keep our data current. The application is able to handle customized objects and is downloadable within Fusion.

The completed mobility applications are phenomenal! They provide BI and analytics on the dashboard screen; any data updates auto sync with our Fusion database, which provides full visibility in real time to the rest of the organization! In addition, the mobile app has calendar visibility to our field sales team to keep them on target with any changes that occur.

We have allowed our user community to personalize their welcome pages, which include different panes like Worklist, Report, Activity Stream and Opportunity. There were no additional costs or requests to IT to perform these changes.

Our organization is now evaluating an additional Fusion Application for future use. We are looking at Oracle Fusion Financials. This is a complete and integrated solution with streamlined financial management processes that provide best-in-class financial capabilities and embedded business intelligence, which will provide additional tools to our CFO and management team.

ConclusionWe believe Oracle Sales Cloud is

just the beginning! Oracle Sales Cloud crushes the competition in the market as a stand-alone software package that is viable in the long run for most companies. Oracle Sales Cloud is just the start for most organizations as it is easy to deploy, it’s integrated and it’s available as a cloud-based set of solutions that cover the entire business from financials to sales to manufacturing. Fusion is based on the latest technology, and other applications in the market just can’t offer that.

Our Next Fusion Journey – Future 2014

Oracle Sales Cloud has kept pace with other applications by continuing to invest in enhancements, new functionality and integrations. The state-of-the-art user interface has dramatically pushed Oracle Sales Cloud ahead of the competition.

The key integration between Oracle Sales Cloud and Microsoft Outlook provides us a single, seamless view of contacts and interactions that allows us to follow up quickly on any open tasks or new requests for current and potential clients/customers. We have taken a user-by-user approach with this integration and foresee our entire organization integrated by the end of the first quarter of 2014.

Mobile sales cloud allows field personnel to add new clients/customers, contacts and interactions quickly and also update existing data for updates in the marketplace. The new tools within release 11.1.7 have enhanced our ability to review customer content, leads and opportunities and update or add new information more quickly.

The evolution of the Oracle Fusion product line and the continued investment in addressing key customer concerns makes these applications unique. Application updates continue to occur and are applied with no downtime or any additional resources required. These are key application attributes that allow greater customer satisfaction and confidence with Oracle Applications.

David Ghaowi is a senior member of

the WhiteLight Group business development

team. His focus is on cultivating industry

relationships and delivering innovation

with Oracle Cloud Solutions and Mobile

Applications. Trudy Sturino is the product application

director with more than 20 years of Oracle Application experience. She currently holds Oracle Application certifications and is responsible for WhiteLight’s Fusion Application Portfolio.


We Believe

Connect to Oracle products with short configuration times

Giant

horsepower

VeryIntegrated

Pluggable at a micro

software level

Equivalent to iPad business applications

Fusion changes the paradigm of

sortware

Fusion CRM is just the

beginning!

30 O A U G s o l u t i o n 1

30

By Paul Martin and Fred Janzen,

Western University Canada

Whenever I’m asked what’s new in OBIEE 11g, I often respond “what isn’t new?” I truly believe that’s the case. OBIEE 11g was a substantial release, and each dot release further tweaks the capabilities and quietly offers new features. I think the new look and feel is great, but the enhanced interactions

and animations on top of the new features really turned out quite well. I recommend jumping in and using the basic Sample App offered as part of the installation or grabbing the expanded one. You’ll quickly realize the high-fidelity charting across the powerful user interfaces with interactive analytics that include animated transitions and master-detail linking. There is more to come on those fronts. Moreover, BI Publisher has a brand new online layout builder, which

finally brings development into the OBIEE environment. BI Publisher is a strategic solution for Oracle and will continue to get enhanced. The new editor is page oriented and interactive with instant preview capabilities – all well-received features of the editor. Another new component of 11g is Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management (OSSM), Oracle’s new strategic solution for performance scorecards (replacing Hyperion Performance Scorecard). Its integration

Sometimes you just want to cut to the chase, sidestep all of the product jargon, find out what works best and hear tips and tricks from the experts.

This article provides my favorite Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 11g implementation tips and tricks, providing context and highlighting the value around the related 11g product features and capabilities.

As an introduction, the Oracle BI platform offers many features while providing an open architecture consolidated into a common enterprise information model. (See Figure 1.)

global solutions

By Patrick Callahan, AST Corporation

Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Oracle Business Intelligence

Dig Into What’s New in 11g and Recent Releases

Tip #1

• Common Metadata Foundation across all Data Sources• Common Security, Access Control, Authorization, Auditing• Common Request Generation & Optimized Data Access Services• Common Clustering, Workload Management & Deployment• Common Systems & Operational Lifecycle Management

COMMOn EntERpRiSE inFORMAtiOn MODEL

Figure 1

31 oaug.org

into OBIEE is a big plus, with all of your BI metadata (metrics, etc.) available to feed into and enrich your scorecards. The standard methodologies are supported (Balanced, Six Sigma, Baldridge). Overall, the solution offers strategy visualization with strategy maps and trees, cause and effects, watch lists and annotations. With the recent OBIEE 11.1.1.7 release, there are more features to support Oracle Essbase, a new “Oracle Fusion Apps” look and feel, new graph types (waterfall, performance tile, 100 percent stacked bar, etc.), visualization suggestions and breadcrumbs when drilling into reports (finally). All of these new features, mostly visualizations, are worthy of experimentation.

Not to be overlooked is the fact that much of the OBIEE 11g architecture has changed, and with that comes new terminology that must be understood. A key differentiation is the fact that OBIEE now resides or is deployed within WebLogic (WLS) as a WLS domain. The following terms are important for understanding how the BI system within 11g functions and is managed. In general, they apply to Oracle’s architecture schematic (See Figure 2).

l Oracle BI Domain - the overall OBIEE system.

l WebLogic Domain - set of WebLogic instances servicing applications.

l Admin Server (WebLogic) - provides management of both the WebLogic

and BI Domain; only one (1) per WebLogic Domain.

l Managed Server (WebLogic) - contains deployed J2EE BI application.

l Node Manager (WebLogic) - daemon process that provides remote server start, stop and restart capabilities in addition to monitoring.

l Oracle BI System Components – this includes the BI Server, Presentation Server, Scheduler, Cluster Controller and Java host.

l Oracle BI J2EE Components – this includes BI Publisher, BI Office, Action Framework Service, BI SAW Bridge Plug-in, Security and Web Services for SOA.

This architecture applies to the installation as well. No longer just an option, repositories must be created before installation using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU); minimally, the MDS and BIPLATFORM schemas are needed. From there, you have a few installation options that I would like to explain:

l Simple – For development machines/laptops only; this installation option combines Admin and Managed Servers so it cannot be “scaled out.”

l Enterprise - Includes configuration steps; generally used when doing primary server installs.

l Software Only - Configuration is separate; generally used when scaling out or adding components.

If you are simply sampling OBIEE 11g, go with the simple install. For recommendations on sizing and capacity planning, I suggest referring to Doc ID 1323646.1, available online from Oracle. Related to installation, there are a couple of configuration tidbits to consider. First, installing a separate web server is recommended for HTTP compression and caching, especially for larger user bases. WebLogic’s embedded web server is not optimal; installing and configuring Oracle HTTP Server is now an option during install and you can enable compression / caching by editing the httpd.conf file. For earlier 11g installs, you can separately install

O A U G f e a t u r e


Learn the Architecture and Terminology

Tip #2

Figure 2

O A U G s o l u t i o n 32

and configure Oracle HTTP Server or your web server of choice. Though BI is dynamic in nature, the platform can still benefit from such optimizations. Oracle also provides an Upgrade Assistant in 11g to help users migrate from 10g and Patch Set Assistants ongoing. These upgrade the repository (RPD) and presentation catalog. The Upgrade Assistant actually deploys everything as well. As a result, you need a working BI 11g environment for this to work. This is necessary because the UA ports users from the 10g RPD into WebLogic; users are no longer in the RPD in 11g. Thus, when migrating 11g environments, one must migrate the Identity Store, Credential Store and Policy Store. One last note: New in 11.1.1.7 is the OBIEERPDPWDCHG utility that allows one to change RPD password from command line. Cool stuff!

Yes, OBIEE 11g is a great BI solution offering robust features, even federated data sources. I consider federated configurations as early-stage solutions since sophisticated

analytics solutions typically require data quality applications and well architected models at the physical layer to produce the desired results. To that end, I generally architect a data mart (warehouse) underlying OBIEE to support my analytics requirements. Going into this activity, I try to follow some core data warehousing and BI modeling principles gleaned from experts like Ralph Kimball*:

1. Target a business process or subject area.

2. Solidify the level of detail or grain. By default, capture the lowest level of detail that promotes drill-down capabilities and makes BI “operational.”

3. Identify the dimensions by which data needs to be analyzed. This is how to slice and dice the data?

4. Identify the metrics to be included for analysis. This is what numbers and calculations are desired.

FOOTNOTE: *Kimball, Ralph; Margy

Ross (2013). The Data Warehouse

Toolkit: The Definitive Guide to

Dimensional Modeling (3rd ed.).

Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-53080-1

For the basis of modeling, I always target snowflake (dimensions in multiple tables) and star (dimensions in single

table) schemas since such models are well supported by every BI solution (not just Oracle) and eventually translate well into multi-dimensional implementations within Essbase or otherwise. When you are modeling, also adhere to data modeling standards. If you don’t currently have defined data modeling standards, the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse Data Model Reference is a good start. Finally, the physical implementation of a data warehouse model is important as every RDBMS has many options to choose from. First and foremost, all dimension tables need primary keys and, with few exceptions, these ought to be surrogate keys. Natural keys must still exist as attributes and be used by ETL. A “dummy” (blank/zero/placeholder) record is recommended for each dimension. All fact tables must have foreign keys to dimensions, and these ought to have indexes. In Oracle, choose from standard, bitmap or bitmap-join indexes (stores rowid for primary key as well – uses more storage). If bitmap or bitmap-join indexes are implemented and STAR_TRANSFORMATION_ENABLED=TRUE,theOracledatabase will force sub-queries against the dimensions before the

Don’t Ignore Your Data Warehouse Design

Tip #3

Figure 3

DAtA SOuRCES

SQL

XML/A

native SQL

XML, CSV, Excel, Flat Files, etc.

phySiCAL MODELS

Star Schemas Snowflakes

Multi-Dimensional

normalizedDenormalized

XML Files

buSinESS MODELS

DimensionalModels

uSERREQuEStS

pRESEntAtiOn CAtALOG

Logical Queries Role-based Subject Areas

The OBIEE Model

fact. Partitioning will almost always help in a BI environment and materialized views are often a good choice for generating aggregates. For larger implementations, one might consider Oracle Exalytics for its optimized BI connectivity, advanced data visualization capabilities and its plug-and-play architecture. Another benefit of Oracle Exalytics is that it can also support Oracle EPM solutions like Hyperion Planning on top of Oracle Essbase; some of our clients co-mingle these on the same machines.

With very little change from 10g, the OBIEE repository is the “nuts and bolts” of an Oracle BI implementation. The connections to data sources, analytics modeling, definition of presentation subject areas and all related metadata are managed here. The schematic in Figure 3 highlights the key areas. Moving from right to left in the schematic, the Physical Models define components for physical queries, aligning with data source structures and encapsulating source dependencies for portability and federation purposes. The most important aspect of the BI repository is the Business Model in the center. Here, analytic behavior is defined, abstraction of sources occurs, mappings for each logical column (decision rules, etc.) are implemented and dimensions and their related hierarchies are confirmed. Finally, the Presentation Catalog offers a structured view of the dimensional business model and general organization of objects with desired names and descriptive overrides. Within Oracle’s BI Administration tool, the facility where the RPD is

created and modified, there are some very helpful utilities available through the menu options. For the bulk work associated with building and maintaining models and subject areas, the Replace Columns or Table in Logical Table Sources, Rename Wizard, Update Physical Layer and Remove Unused Physical Objects options are great. In particular, the Rename Wizard is great for initial model cleanup of names, such as making them more discernible for business users and less like physical database names. For metadata documentation, the Repository Documentation (delimited output) and Generate Metadata Dictionary (will need to configure online access) options are great. For deploying change, the Generate Deployment File option works well. Not necessarily an RPD utility but a new option in 11g is the Creating Subject Areas for Logical Stars, Snowflakes facility that is available when you select a business model and right mouse-click to get a pop-up menu. With this, the facility simply creates a subject area for every fact in the selected business model, including all necessary metrics and dimensions. This is a creative way to quickly kick off design and POC development efforts. Finally, you may want to further look into the “externalizing” metadata objects for localization requirements and the use of new lookup tables in 11g for translations of dimensional data.

We’ve seen our users fully embrace the use of “sliders” in lieu of standard prompts. Honestly, slider-type dashboards and page prompts are less attractive. Here, I’m talking more about sliders used within analysis

objects (charts). Within the layout editor of the Results tab for an analysis definition, go ahead and move a report element into the section area below the graph prompts, and ensure the “Display as slider” checkbox is checked. It’s that easy to do and surely will be well-received by your users. Another neat, new feature of 11g is Chart Zooming. This is a simple enhancement to the UI that may benefit some users. First, on the graph properties page (on the Canvas tab), one can selectively enable “Zoom and Scroll” for the vertical and horizontal axes. With that set, the zip option (seen as a magnifying glass icon), is available along the lower left side of the chart. When selected, the zooming occurs in-line, and the scrolling window can be adjusted by sizing the bar within the scrolling widget itself. Occasionally, we encounter some flaky behavior with this feature, but all in all, it’s a nice facility to have available. In 11.1.1.6, one could enable “freeze panes” to replace the page-based navigation through data records (this requires a change to the instanceconfig.xml file). However, this becomes the default in 11.1.1.7. Also in 11.1.1.7, one can give users the ability to select, add, remove, group, calculate, sub-total, etc., during runtime; these settings are on the Analysis Properties page (Figure 4). Once enabled, users can do much more without having to “edit” an analysis.

33 oaug.org


Allocate Enough Time for Oracle BI Repository Design

Tip #4

Take Full Advantage of User Experience Enhancements

Tip #5

Figure 4

34 O A U G s o l u t i o n

I’m a big proponent of the interactive features of OBIEE 11g, the “wow factor” it often has on users and the overall role it has in making BI “actionable.” The key component of this in OBIEE is what is referred to as the “Action Framework,” which includes agents and actions. In many respects, agents are the new generation of iBots from 10g and earlier; they enable business processes and provide event-driven alerting, scheduled content publishing and conditional event-driven actions. Agents have various subscription and recipient options, and complex layered triggering requirements can be implemented. Moreover, “alerts” (via agents) can be delivered:

1) To the alerts section of the Home page.

2) To the first page of My Dashboard.

3) On any dashboard page.

4) Within the dialog displayed from the “Alerts!” button in the global header.

5) To specific delivery devices (phones, etc.).

Finally, actions allow for enabling navigation or invoking of services or other requests. Another interactive feature of OBIEE 11g is “Master-Detail Linking,” which is the interaction between separate analyses (charts, reports). This capability is helpful in making a dashboard page come alive and effectively react to the actions of the user. For example, selecting a year, department or product in one chart flows down to “linked” charts or tables across the dashboard – the effect is great. At a high level, this interaction is done by an event

being initiated by a driving analysis with other analyses listening for the specified event. First, pick a driving column (report element) on the “Master” to initiate the event, also specifying a channel name. Second, have the “Detail” analyses listening; it’s possible to list multiple event channels. In the end, it is quite easy to set up and implement for key dashboards in your OBIEE 11g deployment. This same linking capability can be applied to maps.

New with version 11.1.1.7, there are many integrated Hyperion-related tools. OBIEE adds these tools to the list of BI desktop tools that are available for download. The first tool is Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office, which provides more robust features than the previous/current BI Office solution. Also, if Essbase is selected as part of the installation, you get the following: Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting Studio, Oracle Essbase Studio Console and Oracle Essbase Administrative Services Console. To get Smart View set up, follow these steps:

1) Download and install from the “BI desktop tools” area of home page.

2) Go into Microsoft Excel.

3) On SmartView ribbon, click on “Panel” and set up a Private Connection.

4) Choose OBIEE for the provider.

5) Enter Server and Credentials (for the server, change as follows:../analytics/jbips).

Once installed and configured, one can begin designing and building content by going to the “Oracle BI EE” ribbon within Microsoft Excel

and clicking on the “View Designer” option. You’ll notice the subject areas look familiar, and the user interface is pretty self-explanatory.

I think most people who implement technical solutions realize that you have to be prepared for and offer solutions to users of all types and skill levels. That is no different with analytics solutions, even though they are supposed to be inherently straightforward. With its core report building and ad hoc capabilities, OBIEE 11g is, in fact, quite easy for most users. For those users who could benefit from a wizard-driven approach, you can enable BI Composer, a little known component of OBIEE 11g. There is some configuration required; those steps are easily accessible online. To turn BI Composer on, go to account settings while logged into OBIEE and set “Analysis Editor” to Wizard (or turn “Accessibility Mode” on in earlier 11g releases). Once this mode is enabled, you’ll notice that your

Leverage Integrated Hyperion Solutions

Tip #7

Consider All of Your UsersTip #8

Make BI InteractiveTip #6

Figure 5

35 oaug.org

options change in OBIEE and “analysis” now means something different. Creating a new analysis now takes you to the BI Composer wizard. (See Figure 5.) This whole approach does not seem well thought out, and I’m uncertain as to whether or not this functionality will survive in future releases. It would have been nice to have the option to use the wizard or not without enabling a mode that changes the process. Go ahead and give it a try; it may be just what some of your users are looking for.

The move to WebLogic has additional benefits, as Enterprise Manager (EM) now offers a ton of information for you to assess and investigate the performance of your OBIEE 11g environments and applications. By logging into EM, navigating to the AdminServer area and selecting “Performance Summary” from the drop down menu at the top, you’ll quickly gain access to a ton of available performance metrics. These include many variations around resource usage and performance areas. Plus, the timeframe to be analyzed can easily be targeted with the on-screen options. The metric palette on the right-hand side of the “Performance Summary” screen organizes the available metrics for selection. (See Figure 6.)

BI is truly a process and an evolution for any organization. Depending on where you are starting, goals can be conservative or aggressive.

But it’s important to be iterative and make progress each time, offering new, actionable content with every release. Commit to a continuous cycle of data gathering, analysis, planning and action. (See Figure 7.) I have found the following online documentation areas and examples quite helpful in starting with 11g:

l Sample Applications:

– “Lite” comes with installation.

– Full version of SampleApp available for download: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/obiee-samples-167534.html

l OBIEE Tutorials (Oracle by Example):

– http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/obiee-samples-167534.html

l OBIEE Documentation:

– http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E21764_01/bi.htm

Conclusion In summary, OBIEE 11g has a lot to offer. Digging in and getting your hands dirty is the way to go. Best wishes

and good luck with your OBIEE 11g implementations! Many thanks to the AST BI team members and Oracle PTS BI experts that offered their experience and insights to this article.

Patrick Callahan is the senior practice director of Business Intelligence/EPM at AST Corporation (astcorporation.com), additionally product manager of AST’s Grants Analytics and ASTRA BI solutions for Airports and Transits. His experience centers in BI and EPM, data warehousing, program management, Oracle Applications and core technologies. Patrick has presented at Oracle OpenWorld, COLLABORATE, Oracle Tech Days, Oracle Developer Tools User Group (ODTUG) and many regional conferences.


Utilize Metrics for System Performance

Tip #9

Finally, Be Iterative!Tip #10

Derive Strategies

Consolidate Information

Gather Data Assets

Take Action

Analyze & Report Insights

Figure 7

Figure 6

Know where you are going.

Get everyone involved.

Define yourrequirements.

Your road to EPM success.

Create a project plan.

O A U G s o l u t i o n 36

global solutions

Of utmost importance is determining where you are going. Start with defining an overall vision for performance management. This should include strategic modeling and planning, budgeting and forecasting, and reporting and analytics; it should not just be a plan for replacing your Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for the close and consolidation process with Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM), for example. While the automation aspects of HFM will bring relief to your hours of data manipulation in Excel, you don’t want to have to re-implement when the business changes suddenly or financial planning and analysis (FP&A) decides it needs to get out

of Excel as well. Create the roadmap and then redesign your close and consolidation process with an integrated vision for performance management.

Second, you must get everyone involved. This means engaging with business users, accounting, FP&A, the business units, and all of the key stakeholders, not only at corporate, but also in the field. Do not allow your project to turn into a “turnkey” consulting project in which you describe your requirements and then months later the consulting team hands you a manual and says, “Call us if you need us.” Likewise, do not let the project become an IT-only project. They

may get the software installed and turned on, but you may spend years tweaking it to your real requirements. The business users must be involved with the Hyperion EPM implementation from the beginning, and that includes helping to establish the vision and roadmap, defining requirements, designing and building the technology, and finally testing and deploying it. Then guess what? It is back to the roadmap.

Now you are ready to leverage a third best practice for Hyperion EPM implementations: defining your requirements. A great place to start investigating requirements is by documenting your existing processes using

By Arthur Forbus and Tammy Norton,

Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting

Lessons on Hyperion EPM ImplementationsOver the past two decades we have learned a lot of lessons around what works and what doesn’t when it comes to implementing Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). No two implementations are ever the same, which is why we love the challenge. However, there are some best practices for enabling Hyperion EPM technology into business processes that will allow you to enjoy success both during and after implementation.

37 oaug.org


Value Stream Mapping (VSM). The traditional, detailed Visio process flows usually get thrown away almost as soon as you create them. The key with VSM is to document key processes, looking for waste and variation. Once you understand the current processes, you can start thinking about the future state processes, again using VSMs. Use your own company, benchmarking business units with each other and looking for the best practices to include in the future state processes. Also, consider looking outside your company to others in your industry with similar size and complexity, as well as Hyperion user groups. Both are great avenues for exploring things others are doing that may be adaptable to your business processes.

In addition to the VSMs, developing a functional requirements document for your Hyperion EPM implementation should include the system technical design, implementation cost, training cost and rollout strategy. Design architects should perform the functional and technical design of the new system and produce the design document, which will include the detailed models of the system, such as the application and infrastructure components, metadata descriptions, dimensionality, data flows and the details of each component of the software. The functional requirements document is critical to outlining what’s required in a new system. The document should provide additional detail to the overall functional scope of the project and should also lay out the goals of the project, key stakeholders, project assumptions and project in/out of scope items. Other important items to define are focused on key features of the software related to the functional and data components. Non-functional focus is on the usability

requirements, performance and operational requirements, and user documentation. And finally, the document should explore security requirements and future maintenance best practices.

After the requirements are complete, the team should create a project plan that lays out key dates, dependencies and tasks. Once the functional requirements, design document and project plan have been signed off by the steering committee, the exciting journey to implement the technology can begin. In the end, the amount of effort and time you put in before you actually start touching the software will determine the success of your Hyperion EPM project and will provide an excellent example to your stakeholders of what you are proposing and what they can expect as a result.

At an international offshore drilling contractor’s recent Oracle Hyperion EPM Suite implementation, each of these best practices was employed. The company established a vision, which included guiding principles of:

l Single, controlled source for all financial data.

l Consistent data model for both actuals and planning information.

l Collaborative project built by both corporate and divisional stakeholders.

l Reduced data manipulation, increased time for analysis.

l Improved reporting detail.

These guiding principles were established to address specific requirements and resulted in a roadmap for the parallel and global implementation of Hyperion Financial Management, Financial Data Quality Management, Planning, Essbase Analytics Link and Financial Reporting. The result was a journey from silos and manual processes to an integrated technology with appropriate automation. Their need for integrated performance management and the road they traveled to achieve success while readying the organization to continue its dynamic nature in the global offshore drilling industry was a result of following best practices before the technology was even employed.

Following these best practices will go a long way toward a successful Hyperion EPM implementation that is both on time and on budget, with the final product being one that will be accepted by the stakeholders as well as sustainable and adaptable as your company grows.

Arthur Forbus is a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting where he specializes in integrated performance management (IPM). Tammy Norton, a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal, focuses on the Oracle Hyperion Suite and enterprise performance management (EPM). Tammy is a member of the OAUG Board of Directors.

37

This article was originally

published by SearchOracle.com,

a TechTarget publication, and

is reprinted with permission.

“Create the roadmap and then redesign your close and consolidation process with an

integrated vision for performance management.”

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O A U G c o n f e r e n c e s 38

AGENDA At-a-Glance

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39 oaug.org

40 O A U G c o n f e r e n c e s


KEYNOTeAdam SavageCuriosity: Asking the Right QuestionsTuesday, April 8 | 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.Adam Savage is, in general, a maker of things. Adam may be best known as the co-host of “MythBusters” on the Discovery Channel, but he is also a longtime special-effects artist, fabricator, model maker and general dreamer-upper who has worked on films such as “Galaxy Quest” and “The Matrix” sequels as well as Episodes I and II of the “Star Wars” series. As a self-described “collector of skills,” Adam has spent his life gathering skills to allow him to take what is in his brain and make it real. He is quite possibly the ultimate combination of artist and scientist and brings that analytical and creative mindset with him wherever his often surprising pursuits take him. Join us Tuesday morning to enjoy what’s sure to be an extremely entertaining hour!

COLLABORATE WITHOracle KeynoteWednesday, April 9 | 9:45 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.Gain a big-picture perspective on Oracle strategy and innovation from a top executive to be announced soon.

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Build Mobile Apps, Extend Fusion Apps and Integrate Cloud Apps with Fusion MiddlewareEd Zou, Vice President, Product Management

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FOR MORE INFORMATIONPLEASE VISITCOLLABORATE.OAUG.ORG/EDUCATION/ORACLE

41 oaug.org

EDUCATION Tracks & Session Highlights Application Strategyand ServicesDiscuss the overall strategy of Oracle Applications through leadership, user experience and integration sessions, applying to all product lines, including E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft and Siebel.

Sample Sessions:Tuning an E-Business Suite R12.1 Environment at All Layers –Tips and Tricks for DBAsKaberi Nayak, MITRE Corporation

E-Business Suite Upgrade Strategy SessionJames Morrow, Red River Solutions

Asset Lifecycle ManagementOrganizations are realizing significant cost savings and improved planning capabilities through integration of the entire asset lifecycle. From sourcing and procurement through capitalization, financial and operations management and write-off, out-of-the-box enterprise integration links all business functions for complete asset visibility and control.

Sample Sessions:How to Utilize Oracle Assets to Manage Asset Movements Between CountriesBrian Bouchard, Northern Tier Energy

Learning About Tax BooksAditi Mukherjee, Deloitte Consulting India Pvt. Ltd.

Big DataBig Data is driven by the massive amounts of data collection mechanisms in place today, for everything from customer tracking to research projects to financial transactions. Sessions cover solutions like parallel processing and innovative data mining solutions, technologies like Hadoop and scalable storage options.

Sample Sessions:Enhancing Application Analytics With Oracle Big DataAjay Arora, Centroid Systems Inc.

Getting Started With Big Data – 5 Game Changing Use CasesRichard Clements, IBM

Business Intelligence / Data Warehousing / Enterprise Performance Management BI and analytics are about better decision making and supporting an organization’s competitive edge. Learn how organizations are using BI to transform their operations and sustain their competitive advantage.

Sample Sessions:Empowering Data-Driven Decisions Utilizing Data Mining Through Business IntelligenceJohn Loeffelbein, West Virginia University

How Rust-Oleum Embraced Unlimited HFM Dimensionality to Meet Complex Reporting RequirementsKris Nelson, Rust-Oleum

C-Level DevelopmentThe C-Level Development track provides the inspiration and know-how you need to rediscover the value of business fundamentals while continuing to investigate the new systems, processes, strategies and markets.

Sample Sessions:An Alternative to Exadata for Large Scale ERP DeploymentsCliff Burgess, Gentex Corporation

Rapid Deployment: 100 Countries, 100 Days, A Success StorySylvain St-Pierre, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Cloud ComputingHow do you determine if going to the cloud is right for your company? Already using the cloud? Learn some best practices to make it more efficient. Private, public and hybrid clouds are covered.

Sample Sessions:Oracle E-Business Suite In the Cloud: From Install To Up and Running,In 1 HourJayaram Ampolu, Cerebra Consulting Inc.

Cloud Computing and the E-Business Suite PanelRon Batra, AT&T

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)The customer is always right, so you need to be right about your customers. Creating profitable, loyal customers is the ultimate goal of customer relationship management (CRM) — customers who will continue to buy from you when a competitive alternative exists. Gain insight and guidance from your peers who are setting the standard for customer-centric business transformations.

Sample Sessions:Oracle Sales Cloud vs. SalesforceMike Schultz, WhiteLight Group

Provide an Exceptional Call Center Experience With Clean DataMichelle Kavalchuk, Experian

DatabaseThe Oracle relational database continues to evolve and become even more complicated. This track provides DBAs of every experience level and industry with the tools to productively and creatively administer data.

Sample Sessions:Getting Ready for 12.2: Edition-Based RedefinitionMichael Brown, BlueStar Inc.

E-Business 12.2 Street Smarts: 2-ApplTops, 2-Database Editions and 2-Minute Patch Window OutagesMichael Barone, OATC, Inc.

= Track eligiblefor credit

The 1250+ education

sessions at COLLABORATE are

organized into 23 tracks. Visit

collaborate.oaug.org for

extended track descriptions

and session abstracts.



DevelopmentWorking in application development means learning an alphabet soup of languages and performing a balancing act between web-based, wireless and client/server applications. This track covers topics that surround the development and deployment of your applications.

Sample Sessions:E-Business Suite and Application Express (APEX): Create a Custom Personnel Action ApplicationChad Johnson, Polk County Florida, Board of County Commissioners

Ten More Forms and OAF Personalization Examples – Version 3...Updated for R12.2Susan Behn, Infosemantics, Inc.

Engineered SystemsHigh performance is key, but software and hardware conflicts can sap your speed. Maybe it’s time to consider Engineered Systems and take advantage of a pre-integrated solution with some serious power. Learn how to optimize your database performance, decrease your time to production and reduce your overall costs with the family of products within this track.

Sample Sessions:Virtualize Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Exalogic with Extreme Performance Srini Chavali, Oracle

Financial ModulesFinancial Modules provides the regimen needed to

maintain the health and well-being of an organization. This track covers the systems and processes that enable efficient operations and support strong internal financial controls.

Sample Sessions:Entangled in the Currency Maze? A Deep Dive with Oracle Tools on Rate, Balances, Variances, Ledgers…Mrunal Potdar, Facebook

E-Business Suite Release 12 Best Practices for Subledger Accounting and the General LedgerAlyssa Johnson, ROLTA

Human Capital Management (HCM)This track discusses how Human Capital Management can be employed to improve workforce performance to drive top line financial results and covers processes ranging from hire to retire and ways to improve operating efficiencies and bottom-line performance.

Sample Sessions:Healthcare Reform at The Wendy’s CompanyStephanie Shaw, The Wendy’s Company

Modernize Your HR Practice! A Strategy Session for Oracle CustomersScott Ewart, Oracle

ManageabilityManageability topics include change management, configuration, diagnostics and tuning, deployment and patching, and data security.

Sample Sessions:JVM / OACORE Memory Tuning Best Practices for Oracle E-Business Suite R12, A Customer Case StudyUdaya Peddibhotla, AppsAssociates LLC

Making Workflow FlowJerry Ireland, Rightsizing, Inc.

ManufacturingIn order to compete in the manufacturing arena, companies must deal with the pressures of globalization, increasing supply chain complexity and increasing customer expectations. Learn how different companies are gaining a competitive edge by building responsive and lean manufacturing organizations.

Sample Sessions:Case Study: Implementing Mobile Data Collection in Release 12 for Process ManufacturersJim Kruse, Blue Bell Creameries, LP

Shop Floor Scheduling for Configured to Order Products at EmersonNavneet Goel, Inspirage LLC

Master Data Management (MDM)Master Data Management is a set of disciplines, processes and technologies for ensuring the accuracy, completeness, timeliness and consistency of multiple domains of enterprise data — across applications, systems and databases, and across multiple business processes, functional areas, organizations, geographies and channels.

Sample Sessions:Integrating Hyperion Planning 11.1.2.2 Applications with Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM)James Minks, CSX Technology

Oracle EBS + DRM + Salesforce = LikePeter Graham, Cervello

MiddlewareThe ever-changing mix of middleware technologies might be your biggest challenge, or your greatest opportunity. Learn from Oracle experts on their experience with application servers, data integration, identity management, service-oriented architecture, web experience management, WebLogic and more.

Sample Sessions:SOA Quick Win – Building an E-Business Suite Interface With Oracle Service BusDave Hebden, Akamai Technologies

WebLogic Server System Administration – Top Ten Fundamental ConceptsShyam Kumar, Application Software Technology (AST) Corporation

EDUCATION Tracks& Session Highlights (cont.)

43 oaug.org

PrimaveraVertical industries are utilizing Primavera PPM products to manage projects throughout their lifecycles. Successful implementation of Primavera allows companies to utilize real-time data to reduce costs, optimize resources, manage tasks, minimize risks and meet delivery deadlines.

Sample Sessions:Primavera Keynote SessionDick Faris, Senior Vice President, Primavera Global Business Unit, Oracle

Saving the World with Primavera UnifierJohn Hovey, Engineering Applications Manager, DFW International Airport

Professional DevelopmentIt’s not enough these days to just know how to tune a database or build a web page. Skills like risk analysis, project management, determining return on investment, resolving conflicts and team building are just as valuable in the work place.

Sample Sessions:The Winning Hand: Master Human Side Change Management for Your Oracle Application-Based OrganizationDouglas Manning, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab

5 Best Practices to Improve Communication and Cooperation Between Technical and Functional AreasEmily O’Mara, Louisville Water

Project Portfolio Management (PPM)Whether in IT, delivering professional services, constructing a bridge, launching a global advertising campaign or driving efficiencies around business processes, this track will help you leverage PPM into strategic advantage via visibility and control into all stages of the project lifecycle and by driving transparency into business decisions.

Sample Sessions:Cross Charging – Best Practices for Intercompany Cross ChargeBecky Alvarez, Rysigo Technologies Corporation

Projects R12.X Features – Finally, But What Does It Mean to You?Angela Bunner, Impac Services

Sales Order FulfillmentSales Order Fulfillment applications streamline and automate the entire sales order management process, from order promising and order capture to transportation and shipment. Business benefits include reduced fulfillment costs, reduced order fulfillment cycle time and improved order accuracy and on-time delivery.

Sample Sessions:Best Practices in Warehouse ManagementLokesh Verma, Oracle

Delivering the Buns: How the Wendy’s Company Implemented Oracle’s Transportation ManagerPhil Kilgore, The Wendy’s Company

Security, Risk and ComplianceIt makes sound business sense to protect your reputation, remain competitive, ensure your staff follows your business processes and control your business finances. Follow this track if you are affected by government regulations or industry requirements, or you want to improve your management of business risk.

Sample Sessions:Enabling Shared Service Operations Through Application SecurityPhil Hartmann, Ernst & Young LLP

Oracle Exalogic Security Best Practices and PCI ComplianceKelly Goetsch, Oracle

Sourcing and ProcurementSupplier Relationship Management (SRM) is the integrated suite of procurement applications that can assist in managing supply costs. Enterprise SRM reduces spend on goods and services, streamlines procure-to-pay processes and drives policy compliance.

Sample Sessions:ASL, Sourcing Rules and Other Procurement MysteriesBill Pick, Fujitsu Computer Products of America

R12 Advance Procurement Solution – iSupplier CollaborationSridhar Edupalli, MARTA

Supply ChainWhen a performance-driven approach is applied to a manufacturing-based enterprise, an effective, streamlined supply chain takes center stage. These enterprises focus on performance-enhancing initiatives that let them reduce inventories and operational costs and improve customer service through better, timelier product availability.

Sample Sessions:Demand Driven Supply Chain Planning in HealthcareDavid McCormick, Kaiser Permanente

There and Back Again: A Diodes Incorporated Demantra TaleKaryn Guttman, Diodes Incorporated

Gather with attendees from your region, PRODUCT OR INDUSTRY to exchange ideas and resources.

OAUG Special Interest Group (SIG) MeetingsGet the insights you need on a particular product, function or industry focus by connecting to the OAUG’s Special Interest Groups.

OAUG Geographic User Group (Geo) MeetingsGeo meetings will be held on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Details online.



NETWORKING

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!It’s the epic COLLABORATE

closing party! Experience the excitement of the legendary Comic-Con, the epicenter of

comic book, science fiction and fantasy fandom. Collabo-CON

delivers a night of super-human fun with drinks, hors

d’oeuvres, games andlive music.

R

Monday, April 7New Attendee Orientation3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.Join us for a conference overview and to hear tips on making the most of your experience.

Meeting of the OAUG Members5 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.Bring questions to this Q&A session to learn more about the OAUG. Member, Innovator and Oracle Ambassador of the Year are also honored here.

OAUG Welcome Reception6 p.m. – 8 p.m.Dal Toro Ristorante & Exotic Car MuseumFast cars, hot food, cool drinks and more welcome you to Las Vegas!

Tuesday, April 8

Women inTechnology Lunch12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.Featured speaker is Jhone M. Ebert, chief innovation and productivity officer for Clark County, Nevada, School District.

OAUG Membership Orientation1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.Discover the resources and unlimitededucation the OAUG provides year-round.

THURsday, April 10Women in TechnologyPanel Discussion9:45 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.A moderated forum for discussing issuesfaced by women in the technology field.

Supercharge your week by adding one of these optional, intensive workshops on Monday, April 7. An additional fee is required; select and pay for this event during conference registration. Descriptions are online at collaborate.oaug.org/education/workshops.

Upgrading to E-Business Suite R12: How-To, New Features, Functionality and Better Ways to Do Things!

Excel-Based Reporting Alternatives for E-Business Suite: An Excel4apps Interactive Workshop

Simplify, Automate, and Enhance Management of E-Business Suite (EBS) Applications

Implementing FAH: A Step-Wise Approach

Maximizing ROI in your ERP, CRM and BI Investments by Enhancing the Quality of Your Data

Oracle eBtax Debug and Optimize Your Tax Rules

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2.2 Upgrade Workshop: The Whole Nine Yards

45 oaug.org

Register online. For additional registration details and offers visit collaborate.oaug.org. Questions? Contact [email protected]

FULL CONFERENCE PASS(APRIL 7-11, 2014)

OAUGMEMBER

RATE

NON-MEMBERRATE

GOVERNMENTRATE

(OAUG MEMBER)

GOVERNMENTRATE

(NON-MEMBER)AVAILABILITY

AdvanceRegistration

Staying withinCOLLABORATE 14

hotel block

USD$1,950

USD$2,340

USD$1,240

USD$1,580 February 13

throughApril 3, 2014Outside

COLLABORATE 14hotel block

USD$2,150

USD$2,540

USD$1,440

USD$1,780

On-site Registration USD$2,275

USD$2,670

USD$1,600

USD$1,830

AfterApril 3, 2014

Book Hotel First and SaveBook your stay in the official conference headquarters hotels, The Venetian and The Palazzo, to receive significant conference registration savings. Use your Hotel Acknowledgement Number during conference registration to claim a $200 discount, whichcan be combined with other registration discounts. Reserve your hotel room throughcollaborate.oaug.org/location/hotels only.

OAUG Members SaveA membership in the OAUG ($920 annually for organizations that are licensed users of Oracle Applications) provides valuable training and

networking benefits to your entire company all year, and significant savings on COLLABORATE 14

registration — up to $395 per person!

The OAUG thanks its 2014 Star Partners, who are among the leading third-party solutions providers in the Oracle community. It is through their continued support that we are able to provide OAUG members with outstanding educational opportunities. Visit them in the Exhibitor Showcase.

2014 STARPartners

starPARTNER

20

14

Exhibitor SHOWCASETuesday, April 86:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. - WELCOME RECEPTION

WEDNEsday, April 910:45 A.m. – 3:15 p.m.5:30 P.M. - 7 P.M. - HAPPY HOUR

THURsday, April 1010:45 A.m. – 3 p.m.

Tune In to the OAUG at COLLABORATE 14Broadcasting live from the OAUG membership booth at COLLABORATE, RadiOAUG features interviews with key Oracle executives, session presenters, product specialists and OAUG leaders.

TUNE IN

THEgameGet in gear withthe crowd andbuild someenergy to compete against your fellow

attendees – and have lots of fun as you wincool prizes.

Solutions SpotlightDrop by for 30-minute educationalpresentations on the Exhibitor Showcase floor.

Update on Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

SWhat is a Special Interest Group (SIG)?

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are

user groups that bring together members

that share a common interest with specific

Oracle Applications products. SIGs

may also bring together members that

represent a specific industry, such as the

public sector or manufacturing. Additional

SIGs are affiliated in response to the

development and expansion of the family

of Oracle Applications. SIGs are open for

worldwide membership and operate online

communities, with many hosting meetings

at the annual COLLABORATE or Oracle

OpenWorld conferences.

A complete list of SIGs, upcoming

meetings, website addresses and contact

information is available at oaug.org under

the User Communities tab.

l ADI SIGl AP SIG*l AR, Credit & Collections SIGl Archive & Purge SIGl Assets SIG*l BI Publisher SIGl Change Management SIGl Channel Revenue SIGl Communications

Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) SIG

l Communications MetaSolv Solution SIG

l Configurator SIG*l Consumer Goods SIGl Contracts SIGl Cost Management SIG*l Customer Experience

Community (CXC) – CRM On Demand SIG – Siebel SIGl Customization and

Extension SIGl Database SIG*l Demantra SIGl Discrete Manufacturing SIG*l E-Business Applications

Technology SIG*l E-Business Suite SIGl E-Business Suite User

Management SIG* l EDI (e-Commerce Gateway) SIGl Endeca SIGl Energy & Utilities SIGl Engineering & Construction SIGl Enterprise Asset

Management (EAM) SIG*

l Enterprise Manager SIGl Federal SIGl Financial Services Industry SIGl Fusion Middleware SIGl General Ledger (GL) SIG*l Governance, Risk &

Compliance SIGl Government Contractor SIG l Higher Education SIGl Hyperion SIG*l Incentive Compensation SIGl K-12 Education SIGl Logistics SIGl Master Data Management SIGl Migration and Integration SIGl Multi-National/Multi-Org SIGl Oracle Agile/

Enterprise PLM SIG l Oracle Business Intelligence

– Big Data SIG (OBI-BD SIG)*l Oracle Primavera SIG (OPSIG)l Order Management &

Advanced Pricing (QP) SIGl Oracle Tax Management SIGl OTM SIGl Process Manufacturing SIG*l Procurement SIGl Projects SIG*l Public Sector SIG*l Quality SIGl SysAdmin SIGl UPK SIGl Upgrade SIG*l Value Chain Planning SIG l WebCenter SIGl Workflow SIG

2014 Special Interest Groups

* Special Acknowledgement 2013 OAUG Geo/SIG

Certificate of Distinction Award recipient

oaug sig update

O A U G g e o s & s i g s 46 oaug.org

A LEARNING OPPORTUNITY OAUG associate members have the

opportunity to host educational sessions,

which are held several times each month.

These interactive webcasts provide

information about a variety of products

and services that complement Oracle

Applications. Visit oaug.org and click

on the “Partners” tab for details.

If you are an Associate member of the OAUG and would like to host a Vendor Awareness session, visit oaug.org and click on the “Partners” tab, or send an

e-mail to [email protected], or call +1 404.760.8179.

OAUG Vendor Awareness Sessions

Reserve your session today!

48

GWhat is a Geographic User Group (Geo)? Geographic user groups (Geos) are independent OAUG affiliated user

groups that bring together a variety of Oracle Applications users within

a defined geographic region. Geos create opportunities for members to

discuss a variety of applications and share ideas. Currently, the OAUG has

Geo affiliates in the continental United States, Canada, AsiaPac, Latin

America and EMEA.

There are many benefits of membership and participation in a user’s

local Geo. These benefits include:

l Communication with OAUG members to learn tips and tricks for

installation, integration, utilization and maintenance of Oracle

Applications.

l Knowledge of best practices from colleagues utilizing Oracle

Applications.

l Local meetings and training sessions featuring Oracle experts.

l Direct access to local Oracle management and much more.

A complete list of Geo groups, upcoming meetings, website

addresses and contact information is available at oaug.org under the

User Communities tab.

Update on Geographic User Groups (Geos)

2014 Geographic User Groupsl Atlanta OAUG*l AUSOUG (Australia)l British Columbia OAUGl Calgary OAUGl Central States OAUG*l Colorado OAUGl DC-OAUGl Eastern States OAUGl Florida OAUG*l German Oracle Users Group (DOAG) l Heartland OUGl India OAUG* l Japan-OAUGl Latin OAUG*l Michigan OAUG*l Mid-Atlantic OAUGl Middle East OUGl Netherlands OAUGl Nevada OAUG* l New England OAUG*l New Jersey OAUGl New South Wales OAUGl North Central OAUG*l Northern California OAUG*l Northern Ohio OAUG*l Northwest OUGl NYC Metro OAUG (New York City)l Ohio Valley OAUG*l ORAUG-Brazill Pittsburgh OAUGl Queensland OAUGl San Diego OAUGl South Central OAUGl South Texas OAUGl Southern Australia OAUGl Southern Ontario OAUGl Southwest Regional OAUG*l Twin Cities Financials OAUGl Twin Cities Manufacturing OAUGl Victorian OAUGl Western Australia OAUG

* Special Acknowledgement – 2013 OAUG

Geo/SIG Certificate of Distinction Award

Recipient

Geos and SIGs serve the grassroots of the Oracle

community and offer additional educational

opportunities and new product enhancements through

their links with Oracle Corporation.

O A U G g e o s & s i g s

oaug geo update

48

oaug.org

12

Why Belong to the OAUG?

Thousands of organizations around the world make up the

Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG). These companies

know that through the OAUG their employees are equipped

to improve efficiency, enhance problem solving, and spark

innovation through opportunities for education, networking,

and influence.

EducationOAUG membership includes extensive educational

opportunities for employees to enhance their knowledge

and expertise and stay up to date on the latest information

in order to maximize return on the organization’s significant

investment in Oracle Applications.

NetworkingOne of the greatest strengths of the OAUG is connecting real

users with others who can provide tips, ideas, best practices

and share real-time solutions. Employees of OAUG member

organizations are connected with thousands of colleagues

and counterparts in other companies who are facing the

same issues.

InfluenceOracle listens to the collective voice of the OAUG. Joining

with hundreds of other member organizations provides

unprecedented access to Oracle executives who want

to hear real customers’ experiences and suggestions for

enhancements.

Discover the benefits of OAUGmembership today! www.oaug.org/membership

[email protected]

+1 404.240.0897

92% of OAUG members would recommend membership.

Here’s why:

OAUG is a great source of information and networking.

OAUG is THE group for the Oracle user community. Opportunities abound for education and networking among your peers.

Essential membership for anyone who uses Oracle Applications. It’s a bargain!

It is a very good resource for problem solving involving Oracle issues. In the past, I found other users were an invaluable resource.

OAUG is a great users group for anyone that uses/develops/ manages any of the Oracle Product Line.

If you own, use, or implement Oracle Applications there is an extraordinary value proposition in the very modest membership fee.

OAUG is fantastic resource for users to engage others users for knowledge and updates of Oracle applications, hardware needs and software, training and expertise from user perspective.

The influence that OAUG has with Oracle has been instrumental in saving our company time and money with the Oracle applications investment.

The benefit in networking and education provided to a user of Oracle Applications is so great that all users should participate in the Organization.

50

The OAUG broadcasts time-saving

and efficiency-building knowledge

to individuals at thousands of

member companies worldwide.

Through the OAUG, you can find

numerous opportunities to access

and exchange information, build

knowledge and capabilities, and

find solutions. If you’re looking

for ways to improve efficiency,

enhance problem solving and spark

innovation, take a look at the many

types of education available through

the OAUG.

Conferences OAUG conferences provide

unparalleled opportunities for you

to increase your knowledge. During

these events you’ll learn about best

practices, hear from real users and

discover tips for improving efficiency.

The annual COLLABORATE

conference features real-world,

in-depth education presented in

hundreds of sessions over just

a few days. Plan now to attend

COLLABORATE 14, April 7-11, 2014,

in Las Vegas. Get all the details and

view the comprehensive educational

program at collaborate.oaug.org.

OAUG Connection Point®

conferences are smaller and more

focused on a particular topic or area

of interest. If you are involved in

the technical side of things, you’ll

want to attend the OAUG Connection

Point®– AppsTech July 22-23, 2014,

in Pittsburgh, PA.

Conference Paper Database Attending live events is great, but

often you need a quick answer right

away. The all-new OAUG Conference

Paper Database is the place to turn.

All of the papers and presentations

from COLLABORATE and OAUG

Connection Point conferences are

stored and easily accessible in the

new Conference Paper Database. You

can quickly and easily search by topic

or key word or browse through papers

from a particular event.

Everyone can view and search the

OAUG Conference Paper Database,

but only OAUG member company

employees can download the papers

and presentations.

eLearning Convenient, relevant and free for

OAUG members, OAUG eLearning

brings exceptional educational

content to your desktop or mobile

device. Each hour-long webinar is

presented live by a subject matter

expert. Participants in the live

webinars can ask questions and

interact with the presenter. In

addition, recordings of each session

are available online following the

presentation.

Most of the OAUG eLearning

live sessions and recordings are

only available to OAUG member

company employees. However, some

OAUG Geo and SIG groups sponsor

webinars that are open to everyone.

If your organization is not an

OAUG member yet, please join

online or contact the membership

staff at [email protected]

or +1 404.240.0897 so that you

and all of your co-workers can

take advantage of the educational

opportunities available to OAUG

member company employees.

50 O A U G M e M B e r B e n e f i t s

MeMBer Benefit showcase

Tune in to the OAUG for Education

oaug.org

TUNE INto the OAUG

Visit www.oaug.org/membership orcall +1 404.240.0897 to discoverthe benefits of tuning in to the

OAUG for you and your organization.

The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) broadcasts time-saving and e�ciency-building knowledge to individuals at thousands of member organizations worldwide.

Tune in for Education: get instantaccess to solutions to real problems through conferences, webinars, and an extensive conference paper database.

Tune in for Networking: connectwith other people who are using thesame applications and share ideas andbest practices.

Tune in for Influence: share your thoughtsand suggestions with Oracle through the OAUG. Oracle listens to the collective voice of OAUG members.

of OAUG memberswould recommendOAUG membership

92%

OAUG

Visit the OAUG membership booth atCOLLABORATE 14 to learn more and win prizes!

global users

O A U G M e M B e r s h i p 52

T The Oracle Applications Users

Group (OAUG) Board of Directors

provides leadership, influence and

guidance to drive and enhance the

focus of the OAUG. In following the

mission of the OAUG, the board works

with the OAUG Executive Director to

create a strategic plan for the year that

supports the views of the members

and works to enhance the capabilities

of the organization.

Joining the OAUG Board in

2014 are:

Karen Brownfield, Oracle Practice Director, Infosemantics, Associate Member Organization:

Brownfield

has more

than 35

years of

experience

program-

ming,

installing

and

managing

applications

used in various industries, and during

the past 22 years she has focused

on Oracle Applications, specializing

in project management, financials,

workflow and system administration.

Oracle awarded her ACE certification in

2009, and she is also a certified Oracle

E-Business Suite GL/AP and Oracle

Fusion GL implementer. Brownfield

has made extensive contributions to

the OAUG, serving various leadership

roles in OAUG committees and special

interest groups (SIGs) since 1994.

What’s an example of a cost- or time-saving payoff your organization has realized as the result of being an OAUG member?

Patch Wizard is part of the free tools

Oracle provides to its customers.

I learned about this tool at one of

the OAUG conferences. During an

implementation, UAT had started when it

was learned that patches were missing.

I was able not only to identify which

patches were missing, but what tests

had to be redone. Had it not been for

this knowledge obtained at an OAUG

conference, UAT would have been

rescheduled, the go-live would have been

missed and thousands of extra dollars

spent.

Oracle values interaction with its users groups as well as the feedback it receives from user group members. How does the OAUG facilitate that?

The OAUG was founded to provide

feedback from the customer base to

Oracle. Over the years the relationship

has developed to where Oracle sees

the OAUG as a valuable resource for

input into improvements for using and

maintaining the various products. The

methods vary from customer councils,

interaction with the SIGS, enhancements

and interaction and collaboration at

conferences. The OAUG comprises

Oracle customers and partners and,

thus, provides a collective voice that is

beneficial to all parties.

Daniel McGarry, Vice President of Application Services, Parsons Brinckerhoff, User Member Organization:

Daniel

McGarry has

extensive

knowledge

of Oracle

E-Business

Suite

financial,

human

resources

and project

accounting modules and, more recently,

managing implementations of Oracle

CRM On-Demand, User Productivity Kit

and an upgrade to R12. He is a 12-year

employee of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a

global organization that assists public

and private clients to plan, develop,

design, construct, operate and maintain

hundreds of critical infrastructure

projects around the world. Daniel’s

oversight areas include managing the

ERP landscape, corporate applications

OAUG Member Snapshot:The OAUG Board of Directors Welcomes Three New Members in 2014.

oaug.org 53

strategy, identifying key technology

and operational drivers, recommending

software solutions and working with

internal customers to envision future

technology needs.

Do you have a favorite OAUG program or activity?

You can’t beat COllABORATE for

value. I get great value from the OAUG

Conference Paper Database, but it’s not

the same as hearing from the presenter

and being able to ask questions.

COLLABORATE 14 is coming up. What’s your strategy for getting the most from the OAUG conference experience?

Plan your sessions well in advance and

try and get to sessions early as the most

popular sessions fill up quickly. I always

leave one or two sessions open to walk

the vendor booths and baseline my

understanding of the Oracle ‘ecosystem’

provided by third parties. It’s amazing

the number of times I have said “I know

how I can solve that problem” based

on earlier discussions with vendors at a

conference.

Ketan Thanki, Director of Enterprise Applications, Geokinetics, User Member Organization:

An OAUG

member

since 2000,

Ketan

Thanki has

been a

coordinator

of the

Procurement

Special

Interest

Group (SIG) from August 2009 till

November 2013, a past member of

the Oracle Usability Advisory Board

for two years and a staunch advocate

of the OAUG. At Geokinetics, he has

been instrumental in stabilizing the

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

environment by upgrading it to version

12.1.3. Thanki has also deployed an

ad-hoc reporting solution to enable the

business to analyze data directly from

Oracle E-Business Suite.

What advice do you have for leaders in OAUG member organizations to help them get the most from their membership?

I recommend making full use of the

OAUG Conference Paper Database,

the knowledgebase that OAUG has

built over a period of time. Since the

knowledgebase is now searchable

through Google, too, it should be a lot

easier to query them.

What keeps our members up at night? How can the OAUG help?

The pace at which technology progresses

and the improvements that software

vendors make are much faster than

customers can consume, especially in

an ERP environment. Therefore, it is

a constant challenge for IT leaders to

convince their user base to keep up

with technology. The OAUG can assist by

providing appropriate upgrade practices

and knowledge sharing among its many

members.

Serving on the 2014 OAUG Board of

Directors are:

“ You can’t beat COLLABORATE for

value . . . Plan your sessions well

in advance and try and get to

sessions early as the most popular

sessions fill up quickly.

”

“ The OAUG was founded to provide feedback from the customer

base to Oracle. Over the years the relationship has developed to

where Oracle sees the OAUG as a valuable resource for input into

improvements for using and maintaining the various products.

”

•Dana Bartolf, CH2M Hill Corporation

•Karen Brownfield, Infosemantics, Inc.

•John Bushell, JT&M Bushell

•Mark Clark, O2Works

•Dr. Patricia Dues, City of Las Vegas

•Melissa English, Alticor

•Peter Gee, Ryerson University

•Joseph Imbimbo, PPG Industries, Inc.

•Daniel McGarry, Parsons Brinckerhoff

•Alyssa Johnson, ROLTA

•Tammy Norton, Alvarez & Marsal

Business Consulting LLC

•Donna Rosentrater, Cobham plc

•Ketan Thanki, Geokinetics, Inc.

•Rob Tudor, Individual Associate

•Margaret Wright, Southern Company.

O A U G g e o s & s i g s 54

global users

O A U G M e M B e r s h i p

Returning Associate Members:AvataBIAS CorporationBlue Dot SolutionsCerebra Consulting Inc.CompuwareConfig ConsultantsCreative Consulting

Solutions, Inc.DelphixDiCentral, CorpEnterprise Solutions GroupGrant Thornton LLPIBM CorporationImpac ServicesInfosemantics, Inc.IngenuitE, Inc.Innovus PartnersIntelligo, Inc.KofaxLoftware, Inc.MOD43Neocortex, IncPerformance Architects, Inc.Primus Delphi Group GmbHResources Global

Professionals (RGP)SafeNet, Inc.Signum GroupSmartDog ServicesSTR SoftwareSynaptisThe Goal Getters

Returning Individual Associate Members:Catapult Consulting, Inc.JRB Engineering Pty. Ltd.JT&M BushellNiveus Consulting LLCVLAD Group, Inc.

Returning User Members:Avio ConsultingCSCData Communication

Solutions (DCS)Hitachi Consulting - USRevitasSecure-24SkyBridge Global

New Associate Members:24 Hour Fitness, Inc.ABS Global, Inc.ACCO BrandsAcushnet Rubber Co.

Inc., DBA PrecixADT Security Services, LLCAg Processing Inc.Albany Molecular

Research, Inc.Almac GroupAmalgamated Life

Insurance CompanyAmerican Commercial LinesAmerican Tire DistributorsAmeriPride Services Inc.Ames True TemperAnalytic Services Inc.Anchor PackagingArizona Public Service (APS)ATI AllvacAzzBAE Systems - Land

& ArmamentsBAE Systems Australia LTDBarrick Gold Corp.Bechtel Marine Propulsion

CorporationBioMarinBlood Systems Inc.BlueStarBoston Consulting GroupBrasfield and GorrieBritish Defence Staff - USCalifornia Institute of

Technology (Caltech)Callista Software Services

Camping World, Inc.Canadian Forest Products

Ltd. (Canfor)Capital BlueCrossCapital OneCato CorporationCB Consulting WA Pty. Ltd.CBS CorporationCelgene CorpCenters for Medicare and

Medicaid ServicesCentral Arizona ProjectCharles Darwin

University (CDU)City of AtlantaCity of BurbankCity of MonctonCNO Financial GroupComverseCox CommunicationsDallas Market CenterDarden Restaurants (GMRI)Datacard GroupDEMDACODept. of Treasury &

Finance – ICT Services Dialog Pty. Ltd.DOI, Interior Business

CenterDreamWorks

Animation SKGDresser-Rand CompanyDuke EnergyDunkin’ Brands, Inc. Elliott CompanyEmerson Electric Co.Enabil Solutions, CanadaESCO CorporationExactTargetExcel4apps AustraliaExperianFarwest Steel Corp.FermilabFerrotec (USA) CorporationFidelity InvestmentsFiteni International, LLCForemost Farms USAGarmin InternationalGaylord EntertainmentGear For SportsGentex Corporation

Georgia Tech Research Corp.

Gopher SportGovernment of

Newfoundland and Labrador

Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority

Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA)

Hartz Mountain CorporationHarvard Business

PublishingHelena Chemical CompanyHelix ESGHitachi Data SystemsHomeAway, Inc.Hormel Foods CorporationHP Australia Pty. Ltd.Hyatt CorporationIMS HealthINC Research Inc.Indianapolis Power

and Light Co.Ingersoll Rand CompanyIntelligrated Inc.Interval Holdings, Inc.Ithaca CollegeJ.G. Boswell CompanyJacksonville Aviation

Authority (JAA)JT3Key Energy ServicesKirby CorporationKnouse Foods

Cooperative, Inc.Knowles ElectronicsL.S. Starrett CompanyLandor AssociatesLaw School Admission

CouncilLee County Clerk of CourtsLee County Electric

Cooperative, Inc. (LCEC)Leupold and StevensLiquor Control Board

of Ontario (LCBO)LKQ CorporationMacy’s Department StoresMaricopa Community

Colleges

Mars Chocolate North America

Masco CabinetryMasters AustraliaMcGraw Hill FinancialMcGraw-Hill EducationMcKee Foods CorporationM-D Building ProductsMerrill CorporationMetropolitan Water

District Of S. CAMFA Oil CompanyMidAmerican Energy

CompanyMinnesota Power (Allete)Minnkota Power

Cooperative, Inc.MITRE CorporationMountaire FarmsNational Retail

Properties, Inc.National Rural Electric

Cooperative Association (NRECA)

NCH CorporationNEC IT Solutions

Australia Pty. Ltd.Nifco America CorpNIH Business SystemsNoble EnergyNorth Atlantic Refining Ltd.NucorOcean Optics, Inc.Oncall DBAOregon Health & Science

University (OHSU)OXY, Inc.PAREXEL International

CorporationPaychexPEMCO Mutual

Insurance CompanyPhoenix Park Gas

Processors LimitedPOWER Engineers, Inc.Progressive CorporationQLogic CorporationR. Torre and CompanyRacing & Wagering WARafaelRailinc

New and Returning Members

oaug.org

The OAUG welcomes the following new and

returning members who joined October 1, 2013

through January 31, 2014.

oaug.org

ResCareResearch Foundation of SUNYRicoh US Office SolutionsRitchie Bros AuctioneersRobert Wood Johnson FoundationRochester Institute of TechnologyRochester Midland Corp.Rockwell CollinsRosendin Electric, Inc.Sandia National LaboratoriesSargent & LundySaskatoon Health RegionSaskTelSchnitzer Steel Industries, Inc.School SpecialtySDS Group Pty. Ltd.Seacor Holdings, Inc.Silgan Plastics CorpSimplexGrinnellSleepy’s LLCSonoco Products Co.South African Reserve BankSouth Mississippi Electric

Power AssociationSouthwest Gas CorporationSouthwestern EnergySP PlusSpyglass Corporate

Services GroupState Trustees LimitedStowers InstituteSturm, Ruger & Co. Inc.Suncorp Group LimitedSybron Dental SpecialtiesT. Rowe Price AssociatesThe Talbots, Inc.The University of MelbourneTootsie RollTrimbleTRI-METTri-State Generation &

TransmissionUnited States Enrichment

CorporationUniversity of Alabama at

Birmingham (UAB)University of Chicago HospitalsUniversity of Virginia - ISDSUniversity of WaterlooValueOptions, Inc.VeriSign Inc.

ViaSatVisa Inc.WabtecWashington CountyWells Gardner Electronics

CorporationWilsonart, LLCXilinx, Inc.Yokohama Tire CorporationZebra Technologies Corporation

New Associate Members:AvoutInfosenseglobal Inc.Jibe Consulting, Inc.Mastech CorporationPanayaSeagull ScientificThe Pythian Group (Canada)Thridware Solution

New Individual Associate Members:Abhay AgarwalNeopoint Consulting, Inc.S2L, LLCSuraj KumarTechno Professionals Inc.ZabbTech LLC

New User Members:Advanced Technology

Materials, Inc. (ATMI)Evraz NALifeCellPepsi Beverages CompanyRepublic National

Distributing CompanyRubiconSonic CorporationStewart & Stevenson LLCSTP Nuclear Operating Company Terex Corporation

oaug strategies

56 V e N D O R c o r n e r

vendor corner

56

Editor’s NotE: the Vendor Corner section of OAUG Insight provides information on products from oAUG vendor members. the oAUG does not specifically endorse any product or service from any of our vendor members. vendor corner

hat does an electronic components leader and a global

500 telecommunications, cable and broadband services provider have in common? They leveraged a new approach for managing their Oracle E-Business Suite data based on Oracle database partitioning with Informatica to improve performance while lowering infrastructure costs and simplifying DBA operations.

LEVEL thrEE

informatica is a 2014 oAUG star Partner

special Advertising section

W

Smarter Database Partitioning Gives Leading Enterprises an Edge


57 oaug.org

Taking Control of Growing Oracle E-Business Suite Data Sets An electronic components leader took control of data growth in an Oracle E-Business Suite 12 environment as they fought to efficiently manage growing ERP data volumes. The data footprint caused degradation in performance, impacting end users and financial analysts. Performance needed to be fixed and a hardware upgrade was not an option. “We had some quite serious performance problems owing to large transaction data volumes in our Oracle E-Business Suite environment, and most attempts to curb the growth and tune the performance met with limited success,” explains the director of IT infrastructure. “We tried tuning the SQL, for example, but six months later we were back where we started, with reduced performance.”

Smarter Partitioning Improves Oracle E-Business Suite Performance By deploying a solution that automatically segments the Oracle data against specific Oracle E-Business Suite criteria, each segment can be accessed and managed as an individual unit while maintaining referential integrity. This ensures end users benefit from improved performance without changing how they leverage the data because each segment can be accessed and managed individually. For this enterprise, reports that took two hours now complete in 20 minutes. “The Smart Partitioning solution from Informatica makes sense on

so many levels. You get all of the benefits of deleting the data, without deleting it using a non-intrusive platform. The technology has not only transformed our application performance and reduced complexity, it has also significantly lowered the cost of data and streamlined the way we manage this critical environment.” “We have seen a gain in performance. We are looking to implement more modules in full scale and explore the option of multi-tier storage and restricting the data while refreshing the Test and Development, etc.”

http://www.techvalidate.com/product-research/informatica-application-ilm/case-studies/ 421-719-E2F

Smart Partitioning Increased Application User Adoption and Streamlined DBA Operations Large data volumes impacted a global telecommunications enterprise’s ability to gain acceptance by its sales team due to unacceptable performance of its Oracle E-Business Suite incentive compensation implementation. “We had reached a point where the business users were not able to use the application efficiently,” said the global

telecommunications IT Architect. Archiving was not an option, nor was upgrading the hardware platform. Using the Informatica Smart Partitioning solution, they have increased sales growth by improving the performance of the sales commission system, lowered the time needed to process data by one fourth and reduced the demand for storage by 200 GB per quarter. This was accomplished with the existing hardware without the need to archive or purge production data. “Backups, clones and maintenance were taking multiple day outages to accomplish. We had three full-time DBAs working on maintenance and performance. We now have one full-time and one part-time DBA to accomplish the same tasks.”

http://www.techvalidate.com/product-research/informatica-application-ilm/case-studies/ 3A9-97F-577 To learn more about a joint solution between Oracle and Informatica Smart Partitioning:

http://www.informatica.com/us/solutions/solutions-for-applications/Oracle/

57

special Advertising section

“ Informatica Data Archive Smart Partitioning fixed degrading performance of the sales commission system at a fraction of the cost of using a new purpose built storage server.”

Senior Applications Database Administrator, cable entertainment and broadband services provider

58

TOPICS WILL INCLUDE: • Applications Strategy and Service• Applications Development• Business Intelligence/ BI Analytics• Database• Middleware• Upgrading

KEY DATES: • April 1, 2014: Registration opens • April 20, 2014: Deadline to submit presentation proposals

Presented by the OAUG, Pittsburgh OAUG, DC-OAUG,NorCal OAUG and the OAUG Database, Workflow,

EBS Apps Tech, and Upgrade SIGs

OAUG Connection Point® – AppsTech is for technologists that support Oracle’s E-Business Suite of Applications. Experts from Oracle will share details about Release 12.2, Oracle Enterprise Database 12C and product direction for the entire Oracle E-Business Suite technology stack, while industry experts and Oracle E-Business Suite customers will sharekey insights into how the technology works and how to resolve common problems relatedto application upgrades and lifecycle management.

This event is for YOU if you are a:• Oracle Applications Database Administrator• Oracle Applications Developer• Systems Administrator, Middleware Technologist or Security Officer supporting Oracle E-Business Suite

OAUG Connection Point® — AppsTechJuly 22-23, 2014

Pre-conference Training:July 21, 2014

Pittsburgh Marriott City CenterPittsburgh, PA, USA

Register, submit a presentation proposal or get more information at cp.oaug.org today!

Closer to Home Should human capital management activity move away from shared service centers?

oracle directions

By laura Schaulat

O A U G c o n n e c t i V i t y

Over the last 15 years, many organizations have standardized

processes and consolidated costs through the shared service model. This transition was enabled in part by a common global technology platform, surfaced in local languages. That platform also laid the foundation for the next development cycle of human resources (HR) process maturity: a slight swing of the pendulum back toward localization, as HR leaders realize that one size does not fit all for HR shared services. There are several situations in which some

relocalization of specific human capital management

(HCM) activities makes sense and adds value. In the

hybrid model of combining shared service centers

with select local support, as described by global

consulting firm Mercer, “local HR managers provide

employee support for complex, sensitive issues best

handled in person” – for example, union relations.

A Focus on Talent Management Taking a closer look at Mercer’s top activities

for local HR managers, many are focused on talent

management, including “onsite talent acquisition

activities, onboarding and ongoing training delivery.”

It is no surprise to see talent at the top of the action

items. Moving to shared services and cleaning up the

transactional side of HCM has enabled the heads of HR

organizations to focus on strategic business priorities.

One top priority and concern is talent – in particular,

younger talent in emerging markets. CEOs say

attracting and keeping younger workers is one of their

biggest talent challenges. At the same time, emerging

markets have left a talent war in their wake. To win that

talent war, fuel growth and increase retention, executives

need to relate to both new talent and existing employees.

CEOs say attracting and keeping younger workers is one of their biggest talent challenges. At the same time, emerging markets have left a talent war in their wake.

oaug.org 59

oaug.org 60 O A U G c o n n e c t i V i t y

The next generation of talent is increasingly

based in emerging markets. As reported by PwC,

workers in these markets want continuous learning

and development, and they expect to have many

careers during their working lives. Thanks to the

global economic recession, baby boomers are forced to

maintain employment longer than expected, and global

corporations prefer to ride out these troubled times

with seasoned personnel rather than taking a chance

on the younger generation. So our budding talent has

been forced to take a back seat in recent years. It’s no

wonder they are described as “loyalty lite” and express

decreasing employer loyalty every year. They haven’t

had the best start to their careers, and they are primed

to vote with their feet. Organizations will have to

work harder on a local level to keep them interested.

Be sure to ask your software vendors with integration to Oracle

Applications if they have Oracle Validated Integration.

With Oracle Validated Integration, Oracle Applications

customers can be confident that a partner’s integration has

been tested and validated by Oracle as functionally and

technically sound, that the partner solution is integrated with

Oracle Applications in a reliable, standards-based way, and

that the integration operates and performs as documented.

For the most current list of Oracle Validated Integrations,

please visit http://www.oracle.com/us/partnerships/

solutions/index.html.

Key Considerations No matter what the driver for making select HCM

relocalizations, there are some key considerations and

principles that HR leaders should think through and

follow. First of all, ensure that shared service centers

continue to provide transactional support, or risk a

pendulum swing all the way back to the suboptimal

local HR model. Second, utilize data to understand

which geographies to target for relocalization by

leveraging talent management systems and business

intelligence. For example, companies can analyze

their global talent footprint, focusing on key roles

affecting the business. Where is that footprint

today, and where will they be in three years? Finally,

review the relocalization strategy on an annual basis

to ensure that it evolves along with the business.

Understanding specific relocalization needs

and making strategic changes will ensure that the

pendulum swing toward relocalization adds value

in the right places and does not undermine all the

benefits achieved through shared service centers.

Laura Schaulat is a director in Oracle’s

Insight and Customer Strategy team based in

Singapore and serves as Insight’s human capital

management strategy lead in Asia Pacific.

From Oracle’s Profit magazine, reprinted with permission.

The next generation of

talent is increasingly based in

emerging markets . . . workers

in these markets want continuous

learning and development, and

they expect to have many careers

during their working lives.

O A U G c o n n e c t i V i t y

The all-newPaper DatabaseConference

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The OAUG Conference Paper Database includes thousandsof white papers and presentations from dozens of OAUG conferences over the pastseveral years. Everyone can search the OAUG

Conference Paper Database, but only employees of OAUG member companies can download the presentations. If your

organization is not a member yet, please join online or contact the membership staff at

+1.404.240.0897 or [email protected] to learn more about the many

benefits of OAUG membership.

View the re-designedand enhanced Conference Paper Database onoaug.org and see howeasy it is to find:

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