The Feature

Is Oracle an Innovative Company?

Business Week published an interesting special report on The World’s Most Innovative Companies. I was really disappointed not see Oracle on the Top 100 list. That begs a question: is Oracle, especially its application business, an innovative company?

What I found really interesting in the article were some best practice ideas from the best innovators:

• Bring them together Face-to-face teams reduce late-stage conflicts and speed up development times.
• Think traits as well as numbers When evaluating managers, subjective metrics, such as risk tolerance or “imagination and courage” can be a better way.
• Make a seat at the table Pick non-traditional participants for your senior management sessions.
• Preserve oral traditions Hand down tales of company’s long innovation tradition.
• Get involved on the ground A culture of innovation starts from the top.

And even more fascinating was a poll among the respondents on the Enemies of Innovation. Do any of these apply to Oracle? You be the judge.

• Lengthy development times
• Lack of coordination
• Risk-averse culture
• Limited customer insight
• Poor idea selection
• Inadequate measurement tools
• Dearth of ideas
• Marketing or communication failures

How To Use Oracle Personalization Framework to Customize Fields and Messages

You can use Oracle Personalization Framework to customize standard fields and messages in web-based Oracle modules (iProcurement, iExpenses, iStore, etc.). Here is one example of personalizing expense report fields in iExpenses to make them more intuitive to the end users.

Move the Details Image - Update Expense Report: Cash and Other Expenses Page

1. As System Administrator: Set ‘Personalize Self-Service Defn’ to Yes.
2. Log out of the system.
3. Navigate to Expenses Home page using your iExpenses responsibility
4. Create and submit an expense report
5. In the Update Expense Report: Cash and Other Expenses page, click the ‘Personalize Business Expenses Table’.

6. In the Choose Personalization Context page, click Apply.
7. In the Personalization Structure page, click on Reorder next to the ‘Table: Use this table to’ item.

8. Click on Personalize under the Function section
9. Move Details item up right under Line item. Click Apply.

10. In the Personalize Region page, click Return to Application.

Hide the Itemize Image

11. …continued from Step 10 above.
12. In the Update Expense Report: Cash and Other Expenses page, click the ‘Personalize Business Expenses Table’.
13. In the Choose Personalization Context page, click Apply.
14. In the Personalization Structure page, click on Edit next to the Image: Itemize item.
15. In the Personalization Properties page, select False for the Rendered row at the Function: OIE Expenses Entry Flow level, then click Apply.
16. In the Personalize Region page, click Return to Application.

Hide the Line - Level Attachment Image

17. …continued from Step 16 above.
18. In the Update Expense Report: Review page, click the ‘Personalize Other Expenses Table’.
19. In the Choose Personalization Context page, click Apply.
20. In the Personalization Structure page, click on Edit next to the Column: (AttachmentsColumn) item.
21. In the Personalization Properties page, select False for the Rendered row at the Function: OIE Expenses Entry Flow level, then click Apply.
22. In the Personalize Region page, click Return to Application.

Move the Details Image - Create Expense Report: Cash and Other Expenses Page, Mileage Tab

23. …continued from Step 22 above, the personalization framework is still enabled.
24. Click on Mileage Expenses tab.
25. In the Mileage Expenses window, click the ‘Mileage Table’ link.
26. In the Choose Personalization Context page, click Apply.
27. In the Personalization Structure page, click on Reorder next to the ‘Table: Use this table to’ item.
28. Click on Personalize under the Function section
29. Move Details item up right under Line item. Click Apply.
30. In the Personalize Region page, click Return to Application.
31. Continue creating the expense report.

Move the Details Image - Create Expense Report: Review Page, Business Expenses Table

32. …continued from Step 31 above, the personalization framework is still enabled.
33. In the Business Expenses table, click the ‘Personalize Other Expenses Table’ link.
34. In the Choose Personalization Context page, click Apply.
35. In the Personalization Structure page, click on Reorder next to the ‘Table: Use this table to’ item.
36. Click on Personalize under the Function section
37. Move Details item up right under (DateColumn) item. Click Apply.
38. In the Personalize Region page, click Return to Application.
39. Continue creating the expense report.

Personalize Submission Instructions

40. …continued from Step 39 above, the personalization framework is still enabled.
41. In the Confirmation page, click the Personalize Submission Instructions Header link in the Submission Instructions region.
42. In the Choose Personalization Context page, enter Your Business Group name in the Organization field and click Apply.
43. In the Personalize Region page, click Personalize for the Raw Text item.
44. In the Personalize Raw Text page, select False for the Rendered row at the Site level, then click Apply.
45. In the Personalize Region page, click Create Item for the Header: Submission Instructions item.
46. In the Create Item page, select the ‘Raw Text ‘ value from the Item Style list.
47. Complete the page according to your business requirements:
a. ID = YOUR_COMPANY_SUBMISSION_INSTRUCTIONS
b. Text: Include your customized message here.
c. Click Apply
48. In the Personalize Region page, click Personalize for the message you created.
49. In the Personalize Raw Text page, enter a message in the Text field for the appropriate level, then click Apply.
50. In the Personalize Region page, click Return to Application.

What Do You Want in Oracle Fusion?

I enjoyed every Oracle Fusion media story, blog blarticle, or conspiration theory out there. What’s not to like? The Fusion has all aspects of a real-life drama with big money, celebrities, layoffs, and destroyed competitors. But when the dust settles, it will come down to a simple question: What’s in Fusion for me and my company?

It seems that Oracle is figuring out what Fusion means to them and is better articulating their plans to the public. As of today, you could summarize Oracle Fusion as follows:

• Existing Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel applications will be supported until 2013.
• Oracle EBS 12 and PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 will be the last pre-Fusion applications released in late 2006.
• First Fusion Applications will be delivered in 2008.

I am not worried about what Oracle will do. They are a smart bunch with all the resources in the world. They will keep doing what made them successful over the years. If you follow the Fusion developments, you already know that Oracle “will not be merging the existing Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, or Siebel code”, but instead, they will “take the best features from all acquired solutions and start developing brand new Fusion Applications”. John Wookey and other Fusion architects have stated several times that “Fusion will be an upgrade, not re-implementation”, and “the customers should standardize their processes and retire their customizations to most benefit from Fusion”. I am more concerned about what the rest of us will, or will not do.

I fully support the idea of standardization and no customizations. However, you can only avoid customizations if the functionality you need is provided with the standard application features. Oracle, like any other vendor, can only deliver so much in every release, and only “the best features” that you asked for the most (or sell the best) get the nod. And this is where it gets interesting. What does “best” mean? And is “best” good enough? What will get eliminated?

We All Get the Applications We Deserve

We get what we ask for. In case of Oracle Applications, we may get what we asked for with a multi-year delay. The feature scopes for both Oracle EBS 12 and PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 have already been finalized. If you want to impact the scope and direction of Fusion Applications, the time to act is now! Smart Oracle customers have been doing it for years. Have you asked yourself what you need for your next Oracle implementation? Did you get together with your teams to review your business requirements and needs? Do you want your existing customizations be replaced by standard Fusion functionality? Here is what you can do to get involved:

• Get your company on Oracle customer advisory boards
• Be an active OAUG or OIUG member
• Attend user conferences, application days and workshops (like an upcoming COLLABORATE 06)
• Join the Oracle Special Interest Groups (SIGs) or Geographic Interest Groups (GEOs)
• Submit Oracle Enhancement and Fusion Feature Requests
• Stay informed. Check the Fusion website, read Oracle Magazine and Profit Magazine, follow the Oracle Executive Blogs and Application Product Managers Blogs (no link, they do not exist yet)

Now, out of curiosity, I looked at the OAUG Enhancement Request System to get a sense for a number of the submitted enhancement and Fusion requests. Below are the totals for some selected applications:

I don’t know about you, but that does not seem like a lot to me. What is happening? Are people not informed, or are they skeptical about the process? Personally, one of the most frustrating parts of being a consultant is not being able to get directly involved in improving the applications. I don’t work for a preferred Oracle client, I don’t want to pay thousands of dollars to attend user conferences, and I don’t want to submit enhancement requests if I don’t know whether they get proper attention and be accepted in the next release. I suspect I am not alone.

Calling All Passionate Users!

If you are an expert user with real-life, hands-on experiences and ideas on how to improve the applications; if you want to get involved, but don’t know how or none of the available options works for you, then let’s try something different!

Let’s use blogs productively and keep a weblog of our Favorite Fusion Features. Let’s compile a list of improvement tips, enhancement requests and your best features in Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel applications. You can be as specific as you want. Let’s have discussions about what enhancements and features make most sense, and then log Fusion Requests before the Oracle’s June deadline. There won’t be any wrong questions or bad ideas (or at least, we’ll let the “group intelligence” decide).

Your involvement can be as easy as providing comments on a blog post, or creating a list of your application best features and enhancement requests and posting them on the weblog. It will up to you to decide. Send a link to this post to your colleagues and friends. Subscribe to the Favorite Fusion Features posts and comments!

Devil Is In Details

So in order to put my time where my mouth is, I have launched the Favorite Fusion Features series and started putting together enhancement ideas for Oracle Applications. Feel free to review, comment, and provide your own tips and ideas. My hope is to find more passionate users and consultants who will do the same either on their own blogs, or here at the Feature.

Go-Live Checklist for Oracle Financials

Following is a sample Oracle Financials Go-Live Checklist. It should give you an idea for a sequence of events that occur during the migration to Oracle Applications. The list does not include all application configuration steps, only the “eleventh hour” steps to take the system live. The example covers the applications we needed to set up, including Oracle General Ledger, Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables, Oracle Projects, Oracle Assets, Oracle Time and Labor, Oracle Internet Expenses and Oracle System Administration. This list is by no means a “fit for all” solution. You can use it as reference to create your own checklist.

Complete HR configurations

1.1 HR Complete HR configuration setups

1.2 HR Complete HR configurations and conversions

• Define New Locations and Organizations
• Define the Organizational Hierarchy
• Define Job Titles and Positions
• Create Employees and Employee Assignments

1.3 AR: Get Customers extract from the Legacy System

1.4 AP: Get Suppliers from the Legacy System

Complete Configuration Changes for all Financial Modules: GL, AP, AR, PA, FA, OTL, IE, SA)

2.1 GL: Define Oracle Chart of Accounts with new values

2.2 GL: Define GL cross-validation rules to allow new values

2.3 AR: Define conversion Transaction Types

2.4 AR: Define AR Receipt Source

2.5 AR: Define lockbox

2.6 AP: Add new Supplier Types

2.7 AP: Add new Pay Groups

2.8 AP: Add a Employee Reimbursement Bank Account

2.9 IE: Enable Expenditure Types in Projects for Expense Report entry.

2.10 IE: Create Expense Report Template

2.11 IE: Define Financial Options (in Payables)

2.12 IE: Define Payables Options

2.13 IE: Assign Manager Signing Limits

2.14 IE: Set OIE Profile Options

2.15 IE: Enable the display of projects and task using AK Developer responsibility

2.16 IE: Set up an Offline Expense Spreadsheet

2.17 IE: Save an offline spreadsheet to the Production database

2.18 IE: Build the Project Expense Report Account Generator.

2.19 IE: Save the Project Expense Report Account Generator to Production database.

2.20 GL: Assign a custom workflow to the Project Expense Report Account Generator process

2.21 FA: Define new Asset Categories

2.22 FA : Define new Asset Locations

2.23 PA: Define Projects Implementation Options

2.24 PA: Add new Expenditure Categories

2.25 PA: Add new Revenue Categories

2.26 PA: Add new Expenditure Types

2.27 PA: Define Transaction Source

2.28 PA: Define Project Bill Rate Schedules

2.29 PA: Define Product Code

2.30 PA: Define Labor Costing Rules

2.31 PA: Define Burden Costing Rules

2.32 PA: Define Cross-Charge Rules

2.33 PA: Define new Event Types

2.34 PA: Enable Percent Complete Billing Extensions

2.35 PA: Define Invoice Formats

2.36 PA: Define Resource Lists with new values

2.37 PA: Define Project Classifications

2.38 PA: Define Project Types

2.39 PA: Define Project Templates

2.40 PA: Define Auto Accounting Lookup Sets

2.41 PA: Define Auto Accounting Rules for new transactions

2.42 PA: Define Auto Accounting Assignments

2.43 PA: Create Admin Projects

Perform Data Conversions of Master Data

3.1 AR: Review and clean up customers

3.2 AP: Review and clean up suppliers and contractors

3.3 AR: Upload customers to Oracle Receivables

3.4 AP: Upload suppliers to Oracle Payables

3.5 AR: Review and validate customers and contacts in Oracle Receivables

3.6 AP: Review and validate suppliers in Oracle Payables

3.7 HR: Upload contingent workers to Oracle HR. Associate contingent workers with AP suppliers

3.8 SA: Create users and assign to responsibilities

3.9 AR: Create customer billing contacts

3.10 FA : Run depreciation for Last Period in the Legacy System

3.11 FA : Get Assets file from the Legacy System

3.12 PA: Extract projects from the Legacy System

3.13 PA: Get project funding amounts

3.14 PA: Ger billing rates for T&M projects

3.15 PA: Upload projects to Oracle Projects

3.16 OTL and iExpenses Go-Live

Execute Conversion of Opening Balances

4.1 AR: Get unapplied AR receipts from the Legacy System

4.2 AR: Get pending AP invoices from the Legacy System

4.3 FA: Close Last Period in Oracle Assets

4.4 FA: Upload legacy assets to Oracle Assets

4.5 PA: Complete Last Period Billing in the Legacy System

4.6 PA: Complete Last Period Billing in Oracle

4.7 GL: Close Last Period in the Legacy System GL

4.8 GL: Close Last Period in Oracle General Ledger

4.9 AR: Get open AR transactions from the Legacy System

4.10 AR: Upload open AR transactions to Oracle Receivables. (Make sure you use Transaction Type with ‘Post to GL’ flag set to ‘No’)

4.11 AR: Upload unapplied AR receipts to Oracle Receivables

4.12 AR: Interface open AR cash balances in GL

4.13 AR: Reverse opening AR cash balances in GL

4.14 PA: Get “Billed” project balances from the Legacy System

4.15 PA: Upload project funding amounts to Oracle Projects. Baseline funding and create revenue budgets.

4.16 PA: Upload bill rate schedules to Oracle Projects

4.17 PA: Get “Unbilled” project items from the Legacy System

4.18 PA: Get opening project expenditure balances from the Legacy System

4.19 PA: Get opening project revenue balances from the Legacy System

4.20 PA: Disable the Interface Usage Costs to GL flag in Projects Implementation Options

4.21 PA: Upload opening project expenditure balances as Miscellaneous Expenditures to Oracle Projects

4.22 PA: Distribute Miscellaneous Costs in Oracle Projects. Run the interface usage and miscellaneous costs to GL process. No JE should be created.

4.23 PA: Disable the Interface Revenue to GL flag in Projects Implementation Options

4.24 PA: Disable the ‘Open Receivable’ and ‘Post to GL’ flags for ‘Projects Invoice’ transaction type in Oracle Receivables

4.25 PA: Upload opening project revenue balances as Revenue Events to Oracle Projects (Revenue Amount is populated)

4.26 PA: Generate project revenue in Oracle Projects. Run the GL interface processes. No JE should be created.

4.27 PA: Upload Billed Project Balances as Billing Events to Oracle Projects (Bill Amount is populated)

4.28 PA: Generate draft project invoices. Interface draft invoices to receivables them to Oracle Receivables. No AR transactions should be generated.

4.29 FA Upload assets to Oracle Assets

4.30 AP: Upload pending AP invoices to Oracle Payables

4.31 AP: Interface AP invoices to General Ledger, reverse the JE.

4.32 OA Set the Revenue to General Ledger flag in Projects Implementation Options back to ‘Yes’

4.33 AR: Set the ‘Open Receivable’ and ‘Post to GL’ flags for ‘Projects Invoice’ transaction type in Oracle Receivables to ‘Yes’.

4.34 PA: Upload legacy unbilled timecards as timecards to Oracle Projects

4.35 PA: Distribute legacy labor costs in Oracle Projects

4.36 PA: Upload unbilled expense reports and other costs as Miscellaneous Transactions to Oracle Projects

4.37 PA: Distribute legacy miscellaneous costs transactions in Oracle Projects

4.38 PA: Generate revenue for unbilled legacy transactions

Start Regular Processing in Oracle Production

5.1 PA: Import new timecards from OTL to Projects

5.2 AP: Validate and import from iExpenses to Payables

5.3 PA: Start running the project processes

5.4 AR: Star applying cash in Oracle Receivables

5.5 GL: After First Period is closed in Assets, create a reversing JE in Oracle GL to reverse asset cost and depreciation through Last Period

My 12,140 Reasons Why I Won’t COLLABORATE

I’ve always assumed that vendor events would be a great way to see what is going on in my industry, meet up with my clients and buddies, or simply get away from work. I would not know since, except for a couple of local events, I always seem to be in the middle of some client engagement and I can’t go away to hang out with a cool crowd. I will not be at the Oracle mega conference COLLABORATE 06 in Nashville either. Apart from the reason above, my decision making came down to simple dollars and sense. Taking cues from a famous commercial, you could summarize the five day event as follows:

When you consider similar costs for 5,000 expected conference attendees, plus time and expenses invested by vendors and conference coordinators, that’s a lot of money spent to look at … software. One of the most frequently spoken phrases at the conference will be the “Return on Investment” (ROI). Personally, that return would be very low for me. I feel like these events are designed for users who buy the applications, not necessarily those who use them.

How about you? Are you planning on being in Nashville? What is your experience with user conferences in general? Do they work? Do they meet your expectations and provide you with information you need? Do you have any suggestions to make them better?

Customer Billing Using Oracle Projects with Oracle Receivables White Paper

I have received the Project Accounting News Letter today with links to several Metalink Knowledge Browsers (Metalink user login required). The Projects Billing Knowldge Browser includes a link to an old, but still useful white paper by G. R. Kinra, C.P.A. called the Customer Billing using Oracle Projects with Oracle Receivables.

The paper addresses Customer Billing for “contract” projects, using Oracle Projects with Oracle Receivables. It includes a review of the interface between Oracle Projects and Oracle Receivables, a discussion of the accounting treatment for revenue and receivable accounts, and relevant Oracle Projects and Receivables setup options.

To receive the Project Accounting News Letter , send an email to panews_us@oracle.com.

10 Questions for Mark Rittman

I am very excited to publish an interview with an Oracle blogging pioneer and enthusiast Mark Rittman. Mark’s weblog has been around for a LONG time as he had seen the benefits of this media for professional purposes way before the rest of us did. To me, Mark’s blog is an ultimate bizlog. A very nice job, Mark! One can tell you do presentations for living.

How did come to learn Oracle?

I first came across the Oracle database when I worked in product marketing at the Woolwich Building Society, a mortgage lender in the UK. We used Oracle for our first “customer profitability” data warehouse and I joined the project as a business analyst, using Oracle Discoverer/2000 and Designer/2000. Over the years I moved more into data warehouse design and ran my first data warehousing project whilst working for Toyota in London. After working at Toyota, I moved into the world of consultancy, starting at SolStonePlus in Brighton where I headed up their new Oracle data warehousing practice. Over the following years, I’ve worked with tools such as Oracle Warehouse Builder, Oracle Express Server and Oracle OLAP, Oracle Discoverer, Reports and Portal as well as the various releases of the database and application server.

How are you involved currently?

I lead a team of consultants who work with the various Oracle BI and data warehousing tools. Generally I’d work out the architecture for a project, perhaps get involved in the presales effort, do various short engagements performing tuning around the tools, application server and database, as well as doing the odd two or three month engagement where I’d be either the lead developer or perhaps the development DBA.

What inspired you to start blogging?

Back in 2002 I used to read blogs by the likes of Raymond Chen, Robert Scoble, Joel Spolsky and Joshua Allen and whilst they were good, I thought it’d be interesting to read something about Oracle as opposed to Microsoft. I’d had a homepage for several years prior to this, where I’d posted presentations, articles I’d written and bits of code, but I started the blog proper back in June 2003 and I’ve kept it going since then. For the first 18 months or so I was pretty much the sole Oracle blogger, then people like Niall Litchfield, Tom Kyte, Howard Rogers and others came along, and now there must be 50 or so Oracle bloggers out there writing about their experiences.

Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?

When I first started out, I posted about everything and anything that came up in the Oracle world - the latest article by Jonathan Lewis, an interesting article on AskTom, bits of news about Oracle Corporation and any new products that came out. Over the years I’ve changed the focus somewhat as people like Tom and the various Oracle product managers all have their own blogs now, and I write more in-depth articles on new products I’ve worked with, projects I’ve been involved in and opinions I’ve got on the industry. I guess my postings are split 50/50 between what you’d call traditional server tech postings - which is what I get up to in my spare time - and ones about business intelligence, which reflects the work I do day to day with clients.

What have you done to personalize your blog?

Apart from when I first started with Radio Userland’s blogging software, I’ve always built my own template rather than use the default ones that come with the blogging software. I also host the software and site myself so I’ve got a bit more flexibility when it comes to upgrading, site layout and so on. The site has been through various redesigns over the years, and most recently I’ve expanded it to contain links to other articles that I’ve found useful, a forum for posing technical questions, and some commentary and write-up on the various Oracle business intelligence products.

Do you have any favorite posts?

Probably the ones that have generated the most comments and feedbacks, such as The Cost Of Database Independence where I talked about a project where the customer refused to implement any Oracle-specific functionality; Is Oracle A Legacy Technology? where I looked at a recent article in Oracle Scene by Mogens Norgaard, Tracing Parallel Execution which actually got cited by Doug Burns as good bit of work around Parallel Query, and Being Too Clever For Your Own Good where I owned up to perhaps over-complicating a bit of database tuning I was asked to do.

What are some of your favorite blogs (Oracle or otherwise)?

Well the Oracle ones that I generally check on a daily basis are those by Tom Kyte, Howard Rogers, Tim Hall, Peter Scott, Doug Burns, Andrew Clarke and Abhinav Agarwal. Outside of Oracle, I check out Eric Sink, Adam Barr, Paul Thurrott, Andy Hayler and Raymond Chen more or less every day,

What tools do you find most helpful in putting together your blog?

Just textpad, Paint Shop Pro and Frontpage. All the templating and so on is done by the Moveable Type blogging software.

How does blogging fit into your job or your business?

I’m pretty lucky actually in that my employers are pretty supportive of my blogging. They “sponsor” the site, in that they cover my hosting fees, but they don’t have any say in the content I post, it’s not edited by them or in any way approved. I can put a blog posting together in work if I get a spare moment, but the vast majority of the work I do on it is in the evenings or when I’m traveling somewhere.

What do you think business blogging will look like 3 years from now?

No idea. I suspect it won’t be around in exactly the same way, because nothing stays the same on the internet and interests and focuses change. I don’t even know if I’ll be blogging in three years time, it’s certainly quite demanding of my time and my family (my wife and two young children) obviously come first. I’m trying to encourage a few of my colleagues at work to start a blog (and of course Lisa Dobson’s joining us in a couple of weeks) so maybe I’ll be able to hand things over to someone else in time.

You can find this and similar articles in Conversations.