The Feature

Catching Up with an Aussie World Traveler

January 28, 2006 on 9:00 am | by Marian Crkon | In Conversations | Enter Comments |  Print |  Email

I caught up with my friend Greg Hare, an independent Oracle consultant with whom I worked over ten years ago on an Oracle Financials upgrade project in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Greg is an Australian who lives with his family in South Africa, and travels for Oracle implementation work all over Africa and Middle East. Here are few excerpts from our conversation.

I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since we’ve seen each other and worked together. Time sure flies…

Yes. I can’t believe I’m doing the same thing as I was 10 years ago. That is worse!

Have you ever thought about doing anything else? Like retire for instance?

I would, but I need more money to live comfortably. Maybe I should move to Slovakia. I did look at buying a business a few years ago.

Marian inserted his picture in the MSN Messenger.

Can you see my picture now?

Yes. You look exactly the same.

That’s not what my wife says… So what you’ve been up to since Pilsen? I remember you were in South Africa, India, where exactly are you now? Could you give me a little chronology of places and clients?

I am in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I am contracting to Intec who do Telco billing software. I have developed an interface product for their software to Oracle Financials (in India). I have just arrived here. I was at Oracle Czech in Prague until January 1998, then Sydney for a few months, and Cape Town since. Exceptions were Nigeria for a year in 2004, Kenya for 6 months 1999/2000, and the odd trip (like this) since.

That’s what I call a Globe Trotter!

Fortunately most of the places were good. Riyadh does not fall into that category.

Do you get mistaken for an American? (Not that there is anything wrong with that!)

Fortunately not. I guess I still exude Australian.

So what is your specialty now? Do you call yourself a developer, business analyst, system architect?

My title with Intec was Systems Architect. I specified the new software we developed, did some development, testing, etc. A jack of all trades, plus project management.

How can other clients benefit from the interface you did? Where can we find more information about it? I never heard of Intec.

It’s specific to the Intec software. It is based on their output file from their billing software. I am sure there is some information about it on the Intec website www.intec-telecom-systems.com. Otherwise you can ask them directly for more info.

Can you see what is happening? You are advertising other people! Do you have a website? How do clients find YOU?

I do not have a website. Clients usually find me through word of mouth. South Africa is not a big market.

Oh, come on! It’s 2006! You have to have a website! Would you be interested in writing about the work you’ve done at this blog? (Now we are getting somewhere!)

I could, I wouldn’t be overly keen on it, but I could. I did set up something the other day on myspace.com – but mainly was thinking of it for family photos, etc.

I would love to look at your family pictures sometimes. But I was talking about your business-related site. Soundslike you are mostly involved in custom work for clients. How much are you involved with implementing and using the standard Oracle Applications?

I do occasional custom work for other clients. I have only been doing this on and off for 9 months now. My main line of work is implementing and using standard Oracle Apps. That’s what I have done before this (Intec interface) project.

You have seen the applications mature from Release 9 to the current day. How would you summarize what Oracle did well, and what they could have done differently? In other words, what is your favorite feature?

My first version was MPL5! What they did well was the Key Flexfield design plus making the applications web-based. What they could have done differently was spending more time testing major new releases like GUI and 11i before they released them.

What do you mean? What we were all doing that testing! Yeah, Release 11i was a bloodshed. I am worried the same thing is going to happen with the Fusion project. Let’s switch gears. Speaking about working with Oracle. Are you, or have you ever been a member of the communist party, I mean OAUG?

No.

You mean the first, or the latter? Why not?

I couldn’t be bothered with OAUG. I see it as Oracle’s marketing tool. More likely to have been in the Communist Party.

No need to disclose your political preferences here. But I hear you. I also see OAUG as just another Oracle sales channel. I guess there are multiple definitions of Oracle users. Obviously, attending OAUG events would not be the best way to network for people who are paid by the hour. It’d cost you thousands of dollars (membership, entrance fee, lost revenue) to attend a conference. That’s a shame, because you have a lot to provide. Did you know that OAUG just started a new online pilot program for clients to submit their enhancement requests? It only took them 15 years!

I thought they had that before. Maybe it was another forum that had it.

Do not get me wrong. I think the OAUG is great, and Metalink is great. And they both got better over time. It’s just so hard to effectively provide feedback to what is being developed and sold. So how do you get help in the EMEA region? Is it still called that?

Mostly from Metalink. And contacting people I know.

How is that working for you?

Fine. The Metalink has always been helpful in the past. I think it is an OK system. Sometimes I feel the people on the other end are not brilliant (often due to language barrier and the fact they are first line people, but if you have a serious problem then you always find someone who knows how to solve the problem. A lot of the people that work there are very dedicated.

I agree. In general, I don’t think that Oracle has ever found a good way to utilize the knowledge of their user base. At least in the applications business. It maybe better on the database side (just look at a number of DBA blogs out there). But it is poor on the applications side. I feel like the applications have always been Oracle’s lesser-loved sibling…

I think for a long time Oracle (and Larry) had one foot in, one foot out on the Apps side. I remember there was talk many years ago of selling the Apps business completely.

What a turn-around, huh? How do you feel about the recent Oracle acquisitions? Is that a way to go with software? Are you excited, or worried? I guess it means more work for consultants like you and I!

I haven’t really thought of how it affects me too much. I think it’s a lot to take on. I think some of the acquisitions, like Retek for instance, made a lot of sense. I think companies are more comfortable purchasing software if there is a big name behind it. But I am not sure buying Peoplesoft made a lot of sense. Why buy something that gives you just a little more than you already have?

10,000 additional clients…

The integration is going to be a nightmare (Project Fusion). How do you choose how to mesh two software packages together? Why not just invest in that without buying Peoplesoft?

10,000 additional clients…

10,000 additional clients that you are spending a lot of money to get. Some of which will leave no doubt. The winner in this is SAP.

That’s what SAP wants us all to believe. I guess we do no understand these things. See, this is why we have to make our living as consultants, instead playing golf or sailing whole day… Are you going to watch the Super Bowl?

No, the NFL games were not on during the season so I can’t suddenly watch the final. I don’t even know who is playing. But I did follow the NFL when I was living in the US.

Seattle is in it for the first time in their franchise history! That’s the only reason why I know. And there is also some team called the Stealers from Pittsburg?

Are they still the Seahawks?

Marian: Yep. And they are still owned by Mr. Allen. I thought it was funny they called him that on TV. I guess you get a lot of respect when you own a football club. All right, I realize it is getting very late for you. Can I use your real name, or shall I use a pseudonym?

You can use my real name. That was pretty easy. I am not sure if anyone will be interested, but who cares.

We were interested, and that’s all that matters. All I wanted to do was pick your brain about what you do, and let you know about It’s a Feature!. It was fun to catch up and talk to you! Let’s do this again sometimes. And write a story or provide comments when you feel like it. I am always looking for contributors who have something interesting to say. That is what will make this site work. Thank you for your time. Good night and take care mate!

No worries. I wish you and the Seahawks good luck. I look forward to reading this.

See ya!