The Feature

Tips and Tricks For Oracle Key Flexfields

May 27, 2008 on 10:55 am | by Melanie Cameron | In How To Guides | Enter Comments |  Print |  Email

Key Flexfields are widely used in Oracle Applications. In general, they house the codes used by organizations to identify such things as part numbers and General Ledger accounts. Setting up these segments can improve the usability of Oracle, decrease the work load of the users, and increase data accuracy. The Oracle Key Flexfields Tips and Tricks paper will provide an overview of the options available and recommended best practices. When first setting up a Key Flexfield, there are some features that will greatly affect the usability and required maintenance. Read the white paper for more details…

E-Business Suite Financial Integration

May 12, 2008 on 9:50 am | by Melanie Cameron | In How To Guides | 1 Comment |  Print |  Email

Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) consists of tightly integrated modules that result in a company’s financial statements. Tracking transactions through the system back to the source, then to the setups that affected the way the source transactions behaved is difficult at best. The Oracle EBS Integration Overview white paper (based on R11.5.10) will help you understand where these transactions are coming from, back through the interfaces to the transactions, then even farther into the setups dictating their behavior.

Tips and Tricks for Oracle FSGs

April 29, 2008 on 2:17 pm | by Melanie Cameron | In Feature of the Week, How To Guides | 1 Comment |  Print |  Email

Financial Statement Generators (FSG’s) are a necessary evil at any company running Oracle’s E-Business Suite General Ledger. Row Sets, Column Sets, Content Sets, Parents accounts or Ranges, Publish with XML, ADI. . .the combinations and possibilities are endless. And the decisions you make when creating and maintaining your FSGs can affect their ease of use and maintainability in the future.

See my Tips and Tricks for Oracle FSGs white paper for Best Practices, Tips and Tricks to making this task a little more manageable and less time consuming. When working with FSGs, perhaps the most important thing to remember is the FSG functionality is old. I have been a heavy user of General Ledger for 13 years, and except for generating outputs, it is basically the same.

That means that the majority of older installs (implemented prior to 11i) had one-off patches that greatly affected the way FSGs behave. A report created three years ago that is copied or mimicked for a new report-well, they just give different results. Research shows the new report is behaving as Oracle documentation explains it should, but the old report is not.

So I leave you with my biggest tip of the paper: Tip: If it works, don’t change it! See the while paper for more details…

How To Triage Your Oracle Support Calls: Few Helpdesk Tips

February 5, 2008 on 6:07 pm | by Melanie Cameron | In How To Guides | 6 Comments |  Print |  Email

Here is a Part II to the How To Triage Your Support Calls article, with a few practical tips for resolving basic support issues.

Printing Issues:

Here are some basic steps to resolve a printing issue.

• Ensure the report had output to print.

• Ensure the report was set to print 1 copy and not 0.

• Confirm that the User sent the job to the right printer.

• Read the log file and confirm that printing was not disabled for this report.

• Print something from the User’s computer—not Oracle.

• Don’t forget the basics. Is the printer plugged in and on line?

What does Support need?

• Oracle access to view all concurrent requests, output, and Logs.
• A list of Oracle printer names, network printer names, the relationship if they are not the same, and their physical locations.
• Training on reading the Log Files in Oracle.

Access Issues: User Needs More Responsibilities

Support can be assigned this duty with the proper approvals or they can assist the User through it if they are familiar with the process.

What does Support need?

• Proper Oracle access to users.
• A list of valid responsibilities and when they should be assigned to whom.
• A list of Segregation of Duties violations for those responsibilities if you do not have software to do this automatically.

Access Issues: User Can Not Access Specific Responsibilities

If you are using Self Service applications (iExpense, iProcurement, etc) and a User can not access these specific responsibilities, the Securing Attributes were not assigned correctly for the responsibility by the system. Normally Oracle assigns these automatically, but if you set up a User, save the record and then assign them iExpenses, ICX_HR_PERSON_ID will not get assigned automatically and need to be manually assigned.

What does Support need?

• A list of the Securing Attributes used in the system and in which cases they are used.
• Access to Users in Oracle.

Access Issues: Sign-on Problems

A User can not sign-on on their PC, nor can anyone else. However they can sign on using their user name and password on another PC. This is a Cache issue.

What should Support do to correct this?

• Clear the Cache on Internet Explorer.
• Clear the jCache on the jInitiator.

Access Issues: Form-based Applications

User can sign into Oracle and get to the first page as well as Web-applications, but can not sign into form-based applications. The culprit is always one of two things:

• Popup blocker.

• First time using Oracle on this PC and the jInitiator can not be installed because of the Internet Security settings.

What should Support do to correct this?

• Turn off the Pop-up Blocker. It may either be IE’s standard pop-up blocker or a Toolbar > Popup Blocker downloaded automatically.
• Change the Internet Security Settings to allow ActiveX Downloads. These can be changedback once the jInitiator is installed. Reminder: This is a software installation so the person logged on will need admin rights to the PC in order for it to install.

• Train your Support Team to click on Grant Always for the Oracle Certificate so the Users do not have to click on it every time they sign in. If they see your Support Team “Grant This Session,” they will do the same!

Forgotten Passwords

Forgotten passwords are a problem for all companies. Support should be able to handle all password issues on the first call.

What should Support do to correct this?

• Make sure support knows what security you have set up for passwords in Oracle. They will need to educate Users from time to time.
• Users use all instances, not just production. Support should have access to all instances and be able to reset passwords in all instances.
• Turn on Oracle’s Forgotten Password functionality which allows Oracle to reset a User password and Email it to them (see Metalink Note 399766.1).
• If you have Oracle set to lockout Users after a certain number of attempts, be aware that in later versions of Oracle this invalidates the encryption of the password as opposed to disabling the User Account. This is not visible on the User Record so ensure your Support Team is given to tools to see this (SQL, Discoverer, an alert, or a modification to the form) and knows to try to reset the password first.

Cannot Export Data From Oracle

The user tries to export data and it gives the message “EXPORTING,” blips, and disappears every time. They call up frustrated asking where they can find their data.

What can Support do?

• Under Internet Options, change the Security Setting for File Download to “Enable”.
• The User will get prompted to save the file after the export is complete at which point they can select the name and path of the file.

ADI (Application Desktop Integrator) Sign-on Issues

There are three common issues here.

• The User needs to set up a Database or access something other than production.

• The User is unsure of what User Name and Password to enter.

• ADI/Oracle can not resolve TNS Names error message.

What does Support need to resolve this?

• Provide the Support Desk with a cheat sheet they can send to Users for setting up databases.
• Inform the Support Desk that ADI uses Oracle User Names and Passwords. This sounds simple enough but how else would they know?
• Ensure the Support Desk has a current copy of the TNSNames.ora and SQLnet.ora files and knows where they go on the PC. If your company has remote access setup, Support can quickly resolve the problem by places the files in the proper location. If not, provide dummy proof documentation they can forward to the Users.

Oracle is DOWN!

This is one of the biggest, most frustrating issues that Support must handle is one that they can not resolve. However, Support can keep the Users calm and informed.

How can Support help?

• Have a scheduled down-time? Let Support know ahead of time.
• Bringing the system down for an emergency? Provide Support with an anticipated up-time (if known) so they are prepared for the flood of calls and can answer them appropriately.
• Do you have alerts that inform your Database Analysts of system issues? Copy Support on them so they can truthfully say, “Yes we are aware of the problem and are working on it.” This will also allow key folks to start resolving the issue immediately without having to contact Support.
• Provide the Support Desk with access to Oracle so they can confirm if Oracle is down when a User calls. If you have multiple locations, this is especially important in identifying if it is an Oracle or network issue so they can route the call appropriately.

The front end always dies first so a User often discovers that the system is down prior to the alerts and IT finding out. Use your Support Center as the barometer and the face of IT to keep it cool when the system does go down. Nobody wants to hear, “Nope, I have not heard it is down.”

Down issues are usually smoothed out by two main communication streams from IT. Regular status reports if it is a long outage (more the 30 minutes for a User). Remember, while the IT department is running around going crazy, Users are sitting idly speculating—usually about how the IT Department is doing nothing.

Immediate communication when the system is back up. Everyone thinks less of IT when they find out on their own that a system is back up and they were not informed by the people fixing the problem.

Querying Data in Forms Does Not Return Expected Results

“I can’t find any invoice batches but John can.” “All the Purchase Orders disappeared since yesterday!”

How can Support resolve the problem?

There is a folder with a saved query. Train Support to:

• Identify if a folder is being used to confirm the problem (icon with name next to it).
• Walk the User though turning the folder off. Navigate to Folder > Save. Set Autoquery = Never, and Include query = No. Make sure your default folder does not include a query.

Errors Saving Work

These problems can vary. Support cannot resolve most of them but they can gather information and occasionally resolve them.

How can Support help?

• Get the ENTIRE error message, including ORA-APP 192478, and a screen shot if possible.
• Get the Responsibility name, Navigation Path and Form when receiving the error. Asking specific questions will get specific answers. This is important. Do not ask, “What are you doing?” as the answers will range from “My Job” to “There is a delivery on the dock that will not be unloaded until the back receivables are cleared.” Translation? Cutting a Quick Check from the Invoice screen. More specific questions are “What are you trying to do in Oracle?” or “What process are you using?” if you have formal documented procedures.
• Ask the User if they tried signing out, back in, and repeating the process. Yes, shutting down Oracle and starting it up again does work sometimes. Remember, it is just a computer. This serves two purposes. It clears the Cache and it tests if the problem is repeatable.

Concurrent Processes Error Out

Often times a concurrent process will error out because it is looking for something to be done prior to it completing. Oracle is getting better in the later versions about making these messages clearer to understand.

How can Support help?

• Give Support access to view All Concurrent Requests, especially the Log Files.
• Teach them how to read a log file.
• Do a search on “ERR.”
• Read from the end not the beginning. The errors are usually toward the end of the file.
• Have them read error messages to the User (e.g. Please Roll Back Depreciation). The User will know what to do from there if it is a functional error message. If not, they can contact their supervisor or the call can be passed on to the Support Analyst with the corresponding log file.

Interfaces

Third party interfaces into and out of Oracle are usually run on a set schedule. Ensure the Support Desk knows about this schedule and any upcoming changes to it.

Conclusion

So what does it really take to run an efficient Oracle Help Desk? A little training, a lot of listening, and good communication. Remember that it does not stop with your current Support Team but needs to be passed on to each new team member.
As in all areas of Oracle and complicated systems, take the time to document your company processes and system specific knowledge. Front Line Support exists to diagnose what the issue is—not solve it. Support can only solve an issue if they have the solution for it in their hands.

The more solutions you put in their hands, the more they can resolve on the first call. Here is a rule of thumb. If it is a common, easy-to-identify, and easy-to-resolve issue, it should be handled by Front Line Support. Take the time to document issues and train the Support Desk. Your customers, aka co-workers, will respect you for it and actually not dread calling the Help Desk.

How to Triage Your Oracle Support Calls

February 4, 2008 on 1:21 pm | by Melanie Cameron | In How To Guides | 1 Comment |  Print |  Email

Let me introduce Melanie Cameron as a guest author to this blog. Melanie is a consultant for MSS Technologies, specializing in Oracle Financials related to SOX, Process Improvements, Upgrades, Implementations, and Workflow. Based in Phoenix, Melanie serves on the Board of Directors of the AzOAUG and can be found at most Oracle events in the Valley of the Sun.

Does this exchange sound familiar? User: “Oracle doesn’t work!” Support: “It’s up. What’s the problem?” User: “I told you! It’s not working!!!”

I hear this all the time at client sites. Running a Help Desk is one of the toughest jobs in the company due to disparate systems, Users who are unfamiliar with what information Support Technicians need to know, and Support Technicians who are unfamiliar with the systems.

Underlying this is a constant level of tension because nobody calls support when everything is working great. There is ALWAYS a problem when Users call in and those problems prevent them from doing their jobs. Every User feels that their problem should be the Support Technician’s top priority.

So how does the Help Desk quickly identify level-one priorities, resolve basic issues, provide great customer service, and keep things running smoothly with minimal training? On top of that, how can they support an extremely complicated system and keep their customers (aka co-workers) happy?

There are a few keys elements to a successful Help Desk:

• Communication
• Empathy
• Training and Tools

Communication

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. If the Support Technician speaks Armenian and the User speaks English, they will not communicate effectively. But the communication issue goes deeper then this.

A User may call up and say, “ADI is not running on the new PC. It says TNS Names could not be resolved.”

If the Support Technician does not know what “ADI” means or what “TNS Names” is, how can they resolve the issue, or even route it to the correct team to resolve? The User may as well be speaking a foreign language!

Support must understand acronyms, the tools installed related to Oracle, and whether they are Server or Client-based. This way they can route calls properly, which will reduce confusion, frustration, and the time required to resolve them. Don’t make this list once and forget about! Rolling out a new product? Upgrading? Inform the Support Center of changes before they occur so Technicians can stay current.

To more efficiently pass off support calls, especially in larger support organizations, Support Technicians should have a reference guide of the basic tools, modules, and acronyms used with Oracle and the Support Analyst or Technical Person who will handle the call if it can not be resolved (ex. Frances gets Financials and John gets Purchasing).

Empathy

Users call Support because something they need to do their job is broken. They are frustrated. They are upset. They do NOT want to hear, “Log a ticket and someone will get back to you.” Users want to know that the Support Technician is listening to their problem, understands the issue, and is treating it with the importance it deserves. A better response is, “What is the problem? How is it affecting your job? What is your deadline? Is there another tool you can use while I route this to the person who can help you?”

Asking the aforementioned questions will enable both the Support Technician AND the User to understand what the required level of support really is and what urgency should be.

Training and Tools

Oracle E-Business Suite is HUGE and nobody knows it all. We all specialize in different areas and set boundaries. I have been doing this for 13 years and probably have another 15 more years before I retire. I will learn something new about Oracle every day until I walk out the door to retirement land.

But there are some basics in the system that Support Technicians can be trained on so that they can resolve these issues on the first call without added time and resources. Imagine what that will do for your department’s reputation outside IT!

Keep reading for Few Helpdesk Tips in part II of this article.