The Feature

TUSC Acquired by Rolta

According to its website, the Broech Corporation, an IT consulting company known in the Oracle community as TUSC, has been acquired by Rolta, one of India’s leading IT organizations. Here is few statements from the news release:

Rolta, one of India’s leading IT companies, specializing in GIS/GeoSpatial Information Systems, Engineering Design, and Enterprise Information & Communications Technology, today announced the acquisition of Broech Corporation, doing business as “TUSC”, an IT Consulting Company specializing in ERP applications as well as Database and Business Intelligence solutions, based on Oracle technologies.

… The three founders of TUSC, Rich Niemiec, Joe Trezzo and Brad Brown, will continue to lead the company. Their leadership of various Oracle User Groups and participation in Oracle Technology advisory councils evidences their standing in the industry, duly recognized by awards, like the Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award. With each having over 20 years of experience, this management team brings a wealth of experience to Rolta. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Rolta, TUSC will continue to lead its operations from headquarters in Chicago, USA…

…Mr. K. K. Singh, Chairman and CEO of the Rolta group, said, “We are extremely pleased with the acquisition of TUSC who shares our passion for excellence. This brings into the Rolta fold, a company that has strategic maturity, exceptional technology, commendable work ethic, established branding and a strong portfolio of high-end consulting services. We will now be able to provide Enterprise level solutions to our customers worldwide, thereby increasing the value for our stakeholders”…

You can read the full press release here. I have a special connection to TUSC, as I worked with them on a number of consulting assignments. Congratulations and good luck!

8 Things You Don’t Need To Know

I am going to break my #1 rule to keep this blog strictly professional [breaking the rules actually feels pretty good!], and join a silly game of Blog Tag. The goal of this game is to share eight things you may not know about me and tag other Oracle bloggers to spread this movement. So, here we go:

• I was born and raised in Slovakia when it was still a part of Czechoslovakia. Like most Slovaks, I don’t like to be referred to as Czech. Not that there is anything wrong with it
• My favorite places in the world include Seattle, Prague, and Ziarska Dolina (Ziarska Valley in the Tatra Mountains), Crater Lake, Oregon Coast, Achorage, Scottsdale, New Orleans, Greenwich (England), Whistler, Austin, Bratislava, Salt Lake City and many other places in between. As you might have guessed, I love to travel.
• During college, I once bought a Greyhound student ticket and traveled by bus from Worchester, MA to Eugene, OR to “see the country”. It was an eye opening experience but, needless to say, there is no risk of repeating the trip anytime soon.
• My wife and I have been married for 15 years. We have two wonderful children [boy and girl]. Our son’s favorite game when he was little was putting his toys in boxes, which tells you we moved a lot back then.
• I try to be a very engaged parent. I love spending time with my family and our weekends are always very active and busy. I found being involved the only way to make it work and compensate for my frequent business travels.
• I enjoy any sport activities which include “cheating” the gravity - swimming, skiing, ice skating, windsurfing. However, my main ‘fix” is hiking up a mountain with a 360 degree view from the top.
• I regret I never learned to play any musical instrument [at least not yet]. My mother signed me up for piano lessons when I was ten, however, I secretly went to hockey practices instead… She was not very pleased when she found out. I played youth hockey for about ten years, and more recently, I coached hockey teams my son played on.
• I joined Oracle in 1994 as a translator. My job was to translate the meetings, documentation and software from English to Slovak. It was a major Oracle Financials and Manufacturing 10.4 implementation project in Bratislava, Slovakia with a very diverse international team. Within a couple of months of the project, I was offered a consultant position, and I never really did anything else since. In 1997, I got transferred to the US and moved my family to Seattle where we live now.

I now tag Michael Amstrong Smith, Jo Davis, Jason Howlett, Martin Millmore, Neeraj Garg, and Bob Anderson. The show must go on!

2007 OpenWorld Presentations Available for Download

As several bloggers have pointed out already, few selected presentations from the 2007 OpenWorld are now available for download. Use the following credentials: username: cboracle, password: oraclec6.    

OpenWorld in the Rearview Mirror

I have completed my attendance at the OpenWorld and thought I share some of my impressions and experiences.

Opening Night

I really enjoyed the initial key note by Larry Ellison, in which he took a walk down the memory lane and shared his memories of the early days at Oracle. We saw pictures of the first four four Oracle employees, first Oracle office door, Chuck Phillips in the uniform, Safra Catz as teenager [now I understand why they hired her], and Oracle Parkway under construction… I read and heard some negative comments about the event and they really surprised me. I appreciated Mr. Ellison’s sharing his emotions and showing his soft side. Thirty years is a long time and a great accomplishment for any company. Congratulations Oracle!

Applications Unlimited

Oracle reinforced the message that they will continue to invest in, develop, and improve the existing suites of applications. One little nuance I noticed during the Jasper Andersen key note was that the Applications Unlimited program was really a tiered program and the duration of the support provided to you depends on the support tier you purchase.

Application Integration Architecture

Oracle announced the availability of the Application Integration Architecture as a way of using its latest technology advancements to bring best practices to its application customers. You read more here.

Fusion Applications

Good things come to those who wait. And we will have to wait for several months and years for good things to come as Fusion Applications. According to Larry Ellison’s announcements in his second key note, the first Fusion Applications will start arriving in early 2008 and be focused on salesforce automation, with pre-built integration packs for Oracle’s E-Business Suite. Instead of creating massive applications, such as a full CRM, Financials or HR suites, Oracle is starting with focused modules, based on Fusion Middleware, that integrate with existing applications. In his key note, Mr. Ellison said, “I can’t press a button and have them all be Fusion apps. It has to be a gradual, evolutionary process.” Then he said that Oracle will ultimately rewrite all of its applications and have a Fusion version for every functional area. Full Fusion suites will take years to surface… For more news and commentary, follow our News section.

Ed Abbo and Steve Miranda showed some pretty cool features Oracle has done in the Social Apps space built with their Fusion Middleware, and few sneak peaks at Fusion Applications. Read the full article by Dan Farber of ZDNet.

Oracle Mix

I am really excited about Oracle Mix, a new social platform for sharing ideas about the future of Oracle products. We’ve been calling for something like this on this and other blogs for quite some time, and I give Oracle a lot of credit for making the Mix available. I only hope that the Mix will be actively monitored and responded to by Oracle Product Managers and, unlike Metalink or OAUG forums, it will have more answers than questions. Check it out for yourself and get actively involved!

Leaving Disappointed

To sum it all up, I was leaving the OpenWorld disappointed. While being herded with other 40,000+ attendees from one session to another under the signs and sounds of never ending infomercials, I kept thinking there must be a better way to meet people and transfer information. The highlight of the week was seeing my old-time colleagues and friends. My other expectations to learn more about R12 and Fusion were left unfulfilled. Some R12 product sessions were actually frustrating. A PowerPoint presentation with hundreds of people in a room was not a very effective format to show new software features and conduct meaningful discussions. Every time a presenter asked for someone’s email to answer a question or provide more details later, I kept wondering, where is your blog? Every Oracle product manager should have one. You just can’t get your message across efficiently with limited time and crowded room. I may be biased since it was my first time at the COLLABORATE and OpenWorld this year and both events were quite overwhelming.

Attending the Oracle OpenWorld 2007

Here is that time of the year again when Oracle opens its doors to its customers and partners and invites them all to the biggest party on the block, the Oracle OpenWorld 2007, November 11-15th at Moscone Center in San Francisco. It is also that time of the year when Oracle professionals have to decide whether to go to San Francisco, or not, and what to expect if we go there.

This is my first time at the OOW. Oracle made my decision somewhat easier this time by inviting Oracle bloggers to attend the conference. I appreciate the gesture and the recognition of a vibrant blogging community. Take this as my first disclosure for anything I write from the OOW and know that Oracle waived my registration fee.

The OOW 2007 promises to be bigger and better than ever [I am not sure bigger is better in this case]. The conference motto is “Learn, Experience and Connect” and it will be interesting to see how that works out with 1,600 planned sessions in five days! In addition to some usual agenda items like executive keynotes and solution sessions, expert tracks and sessions, partner demos, hands-on labs, etc. I am excited to see few conference experiments. It will be interesting to check out:

OpenWorld Connect

The Open World Connect is an online tool for attendees to network with peers, schedule meetings, establish and join interest groups, chat in real time, etc. I believe you can only sign up for the OOW Connect if you are a registered conference attendee. However, there are several RSS feeds you can subscribe to stay connected with the happennigs at the conference:

• Oracle Technology Network (OTN)
• Oracle Partners Network (OPN)
• Oracle Applications Users Group
• IOUG
• E-Business Suite Financials
• eBusiness Suite 12i Upgraders
• Oracle Bloggers

OpenWorld Unconference

This one should be interesting. For the first time ever at Oracle OpenWorld, attendees will have the opportunity to directly participate by presenting their own session or workshop on a topic they’re passionate about, in an informal, interactive setting.

What I Hope For

I am hoping to learn about new features, functionality, and solutions in eBusiness Suite 11i and 12. I would also like to know the current status of Fusion Applications, especially in the light of the rumored resignation of John Wookey. I am also hoping to get more involved with the SIG groups and meet in person many of my peers that I only know by name.

When reviewing the eBusiness Suite tracks, several sessions caught my attention, including:

• OAUG XML Publisher SIG The OAUG XML Publisher SIG will discuss topics on Oracle XML Publisher, a Java-based product within the Oracle Fusion Middleware family.

• OAUG Accounts Payable SIG A discussion on current AP Best Practices, the latest in AP Technologies and an opportunity to interact with members of the Oracle Product Management team.

• OAUG Projects SIG The OAUG Projects SIG will address topics of interest to those using Oracle Projects applications with opportunities for networking and sharing ideas.

• OAUG Fusion Council The OAUG Fusion Council assists in keeping the user community current on the vision for next-generation enterprise technologies, applications and services that will revolutionize business. This involves PeopleSoft, E-Business Suite and JD Edwards.

• Oracle E-Business Suite Financials Release 12 and Beyond In addition to new architectural components, Oracle E-Business Suite Financials Release 12 has hundreds of other new features. I am planning to attend this session to gain an understanding of the value these new features offer customers, and get a glimpse of what’s being planned for the next Oracle E-Business Suite Financials release.

• Oracle and Web 2.0: Applying the Principles of Social Networks, Collaboration, and the New Web to How Oracle Does Business This is the session I am most excited about! The Web 2.0 technology such as wikis, blogs, and tagging are just enablers for a new kind of organization. … [we should] hear about the trends that matter and see live examples of how Oracle is improving its operations inside the strategy organization via the new Web.

• Real Estate Store Construction and Refurbishment with Oracle Projects and Oracle Property Manager Learn how Oracle Projects and Oracle Financials can manage the full lifecycle of a facility: from initial site selection through construction, store opening, and refurbishment.

• Oracle Projects: You’ve Got Questions; We’ve Got Answers In-depth answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding the latest functionality available in Oracle Projects. It highlights real-world examples gathered from customers and partners.

• Leverage the Power of Billing Extensions in Oracle Projects: Five Common Requirements Met This session shows how to solve five common problems by using extensions.

• Personalizing and Extending Oracle E-Business Suite by Using the Oracle Applications Framework This case study examines best practices learned in implementing, personalizing, and extending an Oracle E-Business Suite application by use of the Oracle Applications Framework.

Hope to see you in San Francisco! If you are not planning on attending, stay connected by using the available online resources, including this and other Oracle blogs…

Call for Presentations for COLLABORATE 08 in Denver

In case you missed it, here is an announcement from the OAUG about the COLLABORATE 08 presentation deadlines.

Share your ideas, innovations and solutions during the COLLABORATE 08 conference. The call for presentations for the OAUG Forum is open and the deadline for submission is October 28, 2007, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

All presenters submitting papers by the October 28, 2007, submission deadline will be entered into the Presenter Incentive Program drawing to win round-trip air travel to Denver, Colorado and accommodations in a deluxe hotel suite during COLLABORATE 08. Second and third place prizes will also be awarded.

Grand Prize:

• Round-trip air travel to Denver, Colorado, for one, coach, continental US only
• Accommodations in a deluxe hotel suite during COLLABORATE 08, five nights

Second Prize:

• Accommodations in a deluxe hotel suite during COLLABORATE 08, five nights

Third Prize:

• Round-trip air travel to Denver, Colorado, for one, coach, continental US only

The OAUG is seeking your knowledge and experiences on all Oracle Applications, including Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Hyperion, Oracle Retail, Oracle Communications and MetaSolv Software, as well as applications technology. Please consider sharing your knowledge with others; submit your presentation today!

For more information about COLLABORATE 08 - OAUG Forum tracks, specific industry- or product-related areas of emphasis, presenter requirements and the presentation submission process, please refer to the call for presentations on the COLLABORATE 08 OAUG conference Web site.

Important Paper Submission Dates and Deadlines

• October 28, 2007, 11:59 p.m. EDT: Presentation abstracts due.
• January 14, 2008: Accepted presenters notified by the OAUG.
• February 29, 2007: All presentation materials including white paper and PowerPoint presentations are due.

See you in Denver!

Application Blogs I Read and Why You Should Too

Here is an updated compilation of application-related blogs I read and know about at this point. I would like to give a special mention to new arrivals Linda Fishman Hoyle, Chris Warticki and a smart bunch at Oracle Contractors Blog.

AppsBI : Applications Business Intelligence By Nilesh Jethwa. Nilesh has worked on various reporting, Data warehousing, Daily Business Intelligence, Discoverer and Enterprise Planning and Budgeting projects and wants to share and write about different BI tools and techniques. He enjoys his job and starting this blog adds a new adventure to his life and career.

Big4Guy

Big4Guy is an online resource by an anonymous author with the latest news, insights, knowledge and experiences as a Big 4 consultant. He discusses some of the important issues which organizations are facing today in the areas of information security, security and controls in SAP R/3, Oracle Applications, J.D.Edwards, Peoplesoft and various other ERP’s. He also provides valuable resources for individuals interested in the CISA, CISM, CISSP, and various other security certifications considered essential for entry in any Big 4 accounting, auditing and consulting firms.

BlogERP: HCM Software Blog

By James Holincheck. James is a Research Vice President in Gartner Research where he covers the human capital management software market.

Deal Architect

By Vinnie Mirchandani. Vinnie is a former technology industry analyst (with Gartner), outsourcing executive and entrepreneur. He has personally helped clients evaluate and negotiate technology contracts worth billions of dollars, and has consistently advised companies on IT risk management, globalization and sourcing issues. A MUST READ!

ERP Channel

By Matt Bowcock who is a software developer/analyst working in the US for a large manufacturing company. Matt has worked with ERP packages from PeopleSoft, Intentia, and Encompix. He has a passion for applying technology to business problems and creating solutions so working with ERP systems is actually interesting (if you can believe that).

ERP Software Blog

By another anonymous author. There are several good links and articles to ERP-related stories.

Grey Sparling PeopleSoft Expert’s Corner

By a group of authors at Grey Sparling Solutions. This is a company website turned into a blog with plentiful resources of information for Peoplesoft and Oracle users and buyers. These guys don’t know it but they were a great inspiration and influence on creating this blog. They do not play the usual blogging game with links and tags to improve their Technorati ranking. Instead, they focus on creating an original, expert content useful to their audience.

FIN-SIG Blog

The OAUG Financial Services Industry Special Industry Group (FIN-SIG) is affiliated to the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG). The FIN-SIG shall fill a gap for a common forum and support/ resource base for all new and existing Oracle Applications users who operate in the space commonly called Financial Services Industry and also users who have interest in the specific packaged application software provided by Oracle Corporation to meet specific business needs of the Financial Services Industry.

Learn DIscoverer Blog

By Darlene and Michael Armstrong-Smith. They are the authors of the Oracle Discoverer 10g Handbook. Their company Armstrong-Smith Consulting specilaizes in everything Oracle Discoverer.

Learning of an Oracle Apps Consultant

By Krishanu Bose. Krishanu covers Oracle Apps consulting services situation and provides an inside view of Oracle Apps outsource services in India.

Mark Rittman’s Oracle Weblog

Not really an application blog, but one of the original Oracle blogs out there and an excellent production by Mark Rittman. Personally, this is to me a never-ending source of inspiration for how a corporate blog should be done. Read more about Mark and his blog in this story.

Oracle AppsLab

By Paul Pedrazzi, Jake Kuramoto, and Rich Manalang. In their own words, “Oracle AppsLab is a think-tank developed to drive adoption of new web patterns and technologies across Oracle’s business and products. We’re a small group dedicated to living and breathing Web 2.0. This blog is our space for sharing our ideas.”

OracleAppsBlog

By Richard Byrom and a group of authors. OracleAppsBlog is THE ORIGINAL Oracle application blog. If you search the web for anything related to Oracle Applications, the chances are you end up at OracleAppsBlog - a rich resource of Oracle-related links and information. Read 10 questions for Richard to find out more information about him and his blog.

Oracle Apps Confessions

By Jo Davis, Oracle eBusiness Suite functional consultant. A compilation of quick tips and tricks for Oracle Applications users.

Oracle Apps Epicentrum

Sanjit Anand shares his implementation knowledge and experiences.

Oracle Business Intelligence Blog

By Abhinav Agarwal and Keith Laker. This is a blog for all things Oracle Business Intelligence. Includes musings and postings on Oracle Discoverer, OLAP, and other Oracle BI products, technologies and tools. Way to go guys! Personally, BI is as technical as I ever want to get with Oracle Applications.

Oracle Contractors Network Blog

Oracle eBusiness Suite resources, ideas, white papers, advice and tips from a number of Oracle consultants.

Oracle E-Business Suite Technology

By Steven Chan. An excellent Oracle insider’s take on technology stack-related topics for the Oracle E-Business Suite, with sneak previews of upcoming releases, new product announcements, glimpses into the inner workings of Oracle Development, in-depth discussions of technology-stack architectures, and the occasional desupport notice. Read more about the man behind this blog in my interview with Steven. A MUST READ for Oracle Applications DBAs, system administrators, and other Oracle professionals.

Oracle Financials Strategy

The blog where we talk about what’s on our minds as individual strategists and as a team. It’s where we share articles, ideas and opinions that are relevant to our work here at Oracle. However, we reserve the right to veer off topic occasionally. It wouldn’t be a blog without that - would it?

Oracle iRecruitment Blog

By Martin Millmore, a Director of iRecruitment Development at Oracle.

Oracle Intercompany Blog

By David Haimes. The primary focus of this blog is Intercompany and Oracle Financials. David is a 10 year Veteran of Oracle Financials Development. David is interested in technology both inside and outside of Oracle and is always thinking of how I can incorporate new ideas, technologies, methodologies or innovations into my work here at Oracle. David’s current role is looking after the Intercompany and Legal Entity products in Oracle Financials, he has also worked on EMEA Globalizations, Federal and Public Sector Financials, XML Payments and a variety of projects on other products.

Oracle Support Blog

By Chris Warticki. This site is Oracle Support. Chris has been working for Oracle Support for over 8 years. His team helps Oracle customers, offers free information and training sessions on a variety of Support related topics. Take advantage of his team’s experience and knowledge about our Support processes, policies, tools, tips, and tricks.

ORCLville

By Floyd Teter. Floyd is the System Engineer for Institutional Business Systems at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. Floyd has been working with Oracle products since 1990 and Oracle applications since 1997, and even spent a few years as a Managing Principal with Oracle Consulting during the dot-com boom.

Parallax: Calculating Technology’s Future

By Neil Robertson, a CTO at Newmerix and a talented writer who became famous in the enterprise bloggosphere for his original analysis of Oracle Fusion in I Pity the Fool. Neil is also very active in establishing the Web 2.0 tools in the enterprise.

PeopleSoft Corner

By Brent Martin. Ideas, Tips, Techniques and information sharing for Oracle and PeopleSoft Enterprise.

Procurement Central

By Dave Stephens. Follow a former Oracle VP in charge of developing Oracle Purchasing applications through his new venture of creating and deploying an open-source purchasing solution.

Project Directions

Produced by an anonymous project strategy manager at Oracle working with the Oracle Projects application. According to his own profile, the author’s focus is on our Project Management and Project Collaboration but he hopes that this blog will encompass some of other [Oracle] modules with the use of guest bloggers, i.e. his colleagues who manage those modules.The author is also interested in how software can help project managers and teams be more successful especially given the proliferation of collaborative tools that we see now.

Project Partners

This is FINALLY a company blog by two authors from Project Partners - Bob Anderson and Neeraj Garg. Project Partners regularly publish great white papers and newsletters for Oracle customers in the project-centric industries. The blogs are an excellent complement to this already fantastic resource.

Software Safari

By Brian Sommer. A “premium blog” by an experienced technology industry analyst.

Solution Beacon

Advise and opinions from employees of Solution Beacon, LLC, a provider of expert-level resources for the most widely used Enterprise Management Systems and Technologies.

Systematic HR

Systematic HR is a human resources blog about the intersection between HR process and HR technology. You can read about how HRMS systems, point solutions such as TAS, TMS, portals, etc, can be utilized to maximize your employee experience and enhance the strategic capabilities of your organization as well as the concerns of the day such as employee engagement, project management, and cost parameters to your strategies.

TalentedApps

Talented Apps is written by a group of Development and Strategy individuals within the Oracle Fusion HCM team. Their focus is on the industry and future of Talent Management…

Triora Group

This company blog is a way to “give back to the Oracle community”. You will find a growing amount of practical information you can use to improve your environment. Triora Group focus primarily on Oracle E-Business Suite 11i and 12, the Fusion Middleware and of course Oracle Database 10g/11g.

Yak About Apps

By Linda Fishman Hoyle, a a Senior Director for Cross Applications Marketing at Oracle and the Editor-in-Chief of a Podcast series called AppCasts. Linda has more than 20 years of experience with Enterprise Software and Services - marketing, strategy and business development. In Linda’s own words, “you want to read her blog if you are interested in the latest and greatest Oracle Application stuff!”

I would also like to mention blogs by Oracle Applications executives Jesper Andersen, Jim McGlothlin, Luke Kowalski [see an interview with Luke] and John Wookey. We all appreciate their intention and effort to share their views and opinions.

Lastly, I would like to mention any hibernating blogs that fell off the list after several months of inactivity. I totally understand what the authors of these blogs are going through. It is a draining emotional roller coaster to keep the blog up and running and I hope you guys get back into it!

Apps In the Box

By Siva Devaki who is an Applications Consultant providing solutions for Oracle Applications implementation and integration.

Building Efficient Sales & Service Ops: The Implementation of Oracle 11i CRM

By Ashwin Pingali. In Ashwin’s words, “a wide variety of experience, from business executive to tech entrepreneur to consultant, has helped him in understanding the standard business flows provided within Oracle Apps CRM”. Follow this blog to learn more about implementing Oracle Sales and Service modules and how to improve the communication process between consultant and management. A MUST READ! I love Ashwin’s writing.

Creating Passionate Users

By Kathy Sierra and other authors. A very interesting and funny perspective on users of all kinds. Kathy has been interested in the brain and artificial intelligence since her days as a game developer (Virgin, Amblin’, MGM). She is the co-creator of the bestselling Head First series (finalist for a Jolt Software Development award in 2003, and named to the Amazon Top Ten Editors Choice Computer Books for 2003 and 2004). She is also the founder of one of the largest community web sites in the world, javaranch.com. Unfortunately, Kathy no longer writes for the CPU after receiving several personal threats. She and her work will be greatly missed!

PeopleSoft Expert Implementing Oracle HRMS

By Patch Adams. A unique perspective of a Peoplesoft professional in his transition to become an Oracle HRMS expert.

Trials & Tribulations of a Business Systems Analyst

By H.M. Winning. Follow one Business Systems Analyst, who has taken on this newly created position after 17 years of exploring various technical roles, as she leads you through the everyday challenges of several projects, including developing a new BI initiative and implementing a new CRM solution, and shares some helpful advice and pearls of wisdom along the way.

Oracle Business Intelligence - A Chance To Get In The Game

Oracle Applications Development is creating a Customer Advisory Board (CAB) for Oracle Business Intelligence Applications. This is a great opportunity to participate in the development of Oracle’s BI products.

The CAB will work closely with the Oracle Development team to validate the strategic direction, provide and review requirements, review designs, evaluate architectural blueprints, including data warehousing options, deployment options, and provide timely feedback on usability, deployment and ownership experience. Customers will be able to contribute and influence critical decisions to make the release a success.

Ideal candidates for this CAB are large Oracle E-Business Suite customers with complex reporting needs, who have implementations across more than one major functional area, or have one or more Oracle Applications instance.

Experience with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (formerly Siebel Analytics), Oracle Warehouse Builder or Daily Business Intelligence is desirable but not essential.

If your organization is considering a single integrated solution for your reporting & analytics, or if you are planning to implement a data warehouse on Oracle Applications, serving on this CAB may be a great way to influence Oracle’s product direction to support your needs.

Hal Kazi is Oracle’s Group Product Manager for Business Intelligence Applications, and is putting the BI CAB together. If you are interested, you can contact Hal directly at hal.kazi@oracle.com. Be sure and mention my name when you contact Hal; if I provide enough referrals, maybe he’ll get me one of those cool penguins from last year’s Linux announcement at Oracle OpenWorld!

Using Oracle Projects? Check Out Project Information Center

If you are an Oracle Projects customer, check out a couple of interesting products from Projects Partners branded as Project Information Center. There are some great features for Project Billing and general project reporting, and it makes you wonder why this functionality hasn’t yet become part of the standard Oracle Projects functionality…

Project Information Center (PIC) is an easy-to-use, web-based composite application for project-centric businesses. PIC extends the functionality of Oracle E-Business Suite Applications. As a server-based product with a browser interface, enterprise-wide roll-out of PIC is simple and total cost of ownership is low.

• PIC Invoicing delivers custom invoice formats integrated with Oracle Project Billing, Oracle Receivables and Oracle XML Publisher, to enable you to bill your customers in their preferred form.

• PIC Reporting provides complex reporting that spans multiple projects and operating units, and detailed project and task reporting. More significantly, PIC’s Financial Statement Generator easily creates complex financial reports, like Profit and Loss Statements, at various levels of flexible hierarchies, across heterogeneous systems.

Project Information Center (PIC)™ Invoicing

Project Information Center Invoicing (PIC Invoicing) is a wizard-driven invoice formatting solution for project-centric businesses. This add-on solution is fully integrated with Oracle Project Billing, Oracle Receivables and Oracle XML Publisher, and provides a new approach for creating invoice formats for Oracle Project Billing users. Business Users can use desktop word processing tools to create invoice layout and formats. The PIC wizard provides predefined data sources that retrieve summary and detailed information from the database - users don’t need to understand Oracle Projects, Receivables and HR tables.

Using PIC Invoicing, you can define multiple groups like labor, non-labor and vendor invoices within an invoice with separate grouping and sorting criteria for each group. You can use one or more fields like expenditure category, revenue category, tasks, or user defined elements like flexfields for grouping and sorting each section. Invoice lines can be displayed in a user-defined order, e.g. display all labor, followed by burden amounts applied to labor type only, then non-labor items and their burden amounts, and then common burden amounts. You can override certain fields or add free-format text. This flexibility is balanced by controls to specify which fields can be overridden.

You can consolidate multiple invoices by master project, customer, ACRN or user defined parameter. You can create industry, or customer-specific invoice formats like AIA billing formats for E&C, T&M and fixed price contracts for PSA, government forms such as SF1034, SF1035 and DD250 formats. PIC Invoicing provides pre-built templates for several standard forms. You can also create invoice packages that include a summary form, detailed forms and itemized back-ups such as labor and other direct costs. PIC Invoicing will produce the final invoices for presentation to your customer in PDF, Excel, text and HTML formats, and invoices can be emailed based upon business rules.

Project Information Center (PIC)™ Reporting

Project Information Center Reporting (PIC Reporting) is an easy-to-use, tailorable reporting and information delivery solution for project-centric businesses. PIC Reporting provides complex reporting that spans multiple projects and operating units and detailed project and task reporting. More significantly, PIC’s Financial Statement Generator easily creates complex financial reports, like Profit and Loss Statements, at various levels of flexible hierarchies. PIC seamlessly integrates with Oracle Applications and this high-performance web-based solution is very intuitive to use. With minimal training, users can access all the information necessary to support their business role, including financial, project status, aging, bookings and backlog. These high-resolution reports can be saved in whole or in part, and are presented in XML, PDF, text or Excel format.

A single PIC report can integrate and present information from multiple sources, including packaged applications like Oracle, legacy apps, data warehouses, XML and ODBC data sources, desktop applications and flat files. PIC provides native connectivity to popular databases like Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase and Progress, in addition to ODBC/JDBC connectivity. The PIC server also supports access to Enterprise Java Bean, CORBA, COM or C++ objects. PIC has a generic reporting infrastructure based on pl/sql procedures, views, and the PIC metadata model. PIC’s middleware insulates end user reports from underlying data model changes in the Oracle Applications.

For more information about Project Information Center products, refer to the PIC Invoicing Fact Sheet and PIC Reporting Fact Sheet.

Source: Project Partners website.

Oracle Published Release Content Documents for eBusiness Suite Release 12

Hooray, the wait is finally over all users and implementors waiting to see what is new in Oracle eBusiness Suite Release 12. Read about the new R12 features in the the content documents available in the Metalink Note 404152.1 [Click on the note link and login to Metalink first to access these links]:

• Advanced Planning

• Apps Technology

• Customer Data Management

• Customer Relationship Management

• Customer Service

• Discrete Manufacturing

• E-Business Suite

• Financials

• HRMS

• Intelligence
  

• Logistics

• Maintenance Management

• Marketing and Sales

• Order Management

• Process Manufacturing

• Procurement

• Product Lifecycle Management

• Projects

• Property Manager

• Service Execution

• Supply Chain Management

• Student Systems