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!

Sample Ad-Hoc Queries for Oracle Financials

Here is a compilation of several ad-hoc SQL queries I created over time to perform various analytical tasks withing Oracle Financials. I am by no means a SQL guru, I just know enough to keep myself out of trouble. These are simple queries, which at different occasions provided me with the information I needed. I am posting them here to find them again when I need them and to share them with those of you who may find them useful too.

Active Employees and Supervisors

Find a list of active employees and supervisors with their accounting detail. This is needed for instance when defining the AP approval limits for iExpenses.

Active Employees and Supervisors

AP Signing Limits with Employee Information

Extract AP Signing Limits with employee information.

AP Signing Limits with Employee Information

AR AutoInvoice

Analyze the AR Interface tables used by AutoInvoice.

AR AutoInvoice

Asset Categories and Lives

Get a listing of asset categories with the accounting and depreciation information.

Asset Categories and Lives

Asset Details Extracts

Extract asset detail information. Surprisingly, it is not easy to extract assets from Oracle Assets to convert them back to Oracle Assets.

Asset Details Extracts

Employee Email Address Query

Compare employee and user email information.

Employee Email Address Query

Employees and Users

Compare employee and user information. Find out which employees are not set up as users and vice versa.

Employees and Users

Employees with Default Accounting Information

Select employee information from the HR tables with the default accounting information.

Employees with Default Accounting Information

Employees, Organizations, Users and Responsibilities

Analyze by organization what users and responsibilities are set up for employees.

Employees, Organizations, Users and Responsibilities

Expense Report Template Details

Extract expense report template details.

Expense Report Template Details

Future-Dated Expense Report Items Query

Find future-dated expense report items entered incorrectly in the future. Prevent this problem by setting the respective OIE options.

Future-Dated Expense Report Items

HR Managers

Get a list of HR managers.

HR Managers

OIE Expense Report Import Query

Analyze project expense reports imported from iExpenses.

OIE Expense Reports

Update Asset Lives

Unfortunately, the Mass Additions process does not let you provide an asset life during the upload via FA_MASS_ADDITONS table. The life for converted assets always defaults to the life defined in the category. I believe this has changed in R12, but in prior release, you might need to use this script. As a workaround, we put the new life in ATTRIBUTE4 in FA_MASS_ADDTIONS, and updated FA_BOOKS table after the assets were created.

Update Asset Life

Update Email Preference

Update a default email preference.

Update Email Preference

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!

Oracle Intercompany Inside Out - Conversation with David Haimes from Oracle

David: Hi Marian

Marian: Hello there! Thank you for checking in. Are you ready to chat for a while?

Yes; I even closed down Twitter!

Happy new year! Hope you had wonderful holidays!

Thanks. I enjoyed the holidays and am looking forward to 2008.

Well, let me start with a traditional question and ask about your Oracle beginnings.

I joined Oracle UK in 1997 as an Apps Engineer. Oracle was and still is a very attractive employer in the UK because it has a significant amount of development there. I think back then working in a global team was maybe not so common but we worked as part of a team based in the UK and US building the Financials features. It was a very strong team; I was interviewed by Terrance Wampler, now VP of Strategy and I coached Tim Dexter, who at that time was a Financials engineer but is now of BI Publisher Fame. There is still a lot of application and middleware development in the UK. Many UK IT jobs are consulting or support and Oracle has one of the biggest UK development centers I am aware of.

I went to Bracknell a couple of times while working for Oracle Central Europe in mid 90s…

I started in the Bracknell ‘Ring’ Office…

I understand you live in SFO now. What are you currently responsible at Oracle?

I moved to San Francisco in early 2000. Oracle was kind enough to transfer me. I am currently responsible for the development of a couple of Financials features/products, specifically Legal Entity and Intercompany. They are part of the Financials architecture, so I get good insight into other products and work with many other development teams, which I enjoy.

I understand the legal entity and intercompany underwent pretty significant changes in R12, isn’t it right?

Yes, they were pulled out and each made into their own product in R12. Intercompany, or Advanced Global Intercompany System (AGIS), takes some features from GL in 11i and builds them out into a pretty nice product. Legal Entity was really only implied in Financials in 11i, now it is very explicit and we can use that to drive tax calculation and reporting (via eTax) and fiscal reporting, which are both very big deals for our customers.

OK, let’s pretend I am a typical R11i customer using the intra-company segment in GL. What are the key advantages of upgrading to the new R12 functionality?

So let’s assume you are in a single set of books and the balancing segments value (BSV aka Company Code) represents your LE. I am leaving aside Legal Entity for now and talking about Intercompany.

OK.

In 11i, if your transactions in the sub-ledger are out of balance by BSV, they can be balanced automatically when they hit the GL, but that makes it pretty difficult to reconcile Intercompany as the balancing only happens after transfer to GL (which might be summarized) and posting. So you really don’t know what transactions generated those intercompany journal lines you see in GL.

In R12 you get balancing of your transactions at the transaction level, when SLA accounts them. So I can go into AP for example look at a payables invoice and see the Intercompany accounting lines right there on the invoice, as you can imagine that will make reconciliation of my Intercompany somewhat easier.

That is something that comes ‘for free’ out of the box, you need no extra set up etc. We also built a very nice BI Publisher based online reporting tool. It looks at the GL balances in your Intercompany accounts and right there in the UI you can click on the balances and drill all the way to the transactions.

I am sure many of my friends who are responsible for reconciling GL to sub-ledgers will be thrilled to hear that.

I have done a blog post about that and there is one due with more detail on how we did it technically with more details of the reports… When I did a demo of this functionality to some Oracle sales consultants and partners, I got a round of applause that felt pretty good. I never had that before during a demo…

Good for you! Let me get to your blog a little later. How about the Legal Entity? As far as I know, that concept was only present in HR organizations when you defined legal entities and operating units. What are the main functionality differences in R12?

In 11i, the Legal Entity was only defined in HR organizations, and many times in Financials, that Legal entity was entered as a dummy value. There were a lot of other disparate places, such as in set up for globalization features where more detailed Legal Information was stored.

What we have done in R12 is pull the Operating Unit and Legal Entity apart, so you can have many Legal Entities in a single operating unit if you choose. You can create your LE in an all new user interface, which is part of the Accounting Set Up Manager. You can also define where these LE are registered, maybe for a number of different state taxes, etc., which is going to drive calculation of taxes.

When you enter a transaction you can pick the owning LE of that transaction (or default it based on a set of rules rules) and the owning LE will determine the sales tax due, maybe the accounting and certainly the fiscal reports the transaction appears in. What we also do is allow you to map these real world Legal Entities to an accounting structure, such as my Ledgers and BSV, which will drive Intercompany

It sounds like the legal entity functionality is much more robust and flexible in R12, comparing to its “quasi” deployment in R11i. The Subledger Accounting, Legal Entity Configurator, Advanced Global Intercompany System, and E-Business Tax are all new products in R12. Could you please describe the process of how these new products got incepted? I am mostly curious about when and how the input from users and partners was incorporated…

This goes back a long time in history, Steve Miranda started these many years ago after a lot of discussion with customers. I was first involved in Intercompany when we had a Focus Group in 2003. We got some interested customers on board and asked them about what they were looking for, what problems we needed to solve, there were Focus groups for the other initiatives too.

To give you an idea how much work went into this, we had the focus group come and test Intercompany alpha in spring 2004. They came for a week, looked at what we had so far and we got input on what we needed to change and priorities for new features. So a week of in depth on site working with customers gave us a good idea of the problems they face. We have also pushed out our designs to the Focus and had web conferences or live meetings on a regular basis.

I always find it ironic when Oracle asks customers not to customize the applications. We all hate the customizations but are often forced to do them when standard functionality is either not available or is not good enough. People planning their implementation projects are often in an information vacuum because the new functionality is often not known until a new release is actually publicaly released. The scope of R12 finalized few years ago, but only last year people actually started figuring out what is in it and why it would be beneficial to upgrade. What would be your advice to people who want to get involved in the design of the next Oracle release, i.e. Fusion?

Firstly, we don’t say do not customize, we provide a number of pretty neat ways for you to customize. The key is not to be invasive. Use flexfields, custom library, business events and workflows etc. It is fair to say though that we cannot always publicly detail features, for legal and other reasons. Also, we have a number of customer programs, advisory boards and Focus groups run by our strategy organization that [customers] can request to join. I’m not sure of the exact criteria to join, but I know one is active participation. So get in touch with Oracle Strategy about that. I believe they also have a blog. The benefit of this program is you will sign all the non disclosure agreements, so there is more that can be shared.

All new R12 products we mentioned here today are documented in the R12 Financials Content Documents, User Guides and other sources. Where can users find out more about these products and features and gain best possible knowledge to implement and use them?

These days there are more touch points with Oracle Development than ever before. I encourage feedback and questions on my blog and I have taken some of those discussions offline if there was information about the business that the poster did not want to post publicly. The reason I started the blog was that even though the Oracle Open World is a great way to come and talk to the people who built the product, it happens just once a year.

That’s where I was going with my next question…

There are a lot more bloggers now at Oracle and a lot of development and strategy people are on Oracle Mix. I think we need to do a better job of letting the Oracle community know where to find us. Jake and the AppsLab team are doing a great job, but we still have some way to go.

I guess the main message to the community is: be pro-active and get involved… What are your plans for your Intercompany blog in 2008?

I wasn’t really sure where it was going when I started it just after the OOW. I wanted to see the response. In 2008 I want to take some time to write detailed posts with explanations of new features in R12, maybe with more depth or color than in some of the documentation available. I’ll be starting with Intercompany, LE and might move on to GL and SLA and other products as I get time. That is one part. If I can get a repository of useful posts up there and give readers a chance to ask questions and add comments and opinions then that alone I will see as a success.

And THANK YOU for that. For a product manager, a blog seems like a great way to have an ongoing discussion with your user community.

I’ll keep posting on technology, Oracle news and general items too, but I won’t be offended if people skip those ones. I agree - blogs are very powerful, I would point to Tim Dexter’s BI Publisher blog as a good example of this.

Good luck with all your good intentions. It seems like all bloggers reach some kind of blogging fatigue at some point… You have already mentioned some blogs today, what are your other favorite blogs in your reader?

Thank you. One thing I have enjoyed since starting my blog is reading the great stuff written on blogs such as yours. There is a lot of great information out there that I honestly was not aware of. So this is a pat on the back to all Oracle application bloggers out there. Check out the blogs I listed on my blogroll and also look at who I follow on Twitter to get an idea of what I am reading at the moment.

To be honest, I still feel like the blogs are only followed by small community of “geeks” who read and comment on each others’ posts. Others stumble upon them only when searching for something specific… But that’s all right. It is a move forward from newsletters received by email.

I think the community is growing and there are a lot of lurkers out there who read and never comment. People like to stay current.

Well, that’s all questions I had. What else would you like to talk about? We did not mention Mix or your SIG much…

Oracle Mix is a great opportunity for me to learn and hopefully for customers to get better information and influence direction. Right now, I don’t think anyone is sure how it will work out, but that’s also very exciting for me.

Thank you very much David.

It’s been great chatting with you!

Same here. Thank you for your time and best of luck to you in 2008, especially with those two small babies at home you mentioned in your post…

Interview with the guys from Oracle AppsLab

It is my pleasure and honor to introduce Paul Pedrazzi and Jake Kuramoto from Oracle. Paul and Jake [along with Rich Manalang and Anthony Lai] are behind exciting Oracle projects like OracleAppsLab and Mix. We virtually connected this morning to chat about what they are up to.

Marian: Good morning. Well, thank you very much for joining in!

Paul: No problem. Glad to speak with you.

Jake: Thanks for inviting us!

Let me start with a traditional first question: How did you end up being Oracle professionals?

I’ll speak for myself and let Jake give his background. I worked in financial consulting for a while with Deloitte and Touche, then jumped to the internet via a consulting start up, and after that went under, I joined Peoplesoft. I have spent the last 6 years or so with the Oracle Journal Entry Reserve Ledger Report group doing marketing, strategy and product management. The latest role is Web 2.0 and AppsLab.

I started at Oracle as a sales consultant, and then bounced over to technical implementation consulting in EBS on R11. Then I took a Bubble-sabbatical, and came back to development in EBS Financials in 2001.

Bubble-sabbatical? That’s a good way to describe it! What are you responsible for now?

Jake and I both work in AppsLab. It is our “think tank” for all new tech but the 2.0 mostly seems to be on people’s radar. Our job is to Understand, Adopt (internally and in products), and Evangelize new technologies. So that’s what we try to do.

That sounds like a fun job. You get paid for looking into cool stuff? What is OracleAppsLab? How would you describe it to people outside the “geek crowd”?

Crazy, huh? We are pretty lucky. We are a lab in the truest sense of the word. We investigate, play and generally try out new things. But instead of [experimenting with] physical things, it’s virtual. We’ll take ideas and technology and put them together to see what makes sense. To see what sticks, if you will. Take an example like tagging. No one really knows how to apply it to business or even if it makes sense. So we apply that to our business and see. Sometimes we succeed, other times it blows up. But that’s OK. We figure that out before we hand it to customers. That’s our job.

Are you experimenting with applying new technologies to the applications specifically, or all Oracle products in general?

Our charter is to influence Oracle Applications. However, our reach is much broader. There is not a group inside Oracle that has not seen our projects. So applications, middleware, database, and even teams like events marketing, PR and others are figuring our how to apply 2.0 to be more productive. We have started to see a sea change internally, it’s very exciting. Oracle is a big company, but many of these teams are extremely nimble and innovative.

In your recent post, Jake, you compared the adoption of the internet in early 90s to the current popularity of Facebook, Twitter or blogging… Could you elaborate?

It’s a similar time and a similar feeling to the mid-90s. Same change agents, same resistance, but eventually, I think the same results. People will see value and use these new, disruptive technologies for their own ends. Facebook, Twitter, blogging all have image problems now, since they’re seen as trivial, but the core principles apply to business.

How do you define Web 2.0? Everyone has been using that term for few years now. What does it mean to you?

I would agree that there is a similar feeling of optimism in the air, but behind the scenes the world is different. Today, you do not see the same insane valuations across the board for silly notions that had no real business behind them. I also see that funding levels have become more reasonable, i.e. less money vs. large investments. So in the end, the optimism is there, but it’s tempered – it’s wiser.

That said, I think we are at the beginning and the new wave of Web 2.0. Start-ups have taught us a lot about how people really will use the Internet going forward.

Web 2.0 means a more participatory, people-centric model of the Internet. It’s revolutionary in a way. It’s enabling the individual to really have a voice. Simply stated, it’s about social software.

Web 2.0 for me is all about participation and community.

Could you give us few examples of how Web 2.0 is bringing innovation to Oracle products?

As I mentioned, Web 2.0 is infecting us at all levels. Of course we have examples today of some applications “mashing” up their content with the perennial Google maps - we also have new CRM apps that have very rich user interface and a more viral distribution model (as an opposite to shipping a CD). Furthermore, we have our middleware division pushing hard on areas like communities, tagging and more.

Aside from products we have even adopted a more web centric model of interacting with our customers via sites like Oracle Mix. Across the board, we are doing a lot, but it’s just the beginning. I expect to see even bigger changes in the coming years.

Being an Oracle EBS consultant and user, I am very interested in the applications design and development. And frankly, I feel like the link between the makers and the users of the applications is broken. R12 is being gradually adopted by the marketplace with most people not knowing what’s in it or why to buy it.

The R12 feature scope deadline was two years ago. It is very difficult to get people excited about new products with such a long development cycle. Personally, that’s where I am hoping tools like Mix can help.

Amen, Marian!

We will see how Mix turns out. I am afraid of the “information overload”… Just look at Metalink forums…

Yep, overload can be an issue - we hope to have some features that help mitigate that - like voting and RSS. But it’s a real challenge for us in how we build these types of systems. In truth, if we get customers and development talking, that’s the big win. We want the relationships to be built, and then the communication takes care of itself. Fundamentally, a computer system can’t replace relationships.

Information overload is a risk. I think a percentage of people have a preferred way to talk to Oracle, MetaLink, OTN, etc. Mix offers another way for customers (and the community) to reach us. I expect people will find their preferred way and stick with that.

Let’s distinguish between customers (buyers) and users for a minute. How can users, people who actually use the applications every day, get more involved in the design process? How do we create this “application culture” where user experience, functionality, and efficiency of the applications are the main focus?

Also, the design process is only a start. After the applications are available, how do we use Web 2.0 tools to help “spreading the word” about the new features, benefits, etc…

So let’s talk the design process first. We already have many areas to involve users like focus groups, customer visits, on-site visits, usability tests and more. Those are all good but Mix is an effort to scale that. We want more, broader feedback. Initially, we look for ideas like new features, strategic areas of investment, etc. But over time, we hope to deepen what it can do to say, help plan specific releases, or to market upcoming online testing we may do. The future is wide open from that perspective.

As for “spreading the word”, this is where it becomes very interesting and where the power of social networks is quite large. The strength of a social network is “trust”. You should have some level of trust with those you have networked with. If you don’t, there is very little reason to “connect” to them. BUT once you have trust, lots can happen. For example, take news. Lots of news out there. How do you decide what to read? Personally I read very little of the generic media. BUT if a friend sends me a link a friend I trust then I read it every time. This is the power of trust.

So take that to Mix. If you and I are connected and you trust me cause we both use EBS 11.5.10 and have talked about it and I tell you that 12 is great or point you to a new whitepaper or a webinar on the new features, you’ll likely read or watch. That is how sharing happens in our world.

Sounds like you really hope to and encourage people to Mix it up!

The Oracle EBS Technology blog by Steven Chan and his team is another excellent example of what I am talking about. It greatly supplements the official Oracle channels and provides a place for feedback, discussions, exchange of resources in the area of EBS technology. As I mentioned in my review of the OOW, I wish every product group and SIG had a blog like that. Perhaps, Oracle could encourage and formalize that process…

Steven’s blog is great. And yes, I too wish every group had one. But Web 2.0 just does not work well under mandates. Passion has to be at the core and living a more transparent life has to be in your DNA. It is one of the main reasons AppsLab exists - to get people to live 2.0. Once they do, the problem you state goes away.

We have already seen new Oracle teams start blogs that didn’t know what blogging was 6 months ago. If you go with mandates you’ll fail. You need to find the root cause why others aren’t blogging, then you can succeed.

That is so true. It takes passion and willingness to openness to be able to blog [not to mention time and energy]. Oracle DBAs and other technology types (aka, the geeks) have had blogs forever. I find it interesting that the technical guys use blogs to connect and show their “personal” side, while the functional types use blogs as more professional resources…

We have successfully brought several strategy and development teams and people into blogging. For example, Dave Haimes, a development manager on Intercompany blogs about R12 Intercompany. He’s inviting customers to talk Intercompany on his site.

What are your other favorite blogs in your readers, Oracle and otherwise?

Aside from the Feature?

Of course!

We have our OPML on the site so you can see them all. But my favorite is Marc Andreesen’s blog right now, and maybe Joel on Software; they are both solid.

I enjoy uncov, although it’s not for everyone. Topical stuff: Eddie Awad, Floyd Teter, a couple others.

Let’s switch gears for a minute. How did the acquisitions change Oracle?

I’ll let Jake take that one.

Hey, I always get that one. Acquisitions have given us shots in the arm. New people, new methods, new products. It’s been great overall. Jasper Andersen started AppsLab. He, Paul and Rich are all from PeopleSoft.

So, it’s been great internally because we’ve got an influx of new ideas to test drive. You can’t get that organically. People are critical of the ”acquiring innovation” tag line that Charles mentioned at OOW. But it’s pretty true from what I’ve seen, and I’ve been around a while. People outside Oracle like Floyd Teter have noticed that as well.

I also noticed a general shift in focus to the applications. R12 and mainly Fusion will show how much customers and users will benefit. That’s a whole different topic, perhaps for another time.

Did you have any other questions or items you’d like us to mention today?

I think you hit the main points. I think we are really pushing the envelope with using social software both internally (Connect) and with customers (Mix). More work to do, but lots of good energy at Oracle.

I’m interested to see what your readers think, and obviously, we’ll look for you and your readers on Mix.

Well, thank you very much for your time and opinions. I really appreciate it! Keep up the great work at AppsLab and good luck with Mix and other innovative ideas!

Thanks for the time.

THANK YOU GUYS!

And I encourage all of you readers to comment on how Oracle can use new innovative technologies to improve its applications and other products. If you have ideas on how to enhance Oracle products, Mix it up a bit!

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…

How to Convert Legacy Expenditure Balances to Oracle Projects

Here is another piece on converting legacy balances into Oracle Projects. To see how to convert your legacy project revenue and invoice balances, check here.

Before you start the legacy cost data conversion process, your Oracle Financials and Projects modules need to be fully configured and your prerequisites created. When migrating from your legacy system to Oracle Projects, you may need to bring your ending legacy balances as your opening balances in Oracle. This will allow you to seamlessly manage and report on your project activity.

For the purposes of this article, let’s take for example a scenario when you go live with Oracle Projects on January 1, 2008, and let’s assume we need to convert legacy cost balances in summary. When we extract the balances from the legacy system, we would summarize them by project, task, organization, expenditure type, and date. The balances will be created and processed as miscellaneous transactions in Oracle Projects.

Step 1 (GL): Review your chart of account values. If needed, add new values for revenue accounts, companies, departments, products, etc.

Step 2 (HR): Define your project organizations. Classify organizations that will own projects as Project/Task Owning Organizations, and classify organizations that will incur revenue as Project Expenditure/Event Organizations.

Step 3 (HR): Include new project organizations to your project organizational hierarchy.

Step 4 (HR): Create your employees and employee assignments. Each project has to have a valid employee assigned as project manager in order to generate client invoices.

Step 5 (PA): Review and update project structures: project types, project templates, expenditure categories, revenue categories, expenditure types, lookup sets…

Step 6 (PA): Create your projects and tasks. Make sure to select a correct project type for each project, i.e. (Time and Material, Fixed Price, Cost Plus, etc.) You cannot change project type once you generated project costs.

Note:

If you are converting costs from multiple years, make sure to open prior periods (e.g. DEC-06 for 2006 costs) in Projects in order to determine correct PA and GL Dates! See more details on PA and GL dates in this article. If you do not open respective prior periods, transaction GL and PA dates will be assigned in the current opened period, and your project reporting may be inaccurate.

Step 7 (PA): Define your Transaction Source. Transaction sources identify the source of external transactions you import into Oracle Projects using Transaction Import. You can define a new the transaction source ‘Conversion’ to identify your legacy costs from from your legacy system. When you create a transaction source, you control the Transaction Import processing by the options that you select. Here are few recommended settings for some key options:

• Transaction Source - Define your transaction source, e.g. ‘Conversion’.

• Default Expenditure Type Class - The system uses the default expenditure type class that you assign to a transaction source if an expenditure type class is not specified in the interface table. Enter ‘Miscellaneous Transaction’.

• Raw Cost GL Accounted - Select this option to indicate whether transactions imported from this transaction source have already been accounted for in GL. Oracle Projects expects that the external system has already posted the raw cost to the appropriate debit and credit accounts. None of the Oracle Projects processes will transfer these costs to GL or AP. If you enable tis option, you will also need to provide valid debit and credit code combination IDs. When you select this option, the Import Raw Cost Amounts option is automatically selected.

• Import Raw Cost Amounts - When a transaction source has this option enabled, the raw cost amount of the transactions has already been calculated (costed) in your external system. None of the Oracle Projects processes will calculate raw cost amounts for these transactions.

• Import Burdened Amounts - When this option is selected for a transaction source, Oracle Projects expects the external system to provide burdened costs. If the transaction does not have a burdened cost amount, Transaction Import will reject the transaction. When you select this option, the Import Raw Cost Amounts option is automatically selected.

• Allow Duplicate Reference - Enable this option to allow multiple transactions with this transaction source to use the same original system reference. If you enable this option, you cannot uniquely identify the item by transaction source and original system reference.

• Allow Interface Modifications - This option allows you to modify rejected transactions in the Review Transactions window after the import process is completed.

• Purge After Import - If you select this option, items successfully imported from the transaction source are automatically purged from the interface table when the import process is completed.

• Allow Reversals - If you enable this option, Oracle Projects allows reversals of expenditure batches or expenditure items for the transaction source. When you enable this option, the Allow Adjustments option is automatically enabled. Disable reversals for legacy balances, which should not change, i.e. balances posted in prior periods, and enable it for balances, which need to be processed as “new transactions” in Oracle Projects, e.g. unbilled billable transactions or uncapitalized capitalizable transactions.

• Allow Adjustments - If you enable this option, you can adjust imported transactions in Oracle Projects after you load them via Transaction Import. Disable adjustments for legacy balances, which should not change, i.e. balances posted in prior periods and enable it for balances, which need to be processed as “new transactions” in Oracle Projects, e.g. unbilled billable transactions or uncapitalized capitalizable transactions.

• Processing Set Size - Enter the size of the processing set. The value entered indicates the number of records to be processed in each set. When interfacing large amounts of data, you can reduce the impact of unexpected errors by processing transactions in sets. The import process issues a database commit after each set is complete. If an error occurs and a rollback is issued, only the transactions in the current set are affected.

• Effective Dates - make sure your ‘From’ effective date is before your oldest expenditure item date you intend to upload.

Step 8 (PA): Disable cost transfer to General Ledger. Navigate to the Implementation Options screen and disable the Interface Usage Costs flag. This will prevent your legacy cost balances from being interfaced to Oracle General Ledger since the assumption is they were already posted by your legacy system.

Step 9 (WebADI): Create a WebADI integrator for Project Transaction Import. You can either use one of the seeded Project Integrators, or define your own, which matches your Transaction Source.

Step 10 (PA): Upload legacy cost balances as miscellaneous expenditure transactions. For high volume uploads, create a custom script and upload your data directly into PA_TRANSACTION_INTERFACE table. For medium-size uploads of several thousands records, use the WebADI Upload spreadsheet you created in Step 9 above.

Step 11 (PA): Run Transaction Import. When using WebADI, you can submit this step during your upload. Oracle lets you fix any rejections either in your upload spreadsheet, or in the interface table using the Review Transactions form.

Note

One comment about Transaction Import Status. Even though you can correct your most of your rejections in the Review Transactions screen, Oracle Projects does not let you change transaction status from Rejected (R) to Pending (P) in the Projects Transactions Interface table. Use this Set Transaction Import Status script to re-set the status.

Step 12 (PA): Distribute transaction costs. Run the PRC: Distribute Usage and Miscellaneous Costs process to calculate the amounts and generate account distribution lines. Make sure to run this process with the right period open and the right Through Date to assign correct PA and GL dates to your legacy transactions.

Step 13 (PA): Run the interface to General Ledger. Run the PRC: Interface Usage and Miscellaneous Costs to General Ledger process. This will set the legacy cost balances to look like they are interfaced to GL. If you disabled the GL Transfer option in Step 10, no journal entries will be created. Alternatively, you can run the PRC: Submit Interface Streamline Processes with option ‘DXU: Distribute/Interface Usage and Misc. Costs to GL’ to complete steps 12 and 13 together.

Step 14 (PA): Turn back on the GL interface you disabled in Step 8. Navigate to the Implementation Options screen and enable the Interface Usage Costs flag.

And that’s it. The exact sequence of steps will, of course, depend on your company’s specific business. Hopefully, this article provided a good starting point for understanding this process.

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!