On the 27th January 2010 Oracle had a big showcase event to talk about their acquisition of Sun, and as a User Group Leader I was privileged to have a VIP seat, at least I was at the start, the only thing missing from a very polished and informative morning was a few comfort breaks.
Quest International asked me to write this article on the impact of the Sun/Oracle merger I said ‘why not?’ so here I am a few weeks later just before the deadline putting my thoughts into writing, and I am not so sure now, but they agreed I could blog this so here we are.
You can actually watch the whole event, and Oracle have cut it into 7 manageable webcasts, or simply presentations so you. I am not simply going to regurgitate the presentations for you but tell you what I thought it meant to applications users. At a minimum watch the first section where you get an overview and the last which is the Q&A session with Larry Ellison.
First on was Charles Phillips on how the acquisition transforms the industry, and it certainly transforms Oracle. This makes them not only able to supply the entire stack for their customers, but it also changes them into a manufacturing company, with operations and logistics they have never had to manage before.
Sun is foremost a hardware company and this was an area I am particularly interested in, because although I work in the services organisation, my employer Fujitsu provides the Fujitsu provides SPARC64 processors and SPARC Enterprise M-series servers for Sun and the acquisition we hope will be good for us. Oracle acknowledged their continued strategic partnership and co-development and I was very pleased with that.
The newspapers, blogs, twitter and all other commentary talks about the end of a great era, but if Sun was that great, why was it not making any money? And if it was unprofitable how does Larry Ellison think it will make a profit within its first quarter? Well it was not a problem with the product, look what Oracle and Sun had already done with their joint venture around the Database Machine. What I understood from the day was that Oracle believe 3 fundamental changes will turn Sun hardware around:
First they will sell direct to the top 3000 customers, and to prove that they were serious each Oracle Executive had a ‘we’re Hiring’ badge on. 2000 sales and development posts.
The second major change was that they intend to move from a ‘Build to Stock’ to a ‘Build To Order’ model, making the manufacturing process more lean and cost effective.
Finally another big savings area is in efficiency, Oracle have great back office systems, a single global instance of E Business Suite and Siebel and a very slick and well rehearsed consumption of acquired companies process, that will strip costs out of the Sun operation. Yes they did lay people off but said about 1000 roles, so still a net gain of 1000 jobs. They will have to add manufacturing and logistic systems but again they have them in their portfolio. It is also interesting to note that this may delay Oracle’s own migration to Fusion Applications as an entire suite as manufacturing is not in the first release expected later this year. However my belief is that it will make them an even better reference for Fusion as they will have some core functionality in Fusion and integration to these more niche areas, the model I believe most customers will take initially.
If you are a Sun hardware customer your account manager may change, and that means yet another Oracle person ‘on the bus’, but hopefully they will all know your Oracle investment. Does it mean better service in purchasing, I hope so? If you run Oracle Applications over Oracle Middleware and Database, you will be a full stack Oracle customer and Oracle went onto say that you would have an improved experience with Support. The migration of Sun Support to MyOracleSupport will be fast and you will have visibility of all your issues in one place, their proactive tools will prompt you for interoperability issues or improvements. They will also offer a full integrated service through Advanced Services. My first reaction was ‘Yeah, at an extra cost’, and yes Advanced Services is an additional cost but if you could have all your support simplified and integrated it may well be cost effective, so don’t dismiss it out of hand without careful consideration. They also promised to keep support windows for the Sun products so no hidden price hikes.
Solaris as an operating system, gives Oracle full coverage, their move into Linux gave them a lot but the majority of customers still wanted their enterprise to run on Unix and Solaris is one of the major players.
If you don’t use Sun or Solaris will it mean Oracle will stop supporting what you use? No they want to ensure they keep their customer base as this is what funds their Research and Development so they will continue with the Open Standards strategy that will allow this. It is likely that Solaris and Sun will get certified first against products and over time some functionality will I expect move into the stack to encourage you to use Sun.
Oracle wanted Java as this is the backbone to their next generation applications. Oracle have bet heavily on Java, it is taught in school, there is a vast pool of well train but realistic salary expecting developers and these skills are transferrable, they are not proprietary like Oracle Forms or PeopleSoft Tools. Oracle want to ensure Java does not go off at a tangent, and they unveiled plans to work on the mobile versions of Java which have already started to move that way, with a slightly different version for each device, they are intending to move to a write-once, deploy-many concept. This was very well received.
The area that had most press was MySQL, this is open source and many people and especially the European Commission were worried that Oracle that the healthy competition between MySQL and Oracle Database would be eroded. I am the deputy Chair of the UKOUG and our chair Ronan Miles along with Ian Abrahamson of IOUG travelled to Brussels to address the European Commission. Miles said “Oracle has a proven track record in supporting open standards,”. True to their word Oracle announced improvements for MySQL and that it would remain as a separate Global Business Unit.
Oracle did a great job of talking about what specific products would move into existing Oracle portfolios like SUN Role Manager, analytics for your security moving into the Oracle Security family and the records software SUN Master Index joining the Master Data Management suite.
As they said Oracle had 9 months delay to do the planning and as soon as they got the go ahead the Oracle Machine set rolling and it was a great, thorough and indepth update of what they will do with Sun. With every acquisition the acquired customers are understandably nervous and with each acquisition Oracle has proved they can improve on customer satisfaction. This is why Quest and all other user groups believe the acquisition is good for both existing and new customers, and why we backed the acquisition. A successful Oracle is good for their customers and so whatever Oracle product you use, you will benefit from another successful acquisition and your user group will ensure that happens. When Larry Ellison held his amusing Q&A at the end of the day, Heli Helskyaho , President of the Finish User Group and the joint spokesperson for the EMEA Oracle User Group Community stood up and said, ‘we as user groups made the decision to support you on Sun, please don’t let us down’.
Monday, 15 February 2010
Fusion Applications Set Up Manager
I have spoken at length about how much I like Fusion Applications and how they will change the way we do things, but today I want to talk about how they will be set up. I have talked about how they can co-exist with current applications with integration, but what I want to discuss here is the actual configuration. As ever remember this is my blog and my understanding and it may change before release.
I work for Fujitsu who are a very large Systems Integrator and in the past I have been responsible for the many E Business Suite implementations and upgrades. Working my way through the setup steps, creating the BR100s (AIM Methodology) to ensure the next build in the development cycle will be the same. These setup processes are a large part of consultant’s roles and the boot camp training I had when I first started was about 60-70% setup and only the remainder about processes. So my interest in setup really comes from the heart.
However ‘a quick word about my sponsor’, Oracle have allowed me phenomenal access to Fusion Apps at all stages since its inception. I spent a week summer looking at Fusion Financials in one of the Customer validation waves and all the way through I was thinking with my Systems Integrator hat on, what set up is needed for this? At the Fusion Inner Circle at Oracle Open World I asked the question and was given details of who to contact. I was then invited to another customer wave a few weeks later in Oracle’s UK HQ to go through the Set Up Manager in a one to one session, and then a quick follow up in Redwood when I was there in January. That is unrivalled access, and a privilege I am very thankful for.
`
I eluded to it above and the first important point is that this is a module, not simply a manual. The Fusion Set Up Manager is an ADF front end to every process required. Some of these are web services and some simply a shortcut to a process within the application. Conceptually you are creating an end to end orchestrated process for setup. You can allocated discrete processes to other resources by assigning them tasks, define dependencies or parallel processes along with due dates, the same concepts we are used to with MS Projects, with workflowed notifications etc. You can add place holders for manual tasks such as keying or loading in values. It will validate the dependencies, that they have happened not what you have actually entered, e.g. that your Chart of Accounts had been defined and met the rules, it can’t tell that you meant to call a segment something else. All of this creates a project end to end
It will include the upgrade processes for Applications Unlimited. You will implement Fusion and then using the provided ETL processes migrate your data across from whatever Applications Unlimited product you had (there is a lot of information as to which versions are supported here). If you have a different source system or need for some reason to write your own ETL you can add this as a process to the Setup Manager.
Your project once complete can be preserved as a single XML file, and this in turn can be exported to another instance ensuring the next build is the same. In the same way if there is an extension you need it can be added. Oracle or Partners will create offerings which you can download into your project. The concept is very similar to the Apps Store we use with the iPhone, you will be able to browse offerings and possibly even purchase online and simply download not only the project element but the BPA elements, any required components for the application itself. This will happen from the front page, getting started, you will be able to explore, understand and learn about the Setup Manager and its components. As well as the XML export you can also download a CSV file of all the steps in your project, you can attach documents where required.
One question I have had for a while was around Oracle Business Accelerators. These have revolutionized E Business Suite, and are a bit like a quick starts, basically for different industries there are a long set of questions which generates data for you to use in the setup. You get consistent application setups and an easier to control implementation project and budget. Come back in a few weeks and I will link to an Oracle Scene article a friend has written about how OBA is changing his business (and I bet you won’t be able to guess who). I had been worrying that if OBA was about having an industry template for implementations, was the promise of supporting any process in Fusion Apps the complete opposite? If OBA has changed the way we implement Apps Unlimited, then will we want to leave that concept behind? So when I thought I understood this concept of importing setup into my Fusion Project I thought, this is where OBA fits in, however it was pointed out to me that OBA is about data and Setup Manager is about the tasks. To get what I want they need to be combined, but yes it is being looked at.
So who has been involved in the development of Setup Manager? Not only have some partners and Oracle Consulting been included, but also Support and those responsible for online help from day one. Hopefully this means warning messages and contextually help will be of a very high standard. And as with every module in Fusion Applications the User Experience Team have been an integral part, to ensure this really is the Way We Work.
I was interested in the methodology. Oracle has introduced their Unified Method which gives a framework for all their products. I am from EBS where the methodology is AIM, great for apps but doesn’t move to BI where the process needs to be more agile. I want this module to be OUM ready from day one and I am proud to say that my Product Development Committee that brings all user groups together had a long discussion with the OUM executive and we know there is now a desire to make this happen. So while you are listening Oracle, can we have a single, working enhancement process for Fusion Applications from day one please.
If you are an implementation consultant out there, I suggest you learn BPA quickly because understanding and mapping an organizations' processes, real consultancy is what your role will be with Fusion Applications, Setup is going to be managed online and fun, not the laborious process it is today.
Well done Oracle.
I work for Fujitsu who are a very large Systems Integrator and in the past I have been responsible for the many E Business Suite implementations and upgrades. Working my way through the setup steps, creating the BR100s (AIM Methodology) to ensure the next build in the development cycle will be the same. These setup processes are a large part of consultant’s roles and the boot camp training I had when I first started was about 60-70% setup and only the remainder about processes. So my interest in setup really comes from the heart.
However ‘a quick word about my sponsor’, Oracle have allowed me phenomenal access to Fusion Apps at all stages since its inception. I spent a week summer looking at Fusion Financials in one of the Customer validation waves and all the way through I was thinking with my Systems Integrator hat on, what set up is needed for this? At the Fusion Inner Circle at Oracle Open World I asked the question and was given details of who to contact. I was then invited to another customer wave a few weeks later in Oracle’s UK HQ to go through the Set Up Manager in a one to one session, and then a quick follow up in Redwood when I was there in January. That is unrivalled access, and a privilege I am very thankful for.
`
I eluded to it above and the first important point is that this is a module, not simply a manual. The Fusion Set Up Manager is an ADF front end to every process required. Some of these are web services and some simply a shortcut to a process within the application. Conceptually you are creating an end to end orchestrated process for setup. You can allocated discrete processes to other resources by assigning them tasks, define dependencies or parallel processes along with due dates, the same concepts we are used to with MS Projects, with workflowed notifications etc. You can add place holders for manual tasks such as keying or loading in values. It will validate the dependencies, that they have happened not what you have actually entered, e.g. that your Chart of Accounts had been defined and met the rules, it can’t tell that you meant to call a segment something else. All of this creates a project end to end
It will include the upgrade processes for Applications Unlimited. You will implement Fusion and then using the provided ETL processes migrate your data across from whatever Applications Unlimited product you had (there is a lot of information as to which versions are supported here). If you have a different source system or need for some reason to write your own ETL you can add this as a process to the Setup Manager.
Your project once complete can be preserved as a single XML file, and this in turn can be exported to another instance ensuring the next build is the same. In the same way if there is an extension you need it can be added. Oracle or Partners will create offerings which you can download into your project. The concept is very similar to the Apps Store we use with the iPhone, you will be able to browse offerings and possibly even purchase online and simply download not only the project element but the BPA elements, any required components for the application itself. This will happen from the front page, getting started, you will be able to explore, understand and learn about the Setup Manager and its components. As well as the XML export you can also download a CSV file of all the steps in your project, you can attach documents where required.
One question I have had for a while was around Oracle Business Accelerators. These have revolutionized E Business Suite, and are a bit like a quick starts, basically for different industries there are a long set of questions which generates data for you to use in the setup. You get consistent application setups and an easier to control implementation project and budget. Come back in a few weeks and I will link to an Oracle Scene article a friend has written about how OBA is changing his business (and I bet you won’t be able to guess who). I had been worrying that if OBA was about having an industry template for implementations, was the promise of supporting any process in Fusion Apps the complete opposite? If OBA has changed the way we implement Apps Unlimited, then will we want to leave that concept behind? So when I thought I understood this concept of importing setup into my Fusion Project I thought, this is where OBA fits in, however it was pointed out to me that OBA is about data and Setup Manager is about the tasks. To get what I want they need to be combined, but yes it is being looked at.
So who has been involved in the development of Setup Manager? Not only have some partners and Oracle Consulting been included, but also Support and those responsible for online help from day one. Hopefully this means warning messages and contextually help will be of a very high standard. And as with every module in Fusion Applications the User Experience Team have been an integral part, to ensure this really is the Way We Work.
I was interested in the methodology. Oracle has introduced their Unified Method which gives a framework for all their products. I am from EBS where the methodology is AIM, great for apps but doesn’t move to BI where the process needs to be more agile. I want this module to be OUM ready from day one and I am proud to say that my Product Development Committee that brings all user groups together had a long discussion with the OUM executive and we know there is now a desire to make this happen. So while you are listening Oracle, can we have a single, working enhancement process for Fusion Applications from day one please.
If you are an implementation consultant out there, I suggest you learn BPA quickly because understanding and mapping an organizations' processes, real consultancy is what your role will be with Fusion Applications, Setup is going to be managed online and fun, not the laborious process it is today.
Well done Oracle.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Planning the IOUC Meeting
I said last week how I was getting ready for the IOUC meeting. Well yesterday was the travel, and in an attempt to save money I have flown BHD – LHR – Chicago – SFO, quite direct but over 24 hours door to door, still a good opportunity to catch up on email and finish my slides for RMOUG, edit an Oracle Scene article and clear my to do list (almost).
I was actually typing this above the Rockies on the final, bumpy leg of the journey. I arrived about midnight and was hoping a few friends would still be at the bar so I could have a nice whiskey (Irish spelling) before collapsing into bed.
Today I had meetings all day, first with the FMW team to have the VM images of apps on my ACE FMW kit updated, then a meeting with the new Oracle Marketing executive for Fujitsu, this is an important time for my organisation as we manufacture Sparc and X86 for Sun. Then I met with Applications Marketing to understand their current and planned campaigns.
Tuesday I am meeting with the person behind Fusion Functional Setup Manager, I was privileged to see this before Christmas and have promised a blog entry but need to check out a few things.
I also am meeting a friend from the Fusion GL team, I would like to say it is because of some dark secret, and in a way it is, I have said before most of the brains behind Fusion are British and this is another x-pat who asked me to bring out squeezy marmite.
Then it is lunch with the user experience team and then an afternoon in the labs. The evening is an EOUC dinner, where X user group leaders have managed to make the journey out to HQ
Wed is the big Sun event, being broadcast live from HQ and I am privileged that user group leaders are being rewarded with VIP invites. Then it is straight into the User Group Presidents meetings. The evening kicks of with a reception.
Thursday starts with my committees first meeting at 7.30, then we have a full program of executive briefings and the same on Friday, problem is there are 4 streams and between Ronan, James and I we need to try and cover it all. Another reception Thursday gives us another chance to network with other user group leaders.
Friday I again have a 7.30 committee meeting and a lunchtime one to plan our next project and the main meetings finish about 2.
I will stay on and have a few more meetings , I have tried to fly out the same day before but my brain is just buzzing and the journey is simply too much. I will quietly start all the actions I have taken, write up notes, email people, update this blog and attempt to clear up the ‘day job’ which hopefully I have kept on top off as the week has gone on.
Then Saturday a quick chance to shop, quiet lunch and the long journey home starts. I will be in my house about 6pm Sunday, and hopefully ready to start bright and early Monday morning. Lucky I don’t suffer from jetlag, I am back n the US, Denver in just 2 weeks for RMOUG.
I was actually typing this above the Rockies on the final, bumpy leg of the journey. I arrived about midnight and was hoping a few friends would still be at the bar so I could have a nice whiskey (Irish spelling) before collapsing into bed.
Today I had meetings all day, first with the FMW team to have the VM images of apps on my ACE FMW kit updated, then a meeting with the new Oracle Marketing executive for Fujitsu, this is an important time for my organisation as we manufacture Sparc and X86 for Sun. Then I met with Applications Marketing to understand their current and planned campaigns.
Tuesday I am meeting with the person behind Fusion Functional Setup Manager, I was privileged to see this before Christmas and have promised a blog entry but need to check out a few things.
I also am meeting a friend from the Fusion GL team, I would like to say it is because of some dark secret, and in a way it is, I have said before most of the brains behind Fusion are British and this is another x-pat who asked me to bring out squeezy marmite.
Then it is lunch with the user experience team and then an afternoon in the labs. The evening is an EOUC dinner, where X user group leaders have managed to make the journey out to HQ
Wed is the big Sun event, being broadcast live from HQ and I am privileged that user group leaders are being rewarded with VIP invites. Then it is straight into the User Group Presidents meetings. The evening kicks of with a reception.
Thursday starts with my committees first meeting at 7.30, then we have a full program of executive briefings and the same on Friday, problem is there are 4 streams and between Ronan, James and I we need to try and cover it all. Another reception Thursday gives us another chance to network with other user group leaders.
Friday I again have a 7.30 committee meeting and a lunchtime one to plan our next project and the main meetings finish about 2.
I will stay on and have a few more meetings , I have tried to fly out the same day before but my brain is just buzzing and the journey is simply too much. I will quietly start all the actions I have taken, write up notes, email people, update this blog and attempt to clear up the ‘day job’ which hopefully I have kept on top off as the week has gone on.
Then Saturday a quick chance to shop, quiet lunch and the long journey home starts. I will be in my house about 6pm Sunday, and hopefully ready to start bright and early Monday morning. Lucky I don’t suffer from jetlag, I am back n the US, Denver in just 2 weeks for RMOUG.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Where Did You Go For Lunch?
I started this blog to give an insight into the life of a UKOUG director. Today was the first board meeting of 2010 and it was defiantly different.
Ann Power who has been a director for 5 years and is responsible for HR and very important in our Apps community, works for Thales, and today's meeting was hosted by Ann at their new flagship building in Crawley.
It was a very busy day, we had our annual board appraisal to look at, we take this very seriously and use a questionnaire provided by the Institute of Directors, and it looks at all the areas that a board has to address to ensure the success of their organisation. Completing the questionnaire was a few hours work for each director. Then we look at the areas we score low on, and even more the areas were we don't agree on how well or otherwise we perform.
Today we also look at the governance of the organisation, and what that should include. Then we looked at how to encourage innovation from both the staff and our members, what new membership products should we introduce? You tell us please.
However the most memorable things of the day were totally unrelated, it snowed hard, all day and we all worried about getting home, however none of the snow settled but the piece de la resistance was the treat Ann arranged for lunchtime. She had arranged for us to go down onto the shop floor and see the flight simulators. Amazing, and we even went into one that was in use, and landed in Kuala Lumpur, not bad for a quick lunchtime trip! We even looked at the computer power behind the simulator. I would love to have photos in this blog but for obvious reasons camera phones etc were banned. We must say thank you to Ann but especially to Robert who was our guide.
UPDATE - Thales have sent us a few pictures of what we saw
Ann Power who has been a director for 5 years and is responsible for HR and very important in our Apps community, works for Thales, and today's meeting was hosted by Ann at their new flagship building in Crawley.
It was a very busy day, we had our annual board appraisal to look at, we take this very seriously and use a questionnaire provided by the Institute of Directors, and it looks at all the areas that a board has to address to ensure the success of their organisation. Completing the questionnaire was a few hours work for each director. Then we look at the areas we score low on, and even more the areas were we don't agree on how well or otherwise we perform.
Today we also look at the governance of the organisation, and what that should include. Then we looked at how to encourage innovation from both the staff and our members, what new membership products should we introduce? You tell us please.
However the most memorable things of the day were totally unrelated, it snowed hard, all day and we all worried about getting home, however none of the snow settled but the piece de la resistance was the treat Ann arranged for lunchtime. She had arranged for us to go down onto the shop floor and see the flight simulators. Amazing, and we even went into one that was in use, and landed in Kuala Lumpur, not bad for a quick lunchtime trip! We even looked at the computer power behind the simulator. I would love to have photos in this blog but for obvious reasons camera phones etc were banned. We must say thank you to Ann but especially to Robert who was our guide.
UPDATE - Thales have sent us a few pictures of what we saw
Saturday, 16 January 2010
OUGDK is no more - welcome DOUG
One of the things we take seriously in UKOUG is encouraging other user groups. In the same way we think users learn best from sharing experience we believe it is true of user groups themselves. And in the same way, user groups together have better access and voice into Oracle.
January is the time of the User Group Summit in Redwood which Ronan, James and I will attend. It is 3 solid days of executive and product management briefings and meetings fitted n around it. My Product Development Committee has two meetings both at 7.30am! And lots of opportunity to get together with other user group leaders and share ideas.
Not every user group can attend and it is important especially here in EMEA where user groups are more geographical in nature that the bigger user groups can represent the others, ensuring the wider voice is heard, and this is where the spokespeople of the EOUC come in. Our current spokespeople Janny and Heli do a great job at representing the other user groups and feeding back to them.
One of the challenges for geographical user groups is language. They may be limited in size purely by the available Oracle population for their language. It is very important for these groups still to network, and UKOUG wants to support this however we can. User group speakers also like to support where possible and I love being able to address other groups.
This week I was asked by Miracle A/S to speak at the Danish User Group which they were supporting. The usergroup has been inactive for a while and this was an attempt to relaunch. I can tell you it was a very successful day. Oracle told me they wanted 10 people to turn up and would have been delighted by 20. The 80+ attendees only had lack of car parking to complain about. There were plenty of volunteers and lots of enthusiasm to keep it going. I had a great reception and want to thank Miracle for making it possible for me to take part. They hold their own conferences and yet still want to give back to the whole community.
As part of the launch they renamed the group the Danish Oracle User Group DOUG rather than the Oracle User Group Denmark OUGDK. Good luck with your venture.
January is the time of the User Group Summit in Redwood which Ronan, James and I will attend. It is 3 solid days of executive and product management briefings and meetings fitted n around it. My Product Development Committee has two meetings both at 7.30am! And lots of opportunity to get together with other user group leaders and share ideas.
Not every user group can attend and it is important especially here in EMEA where user groups are more geographical in nature that the bigger user groups can represent the others, ensuring the wider voice is heard, and this is where the spokespeople of the EOUC come in. Our current spokespeople Janny and Heli do a great job at representing the other user groups and feeding back to them.
One of the challenges for geographical user groups is language. They may be limited in size purely by the available Oracle population for their language. It is very important for these groups still to network, and UKOUG wants to support this however we can. User group speakers also like to support where possible and I love being able to address other groups.
This week I was asked by Miracle A/S to speak at the Danish User Group which they were supporting. The usergroup has been inactive for a while and this was an attempt to relaunch. I can tell you it was a very successful day. Oracle told me they wanted 10 people to turn up and would have been delighted by 20. The 80+ attendees only had lack of car parking to complain about. There were plenty of volunteers and lots of enthusiasm to keep it going. I had a great reception and want to thank Miracle for making it possible for me to take part. They hold their own conferences and yet still want to give back to the whole community.
As part of the launch they renamed the group the Danish Oracle User Group DOUG rather than the Oracle User Group Denmark OUGDK. Good luck with your venture.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
How Proud am I
At UKOUG TEBS (technology and E Business Suite) conference we had a fantastic agenda for Applications with a keynote from Cliff Godwin talking about EBS and the first public Fusion Application demos outside the US. Not only did Cliff give an excellent keynote but he then met with two groups of SIG leaders to answer their questions and then joined them in a two hour open question time. From start to finish of the day he talked with users, answered questions and gave insight into the future of EBS. I received an email from him a few days later where he said “Congratulations on organizing a successful conference. I was pleased with the meetings I had and the opportunity for the extensive Q&A interaction with customers.”
On the Tuesday the Fusion Apps session was over subscribed and some people had to be turned away, a great success for us but I wish everyone could have seen it. On the Wednesday we had a special Fusion Applications stream that started with a two hour session that included the first demos, and as I introduced them, I talked about how we UKOUG got to where we are today and I realised just how hard we had worked at getting there.
In 2005 when Oracle first announced Project Fusion, and remember at that time they said we would all be on Fusion by 2013, UKOUG knew that it would become very important to our members.
So I proposed to our board that we should create a Fusion Forum to look at what our members wanted. This was agreed and James and I worked on a project plan one lunch time in Texas (during Collaborate 05).
The strategy was to create 5 groups of 8 members each containing a cross section of all application users, public and private sector and partners. The split was created after a survey of the members and the groups covered Financials, Supply Chain / Manufacturing, CFM, HR / Payroll and Applications Technology. Each Group had at least 1 user from each of EBS, PeopleSoft, JDE (remember this is before the Siebel acquisition), no more than 2 partners and at least one public sector member.
These groups had a set life of one year, launched at our conference that year with a thank you dinner the following year; in between they canvassed members and wrote white papers on what they found. The response from Oracle was mixed, the HCM white paper never seemed to find the right person in Oracle but the Financials Group were asked to comment further. They found that no existing product line had the right process for encumbrance accounting, and Oracle asked what the right process should be. It is interesting that the first release of Fusion Applications does not include any public sector functionality so we will have to wait until release 2 to see how they actually deal with the functionality.
In the International Oracle Community we UKOUG were held up as best practice, "We appreciate the effort that the UKOUG Fusion Focus groups have invested in the white papers that have been submitted to Oracle. It's obvious that the participating customers devoted considerable time to write these papers. This type of detailed input is extremely valuable and timely, as we finalize requirements and begin designing Oracle Fusion.”
By this time the IOUC had created a committee to hold the Fusion Channel and UKOUG Strategy was that I should stand as chair to ensure our input. I was voted in, and 2 years later when it was up for grabs again, I stood unopposed and intend to stay until at least Fusion Applications are on General Availability. The Product Development Committee or PDC looks after more than Fusion Applications but it was our main interest until the announcement of Applications Unlimited.
As a result of the work I did and continue to do with the PDC I was nominated to be one of the first Oracle ACEs for Applications, and then named User Group Evangelist of the Year 2008, as well as gaining ACE Director status. Each quarter we have a Q&Q session with Oracle Development and the questions can be found in the library.
During this time Fusion Applications have been under wraps and I have been under non disclosure but despite that I have tried to keep people as informed as possible, presenting at SIGs, our own conferences and thanks to the ACE program at other events further afield.
And back to conference, this was planned well before Oracle Open World but with no advertising as we were not 100% sure that Larry Ellison would talk about Fusion Applications, but he did and the non disclosure was lifted and we fire ahead with the planned stream.
Clive Swan SVP Product Development responsible for HCM in Fusion along with Jeremy Ashley VP responsible for User Experience assisted by Aylin Uysal gave us a valuable insight into the Applications, and several demos.
I was then able to give feedback on the Customer Validation sessions I had attended; again supported by the ACE program, and then we had a great Q&A session. This event was another first for UKOUG, this session had its own tea & coffee delivered to ensure we wasted no time.
After lunch Nadia Bendjedou from EBS Applications Technology gave her fantastic ’10 Steps to Fusion’ presentation which now has much more Fusion Applications positioning in it. It is really worth hearing or downloading this paper as the magic behind Fusion Applications is a combination of the technology and User Experience and most of that is available to you today, and in the latest releases of Applications Unlimited you can see a lot of the technology has already been introduced.
Nadia has also worked with the PDC to create a little Oracle Applications Planning Tool which you can download to help you have the conversation in your organisation as to how you are or could adopt some of this technology.
Then there was a choice, a deeper dive into the User Experience with Ashley or the Technology with Duncan Mills.
Quite interesting that whilst Ashley and Duncan came over from Redwood, they are both British, as is Clive. Nadia works in the Oracle Paris Office and although Algerian by birth has a British passport and studied at Aston University in Birmingham. So don’t think Fusion Applications is just the next product out of Redwood, they couldn’t have done it without us Brits.
So you can see that the UKOUG board has a strategy around Fusion and has worked hard to make sure you are the most educated User Group in the world with the best access.
We are not ready for a Fusion Applications SIG but we do have a Fusion Community on ukoug.org.
On the Tuesday the Fusion Apps session was over subscribed and some people had to be turned away, a great success for us but I wish everyone could have seen it. On the Wednesday we had a special Fusion Applications stream that started with a two hour session that included the first demos, and as I introduced them, I talked about how we UKOUG got to where we are today and I realised just how hard we had worked at getting there.
In 2005 when Oracle first announced Project Fusion, and remember at that time they said we would all be on Fusion by 2013, UKOUG knew that it would become very important to our members.
So I proposed to our board that we should create a Fusion Forum to look at what our members wanted. This was agreed and James and I worked on a project plan one lunch time in Texas (during Collaborate 05).
The strategy was to create 5 groups of 8 members each containing a cross section of all application users, public and private sector and partners. The split was created after a survey of the members and the groups covered Financials, Supply Chain / Manufacturing, CFM, HR / Payroll and Applications Technology. Each Group had at least 1 user from each of EBS, PeopleSoft, JDE (remember this is before the Siebel acquisition), no more than 2 partners and at least one public sector member.
These groups had a set life of one year, launched at our conference that year with a thank you dinner the following year; in between they canvassed members and wrote white papers on what they found. The response from Oracle was mixed, the HCM white paper never seemed to find the right person in Oracle but the Financials Group were asked to comment further. They found that no existing product line had the right process for encumbrance accounting, and Oracle asked what the right process should be. It is interesting that the first release of Fusion Applications does not include any public sector functionality so we will have to wait until release 2 to see how they actually deal with the functionality.
In the International Oracle Community we UKOUG were held up as best practice, "We appreciate the effort that the UKOUG Fusion Focus groups have invested in the white papers that have been submitted to Oracle. It's obvious that the participating customers devoted considerable time to write these papers. This type of detailed input is extremely valuable and timely, as we finalize requirements and begin designing Oracle Fusion.”
By this time the IOUC had created a committee to hold the Fusion Channel and UKOUG Strategy was that I should stand as chair to ensure our input. I was voted in, and 2 years later when it was up for grabs again, I stood unopposed and intend to stay until at least Fusion Applications are on General Availability. The Product Development Committee or PDC looks after more than Fusion Applications but it was our main interest until the announcement of Applications Unlimited.
As a result of the work I did and continue to do with the PDC I was nominated to be one of the first Oracle ACEs for Applications, and then named User Group Evangelist of the Year 2008, as well as gaining ACE Director status. Each quarter we have a Q&Q session with Oracle Development and the questions can be found in the library.
During this time Fusion Applications have been under wraps and I have been under non disclosure but despite that I have tried to keep people as informed as possible, presenting at SIGs, our own conferences and thanks to the ACE program at other events further afield.
And back to conference, this was planned well before Oracle Open World but with no advertising as we were not 100% sure that Larry Ellison would talk about Fusion Applications, but he did and the non disclosure was lifted and we fire ahead with the planned stream.
Clive Swan SVP Product Development responsible for HCM in Fusion along with Jeremy Ashley VP responsible for User Experience assisted by Aylin Uysal gave us a valuable insight into the Applications, and several demos.
I was then able to give feedback on the Customer Validation sessions I had attended; again supported by the ACE program, and then we had a great Q&A session. This event was another first for UKOUG, this session had its own tea & coffee delivered to ensure we wasted no time.
After lunch Nadia Bendjedou from EBS Applications Technology gave her fantastic ’10 Steps to Fusion’ presentation which now has much more Fusion Applications positioning in it. It is really worth hearing or downloading this paper as the magic behind Fusion Applications is a combination of the technology and User Experience and most of that is available to you today, and in the latest releases of Applications Unlimited you can see a lot of the technology has already been introduced.
Nadia has also worked with the PDC to create a little Oracle Applications Planning Tool which you can download to help you have the conversation in your organisation as to how you are or could adopt some of this technology.
Then there was a choice, a deeper dive into the User Experience with Ashley or the Technology with Duncan Mills.
Quite interesting that whilst Ashley and Duncan came over from Redwood, they are both British, as is Clive. Nadia works in the Oracle Paris Office and although Algerian by birth has a British passport and studied at Aston University in Birmingham. So don’t think Fusion Applications is just the next product out of Redwood, they couldn’t have done it without us Brits.
So you can see that the UKOUG board has a strategy around Fusion and has worked hard to make sure you are the most educated User Group in the world with the best access.
We are not ready for a Fusion Applications SIG but we do have a Fusion Community on ukoug.org.
A colleague's Thoughts on Fusion
I love the UKOUG conference in Birmingham and I have lots to write, unfortunately I have to catch up on the day job first. I hope to get a chance this weekend but in the meantime here are some thoughts on Fusion from a colleague Amrito Chaube who attended the Fusion Apps demo at UKOUG.
The main reason why I wanted to attend the OUG this time was to have a preview of the Fusion Application, though the OUG, also gives you a feel of the competition and also a chance to Network.
Anyway, this is my impression and I hope the others who have seen the demonstration will be able to provide their inputs.
I think the focus of the presentation was on user experience, and the result was WOW. The interface is web2.0 based, smooth and sexy. I saw some technology bits which I thought I recognised.
The home page had a worklist with various items. This was a cross between the UWQ and outlook. The good thing was that it had my work items, i.e. things that I have to action, and a separate section for things that I need to be aware of, i.e. my leave approval request etc.
There was a secure search, from the Stellent Secure enterprise search, which is sensitive to the position in the organisation hierarchy of the individual. This will not show the bosses salary but will show the subordinates.
There was a visual org chart with a communication interface to help you chat, call (VOIP), IM (aka messenger), which I think is a part of Oracle Beehive.
The screens seemed to have a Siebel like characteristics with view applets and list applets, and show more and show less buttons on each screen. The user can save queries or used globally saved queries like in Siebel.
We saw the HR product first and the most impressive component seemed to be a People tool, which had a social network capability, and this may be true of the entire application. This seemed to come from the People tool in Peoplesoft and had a lot of flexibility, in terms of drilling down to people, looking at their connections, and then starting a HR case/transaction, like promotion. It was very impressive from a presentation perspective, and maybe used to create virtual teams.
We also saw a viewlet form the financial application, which was also quite impressive and was excellent from usability perspective.
My impression was that the usability perspective has rubbed off on Oracle from Siebel or other Product groups that Oracle has acquired! As I have never seen a focus on it earlier. That is very good and provides any application with an edge. The other encouraging signs were the integration points. The Fusion App can integrate with older version of EBS, Peoplesoft or Siebel. 'Seamlessly'? That remains to be seen, however that probably means a lot of work for the SIs.
There was also a lot of focus on embedded BI, to help decision making. This is another sexy feature and I think this is an area where SIs can provide immense valued ads, as the intelligence will have to be based on data stores based on legacy applications in the immediate future.
Finally, as a value Proposition, Oracle believes that the implementation of this would be cheaper, as there would be a lot of configuration that can be done by Business Users. I would like to believe that this meant more Business Analyst type activities and less configuration. The techstack seemed to be Java, however there seems to be a high dependence on AIA and middleware. Though the speaker thought that customisations could be done using cheap Java resources, I disagree, and think that this is a space where first movers will have a lot of advantage in terms of technical skills.
Finally, there was yet no mention of functionality included in comparison to the existing ERPs. This needs to be evaluated as there are more product announcements. This used to be the traditional selling point and was noticeable by its absence, but maybe that's just me! It is an eye catching product and hopefully will help us get out of this current lull. What I am unsure of is how this would impact customer's investment decisions in the near future.
The main reason why I wanted to attend the OUG this time was to have a preview of the Fusion Application, though the OUG, also gives you a feel of the competition and also a chance to Network.
Anyway, this is my impression and I hope the others who have seen the demonstration will be able to provide their inputs.
I think the focus of the presentation was on user experience, and the result was WOW. The interface is web2.0 based, smooth and sexy. I saw some technology bits which I thought I recognised.
The home page had a worklist with various items. This was a cross between the UWQ and outlook. The good thing was that it had my work items, i.e. things that I have to action, and a separate section for things that I need to be aware of, i.e. my leave approval request etc.
There was a secure search, from the Stellent Secure enterprise search, which is sensitive to the position in the organisation hierarchy of the individual. This will not show the bosses salary but will show the subordinates.
There was a visual org chart with a communication interface to help you chat, call (VOIP), IM (aka messenger), which I think is a part of Oracle Beehive.
The screens seemed to have a Siebel like characteristics with view applets and list applets, and show more and show less buttons on each screen. The user can save queries or used globally saved queries like in Siebel.
We saw the HR product first and the most impressive component seemed to be a People tool, which had a social network capability, and this may be true of the entire application. This seemed to come from the People tool in Peoplesoft and had a lot of flexibility, in terms of drilling down to people, looking at their connections, and then starting a HR case/transaction, like promotion. It was very impressive from a presentation perspective, and maybe used to create virtual teams.
We also saw a viewlet form the financial application, which was also quite impressive and was excellent from usability perspective.
My impression was that the usability perspective has rubbed off on Oracle from Siebel or other Product groups that Oracle has acquired! As I have never seen a focus on it earlier. That is very good and provides any application with an edge. The other encouraging signs were the integration points. The Fusion App can integrate with older version of EBS, Peoplesoft or Siebel. 'Seamlessly'? That remains to be seen, however that probably means a lot of work for the SIs.
There was also a lot of focus on embedded BI, to help decision making. This is another sexy feature and I think this is an area where SIs can provide immense valued ads, as the intelligence will have to be based on data stores based on legacy applications in the immediate future.
Finally, as a value Proposition, Oracle believes that the implementation of this would be cheaper, as there would be a lot of configuration that can be done by Business Users. I would like to believe that this meant more Business Analyst type activities and less configuration. The techstack seemed to be Java, however there seems to be a high dependence on AIA and middleware. Though the speaker thought that customisations could be done using cheap Java resources, I disagree, and think that this is a space where first movers will have a lot of advantage in terms of technical skills.
Finally, there was yet no mention of functionality included in comparison to the existing ERPs. This needs to be evaluated as there are more product announcements. This used to be the traditional selling point and was noticeable by its absence, but maybe that's just me! It is an eye catching product and hopefully will help us get out of this current lull. What I am unsure of is how this would impact customer's investment decisions in the near future.
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