A few weeks ago my very great friend Floyd Teter blogged about his participation in the Fusion Apps Validation program and what he found. At the time I questioned his definition of NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) but he was happy he had not overstepped the mark, and to be far there has been a lot of positive comment to his posting.
I attended wave two of the validation and there was a lot of discussion around the NDA and blogging and different members of Oracle gave different interpretations. However I have been asked specifically by the track leader of the module I attended not to share anything about that in my blog, so for now I am not. I, and all others included are very fortunate to be part of this and as Oracle ACE Director for applications especially Fusion Apps I want to continue to be part of that trusted group.
The one thing I will say though is I had seen several demos of Fusion Apps before I took part in the validation and was really impressed by the User Experience. I would like to add to that and say that the user experience is not confined to the end user, it is equally true for the maintenance user.
I look forward to the day I can post more detail.
Monday, 31 August 2009
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
My Product Development Committee (PDC) within the International Oracle Usergroups Community (IOUC) is where users groups work together for the benefit of all users.
Since Fusion Applications were first announced we have worked to ensure users are as educated as possible and have their say into the process. Oracle has been great here and I must thank them for their commitment to us throughout the process, but more about that in my next post.
For the past few years Dr Nadia Bendjedou who works for Oracle in the EBS technology area, has been presenting her dynamic white paper The Evolutionary Path to Fusion to many users groups around the world. In fact the PDC are often seen in the front row of her presentations as dedicated groupies.
About 18 months ago we thought it would be a good idea to do a follow up on the paper, it is great to feel motivated by the presentation but when you get back to the office it is more difficult to explain to your colleagues or boss, why this is useful and how it my relate to your organisation. So we worked on a simple tool that might help.
I say simple but actually a lot of people in the PDC and especially Nadia put a lot of hours into how we should do this. We are based all oer the globe and the calls were very early morning for those in Australia and New Zealand and late at night for those of us in Europe, poor Nadia lives in Paris which meant we were finishing at 11pm for her.
But we finished the tool named 'Oracle Applications Planning Tool' and I showed it for the first time at Open World 2008 at the end of one of Nadia's presentations. This was the start of a great double act which we have taken around the world, and people see value in it.
Only problem was we had to get so many people in Oracle to check we weren't given mixed messages or confusing people before we could make the tool available and this has been a long struggle. I work for a big organisation and I know that makes for lot of hurdles when you want to do something out of the ordinary but I still found it very frustrating. The PDC itself is fueled by enthusiasm and passion and that was coming very close to being extinguished as we waited and waited to get this tool out to you.
BUT WE HAVE and it is now live.
Give it a try and then let us know on Oracle Mix what you think.
Thanks to Nadia, Cliff Godwin who has helped make this happen and to all the PDC who worked on getting this together. And thanks to Bambi Staveley in Oracle who put together the web page and made my many edits.
Since Fusion Applications were first announced we have worked to ensure users are as educated as possible and have their say into the process. Oracle has been great here and I must thank them for their commitment to us throughout the process, but more about that in my next post.
For the past few years Dr Nadia Bendjedou who works for Oracle in the EBS technology area, has been presenting her dynamic white paper The Evolutionary Path to Fusion to many users groups around the world. In fact the PDC are often seen in the front row of her presentations as dedicated groupies.About 18 months ago we thought it would be a good idea to do a follow up on the paper, it is great to feel motivated by the presentation but when you get back to the office it is more difficult to explain to your colleagues or boss, why this is useful and how it my relate to your organisation. So we worked on a simple tool that might help.
I say simple but actually a lot of people in the PDC and especially Nadia put a lot of hours into how we should do this. We are based all oer the globe and the calls were very early morning for those in Australia and New Zealand and late at night for those of us in Europe, poor Nadia lives in Paris which meant we were finishing at 11pm for her.
But we finished the tool named 'Oracle Applications Planning Tool' and I showed it for the first time at Open World 2008 at the end of one of Nadia's presentations. This was the start of a great double act which we have taken around the world, and people see value in it.
Only problem was we had to get so many people in Oracle to check we weren't given mixed messages or confusing people before we could make the tool available and this has been a long struggle. I work for a big organisation and I know that makes for lot of hurdles when you want to do something out of the ordinary but I still found it very frustrating. The PDC itself is fueled by enthusiasm and passion and that was coming very close to being extinguished as we waited and waited to get this tool out to you.
BUT WE HAVE and it is now live.
Give it a try and then let us know on Oracle Mix what you think.
Thanks to Nadia, Cliff Godwin who has helped make this happen and to all the PDC who worked on getting this together. And thanks to Bambi Staveley in Oracle who put together the web page and made my many edits.
one small step for man; one giant leap for Debra
Once I said I would never blog, then I said I would never Twitter but next Tuesday I am going to deliver a live webcast for Quest.......
The Oracle ACE Program has a Fusion Middle Kit to enable people to demo FMW with Applications. And thanks to the patience this team has had I have been able to show from a business point of view how easy it is to use SOA with E Business Suite.
My area of interest is Fusion Applications and I have built up a presentation looking at Nadia Bendjedou's excellent white paper (more about this in the next blog), talking about the technology Fusion Applications are being built in and how it is available to use today with all Applications. I have given this presentation around the world and the feedback has been really good. In Australia my analogy for SOA was actually recorded and can be found on youtube
For Collaborate this year Quest asked me to give the presentations for a JDE and then a PeopleSoft audience. The FMW team helped me with the actual demo which is pre canned and despite being very nervous I actually enjoyed the sessions, the feedback on the day was excellent.
So when Quest contacted me and said they were giving on line sessions and were looking at those which scored highest at Collaborate I felt really honoured (and yes that is how we spell honoured in the UK).
Actual session attendee feedback from COLLABORATE 09:
"Explained and simplified a difficult concept!"
"Honest, perfect - just what I wanted."
"Perfect level of detail."
"Great presentation - makes me want to go and see what is out there."
So I said yes, and yesterday I had my rehearsal, thanks Jesse from Quest I couldn't do this without you.
So if you want to hear about Fusion Apps, The technology and How easy it is for you to use it Today, or if you just want to listen to my English accent, sign up.
And I don't often talk about Fujitsu in my blog, but another high scoring presentation at Collaborate that will also be featured in this web cast series is a US colleague of mine Allen Jacot.
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Four into One Does Not Go
It doesn't seem like a year since I posted about last year's paper selection day, but it is.
On average we have 4 papers submitted for each session available. Someone said to me this week they thought we didn't have enough submissions because we always extend the deadline. This is a myth the reason we extend it is people always leave it till the last minute, something happens and they miss the deadline, the office gets a lot of last minute phone calls.
Papers are judged by volunteers and I thought I did well to judge just less than 200, but Ronan beat me with over 400 on the last weekend. It is quite a difficult job as there are only 200 words allowed and you must make sure you don't fall into the teachers' mantra of 'could do better' for all of them.
Other things that drive me mad is where one individual has entered 20 plus papers and you know it will be other people presenting, it puts judges off, but one idea we will look at is to have another field in the entry for submitter so that this will be handled better.
Once we have the judging complete the office rank them, each year they tell us what the mark is if we simply take the top papers. The maximum score is 6 but people tend not to give a 6, and this year the magic number was 4.25, so many, many papers score well and yet fall short of this mark.
Also many papers above this figure also do not make the final cut, sometimes because there are too many high scoring for a particular stream, sometimes because there is a similar paper and sometimes because the stream leads want a specific theme to their stream.
Then there is the final check that people have not be given two sessions at the same time, some first timers are given a chance.
It is a hard working day but also fun with a real buzz as people barter for slots, rooms and papers. I don't want to repeat the post from last year but I did go into a bit more detail.
So as soon as the office have drawn up the final agenda people will hear if they have been selected. Please if you have not been lucky, do not give up, contact your SIG chairs and offer to speak there.
On average we have 4 papers submitted for each session available. Someone said to me this week they thought we didn't have enough submissions because we always extend the deadline. This is a myth the reason we extend it is people always leave it till the last minute, something happens and they miss the deadline, the office gets a lot of last minute phone calls.
Papers are judged by volunteers and I thought I did well to judge just less than 200, but Ronan beat me with over 400 on the last weekend. It is quite a difficult job as there are only 200 words allowed and you must make sure you don't fall into the teachers' mantra of 'could do better' for all of them.
Other things that drive me mad is where one individual has entered 20 plus papers and you know it will be other people presenting, it puts judges off, but one idea we will look at is to have another field in the entry for submitter so that this will be handled better.Once we have the judging complete the office rank them, each year they tell us what the mark is if we simply take the top papers. The maximum score is 6 but people tend not to give a 6, and this year the magic number was 4.25, so many, many papers score well and yet fall short of this mark.
Also many papers above this figure also do not make the final cut, sometimes because there are too many high scoring for a particular stream, sometimes because there is a similar paper and sometimes because the stream leads want a specific theme to their stream.
Then there is the final check that people have not be given two sessions at the same time, some first timers are given a chance.
It is a hard working day but also fun with a real buzz as people barter for slots, rooms and papers. I don't want to repeat the post from last year but I did go into a bit more detail.
So as soon as the office have drawn up the final agenda people will hear if they have been selected. Please if you have not been lucky, do not give up, contact your SIG chairs and offer to speak there.
Update on The Conference Series
I finished the last posting by saying that Siebel was the 5th of 7 in our conference series, so what about the others?
The first event was Ireland and I was really sorry to have missed this, I live in Belfast and think of it as my local event, but before the date was set I had arranged to speak in Australia for the first joint Applications conference Insync09. Ronan Miles hosted this event and a new SIG was launced, Ireland BI
Second came the PeopleSoft conference and I actually presented, thanks to the ACE Program FMW kit.
Ronan and I both missed the Scottish and Hyperion and BI events as we were at ODTUG in the US, but we were with you all in spirit. I knew we would miss Scotland but the date for Hyperion and BI event as they had to change the date because of venue availability. We both hated missing these but in very busy calendar's were we have a day job and overseas committments it will always be difficult.
Then as in my last post came the Siebel event, JD Edwards is in November which I hope to attend and the the Tech & EBS event is in the traditional timeframe and location, ICC Birmingham 31 Nov - 2 Dec.
The reason for splitting up the conference was down to lack of space at the ICC, which meant we had already expanded to 5 days and then the fact that this caused some communities to feel lost and us being unable to meet not only their needs but to not give their Senior Oracle Executives the keynotes they deserved.
It has been and continues to be a lot of hard work not only for directors but more so for the office but we think it is working. What we want next year is for the numbers to grow, they are all much better than for each community last year at conference but there are still other users out there not taking advantage of our offering.
If you are interested in the final two events make sure you come along and look out for more information on the website.
UKOUG Conference Series Siebel Event
I arrived back from the US on the hottest day of the year, arrived at my hotel, shown to my room, in the attic with no air conditioning, but never mind I was so tired I would have slept anywhere.
A few hours later and it was time to meet up the the team also staying at the hotel before our Siebel Conference evnt the next day. I stopped moaning about the room as actually I had a fan which appeared to be rather a luxury :)
It was good to see Steve Austen, Joint Siebel Committee Chair kick off the event (picture).
The event itself was great, Anthony Lye SVP for Siebel was over from the US and as always gave a fantastic talk on where Siebel is and where it is going. Siebel is I believe at the front of adopting new technology (apart from Fusion Applications of course, but they are not here yet), and there is always more to see.The committee had worked hard to put together the agenda which included a comentary on CRM today from a well known journalist in this field Stuart Laughlan, food for thought.
BAck to the fans, the only disapointment for me was that Ascot did not have air conditioning and how I wish I had stolen the hotel fan. We did have a little issue when someone tried to use a pnumatic drill outside but Julius from UKOUG came to the rescue, those assertiveness training courses paid off again and we continued with relative peace and quiet.
Siebel was the 5th of our 7 events for this year's conference series.
A few hours later and it was time to meet up the the team also staying at the hotel before our Siebel Conference evnt the next day. I stopped moaning about the room as actually I had a fan which appeared to be rather a luxury :)
It was good to see Steve Austen, Joint Siebel Committee Chair kick off the event (picture).The event itself was great, Anthony Lye SVP for Siebel was over from the US and as always gave a fantastic talk on where Siebel is and where it is going. Siebel is I believe at the front of adopting new technology (apart from Fusion Applications of course, but they are not here yet), and there is always more to see.The committee had worked hard to put together the agenda which included a comentary on CRM today from a well known journalist in this field Stuart Laughlan, food for thought.
BAck to the fans, the only disapointment for me was that Ascot did not have air conditioning and how I wish I had stolen the hotel fan. We did have a little issue when someone tried to use a pnumatic drill outside but Julius from UKOUG came to the rescue, those assertiveness training courses paid off again and we continued with relative peace and quiet.
Siebel was the 5th of our 7 events for this year's conference series.
Wot No Blog
Last posting was 29th June and yet July has been such a busy month, which I can use as my excuse.
Lots has happened, not least the fact that my last posting was about Ed Abbo leaving and how I was worried what it might mean to Apps Unlimited, and since then Chuck Rozwat has taken a year out to take a Masters.
If you live in the UK you will understand why I find that excuse quite funny as it is what Margaret did to get off The Apprentice.
Good for Chuck but his email reads as if he is leaving, and leaving everything in the hands of Thomas Kurian. Very capable hands, Thomas has done a lot for Oracle and I personally am grateful for how as an Apps Customer I no longer have to wait years for new technology to be certified with Apps. Lets hope Thomas has a little re-org and delegates some of his responsibilities because even the best of us can't take on work from two others and give everything the time it needs. Thomas will be a good leader in Development as long as he has the right team behind him.
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Lots has happened, not least the fact that my last posting was about Ed Abbo leaving and how I was worried what it might mean to Apps Unlimited, and since then Chuck Rozwat has taken a year out to take a Masters.
If you live in the UK you will understand why I find that excuse quite funny as it is what Margaret did to get off The Apprentice.
Good for Chuck but his email reads as if he is leaving, and leaving everything in the hands of Thomas Kurian. Very capable hands, Thomas has done a lot for Oracle and I personally am grateful for how as an Apps Customer I no longer have to wait years for new technology to be certified with Apps. Lets hope Thomas has a little re-org and delegates some of his responsibilities because even the best of us can't take on work from two others and give everything the time it needs. Thomas will be a good leader in Development as long as he has the right team behind him.
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