Oracle E-Business Suite Blog

The latest trend in the industry is "Intelligence" aka "Business Intelligence" aka "Analytics".  Oracle not to be outdone has jumped head first into this market with their OBIEE tool.  OBIEE (pronounced "Oh-Bee-Eye-Eee-Eee") is a suite of reporting and analytic tools that Oracle purchased with some stuff that they built themselves.  These are primarily Siebel and Hyperion (Siebel became OBIEE, Siebel + Hyperion became OBIEE Plus) and Oracle XML Publisher.

Personally, I have found OBIEE to be confusing because (a) there are so many moving pieces and (b) the marketing info does not line up exactly with the product itself.  This is my attempt to simplify OBIEE into the few tools that matter most.

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I saw a quote today from Larry Ellison about Oracle's recent acquisition of Sun and immediately had a flashback to the 1980s.  No, not because Larry reminds me of Ferris Bueller (although one could draw certain parallels) but because it seems that we have come full circle with ERP systems.  On a conference call he said:

"Completely integrated systems should be even more popular and extremely profitable,"

These "completely integrated systems" had a name in the 80s: mainframes.  Woh.  This is a shocker for me, because I have spent the past 8 years moving customers off of "completely integrated systems" to multiple-vendor DellLinuxJavaOracle systems. 

Of course Oracle is not going to be rolling out any of those crazy green dumb terminals that I remember as a kid.  Instead, I suspect they are taking a note from Apple and moving in the direction of selling more "out of the box" systems.  Oracle has had the same catch as a Windows machine: you have a ton of flexibility - but it doesn't always come with everything that you need.  A Mac on the other hand gives you everything that you need when you get home.

For Oracle, a pre-packaged offering, means easier support and development models.  Oracle can deliver a server with OS, database, and ERP pre-installed, patched and ready to use and will have more control over all of the variables that go into the system.  This means less moving parts that can cause problems. It will also allow them to build tighter integration between the different technologies (database, java, OS, etc).  There is no limit when the Java guys start working directly with the database guys - it is scary what they could do together.

For the customer, a completely integrated system will reduce both implementation and support costs.  This is especially true for smaller organizations and organizations with lean IT departments.  Imagine getting your new ERP, opening the box, plugging it in, and rocking out HCM and OAB immediately.  No waiting for hardware to arrive, multiple teams involved with installed the OS, ERP, patches, clones, etc.  Or even the cost of bringing in an outside consultant to help offset the workload.   Those additional weeks or months are gone - your implementation truly starts day 1. 

For customers who have more complicated needs, they can still go the "old-school" route of buying hardware and OS to their specifications.  Both are winning solutions.

Unfortunately nothing specific has been announced yet other than the Sun purchase.  A "plug and play" ERP may only be my dream.  And even though Larry Ellison is not Ferris Bueller - Ferris gives us some good advice:

The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?" 

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Release 12.1 is due out in the next few weeks and I was able to get some inside information on the new functionality that will be released for the HCM apps. 

The upgrade from 11.5.10.2 to 12 had big changes for Finance, CRM, and the tech stack - but nothing really changed for HCM (other than being blue and having Checklists).  12.1 (while still blue) is supposed to be the "real" 12 for HCM. KBACE will be jumping in head first - we plan on starting the upgrade process internally right after the release.  

Below are some of the new features in 12.1.  As with any of these releases, there are no guarantees that all of these will actually make it in the release - this is just a best guess until it is actually released. 

Compensation Workbench

• View Performance Appraisals from CWB
• Anniversary/Award Date Based Plans
• Mass Print Total Comp Statements
• Enhanced Individual Compensation Distribution (ICD)

Oracle Learning Management

• Learner Groups
• Mandatory Enrollments
• Learner Attachments
• Class Evaluation
• Cascading Objectives

iRecruitment

• Employee Referrals
• Interview Management
• Recruitment Communications
• Recruitment Dashboard

Performance Management

• Cascading Objectives
• Line of Sigh Objectives
• Off-Line Appraisals
• Performance Management Administrator

OTL

• Supervisor Timesheet Dashboard
• Audit Trail Report
• Recent Timecard Screen
• New Projects/Project-Payroll Timecard Layout
• Default Time Period
• Save Timecard Without Hours
• Default Approval Action

Want to find out if 12.1 is right for you?  Need help with your upgrade? 

Contact KBACE: http://www.kbace.com/index.php/services/r12

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Forget about that PUI - the FND tables will give you everything that you need. 

select fdu.application_column_name
      ,fdu.end_user_column_name
from   fnd_descr_flex_column_usages fdu
      ,fnd_descriptive_flexs fdf
where  fdu.descriptive_flexfield_name = fdf.descriptive_flexfield_name
and    fdf.application_table_name = 'PER_ALL_ASSIGNMENTS_F'
order by 1,2

APPLICATION_COLUMN_NAME        END_USER_COLUMN_NAME         
------------------------------ ------------------------------
ASS_ATTRIBUTE1                 Union Seniority Date
ASS_ATTRIBUTE2                 Acquisition Company                       

2 rows selected.

It even works for Job information:

select fdu.application_column_name
      ,fdu.end_user_column_name
from   fnd_descr_flex_column_usages fdu
      ,fnd_descriptive_flexs fdf
where  fdu.descriptive_flexfield_name = fdf.descriptive_flexfield_name
and    fdf.application_table_name = 'PER_JOBS'
and    descriptive_flex_context_code = 'US'
order by 1,2

APPLICATION_COLUMN_NAME        END_USER_COLUMN_NAME         
------------------------------ ------------------------------
JOB_INFORMATION1               EEO Category                 
JOB_INFORMATION2               Survey Benchmark             
JOB_INFORMATION3               FLSA Code                    
JOB_INFORMATION4               Job Group                    
JOB_INFORMATION5               Line of Progression          
JOB_INFORMATION6               Salary Code                  
JOB_INFORMATION7               EEO Function                 
JOB_INFORMATION8               IPEDS Category               

8 rows selected.

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Don't you just hate it when batch processes like Payroll, BEE, and BENMNGLE take up all the threads and your report sits there pending for what seems like an eternity?  There is something you can do about it. 

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