Yak about Apps...

I can't believe how much time has gone by since my last blog. Which means...I have a lot to share with you.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 is doing great! We have an incredible amount of successful customers doing great things, who are eager to tell their stories about the value they are receiving from this release. Ok, enough talk from me. I am sure you would rather hear from the customers themselves so here are 3 customer summaries that were listed in a press release this month about how "Customers Worldwide Continue to Standardize, Realize Benefits and Further Expand Deployments of the Oracle® E-Business Suite Release 12"

Pace Suburban Bus Upgrades to the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 and Saves More Than US$500,000

Pace Suburban Bus is the premier Chicago suburban transit provider, serving over 130,000 daily riders with fixed bus routes, vanpools, and paratransit services. The company implemented the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 to streamline business processes and help ensure continued access to application support resources.

The implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 has automated the purchasing and requisition process, trimming weeks off procurement cycles. “Upgrading to the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 expanded our existing functionality, improved usability, and allowed us to save more than US$500,000,” said Terrance Brannon, Deputy Executive Director-Internal Services, Pace Suburban Bus.

Falken Tire Corporation Increases Customer Calls Served by 35 Percent with the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

Falken Tire Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Rubber, is a wholesale manufacturer of high performance tires and wheels. The company selected the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 for several reasons, including its ability to help increase visibility into the supply chain, providing insight into product arrivals, transit times and inventory levels, as well as its capabilities that help enable service representatives to enter orders more quickly and provide more information to customers.

As a result of its use of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, the company has increased the number of customer calls it serves by 35 percent and decreased on hold times by 15 percent. “The tire industry is notorious for complicated pricing and programs. The Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 enabled us to more quickly implement new promotions and more effectively manage our discount programs,” said Carlos Prieto, Director of IT, Falken Tire Corporation.

Zebra Technologies Increased Visibility and Improved the Accuracy of Records by Integrating Oracle Customer Hub with the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

Zebra Technologies Corporation provides products and solutions that identify, track, and manage assets, transactions, and people and software – such as printers, supplies, radio frequency identification (RFID) products – to more than 100 countries. The company was looking to consolidate its 140 disparate applications onto a single global system to ensure scalability, agility and visibility while providing an out-of-the-box solution that can meet the company’s legal, language and privacy requirements.

"We selected the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 – running on a single instance – as the company’s application infrastructure standard, a global strategy that the company initiated in Europe," said Don O'Shea, Chief Information Officer, Zebra Technologies Corporation. "We completed the first project phase under budget and anticipate payback on the company’s Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 investment in 18 months."

In addition, there were some great articles written this month about Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 customers. Ed Scannell, Site Editor from SearchOracle.com wrote a piece about how "Oracle's E-Business Suite (Release 12) consolidates HBO's financial operations" as well as an article about how "SMART (Technologies) weighs Oracle vs. SAP, picks E-Business Suite 12 for IFRS compliance

Well, I think that is a good sample of some of the newsy news from organizations who have gone live with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.

To read the articles in full, here are the links

Customers Worldwide Continue to Standardize, Realize Benefits and Further Expand Deployments of the Oracle® E-Business Suite Release 12

Oracle's E-Business Suite consolidates HBO's financial operations

SMART weighs Oracle vs. SAP, picks E-Business Suite 12 for IFRS compliance

It's the night before OpenWorld, and all through San Fran
People were busy as bees trying to schedule and plan
Streets were being closed, to accomodate the crowds
And parties were being planned with bands that are loud
If you are interested in hearing, about E-Business Suite's latest Release
Then the information below should help you for this week.

Enjoy your time at Oracle OpenWorld!

APPCAST:
E-Business Suite at Oracle OpenWorld
For E-Business Suite customers: Get a preview of the must see sessions, demos, customer presentations and other highlights of OpenWorld 2008, September 21st - 25th in San Francisco.

FOCUS ON DOCUMENTS:
Since one of the themes at OpenWorld is "green", the large onsite guide will not be printed (only a 100-page schedule grid will be printed.) Therefore, attendees should look for the Focus On document for their area of interest and print them prior to arriving at Moscone.

The Oracle OpenWorld 2008 Focus On document identifies all relevant content and events for a particular product area, or technology or solution (basically a 3-5 page cheat sheet). Attendees will want to leverage the Focus On document to learn of all the activities and content offered around your area of interest. Focus On is your guide to Oracle OpenWorld 2008.

APPLICATION LOUNGES:
Stop by Oracle OpenWorld's Applications, Database, Middleware, and Industries lounges to meet Oracle product and industry experts and key executives from Oracle's development and strategy teams. In a casual, comfortable environment, you'll have the opportunity to provide feedback about your experiences with Oracle products, learn more about current and upcoming product releases, and ask detailed questions about how to maximize your use of Oracle products. Location: Moscone West, Level 2 Lobby.

KEY SESSIONS:
Top sessions in each of the session tracks for E-Business Suite have been highlighted. Check out which sessions you don't want to miss. Remember to pre-enroll for the sessions you want to attend. By pre-enrolling you'll have priority seating, which is especially important for those popular sessions

Hi Everyone

If you are planning to attend Oracle OpenWorld September 21 - 25 in San Francisco and are interested in the latest information about Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 and 12.1, I have a Focus On document to share with you, with more to come.

In addition, here is a list of the Oracle Keynotes and some very important General Sessions:

Monday, September 22, 2008
9:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. MOSCONE NORTH, HALL D
Complete. Open. Integrated: Oracle's Strategy to Bring Value to Your Business
Charles Phillips, President, Oracle Corporation
Chuck Rozwat, Executive Vice President, Product Development, Oracle

11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. MOSCONE NORTH, HALL D
Applications Unlimited and the Future of Applications
Ed Abbo, Senior Vice President, Applications Development, Oracle

1:00 p.m. MOSCONE WEST 2002/2004
Oracle E-Business Suite Applications Strategy and General Manager Update
Cliff Godwin, Oracle; Murali Subramanian, Oracle

Tuesday September 23, 2008
1:00 p.m.
Oracle E-Business Suite Investment Strategy Overview and Release 12.1 Update
Jon Chorley, Oracle; Ognjen Pavlovic, Oracle

2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. MOSCONE NORTH, HALL D
Your Information@Work
Thomas Kurian, Senior Vice President, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle

5:00 p.m. MOSCONE WEST 2002/2004
Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Customer Success and Upgrade Panel
Sreeni Garlapati, Meru Networks; Tom Holt, NETGEAR; Rich Pickett, San Diego State University; Annette Melatti, Oracle

Wednesday September 24, 2008
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. MOSCONE NORTH, HALL D
Extreme. Performance.
Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle Corporation

* ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE - APPLICATIONS TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

Many organizations have implemented or upgraded to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (EBS R12). There are a lot of available materials for you to read or listen to about the business value of the latest version of Oracle E-Business Suite. I thought it would be helpful if I put a sample of what's available in one location (if you want more, please send me a note):

- Video of Boral Ltd (Australia), produces construction materials - EBS R12 has helped them with enterprise-wide visibility visabiltyof their assets

- Video of Scottish Government (Scotland), public sector - talks about the Flexibility of Oracle E-Business Suite HRMS Release 12 

- Video of UTStarcom (USA), manufactures, integrates and supports IP-based, end-to-end networking and telecommunications solutions - Finds Value In Upgrading To E-Business Suite Release 12

- White Paper about "Finance Shared Services in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12"

- Snapshot about how Seiko Epson Corp (Japan), Reforms its Sourcing Process for Product Competitiveness and Better Supplier Relations with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

- Snapshot about how the Scottish Government (Scotland) uses Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 to transform their Human Resources through Shared Services and Best Practices

- Press Release about Roamfree (Australia), online global accommodation Search Company - has streamlined and standardized best-practice administrative and financial processes within its global enterprise with Oracle EBS R12

- Press Release about Xsigo Systems (USA), maker of datacenter infrastructure solutions - discusses their experience with Oracle E-Business Suite R12 (Financials, HR, CRM, Order Management, Manufacturing, Procurement)

This year, at the Collaborate 08 conference held in Denver, Colorado, attendees were excited about hearing the details of how they could get to the most current release of E-Business Suite - especially now that Oracle is live on the most current version of the application. All of the E-Business Suite sessions that had the words upgrade or roadmap in the title were standing room only or completely filled. 

With regards to Release 12 and the upcoming Release 12.1, customers are onboard with the fact that the new functionality in the latest releases will allow them to run a more efficient back office and a more optimized supply chain operations. Coupling the functionality advances with the upgrade to modern middleware technology platform, provides customers a unique opportunity to take advantage of Fusion today.�

For anyone interested in hearing customers talk about the business value of E-Business Suite Release 12, click here to access a customer video montage

FOCUS ON E-BUSINESS SUITE

I am looking forward to speaking with you all at Collaborate '08 in Denver, Colorado Sunday, April 13 - Thursday, April 17.   As I may have mentioned, I have recently moved into EBS Product Strategy so I will be focusing on the EBS content and customers while at Collaborate this year.

I quickly reviewed the agenda and started putting together a list of sessions I must go to, want to go to and would like to go to. 

NOTE: Please pre-register for the sessions you really want to go to because several, like Nadia Bendjedou's "Upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12: Best Practices"   Thursday at 11:00am, are already sold out.   

KEYNOTE: Building, Acquiring and Integrating Business Software - an Oracle Update Location: Wells Fargo Theatre

Charles Phillips, President

Tuesday April 15, 2008

9:45 a.m. � 10:45 p.m.

Oracle's EPM System: Driving Insights to Action

Location: Four Seasons Ballroom 4 John Kopcke, SVP, BI & Performance Management

11:00 a.m. � 12:00 p.m.

Achieving Enterprise Transformation with Oracle's Best-in-Class Supply Chain Applications

Location: Room 210 Rick Jewell, SVP, Applications Development

1:45 p.m. � 2:45 p.m.

E-Business Suite Executive Update & Roadmap

Location: Four Seasons Ballroom 4 Cliff Godwin, SVP, Applications Development

Wednesday April 16, 2008

8:30 a.m. � 9:30 a.m. Enabling Business Transformation Through Oracle Application Integration Architecture

Location: Four Seasons Ballroom 4 Jose Lazares, VP, Applications Development

9:45 a.m. � 10:45 a.m. Introduction to Fusion Applications Location: Four Seasons Ballroom 4  Steve Miranda, SVP, Applications Development

11:00 a.m. � 12:00 p.m. Upgrading to Oracle Fusion Applications: Planning Ahead

Location: Four Seasons Ballroom 4 Cliff Godwin, SVP, Applications Development

AGENDAS

For a list of the other EBS Sessions and demo pod click here. To go to the OAUG website and see the entire Collaborate '08 line up, click here

Thanks to Floyd Teter, I have been "Orablog Tagged". According to Jake at AppsLab, the Oracle blogosphere has been around for a while, and recently, with Twitter and Facebook usage on the rise, we are becoming a more tight-knit community.

The goal is to learn more about the people you interact with using New Web. So, here are eight things you probably don�t know about me:

1) I enjoy playing games - bridge, scrabble, chinese checkers, etc.

2) I didn't get married until I was 40

3) I like to attend big sporting events like World Series and  Superbowls (remember, being single until 40 gave me a lot of disposable cash) and local events like the San Jose Sharks

4) I was a downhill slalom ski racer in highschool

5) I was an Old Style Girl in College (obviously I went to school in the midwest) and for those that have never had Old Style Beer, it is quite good and has been the proud sponsor of the Chicago Cubs since 1950

6) For the past 8 years, I have hosted a Superbowl party at my house. We not only have a football pool, but we get the advertising list prior and pool on who will have the best ad

7) I have been helping raise money for the Ronald McDonald House, who helps families who have kids with cancer, for 7 years by being an assistant chair for their fundraiser, Denim to Diamonds

8) I am inspired by my family and look forward to seeing them at the end of each day.

OK, so who can I tag - I'll go after people who haven't blogged in awhile to see if we can revive them. Luke Kowalski, Jeffrey Pease,  Terrance Wampler, Scott Weinberg, Ken Pulverman,

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year!

I hope you all have been able to take some time off to enjoy the end of 2007 and plan for work and fun in 2008. 

For those who are ready to jump back into work, I wanted to let you know that we have taped and released, in an iSeminar format, Cliff Godwin's presentation from Oracle OpenWorld about Upgrading to Fusion Applications: Planning Ahead.

New tools and Next-Generation Applications give Customers Choice

Oracle application customers have a wide range of choices when it comes to planning ahead - staying with their current products, upgrading to the latest versions of the products, adopting new technology and putting a roadmap in place to move to the next generation product.  

As Oracle moves forward and continues to invest in their current industry-leading Applications Unlimited product lines, they are in parallel, investing in a next-generation set of products. This innovative upgrade strategy allows customers to structure their upgrade to the Fusion applications in an evolutionary fashion, making it possible for organizations to take advantage of some of the Fusion technologies early on; such as the Oracle Identity Management, the Oracle SOA Suite together with Oracle Application Integration Architecture etc�. while they�re still using their existing application systems.

For customers who would like to upgrade, Oracle will be delivering automated data upgrades, migration aids and tools to help customers create their own roadmap through the choices that make the most sense for their business needs.

Hear Cliff Godwin, Oracle�s senior vice president of Applications Development, in a special iSeminar, talk about the benefits that drive upgrades, the importance of upgrading to latest Applications Unlimited releases and why upgrading to Fusion applications will be an evolutionary path. 

I am back from Oracle OpenWorld and Thanksgiving holiday and am finally in the swing of things to start writing, vs. catching up.  I will start with my critique of Oracle OpenWorld - I thought it was amazing and extremely well organized. 

There were more then 42,000 people who invaded San Francisco and I found it very easy to find the people I needed to find, find the sessions I needed to attend (many were back to back in the same room which was very helpful) and broker concert tickets on Wednesday from people who didn't want to go to the Cow Palace - to people who were desperately looking for tickets to hear Billy Joel and others perform. 

I even stood on the corner of Howard and 3rd in front of the W Hotel at 7:30pm screaming, New Jersey, trying to give a colleague of a friend concert tickets as a thank you for working the demo booth for 4 days, because someone at my most current reception gave me another spare ticket and I think everyone who wanted to go to the concert, should go.

OK, so what sessions did I think were good?  Well, I really didn't sit through a bad session.   For instance, I think Larry's opening speech about the history of Oracle was fascinating. If you missed it, you should definitely hear the replay because it was inspirational. For Oracle Application content, I again thought Larry's expression of Fusion Applications on Wednesday was interesting and specific which was the first I had heard anyone speak publically about dates and delivery of the product. 

Steve Miranda's talk about Fusion Applications was wonderful. In fact, a customer asked me why he wasn't a keynote? I liked his 4 bucket approach of what Fusion Applications is - Standards-based, Manageable, Secure and Productive. 

I think Cliff Godwin's talk about Fusion Applications being an upgrade from current Application Unlimited products (not a reimplementation), was very compelling. I saw many customers in the audience nodding their heads in agreement yet he also emphasized or deemphasized the rush to move to the first version of Fusion Applications unless an organization was ready.  He talked about the benefits of staying on the most current release of the Application Unlimited products and specifically highlighted the added functionality of the latest releases that came out in 2007 for all products.

If you didn't have a chance, or couldn't get in because all of her 5 sessions were sold out, to attend one of Nadia Bendjedou's talks about "10 Things You Can Do to Prepare for Fusion Applications", then you should definitely go to the Oracle OpenWorld 2007 Content Catalog and get the notes.  Nadia's content is so informative. In fact, an Oracle E-Business Suite customer, Floyd Teter of Jet Propulsion Lab, spoke at Oracle OpenWorld about how he has created a Roadmap to Fusion for his organization based on Nadia's 10 things and gave a progress report of what they have done.  Floyd will be following up on his progress report at the Oracle User Group Conference, Collaborate '08, in Denver in April.

Besides hosting a few customers around the event, I also met a lot of new customers by hanging out at the customer video area. I learned a lot about what customers are doing with Secure Enterprise Search, MDM and other Fusion Middleware products.

If you're looking for links to Oracle OpenWorld session presentations, you can find them at this link:

• OpenWorld 2007 San Francisco Content Catalog 
  
• Userid:  cboracle
  
• Password:  oraclec6

In August, I blogged about registering for the November Oracle OpenWorld 2007 conference and encouraged you to confirm a hotel room if you planned on attending. I hope you all took my advice because I think the nearest hotel room is some place around Microsoft headquarters! 

Any ways, this event should be fantastic!  The Oracle application executive speaker line-up is powerful -  Ed Abbo, Cliff Godwin and Jesper Andersen - along with customers from large and small companies who have implemented all different configurations of Oracle�s Application Unlimited products.  If you would like more information about an Oracle OpenWorld session, schedule, etc.  go to http://www.oracle.com/openworld/2007/index.html.  Please note: To guarentee attendance in a session, please pre-register for that specific session!

In addition, have you seen the music line up for Wednesday night, November 14 at the Cow Palace?  It is incredible!  http://www.oracle.com/openworld/2007/appreciation.html. I have seen Billy Joel several times and have never been disappointed. I haven't seen Lenny Kravitz but would love to. And the last time I saw Stevie Nicks was with Tom Petty. I would love to see her with Mick Fleetwood.

Finally, I look forward to meeting many of you in San Francisco. Here are a few sessions that I recommend as a must attend or at least, where I will be hanging out with Oracle application enthusiasts. Check the show daily for any time or room changes.

Have Fun

During my many years at Oracle, and/or working for Oracle partners, I have met an extraordinary group of Oracle application evangelists.  These people, right, wrong or indifferent, have spent many waking hours of their own personal time, educating and helping others succeed.

Well, I am excited to announce that Oracle has established  the Oracle ACE Program for Application Advocates which will now recognize and reward members of the Oracle Applications communities for their past contributions. These individuals are technically proficient (when applicable) and willingly share their knowledge and experiences.

Areas of contribution or activity include but are not limited to:

• Oracle Discussion Forums
  
• Content submissions such as technical papers, articles, code samples, utilities
  
• Oracle book authorship
  
• Oracle-related blogs
  
• Oracle-related podcasts
  
• Oracle event speaker
  
• Participation in Oracle programs such as:
  
  
  
  • Customer Reference Program
    
  • Beta Programs
    
  • User Groups

The benefits of being an Oracle ACE include:

• Recognition and promotion on Oracle Web sites as an "official" expert
  
  
  
  • Profile posted in online Oracle ACE Directory
    
  • Oracle ACE icon ( ) added to Oracle Discussion Forum profile as well as published article bylines
  
  
• An Oracle ACE appreciation gift
  
• Invitations to participate in Oracle ACE activities

Nominations can be made by anyone. Nomination form and instructions can be found here.

Look for the (signifies ACE) on Oracle Web sites and discussion forums; it signifies "ACE-dom" for the designated name.

In talking with Oracle customers and partners, I have found that many companies all over the world have started on the Fusion path, and are achieving amazing results. Are you one of these pioneers?
 
The Oracle Innovation Award has been launched to honor Oracle customers who are creatively using Oracle Fusion Middleware with Oracle Applications to offer unique business value. To be eligible, organizations must:

- Be using at least one component of Oracle Fusion Middleware
- Be using at least one of the Oracle Applications
- Have a solution in production or in active development

The Award Selection Committee, consisting of individuals from Oracle, OAUG and QUEST will choose the winners. Winners will be judged on multiple factors including, but not limited to:

- Level of impact (ROI/soft benefits) relative to the size of the organization
- Complexity of implementation
- Future plans

To submit a nomination for the Oracle Innovation Award:

- Download and complete the official nomination form
- Send form to innovation-awards_ww@oracle.com or fax it to 650-633-2694

Nominations must be received by 5:00 p.m. PDT on Friday, October 5th, 2007. The top 25 winning organizations will be notified by Oct 15th 2007.  To see what you will win, go to:

http://www.oracle.com/applications/oracle-innovations-award.html

Good Luck!

I have moved from the Product Marketing organization at Oracle to Development or to what I used to think was the dark side.  But what I am now finding is that there is a very bright light at the end of the tunnel and beyond.  I have joined the Fusion Upgrade Program Office (FUPO), which is a new organization within Development and a group that employs people who are doing great things.  Their focus is on all aspects of the Oracle applications customer experience when upgrading from any of the Oracle Applications Unlimited product lines to Fusion Applications.  Key upgrade questions such as building a roadmap, choosing a time for migrating data and customizing extensions are addressed by this team.

Delivering Innovation

Oracle has been a leader in the software business for more than 30 years.  During this time, technology has evolved from mainframe to client-server, to internet architecture, and through it all, Oracle has continually delivered innovation to ensure customer success.

Oracle's strategy is to expand its applications offerings with acquisitions of best in class vendors.  But rather than conforming to traditional industry practices, Oracle has changed the rules of what it means for one vendor to acquire another. The Applications Unlimited Program is a good example of how Oracle is thinking about their customer's piece of mind.  This program is committed to advancing current application product lines beyond the delivery of its enterprise application suite for the next generation product, Fusion Applications. Applications Unlimited provides customers the choice of continuing to receive value from their existing application product lines or the opportunity to move to Fusion Applications.

For existing application customers who want to adopt Fusion Applications, Oracle is dedicating people to focus on delivering technology and best practices for a better customer upgrade experience.

Dedicated to Customer Success

The Fusion Upgrade Program Office is dedicated to helping customers upgrade to Fusion Applications successfully.  The Office has three main areas of focus:

-  Delivering tools, services and best practices for customers to create a roadmap to Fusion that meets their business needs

-  Offering automated upgrade paths from previous releases of Oracle Applications to Fusion Applications

-  Providing migration aids to support the upgrade of custom extensions

Evolving to Fusion

If upgrading to Fusion Applications makes sense for your organization, then the Fusion Upgrade Program Office will provide the information and services needed to create a roadmap to Fusion. Oracle has created Fusion technologies that are available today to help organizations evolve to Fusion applications. By adopting these technologies, customers will be able to increase the benefits of their current applications, build skills on the technical foundation of Fusion applications and gain experience to plan an upgrade to Fusion with greater accuracy and less risk.

Customers can ask about the following Fusion technologies and solutions today:

-  Oracle Application Integration Architecture, reduces integration costs

-  Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, makes better business decisions

-  BI Publisher, improves flexibility and reduces the cost of custom reporting

-  Oracle Identity Management, improves security

-  Enterprise Manager, unifies system management across applications, middleware, and database

-  Secure Enterprise Search, lets users search application data while enforcing security policies

-  Oracle WebCenter,  accesses data from multiple sources in an integrated UI

As organizations evaluate the decision to upgrade to Fusion Applications, the Fusion Upgrade Program Office will be there to assist customers, so that they have the information, tools and services needed for a successful path to Fusion.

Learn More

For more information about Fusion Applications go to: www.oracle.com/fusion

I have moved from the Product Marketing organization at Oracle to Development or to what I used to think was the dark side.  But what I am now finding is that there is a very bright light at the end of the tunnel and beyond.  I have joined the Fusion Upgrade Program Office (FUPO), which is a new organization within Development and a group that employs people who are doing great things.  Their focus is on all aspects of the Oracle applications customer experience when upgrading from any of the Oracle Applications Unlimited product lines to Fusion Applications.  Key upgrade questions such as building a roadmap, choosing a time for migrating data and customizing extensions are addressed by this team.

Delivering Innovation

Oracle has been a leader in the software business for more than 30 years.  During this time, technology has evolved from mainframe to client-server, to internet architecture, and through it all, Oracle has continually delivered innovation to ensure customer success.

Oracle's strategy is to expand its applications offerings with acquisitions of best in class vendors.  But rather than conforming to traditional industry practices, Oracle has changed the rules of what it means for one vendor to acquire another. The Applications Unlimited Program is a good example of how Oracle is thinking about their customer's piece of mind.  This program is committed to advancing current application product lines beyond the delivery of its enterprise application suite for the next generation product, Fusion Applications. Applications Unlimited provides customers the choice of continuing to receive value from their existing application product lines or the opportunity to move to Fusion Applications.

For existing application customers who want to adopt Fusion Applications, Oracle is dedicating people to focus on delivering technology and best practices for a better customer upgrade experience.

Dedicated to Customer Success

The Fusion Upgrade Program Office is dedicated to helping customers upgrade to Fusion Applications successfully.  The Office has three main areas of focus:

-  Delivering tools, services and best practices for customers to create a roadmap to Fusion that meets their business needs

-  Offering automated upgrade paths from previous releases of Oracle Applications to Fusion Applications

-  Providing migration aids to support the upgrade of custom extensions

Evolving to Fusion

If upgrading to Fusion Applications makes sense for your organization, then the Fusion Upgrade Program Office will provide the information and services needed to create a roadmap to Fusion. Oracle has created Fusion technologies that are available today to help organizations evolve to Fusion applications. By adopting these technologies, customers will be able to increase the benefits of their current applications, build skills on the technical foundation of Fusion applications and gain experience to plan an upgrade to Fusion with greater accuracy and less risk.

Customers can ask about the following Fusion technologies and solutions today:

-  Oracle Application Integration Architecture, reduces integration costs

-  Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, makes better business decisions

-  BI Publisher, improves flexibility and reduces the cost of custom reporting

-  Oracle Identity Management, improves security

-  Enterprise Manager, unifies system management across applications, middleware, and database

-  Secure Enterprise Search, lets users search application data while enforcing security policies

-  Oracle WebCenter,  accesses data from multiple sources in an integrated UI

As organizations evaluate the decision to upgrade to Fusion Applications, the Fusion Upgrade Program Office will be there to assist customers, so that they have the information, tools and services needed for a successful path to Fusion.

Learn More

For more information about Fusion Applications go to: www.oracle.com/fusion

It�s interesting, when talking to small and medium size businesses (SMB) in general, I find that they don�t usually think of Oracle�s application products as a solution for their organization. After doing much research, what I have found is that Oracle has helped more than 19,000 SMB customers in a variety of industries and across many geographies. So, why is there a disconnect? 

When I think about this logically, it would make sense that companies large and small should have similar business challenges such as globalization, regulations, customer-driven markets, internet technologies, etc.  The only difference I see is that they might not be able to afford long and costly drawn-out application integration projects like a Fortune 1000 company can. 

So, why should the SMB market buy into Oracle�s Accelerate Program?

1)  Offers the best of the best applications with highly configurable functionality, resulting in tailored industry solutions

2)  Provides prepackaged and prebundled industry segment-level solutions by geography � more then 80 � it's all about choices

3)  Has Business Accelerators, that accelerate the time from discovery to go-live � taking a customer through all the typical questions about their business and implementating the system to those specifications and delivering the speed and predictability that customers want.

4)  Has a strong ecosystem of partners who include their intellectual property in the Accelerate Solution, resulting in even more of an industry fit

5)  Allows partner intellectual property to be reviewed by Oracle so that the customer never strays from the upgrade path

Bottom line, Oracle�s Accelerate Program drastically reduces implementation times for small and medium businesses. Check it out!

Did you know there is a new BPOer in town? Well, not so new but Oracle did just formalize their Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) program and has officially named it �BPO Powered by Oracle�.  It is a �sell through� partner program that's goal is to place Oracle applications, technology and services such as On Demand, �under the hood� of BPO provider service offerings. By partnering with leading BPO providers, Oracle gives customers more choice when it comes to leveraging Oracle software. Just to confirm�Oracle does not want to be a BPO provider.

So, here are the top 10 things I have learned about BPO Powered by Oracle:

1) Why is Oracle doing this NOW?

The BPO market is growing twice as fast as the enterprise applications market. There is a growing demand for BPO services. BPO providers are facing a challenge of growing their business aggressively while retaining margins and mitigating the risk of service delivery failure. Legacy platforms of the established providers do not work well in the BPO world.  New BPO entrants need robust and scalable platforms to grow fast.

2) Has Oracle had any notable BPO successes to date?

Yes.  For example, of the top thirty 2005 HR & Payroll outsourcing deals, Oracle applications were under the covers in half of them. In addition to HRO, Oracle has also had success in Procurement Outsourcing with large enterprises across the Financial Services, Hospitality, and Consumer Products industries.

3) How do Oracle customers benefit from BPO Powered by Oracle?

For customers, BPO Powered by Oracle represents a new choice for how to leverage their application and technology investment, ensuring process continuity while lowering the risk of business process transition.  In addition to on-premise and hosted instances, customers can now choose to go BPO and leverage a service provider�s best practices in managing non-core, back office processes.

4) How do Partners benefit from BPO Powered by Oracle?

In delivering a service, time-to-revenue is in direct relation to time-to-deployment - which in turn is linked to the service delivery platform.  Oracle�s best-in-class applications and technology insures that partners will not only be able to bring customers on line faster, but that partners will be able to upgrade customers seamlessly to new releases when they become available.  Relative to other ERP platforms, Oracle has an outstanding record for getting customers and partners up to current releases.

5) What processes are likely candidates to be outsourced?

Payroll, benefits administration, call centers, and accounts payable are commonly outsourced today.  Some of the more aggressive companies are also outsourcing indirect spend though procurement BPO and/or accounts payable and receivables via FAO.

6) What BPO service providers have signed up as partners?

Because the official program is new, Oracle is in negotiations with several tier one providers as well as many tier two providers.  In the coming months -  stay tuned - provider agreements are being finalized.

7) How does the Oracle On Demand offering fit into the BPO program?

Oracle�s On Demand offering compliments BPO Powered by Oracle.  For those service providers who don�t have core competencies in running datacenters or the associated IT infrastructure, On Demand makes perfect sense. It allows service providers to focus on what they do best � deliver differentiating services.  Who understands how to manage Oracle applications better than Oracle after all? 

8) What is unique about BPO Powered by Oracle?

A formal BPO program makes it easier to do business with Oracle. While perpetual licensing is still an option, BPO Powered by Oracle allows BPO providers access to subscription-based pricing, which addresses a key expectation � that our licensing model match the way they price services.  This is as important as the quality and the functional richness of our products. 

9) Any final advice to existing Oracle customers?

First, understand that integration between the retained processes and the outsourced processes is a key driver to reducing TCO.  If you�ve already made an investment in Oracle, look for a BPO provider that has done the same. Second, end-user training and change management will be significantly lower in cases where both the retained processes and outsourced processes are run on the same platform.

10) How can I find out more?

Readers can go to www.oracle.com/bpo

Partners should go to the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) for detailed information on how to take advantage of BPO Powered by Oracle.

Or, check out this AppCast (application podcast) about the unique attributes of Oracle's BPO strategy. The Benefits of BPO Powered by Oracle

While at Collaborate 07 in Las Vegas last month, I happen to attend an incredible session led by my colleage, Nadia Bendjedou, about �What Customers Can Do Today to Prepare for Fusion Applications�. For those of you who didn�t get to attend this or haven�t had a chance to participate in one of her many Webcasts and or Podcasts, I thought I would highlight some of her best practices � Top 10 things to do to prepare for Fusion Applications.

1. Consider Upgrading to the Latest Release of your Applications.

For example, Oracle E-Business Suite - 11i10 or R12, PeopleSoft Enterprise - 8.8, 8.9 or 9.0, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne - 8.11 or 8.12, Siebel - 7.8, 8.0 applications

2. Rethink your Customization Strategy

a) Is what I put in place still valid and worth keeping?
b) If they are still required, should customers evaluate if there
   are better ways of doing/developing these customizations?
c) Should I think about engineering for the future with products
   that will survive the upgrade to Fusion? What are those
   products?
d) What are the benefits of implementing Fusion technology?

3. Put together a Project Plan to migrate to Fusion

a) Are there areas where you will need to upgrade first?
b) Do I need to evaluate the drivers (business as well as IT)
    to upgrade to Fusion Applications?
c) Is there a pilot project for upgrading to Fusion, based on
    geography, departmental/functional silos or other reasons?

4. Take advantage of Oracle�s Fusion Architecture and Fusion Middleware

a) How can I evaluate the benefits of Oracle Fusion
    Architecture?
b) Does it solve business problems such as security and
    compliance, integrating new business flows at lower cost
    and or is it just about cleaning and consolidating the  
    critical data?
c) You can actually use the Fusion Technology today. Go to 
    www.oracle.com/fusion for more details.

5.  Consider Master Data Management

a) Master Data Management (MDM), is a data hub tool that
    enables you to synchronize critical data such as
    customers, suppliers and products - in a single, accurate,
    consistent view of the company�s data, whether from
    packaged, legacy or custom applications.
b) You should consider consolidating and cleaning your
    critical  data about customers, suppliers and products
    before going to Fusion.

6. Move to SOA-based Integration

a) Find out from Oracle what they are doing to make their
    suite (EBS, PSFT, SEBL and JDE) of applications 
    SOA-enabled?  Are they providing new capabilities in each
    product to help them play in a SOA world?
b) Check out Oracle Fusion Middleware � it is a complete
    product line - much more than just the application server.  It
    includes a process orchestration modeling tool BPEL PM,
    business activity monitoring (BAM), as well as an
    enterprise services bus (ESB).  All these tools are known
    as the SOA   suite and can be used by ALL Oracle
    customers today (EBS, PSFT, SEBL, JDE as well as other
    point solutions such as Oracle Retail, G-Log etc... ).
c) Consider leveraging Oracle�s Application Integration
    Architecture (AIA), which develops a number of Process
    Industry Packs to integrate various applications products,
    namely SEBL, EBS, G-Log, PSFT etc�. these can be
    tailored by customers to fit their applications infrastructure.

7. Extend your Business Intelligence Portfolio

a) Adopt Oracle�s enterprise reporting, publishing & business
    intelligence tool (comes with each of our Applications). All
    applications have been certified with Fusion BI known as
    Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition or OBI EE,
    which includes XML Publisher (also known as BI Publisher)
b) Start converting your reports to XMLP.Your users will love it! c) Leverage OBI EE as well as XMLP to improve and enhance 
    your enterprise reporting & analytics today. You will be a
    head of the game - these are part of the Fusion Technology.

8. Secure your Global Enterprise by Consolidating

a) Review your custom and legacy applications.  You may be 
    at risk not only to data fragmentations but also to security
    fragmentation which could increase your security
    vulnerability and security risks. 
b) Start consolidating security functions by centralizing
    access control (by implementing LDAP and SSO), ensuring
    data privacy and enabling compliance for the entire
    enterprise.
c) Externalize security functions from the applications (where
    it was built by the traditional applications) to a centralized
    and professionally managed security infrastructure).
d) Get ahead of the curve by using Oracle�s Fusion Security
    (known as the Oracle Identity Management), knowing it is
    the security infrastructure for Fusion Applications.

9. Consider Grid Computing

a) Think �Grid� at all levels before going to Fusion. Especially
    in a SOA-world where services are independent, well-
    defined encapsulations of software functionality that can be
    invoked over a network using heterogeneous platforms and
    execution environments. 
         i. Grid computing is about resource allocation,
            information sharing & high availability at lower cost. 
         ii. Resource allocation ensures that all who need or 
             request resources are getting what they need, that 
             resources are not standing idle while requests are 
             going unserviced. 
         iii. Information sharing makes sure that the users and
             applications need is always available. 
         iv. High availability features guarantee all the data and
             computation is always there, just like a utility 
             company always provides electric power.

10. Centralize your Lifecycle Management

a) Minimize hardware, software and system management
    costs by moving to Oracle�s Grid Control, also known as
    the Oracle Enterprise Manager - that is the centralized
    management tools that help you manage your applications,
    database, middleware, operating system, storage and the
    network � all from one console.
         i. Oracle Enterprise Manager works with most of 
            Oracle�s applications, using the Applications
            Management Packs. These packs reduce efforts to
            manage multiple environments, allow faster discovery
            and diagnosis of incidents and provide rapid
            provisioning and scaling.
b) What is great about the console is that it is the very same
    console that will also manage the Fusion Applications.
c) Start with Grid Control today. You will be able to plug in
    your first Fusion pilot along side your EBS, PSFT or SEBL
    applications as if it were just another application in your
    enterprise.
d) Grid Control will be the hub of Oracle Applications Lifecycle
    Management.

Well, those are my notes. I hope this helps you. To see Nadia�s slides from her session, go to:

http://www.oracle.com/partners/home/personalized/global/fusion-application/apac-fusion-apps-champs-cal-pres-070125.pdf

What does this mean to Oracle customers? I was corresponding with a customer the other day via email and he said:

"I'm excited by the steps Oracle is taking to prepare their customers for the future of Oracle Applications.  Oracle is providing customers with numerous choices for moving forward through Fusion Middleware, Applications Integration Architecture, and the upcoming Fusion Applications.  At the same time, Oracle is providing a means for customers to move forward at their own pace by protecting current application investments through the Applications Unlimited and Lifetime Support programs."

Floyd Teter
System Engineer for Institutional Business Systems
Jet Propulsion Lab

Welcome to my first Blog. Through this communciation, I hope to keep my readers up to date about the latest Oracle application product releases � whether it is E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne or World.  I will also discuss our latest application technologies that can not only help Oracle users prepare for Fusion but also I will highlight application technologies that will help Oracle users gain better value from the Oracle Applications they have already invested in and hopefully, are using today

I will try to talk about customer successes, that is always the hardest thing to get approvals for, and anything else that I find interesting � maybe -- like our user group communities and the benefits they offer their network of subscribers.

Just so you all know, I am also the Editor-in-Chief for Oracle�s Application Podcast series, AppCasts, so if you haven�t tuned in to listen via www.oracle.com/appcasts , iTunes or other RSS feeds, you should.

Let�s get started with my first topic�Drum Roll Please

TOPIC: Application Integration Architecture

A few weeks ago I attended Oracle�s User Group Conference, Collaborate 07, in Las Vegas, and I attended the keynote session where Charles Phillips announced a new offering, focused on helping customers� seemlessly integrate their applications using best practices to support mission-critical business processes within an organization (wow! that is a mouthful!). Oracle�s Application Integration Architecture provides pre-built, open standards-based, sustainable integrations that will tie applications together and generate value for customers while still being supported and maintained by Oracle within our roadmap and evolution plan.

Top 10 benefits to AIA:

 1. Open standards means partners can integrate to our broad portfolio of applications more easily using AIA.

 2. Provides Choice, faster development and implementation times as well as supports Oracle�s Applications Unlimited commitment.

 3. Offers customers integration options that supports Oracle plans to bring all of its acquisitions together.

 4. Makes best of breed functionality, practical again by enabling disparate systems to behave as a suite.

 5. Powered by Fusion Middleware

 6. Leverages the same technology that will be used in Fusion Applcations, thus providing a pathway to Fusion.

 7. Gives customers value today through the use of SOA and a flexible infrastructure.

 8. Minimizes risks and lowers the cost of companies doing integrations themselves.

 9. Provides a Superior Ownership Experience for customers.

10. Rich in Industry best practices for Telco, FSI, Retail, etc.

Product integration has traditionally been very time consuming, costly, and requires configuration with each product upgrade.  With Oracle�s Application Integration Architecture, customers get greater business agility because they are enabled to quickly modify those business processes that span multiple applications.

For more information about AIA, check out Jose Lazare�s AppCast:

The Value of Oracle's Application Integration Architecture (AIA) to IT Managers

Or go to http://www.oracle.com/applications/oracle-application-integration-architecture.html

What does this mean to Oracle customers? I spoke with several at Collaborate and they are very excited but I quickly documented a customer�s comments I had the other day:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are very excited about Oracle�s Application Integration Architecture. This offering will save us the cost of integrating all of our applications ourselves. 

As it happens, we have a lot of Oracle Applications already at KPN.  And they all need to work together seamlessly.  If we have to build our own integration amongst all of our applications, this would be a serious cost for us as well as bring additional risks, because upfront you don�t know if all that integration is going to work.  So there are some major benefits for us to use Oracle�s Application Integration Architecture.

Ernst Lamein

Manager IT Architecture CRM at KPN

Telco market leader in the Netherlands