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

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

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!

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