Project Lifestyle

How many languages do I need to install in my Single Instance? Can I get away with just using English (or French/Spanish/Chinese/German depending on where HQ is in the world)?

Over the years I have had this discussion on many occasions. Here are some basic truths that keep popping up. Please note that these comments are primarily applicable to functionality in Oracle E-Business Suite but you may be able to extend the ideas to other applications. Your mileage may vary.

I’ll adopt a FAQ format. For simplicity I will assume English as the default base language. You can substitute any other language here for your case – but English always remains installed no matter what.

Also see  the Homework section for additional reference information basics and background regarding NLS (National Language Support) and MLS (Multilingual Support).

How many languages do I need to install? What are the main drivers for making the choice?

Obviously this depends on the number of different language areas you will be covering in your program.

Oracle E-Business Suite R12 supports up to 30 languages (see MetaLink  Note 412218.1 Software Translation Matrix) so there is no lack of choice.

As each additional language installed carries a maintenance and performance overhead you need to choose carefully. Main drivers for consideration are:

• Lack of  foreign language (English) skills amongst the shop floor workers. These are the people using the system for the Procurement and Manufacturing processes. If you are only implementing Financials (for example in a SSC) you may be OK with English only - due to higher education levels/language skills of SSC personnel.
• Workers council sign-off. In some countries you will not get formal system acceptance without a formal workers council sign-off.  You can then encounter a situation where the workers council can give a negative (and binding) ruling against the implementation if the local language had not been installed (due to the previously mentioned point).  This needs to be part of the business case for installing the language.
• In many countries you are expected to provide your statutory reporting in local language.
• Desire to provide trading documents in local language of customer/vendor/partner

 What is the impact of installing all of these languages?

There is an impact on maintenance. About 80%+ of patches have language specific components (i.e. translatable) - so you have to install the translated version of the patch for each of the installed language.

This means increasing number of languages = roughly linear increase on number of patches to be applied. Luckily this need not translate to linear increase in amount of time require to perform the maintenance. 
Specific patching and maintenance best practices can be used to keep maintenance time down, even if you have multiple languages installed.

For detailed info on patching best practice here some links from Steve Chan’s excellent blog.

Release 11i: Patching

• 2008.08.27: Reducing Patching Downtimes with Staged Applications Systems
• 2007.11.27: Which Are Better: Family Packs or Consolidated Updates?
• 2007.06.19: Top 7 Ways of Reducing Patching Downtimes for Apps
• 2007.06.07: Top 5 Myths About Patching Apps Environments
• 2007.05.09: Reducing Patching Downtimes via Shared Apps File Systems

Release 12: Patching

• 2008.08.27: Reducing Patching Downtimes with Staged Applications Systems
• 2008.03.25: Downtime and Apache Restricted Mode in Release 12
• 2007.11.27: Which Are Better: Family Packs or Consolidated Updates?
• 2007.06.19: Top 7 Ways of Reducing Patching Downtimes for Apps
• 2007.06.07: Top 5 Myths About Patching Apps Environments
• 2007.05.09: Reducing Patching Downtimes via Shared Apps File Systems
• 2006.12.15: Patch-Related Enhancements in Release 12          

Do I need to test everything in every language?

Experience shows that (regression) testing every patch or setup change in every language is not needed. What you need is a good set of regression tests in your base language (English, say) supplemented with some random samples for one or more of the other installed languages. You only need to look further if tests in one of the extra languages show problems that are not present in the base language. This much more efficient and cost effective.

Where can I find more reference material?

Links are to relevant notes in MetaLink/My Oracle Support.

Release 11i

• Multilingual Support in Oracle Applications Release 11i
• Oracle Applications NLS Release Notes, Release 11i (11.5.10.2)
• Oracle Applications 11i Internationalization Guide

Release 12

• Globalization Guide for Oracle Applications Release 12