Infosys-Oracle Blog

In the SOA world, there are several pieces of the architecture which are considered de-facto for an SOA. e.g. Service Bus, BPEL process Manager, Business Activity Monitoring etc. But a key component which is only added as an after-thought in most implementations is the Service Registry.

The reason for Service Registry being ignored is the "start-small" approach that most customer's take with SOA Projects.

In this blog, I want to argue that even with small projects, adding a Service Registry in the architecture has significant benefits with regards to Developer Productivity, Build Quality, Ease of maintenance and Architecture Flexibility.

Oracle Service Registry with its out-of-the-box integration/interfaces with Oracle SOA components is the ideal choice for Oracle SOA Projects.

Any Software project would be using several environments like Build, System Test, Stress Test before moving the code to Production. In each of these environments the Service Endpoints would map to systems/applications pertaining to the particular environment. Thus for migrating code to each environment, there has to be a separate code-base created which needs to be updated manually with Service endpoint information specific to that environment. This is usually achieved using ANT scripts, but is a manual task fraught with errors.

Using the Oracle Service Registry, separate registry instances for each environment can be created and approval workflows to promote services from one environment to the next can be configured. With the Service Registry approach, the only reference embedded in the code is the UDDI Service ID. At runtime, this Service ID would be mapped to the appropriate end point Service based on the Service Registry configuration.

Thus a developer is freed from the task of maintaining multiple code bases and creating ANT scripts for every code promotion exercise thus improving Ease of Maintenance & Developer Productivity.

Another key function of the Oracle Service Registry is its role as a central directory for Enterprise Services. Oracle Service Registry plays an important role in SOA Governance and prevention of Service Sprawl by providing approval workflows for Service Provisioning. This encourages more re-use and less re-invention which has a direct impact on Developer Productivity.

Due to the above zero-code & configuration based approach, human error in moving the code from one environment to the next is also reduced drastically leading to better Build Quality. Feeback on Quality of Service is provided by Oracle Service Registry which aggregates and captures quality of service metrics for the deployed services from the Production runtime.

Because of the extra level of indirection provided by the Service Registry, it becomes easy to achieve location independence for endpoint services. The Oracle Service Registry also enables change to the runtime behaviour of the Application by just changing the Registry configuration thus enhancing the Flexibility of the architecture.

Small SOA Projects will thus benefit greatly from using Oracle Service Registry across their Development, Build, Deployment & Production phases.

Posted by Satyajith Nair at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

To design a platform-level cloud, there are several considerations that we have to keep in mind. Some of them are like technology to support elasticity, portability, to design Cloud architecture with minimal incremental effort and restructuring.  How can we evolve cloud-like architecture with a phased approach, prioritizing and sequencing incremental changes in a way that reflects priorities specific to business and in a way that minimizes disruption.

Oracle Fusion Middleware provides an excellent foundation for setting up cloud with critical capabilities like rich portal technology for a self-service interface and support for elastic capacity.

Cloud can be setup by creating shared components using Oracle Fusion Middleware. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) provides feasibility to modularize applications into reusable components accessible through standardized interfaces using XML, SOAP, and the various web service specifications.

Oracle SOA Suite provides a comprehensive, easy-to-use basis for creating the reusable components for cloud. Rich drag-and-drop SOA component features in JDeveloper and the SCA designer enable rapid creation of components and subsequent composition of those components into applications.

Oracle Service Bus provides a simple way to make components available to department application creators. End-to-end instance tracking and Oracle Business Activity Monitoring provide a range of metrics visualizations supporting both the central IT function charged with keeping the cloud up and running.

And with this, we come to the end of my thoughts on Cloud with Oracle Fusion Middleware. Do feel free to send in your comments.

Posted by Anu Samantha at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Quality relates to perception as they say, and profit links a dollar value to this perception. Sales and return are the two sides of the same coin. They depict and demonstrate the extent of both quality and profit hand in hand. While returns trickle in throughout the year, for many consumer goods retailers the annual holiday season is characterized by an flurry of returns. Successful organizations around the world provide an easy opportunity to the customers to return the products. It is a fact that many customers prefer to shop at stores that offer the best returns policy along with bargain pricing.

If we look at returns as a function of all these variables mentioned above, then we can conclude with the following:

Probability(Returns) = XF(Decrease in demand) +YF(Incorrect forecast) + ZF(Damage in transport) +AF(Quality issues) + BF(Stores inability to sell) + CF(Incorrect promotions)

Being a world class organization is never easy and it has never been. Achieving this competitive advantage, along with the high cost of processing returns, points to a simple fact: managing returns is just as important as managing sales. It is widely understood that retailers and distributors end up loosing close to 15% of sales revenues handling returns each year. The need of the hour is to avert this avalanche of returns by combining the best practices in efficient handling and management techniques with appropriate technologies. This will lead to reduce the return management and handling cost for the organizations and divert the fusillades of customer returns.

The prime factors in honing one's return capabilities are:

• Customer-Reimbursement Process: It is vital to compensate the customer as soon as possible. This needs speed and accuracy, thereby saying that advanced information systems must be put in place to support this short cycle time while ensuring the highest possible degree of accuracy. Think about it, this is such closely tied to your customer relationship management. 
• Product Quality and Handling Cost: Efficiently handling the products returned is essential for controlling costs and product quality. The goal is to maximize the value of the goods that are returned. Organizations need to enhance the value of the returned products while minimizing the handling cost at the same time. Think about it, this is such closely tied to your supply chain.
• Technology Imperatives: The automated material handling systems and storage equipment utilized in the returns area must be modular, flexible and easily scalable to handle anticipated peak volumes and growth. Material handling equipment, controls and software systems must support the transaction volumes and quick crediting requirements.

I gather reading on Reverse logistics in this relation. In my next blog I will churn out a few thoughts on the same as it applies to returns management. SMART Retailers around the world, are imbibing the best practices in operational and technology management to nip the bud of return before it blooms.

Posted by Amit Sinha at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

In today's hyper-competitive markets, information users demand more interactive and collaborative way to access information. Due to the influence of Web 2.0 technologies like wikis, blogs, tagging, RSS, mash-ups, discussions and social networking, future web applications will have to cater to the needs of the user who want to quickly access and connect with like-minded people or experts, manage content that is spread all over the enterprise, or customize and personalize applications according to his taste and usage. 

In today's hyper-competitive markets, information users demand more interactive and collaborative way to access information. Due to the influence of Web 2.0 technologies like wikis, blogs, tagging, RSS, mash-ups, discussions and social networking, future web applications will have to cater to the needs of the user who want to quickly access and connect with like-minded people or experts, manage content that is spread all over the enterprise, or customize and personalize applications according to his taste and usage. 

Before the launch of Oracle Webcenter, building an application mash-up was not only tedious but also involved a humongous development effort. Oracle Webcenter provides a complete and exhaustive solution for all kinds of users; be it the application developer or the business user. At the core of Oracle Webcenter lies a standards based, open and declarative framework. This enables development of rich internet applications with Web 2.0 based technologies. The key components of Oracle Webcenter are as follows:

Webcenter Framework: It provides a single integrated framework for delivery of portals, transactional applications, websites, composite applications, social networks and business communities. It augments the JSF (Java Server Faces) environment by providing additional integration and run-time customization options. It provides a platform to integrate with portal products like portlets, customization, personalization, and integration directly into the JSF environment.

Webcenter Social Computing Services: Oracle Webcenter Suite provides a comprehensive set of Social Computing Services. These can be integrated directly into the web application according to the need of the user. These are also available as customization components. They are available as ready-to-use taskflows or portlets which can be embedded in a web-page.

Webcenter Composer and Business Dictionary: Portals and web applications generally require change at a very fast pace than most regular applications. Oracle Composer facilitates the business user to change the application using an easy-to-use interface. All the customizations can be done during runtime and in the browser itself. The role-based business dictionary provides seamless unification of corporate information assets with enterprise portals.

WebCenter Spaces: It is an out-of-the-box webcenter application that enables formal and informal communities within and across enterprises. It brings the latest technologies in terms of social networking, communication, collaboration and personal productivity with no or little development effort. Oracle Webcenter Spaces provides three different capabilities within the same application viz. Business Role Pages, Private Spaces and Group Spaces.

Oracle Webcenter Suite is an excellent offering from Oracle. It provides you the flexibility of an open standards based framework along with the integrated environment for the complete development life cycle of the Web 2.0 based applications. Since Oracle Webcenter is a core component of the Oracle Fusion Middleware, applications built with Oracle Webcenter will be able to seamlessly integrate with both current and future applications from Oracle.

For feedbacks and suggestions please revert to kuldeepsingh_dhillon@infosys.com.

Posted by Kuldeep Singh Dhillon at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Krishna Ammapalayam Srinivasaragavan, Consultant, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

We are in the era of Enterprise Resource Planning implementations. It's estimated that by adopting ERP systems and best practices cost reduction, quality improvement, staff skills increases too many folds. Also the IT companies dealing with ERP systems receive the maximum revenue and profit in their operations.

ERP from its start evolved with many techniques of integrating the processes in an industry and to the extent of catering mobile applications from remote places. At start ERP focused on back office works and later started integrating the customer with the Customer Relationship Management techniques.

Oracle E-Business Suite is one of the best ERP packages available in market at present. Oracle EBS evolved with many versions and each time new modules getting added up for making business in industries lot easier. Apart from basic modules like Inventory, Purchasing, Finance, lot of stress is being given on Edge products like eAM, OTM, OTL etc. This blog will throw light on the important features that exist in Enterprise Asset Management module in Oracle EBS R12.

Enhanced features in R12.1 (+) series-

• Express Work : It's an integrated way of finishing the emergency work quickly with all the details like labor, charge time, material issued entered in single page.
• Microsoft Project Integration : This will help in integrating the Microsoft project with eAM which in turn used in Work order scheduling in effective manner.
• Google Maps integration : Apart from maintaining an asset, it's becoming important to track them. eAM has come up with solution of integrating the assets with the web-based Google maps. During asset creation or after we need to provide some geo information such as Longitude, Latitude, and Direction for the Assets to locate.
• Construction units : This feature is provided under the Maintenance Super User responsibility in OAF. The activities carried out on repetitive jobs like commissioning of Towers, Electric Lines, Power plant construction etc., can be effectively estimated and planned using Construction units.
• Primavera Integration : One of the products in market dealing with Project management. Integration of Primavera and eAM will help in scheduling eAM work orders for Project based activities.
• Encumbrance : Long living feature with purchasing modules has been introduced in eAM for Acconting encumbrance with eAM Purchase orders/ Purchase requisitions.
• Work Permits : Creating only work order without information about operations, manitenance and safety precautions are of no use. eAM has come up with feature called Work permit where we need to take permission before taking up any work along with above details.

For further information on the above features, please refer RCD documents in metalink.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Malay Kumar, Principal Technology Architect, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Lot has been said and written on SOA, but are we successful in educating Business. Why is SOA good for smarter business? Unless Business understands and adopts SOA, we will still struggle to create value for our clients. SOA enables the business to focus on business and allows IT to evolve in this ever changing world.

SOA is what it stands for; an architecture which is service oriented. In very simplistic language, it includes Business services and a way to stich the services together. Business manager need not know how the services are stitched. If we remove the technical stitching then what left is the services which software application provides and that's what Business understands well.

Business needs to be convinced that moving towards SOA means technical freedom and business flexibility. SOA should be enabling business to make business decision supported by technologies instead of getting constrained by IT. Some simple business process like creating an invoice, calculating an interest rate, checking customers credit rating, check price, calculate tax, make payment become business services. When these business services are joined with other business services, it describes a business process. At the end, business gets one process which is used and reused everywhere in the enterprise.

Bottom line; why would business spend time or money on things they don't understand!

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 4 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Mitul Kumar, Senior Consultant - Business Intelligence/ EPM, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

I was surprised to see a recent client managing its billion dollar Marketing Expense Budgets in Excel spreadsheets. It left me wondering that in an era where Strategic Planning is the key to an organization's long term success, how can the organization let such a business critical function be run using spreadsheets which inject inherent data quality and validation problems into the system. Even from a user perspective, working on these big Excel files is cumbersome, scrolling across thousands of cells, tracking versions, making changes to the calculations manually, toggling between multiple sheets for each cycle which can be as frequent as monthly with a closure window of three days.

The big question is that despite of all the known efficiency related issues with Excel based models, why does it becomes a major change management issue to convince the users to migrate to a better, automated EPM tool which provides better process management, data quality and relevant functionalities based on best practices. The reason is not very hard to find.

One, Excel provides great flexibilities, especially when it comes to submitting plan/ forecast spanning multiple dimensions within short deadlines.

Two, Excel is much more handy than an Enterprise Application. Excel files can be copied, pasted, transferred and carried on local desktops with ease, no dependence on network availability without any process for changing any data.

Three, Excel also enables the users to hide the details and hence the logic for arriving at a particular value, which is mostly a percentage or value increase/decrease over previous period with little thought put into it, is well covered.

However, when one sits to discuss the current process with the users, data and process inconsistencies come out wide open. Typically, all the units within the organization, thanks to these Excel spreadsheets, have their own ways, means, levels and responsibilities of Planning and Forecasting a business process which is critical to the very survival of the organization given the competition and nature of the industry. And when you think through a level deeper, you realize that all the so-called advantages of Excel actually fail the very purpose of Planning. Plans are useless if they are not well thought through and if there is no process traceability to put responsibility and accountability - hence a requirement for EPM.

EPM Application ensures process definition, standardization and control to ensure that there is accountability and traceability of actions. EPM application, to some extent, forces users to think through their Financials and make an informed decision. It also reduces the process cycle time and efforts by automating complex calculations while ensuring that data quality checks and validations are done as required. Having all the data in a common database also allows the organization to perform scenario analysis/ data modeling/ slicing & dicing to make intelligent decision making. The biggest value add that such a Financial Transformation brings is that it ensures that the users are out of their daily transactional issues, hence releasing their bandwidth, and provide them the relevant information for taking intelligent decisions.

In light of the above, one would advocate EPM solutions for most of the organizations, which have the critical size and resources, to enable the users to drive the organization in the right direction. I would be interested to know if you have come across situations where this might not hold good or any challenges that you might have faced during EPM implementations.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Bhuvaneswari Venkataraman, Lead Consultant - Banking and Capital Markets, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Whether you are a top investment planner or adviser or even a common man unfamiliar with finance or Markets, you would invariably be seeking the term deposits rate of Banks which serves as a benchmark rate for many when they try to evaluate the different investment options. When you find the advertisement with odd terms such as 390 days, 678 days, 999 days you must be wondering what is the reason behind this specific tenure. Well answer lies in managing liquidity management to reduce overall risk.  Let us see how liquidity management propels the interest rate and the tenure of a banking product.

Usually banks, lend for a longer period than for which they borrow leading to mismatched flow of funds inherent to a banking system. This gives rise to the potential inability of a bank to meet its payment obligations in a timely and cost effective manner. This is called liquidity Risk. It arises when the bank is unable to generate cash to cope with a decline in deposits/liabilities or increase in assets.

The Bank has to ascertain whether it will be able to meet maturing obligations on the date its financial instruments fall due. For this, they must prepare a maturity-profile of Assets and Liabilities along with the projected cash-flows over a series of points of time called time-buckets and estimate the probability of facing any liquidity crisis. The difference between cash inflows and outflows in each rung of this ladder , the excess or deficit of funds becomes a starting point for a measure of a bank's future liquidity. An increase in the mismatch over time could indicate that a bank has a potential funding problem. One of the avenue for mobilization of funds which is dependable (less volatile) is the Time Deposits and hence Banks tend to boost this avenue with attractive rates for terms for which they have a liquidity mismatch (require funds). Hence we see Fixed Deposit Product in market with higher interest rates for such strange terms such as 390 days etc to overcome such funding problem.

So how does bank arrive at such a decision.. They rely on systems which are capable of analyzing data on various parameters of liquidity to support their decisions and plan for future. Oracle Financial Services Asset Liability Management (OFSAA ALM) is one such system which helps Banks Plan, Measure and Manage liquidity risk. It aids the institution to examine all the assets and liabilities simultaneously on a continuous basis with a view to ensuring a proper balance between funds mobilization and their deployment with respect to their maturity-profiles, cost, yield, risk exposures, etc so as to avoid liquidity risk.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

In 1999, P&G launched Reflect.com, an online retailer of health and beauty products, that raised the bar for personalized products and service. It enabled women to create their own make-up, skincare and haircare products by choosing from a wide range of colors, fragrances and ingredients. It may have been an idea ahead of its time (Reflect.com shut down in 2005), but consumers are now taking a leaf out of P&G's book.

Digital consumers are catalysts of change - they compel enterprises to adopt new business models, introduce new channels of communication, and maintain an open dialogue. Such behavior has changed the dynamics of interaction between consumers and companies, and altered the course of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). As CRM becomes increasingly 'social', I foresee several shifts in Social CRM driven by -

Trust factor : Consumers will go beyond recommendations of sales representatives to product reviews of peer groups on social media platforms for reliable information.

Knowhow : Consumers will access information from niche online communities to take informed decisions about specific products/ services.

Co-creation : Companies will embrace social media as a virtual R&D lab to seek consumer insights, enhance service and develop innovative products in collaboration with consumers.

Competitive intelligence: Companies can differentiate themselves based on an intimate understanding of the competitors' offerings from social media networks.

Open communication: On the one hand, companies must open social media channels to help consumers share their opinions. On the other, they must respond to these sentiments, be it positive feedback or grievances.

These are early days of Social CRM. It will be shaped by the 'social' quotient of consumers and the ability of companies to interact with digital consumers.

Ravi Kumar S. is the Vice President and Global Head - Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Limited.

Posted by Ravi Kumar S. at 5:39 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 4 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Krishna Ammapalayam Srinivasaragavan, Consultant, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Now a days, industries focus not only on the profit, but also on the safety, morale of the employees and social responsibility in keeping the environment a better place for next generations to come. Above said things can be achieved by adopting quality systems and environment friendly methods. 

Maintenance practices in TPM

Maintenance is a business aimed to keep the Industry running in the best possible shape, making equipment reliable, productive, and secure to operate.

Most industries try to adopt the best Quality practices by way of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) ISO certifications and Lean manufacturing techniques. The main aim of TPM is to increase production but also increase employee morale and better working environment.

We know that there are seven pillars in TPM, out of which Maintenance play a major role. It's strongly believed that when the Maintenance activity is carried out and the machines are kept in good health, the other pillars like Quality, Safety will function automatically.

The other aim of TPM  is to reduce the accidents in Industrial environment. When maintenance is practiced perfectly at frequent intervals then these accidents can be avoided to large extent. Maintenance activities carried out in timely fashion will help in improving the working environment a better place .

Maintenance and Impact on Working Condition

We can take example of Oil spilling from a machine.. Even though it sounds simple, it may cause below mentioned issues:

• Accidents to the Employees working in the Environment.
• Oil spill spoiling the environment with bad odor again affecting the Employee health.
• Removal of  the oil and dispose without affecting environment.

Any one of the above incidents compromised then we need to pay huge price on the standards we follow.

What's the solution suggested?

Only way is to adopt Better Maintenance activities!, its nothing but avoid oil spillage.

Oracle EAM Best maintenance Practices

Oracle ERP has adopted maintenance techniques via package like EAM (Enterprise Asset management) modules. This helped in defining the Assets, Scheduling done in particular fashion without affecting overall production and many other features.

That resulted in reducing the Human efforts to large extent in carrying out maintenance activities.

Second advantage being maintenance practices helped in adopting lean practices. Lean deal with using the resources with full capacity (Increased Overall Equipment Efficiency) and zero breakdowns.. Again zero breakdowns can be achieved only best adopting Maintenance activities.

We can achieve better machine/ employee Health by following best maintenance practices. By reducing wastages through TPM, ISO, lean, organisation can yield more Wealth. Growth/ reduction in number of accidents will bring More Happiness.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Kamal Dheeraj Dandamudi, Systems Engineer, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Most businesses now depend heavily on the availability of their Information and most critical business processes are IT based. Business Continuity is the ability to continue business under any circumstances and is an important requirement for most modern companies. So the main requirements in today's businesses are High Availability and Disaster Recovery of information.

Oracle GoldenGate enables high availability and disaster tolerance with core functionality that supports real-time data integration with minimal overhead and ensuring scalability. With this feature business-critical applications such as ticket booking, online banking and online shopping can continue to operate without any hurdles. Oracle GoldenGate allows real-time data movement between similar and heterogeneous source and target thereby enabling real-time BI solutions, zero downtime system upgrades, multi-directional data synchronization for distributed systems, disaster recovery and migrations between heterogeneous databases, OS platforms and Servers.

Main advantages of Oracle GoldenGate include:

• High Performance: Data can be moved with sub-second latency. Performance impact on source system and the network is minimized by capturing only the data that has been committed from transaction logs.
• Reliability: Transaction integrity is maintained while moving data from source to target using check-pointing mechanism. Using this, in case of network outages or interruptions data movement is resumed from the check-points. These features ensures data integrity which otherwise  can severely impact business operations.
• Heterogeneity: Oracle Golden Gate supports a variety of common, open source and legacy databases on most platforms. It can be deployed unidirectional or bidirectional in multiple topologies. GoldenGate also provides the flexibility to move data between like-to-like and heterogeneous systems.

Oracle GoldenGate supports data integration between many common databases including:

• Oracle Database
• IBM DB2
• MySQL
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Teradata
• Sybase
• Enscribe
• SQL/MX

The Operating Systems that are supported by Oracle GoldenGate include:

• HP Nonstop
• AIX
• RedHat AS
• Solaris
• z/OS
• Windows
• HP-UX
• Oracle Linux

For more information on specific versions, OS, and platforms, you can refer to Oracle GoldenGate Supported Technologies Matrix.

With the above features and its support to a vast range of databases and platforms Oracle GoldenGate can be considered a best-in-class solution to enable real-time data integration and continuous data availability.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Ashwani Arora, Senior Project Manager - Banking and Capital Markets, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

The leadership team at the level of CIO needs to take control of the situation immediately after a merger is announced and since emphasis is on speed, most critical decisions related to IT integration are finalized during this short period of time and with many unknowns to start with. One of the key areas which attracts lot of attraction and effort during M&A is to determine how much to integrate the technology, which systems and hardware to keep, what data to keep, and in what systems.

I will discuss below some key factors which are considered while laying out the long term plan for technology integration. There can be many more scenarios as we go to next level of planning details, but the below are the ones that will most likely come up in CIO level discussions immediately after a merger is announced! Also many times tradeoffs need to be made among these factors to achieve the larger business goal of the acquisition.

During the course of execution when new information comes in, the end state system landscape is calibrated accordingly. The integration execution usually starts with minimum data integration. After that, system rationalization happens to realize long term benefits of the acquisition.

Key factors considered in the planning phase:

• Dominant partner who is ahead in the game
  For some organizations acquisition is a business growth strategy. Such companies plan and prepared themselves ahead of time by putting scalable technology architecture in place and with the technology they want to grow. Once they had the required technological capabilities in place they can easily assimilate multiple acquisitions of companies which are smaller than themselves.

Even when acquisition is not a planned strategy, the acquiring company may be quite mature on the technology curve and have latest and greatest applications supporting their business. If the acquired company is not high on technology, it becomes an easy decision to replace their systems with the ones from acquiring company.

But not every time one partner is fully dominant and companies in most cases do a rational analysis and follow best of the breed approach to implementation. If it's a customer facing application like Online banking or trading and acquiring customer base is important in the acquisition, the acquiring company will tend to retain the system and the support infrastructure .

• Operational Efficiencies for business
  More the number of disparate system doing similar jobs the more it takes to record, reconcile, consolidate and report as a combined entity. This is true not only for financial system like ledgers but also for system like HR, CRM and Order Processing. For example if we have different financial ledgers with different charts it's an additional effort on business to maintain, reconcile and close these systems. Even though merging such multiple systems into one brings operational and cost efficiencies, it may not be always practical to do so. A key factor here is the cost and disruption to business while merging the systems. Cost is related to conversion effort, software license and retraining. This is especially true when a business or operations of the acquired company is dominant in the acquisition. If existing systems of such acquired business are running fine, acquiring companies, at least for medium term, generally accept the existing systems and make system changes to integrate their systems with that of the acquired company.

Sometimes local statutory requirements prevent system mergers. For example in china it's a legal requirement to physically keep financials ledgers in the country or in Europe it's a legal requirement to physically keep sensitive   HR information in the EU itself.  So if the acquiring company in a M&A is encountering such system for the first time, these isn't a great scope of rationalizing.

• Time and Effort in the Analysis
  Though it's a good idea to cherry pick the best processes / platforms but sometimes, especially for back office systems, it takes too much time and effort to analyze each and every system. Further since there any many unknowns to start with it cannot be with confidence that the analysis will produce the optimum results. Rather than analyzing individual sub-systems, acquiring companies replace acquired company's systems wholesale.
 
• New business Unit
  Mergers and Acquisitions normally happen to gain access to new markets and products. Hence the divisions of the acquired company may need to be absorbed as a new division in the acquired company. Systems related to lines of business of acquiring company in such cases need to be adopted by the acquired company.
 
• Cultural differences
  Cultural differences can play a key role in deciding the short term integration approach. After some time into acquisition a process driven company may find out that company it acquired depends on individual's knowledge base for execution if its IT projects. The code and system designs are excellent but it' in the developer's head and is not properly documented. Further there may be contractor resources holding design information in critical areas. Depending on the importance of the systems to the combined organization, companies may tolerate the difference in culture and keep the acquired systems for some time, but there will be a huge push internally to eventually replace such systems. People from the acquired company who hold knowledge of existing systems are likely to be retained as SME's for the transition period and beyond if they are flexible to work in new systems and have the right attitude.
 

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Retail sector has clearly demonstrated the practice and implementation of cross docking. Whereas, it is difficult to find many examples of true cross docking outside of the retail sector.

Researchers have called out that there are three primary models for delivering goods to retail stores:

1. Traditional Warehousing/Distribution or Dock to Stock (D2S) Approach, in which vendors ship goods to retail DCs, where the goods are stored until store orders need to be  fulfilled. These store orders are picked using a "waving technique" and delivered to the stores.

2. Crossdock Approach in which shipments from inbound suppliers are moved directly to outbound vehicles at the retail DC. These seem like cases of trans-shipment as well with very little storage in the DC warehouses in between. In the best possible situation, products never touch the floor or a shelf, though some amount of staging is often used.

3. Direct to Store Delivery (DSD), in which vendors ship goods directly from their own facilities to retail store outlets.

None of the retailers today follow an exclusive model as they do business. It is more common to find a hybrid approach being implemented. Many retailers perform a hybrid of D2S-Cross Dock-DSD. Each of these approaches has their own merits and demerits.

The traditional D2S approach would often entail the vendors performing TL shipments to the DC and often carry along with it high Inventory and Material Handling cost but low transportation cost.

The Cross Dock approach would often entail the vendors performing TL/LTL shipments to the DC and often carry along with it low Inventory and medium Material Handling cost and medium transportation cost.

The DSD approach would often entail the vendors performing LTL shipments to the stores and often carry along with it low Inventory and medium Material Handling cost but high transportation cost.

It might initially appear that the D2S approach is a relatively expensive approach. DSD approach leads to some loss of control of stock availability, high costs of receiving at stores and often much higher transportation costs. This is because vendor shipments often use expensive less-than-truckload (LTL) or parcel shipment modes. The crossdock model also has some pitfalls wherein some inventory control by not holding buffer stock between the vendor and store is at stake. But it does bring to the table transportation efficiencies by consolidating small shipments into full truckloads for store deliveries. Lead time from order to delivery at the store is longer than with traditional distribution, so stores typically have to hold slightly more stock to prevent stock outs. If vendors are far away, lead time could be several days. Unlike direct delivery from vendors, cross docking requires the retailer to operate crossdocks or to pay a 3PL provider to do so and this requires greater coordination with the vendor.

These days task management holds to be the back bone of any robust WMS. Retailers pan globe have chosen one amongst the Licensed Software, ERP or Hosted on Demand software to bolster their supply chain system. If the 3P's of Task Management as they say are aligned to business that are: Permission, Proximity and Priority: then cross docking efficiencies can be attained.

It does appear that Cross Docking is the balancing fulcrum between the D2S and DSD approach. That's what SMART people have been saying. Do you agree?

Posted by Amit Sinha at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Ankush Agrawal, Associate Consultant - Banking and Capital Markets, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

In current world, where there is high volatility in terms of funding requirement and Interest rate, only Matched Fund Transfer Pricing approach can assess the actual risk and help to measure profitability and performance accurately for a financial institution in comparison to traditional approaches.

In earlier days fund transfer pricing (the interest payments charged when one unit lends funds to another) was done in traditional ways where banks create pools of assets and liabilities based on various parameters like maturity, repricing etc and transfer rate is decided for that pool. It faces a lot of drawbacks in terms of accurate measurement of profitability and performance and it does not separate credit risk form interest rate risk. Whereas Matched Fund Transfer Pricing is linked to Asset liability management as a way to centralize the bank's overall funding mismatch in a business unit specifically assigned the responsibility of monitoring and managing interest rate and liquidity risks. In simple terms we can say that in matched FTP the entire fund passes through a central desk of the bank i.e. treasury. The unit that gives fund (takes deposit from customers) to the treasury charges interest rate from treasury which is normally higher than what it pays to customer, and all the units that takes fund (gives loan to customers) from treasury pays interest to treasury normally lower than what it charges to customer. This helps to keep all the units at par when it comes to measurement of profitability and performance.

Oracle in its newer version of Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications 5.XX (OFSAA) has further enhanced it's matched fund transfer pricing thus helping banks in centralizing the Interest Rate Risk so that the different channels can focus on other Marketing and Market development strategies and the interest rate risk is centralized to the central branch or Treasury. OFSAA provides a lot of Flexibility in terms of assigning transfer rates to individual customer relationships, client can choose from 12 possible methodologies, incorporate instrument characteristics by customizing prepayment expectations and behavior pattern for each individual account. It also allows us to use our own defined Yield curves and we can use any of the yield curve for any instrument. OFSAA also has the capabilities to support rich reporting and analysis, with built-in reporting support from Oracle Business Intelligence. In short within enhanced functionalities, OFSAA Matched fund transfer pricing is an important tool in current volatile market for financial services. 

I will discuss more on matched fund transfer pricing in my subsequent blogs. Keep watching this space for more.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Murali Krishna Somisetty, Principal Consultant, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

It's easy, It's wholesome and its efficient and mind you, we are not talking about a new module of Oracle applications here. We are talking about how effectively different Oracle modules can penetrate into a company's business process effectively, for not only maintaining regular transaction data but also to help in various other aspects which any normal end user wouldn't dream of.

Our rendering of Oracle E+ series will be an inimitable blogging experience by itself. It will encourage innovation by making people think, 'oh how did I miss this and what if I used it this way?' This series will emphasize about how Oracle modules can be an excellent facilitator to manage the Oracle Applications ERP Program itself and the business needs which are not exactly application related. These guidelines and techniques can be used either during or after implementation. The initial blog posts will concentrate on what can be used 'post implementation' and later blog posts will cover what can be used 'during the implementation' phases. They also cover important aspects for such considerations and the preparation required by organizations before practicing them.

Effective Issue Tracking and post production support using Oracle Quality as part of Oracle E+ (Efficiency)  [Post ERP Implementation]

Post ERP implementation, every organization needs to be prepared to handle series of issues. The primary activity would be to track these issues in an organized manner and get them addressed. What does this remind you of? 'MS excel tracker located in a network drive' or 'SharePoint Site to record and assign the issues' or an internally developed 'Self Service system where users can log issues and technical / functional representatives can resolve them'.

Cons:

MS Excel

• MS Excel will not have direct integration with Outlook
• Redundant activity of e-mailing issue to assignee and getting a confirmation on resolution
• Will have barrier on access control if the team is spread across geographies

Share point

• Share point requires additional licenses to put in use
• Will have barrier on access control if the team is spread across geographies

With the concept which will be put forth in this blogpost called Oracle E+, Organizations can now look at drilling down the features of Oracle Quality module itself to accomplish issue tracking.

Designing an Oracle E+ Prototype for post production issue tracker:

• A quality collection plan can be defined
• Required columns like Issue date, issue number, issue description, Issue status, assigned to whom, description of resolution etc., can be defined.
• If an issue has multiple rounds of iterations to resolve, and a child collection plan can be invoked to track the detailed actions on the same issue.
• Every user can log the issue in the collection plan
• An issue can be assigned to a support executive by the user itself or add some rules where by system can assign the issue to a support executive
• Support manager can also step in any time to see the open issues and assign to the respective support executive.
• An oracle notification can be set in such a way that the support executive is notified as and when the issue is assigned to him.
• Once the issue is resolved, the status can be changed and progressed

The advantages of using Oracle quality module collections plans to achieve post production support tracking are listed below:

1. 'Easy to configure' [The required collection plan with appropriate collection elements]
2. 'One source of truth' [Oracle]
3. 'Well Connected' [Notification alerts can be sent to concerned based on Issue status change]
4. 'Automated Status Updates' [The above notifications can be integrated to MS Outlook, hence automatic e-mail alerts to assignee]
5. 'User Friendly but controlled environment' [Strict access control in terms who can update the records, who can view the records and who can modify the collection plans. This can be changed as and when required]
6. 'Configurable business work flows' [This may require additional effort to customize to meet the business logic]
7. 'Independent' [Use of collection plans has no bearing like 'pending transactions' hence will never be a show stopper for period closing activity]
8. 'Application Impact Free' [No financial / accounting implications in  using Oracle collection plans]
9. 'Ample History Tracking' [The complete history can be exported into a spreadsheet at any point of time]
10. 'Flexible Reporting' [Oracle reports writer can be used to generate varied reports from time to time. This is highly configurable by the end user]
11. 'Language Support' [Issues can be entered in any language once the MLS/ NLS are enable]
12. 'Access Comfort' [Accessing the 'issue log' is similar to the accessing Oracle ERP from any location]
13. 'Attachment enabled' [Error messages can be added as attachments for every issue]
14. 'Knowledge Management' [Also acts as a knowledge bank to search based on any string]
15. 'View your choice' [Customizable view of collection plan for every user]

Additional controls recommended making it more organized and effective

1. Freeze the 'Non blank' columns upon saving to avoid communication gap
2. New workflow of the built in work flows does not meet the  business logic
3. Use of parent and child collection plans ensures logging of each issue and the progress made

Catch you in the next blog post where we will discuss more business scenarios and more tips to handle the same till then.....cherish and think through the impact of Oracle E+ (Efficiency Plus)

Posted by Guest Blogger at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

How often do you hear ERP Pundits discussing whether single instance installations are better or multi instance installations? I guess there is no right or wrong answer. I bet a debate on this topic would go on for hours without ever reaching any conclusion

Multi Instance ERP installations can be classified as by Region or Geography, By Business Function, By Lines of Business or any other classification deemed appropiate by the enterprise.

Multi instance installations by region or geogrpahy have its advantages with respect to time zone differences, ease of maintenance. It also gives localized control over the instance. Strong Governance model is really not a very strong requirement for multi instance installations. If you have multiple languages and localization multi instance installations score over single instance.

Single instance installations again have its own advantages and disadvantages.

Some of the advantages include

1) Single source of truth.

2) Easier consolidation.

3) No cost of Interfaces

4) Single version of custom objects

5) Easier to acheive standardization

6) Close interaction possible between companies

7) Master Data can be shared accross entities

Some of the disadvantages include

1) Managing Change

2) Managing downtimes for patching and maintenance

3) Regression Testing effort is very high

4) Timezone related issues

Considering all the above I guess it is a tough call which way to go. Which way has your enterprise chosen to go and why?

Posted by Somnath Majumdar at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Bhuvaneswari Venkataraman, Lead Consultant - Banking and Capital Markets, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

In older version of Oracle Financials Service Application 4.5.xx (OFSA), considerable time was spent on designing the Chart of Accounts (COA) to bring out the optimum number of members under COAs. Now with new Oracle Financial Service Analytical Application 5.xx (OFSAA) leveraging its enhanced features like conditional assumptions system can assign any combination at run time instead of pre-defined only leading to thin COAs instead of thick in earlier versions.

Coining of COA is dependent on many factors like requirements on report stratification, granularity of level to which transfer price assumption are to be adhered to, multiple currency etc. Considerable time was spent during requirements stage and design stage to ensure all combinations are captured to ensure optimal number of members under COAs. Now in new OFSAA, there is no need to define such combinations before hand as leveraging conditional assumptions system can assign any combinations at run time.

Let's take an example for better understanding,  consider the case of attaching TP methods to a product with multiple scheme code. In earlier version we needed to factor in scheme code in TP-Product dimension,  so that different TP methods can be attached to different scheme codes of a Product. Typically if we have a product code 11101 and multiple schemes under this product say 101, 102, 103...nnn, we had to coin Product Chart of Accounts as 11101101,11101102 etc so that each combination of product and scheme gets a separate TP method.  But,  now with the availability of Conditional assumption we can attach multiple TP methods to the same product under different segments. Have the Product COA as 11101 only and with conditions Scheme code = 101 TP method 1, Scheme code=102 Method 2 etc., Similarly we can take any other aspect such as maturity date, accounts belonging to a particular product falling under a maturity horizon can have one TP method and another maturity horizon can have a different TP method assigned. This goes on with combination of Product plus available cash-flow characteristic of product. This  gives more flexibility with the number of dimension members drastically reduced.

Above examples clearly articulate how conditional assumptions will help client to have thin COAs providing more flexibility and ease of maintenance.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Based on our experience in providing consulting services for companies that have numerous Intercompany or interbranch transactions between entities spread across, following have been observed to be some of the issues commonly faced by the companies due to the inability of underlying applications to meet the business needs:

-- Process inconsistencies with different units following different mechanisms to account for intercompany transactions 
-- Increased manual effort due to the use of suspense or clearing account for knocking off intercompany receivables and payables 
-- Increased maintenance effort due to the use of multiple accounts to record intercompany receivables and payables for each division, branch, entity 
-- Lack of ability to automatically balance intercompany transactions

Oracle Applications R12.1 provides various features and functionalities to address the issues mentioned above and support intercompany and interbranch transactions.

The types of intercompany transactions in Oracle can be categorized as:
• Intracompany transactions: Transactions between two branches within the same legal entity
• Intercompany transactions: Transactions between two legal entities that are accounted for in the same ledger
• Interledger transactions: Transactions between two legal entities that are accounted for in different ledgers

Oracle also provides multiple solutions as below which would be discussed in detail in Part2 of this blog
• Intercompany Segment in Chart of Accounts
• Intra Company Balancing
• Intercompany Accounting
• AGIS - Advanced Global Intercompany System

Posted by Sachin Chitlange at 4:02 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

In this era of globalization, an Organization needs to be agile to survive and grow.  The need for agility is one of the key forces behind the introduction of 'Rule Based Applications' in the market. Oracle's Financial Accounting Hub (FAH) is one such application where accounting is managed by the business team based on configurable business rules.

Prior to introduction of FAH, most of the organizations had custom built accounting engines to address their accounting requirements. Such custom built components were a hindrance in introducing any new accounting rules or modification of existing rules to satisfy regulatory compliance requirements or due to business compulsions.

For example, if a bank wanted to introduce a new product for attracting deposits from customers, and if it takes 6 months to launch the product to ensure all aspects of product launch including accounting is taken care in the IT systems,  then such product may not remain as attractive as planned in the current market scenario. In today's world, volatility witnessed in six months can be easily compared to volatility witnessed over a period of one decade during the 80's or so.

Hence, Rule Based Applications are more in demand where changes can be quickly in application based on current needs by simple configuration rather than having a dedicated development project based on the SDLC cycle. Oracle FAH is a good example of such applications.

In FAH business users define and control how accounting entries need to be generated. Changes to accounting policies, for e.g. changing accounting rule to account for provision of doubtful debts from 90 days outstanding to 60 days outstanding can be easily managed by business users without going through any development or mini project cycle. On other hand, any accounting for new financial products can be configured with modifications as needed leveraging copy features.  Such features provide the desired agility to organizations and ensure that they are on auto-pilot for the growth path.

Posted by Giriraj Somani at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )