Tapping the un-fathomed benefits of Oracle Applications through Oracle E+ (Efficiency Plus)
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:
- 'Easy to configure' [The required collection plan with appropriate collection elements]
- 'One source of truth' [Oracle]
- 'Well Connected' [Notification alerts can be sent to concerned based on Issue status change]
- 'Automated Status Updates' [The above notifications can be integrated to MS Outlook, hence automatic e-mail alerts to assignee]
- '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]
- 'Configurable business work flows' [This may require additional effort to customize to meet the business logic]
- 'Independent' [Use of collection plans has no bearing like 'pending transactions' hence will never be a show stopper for period closing activity]
- 'Application Impact Free' [No financial / accounting implications in using Oracle collection plans]
- 'Ample History Tracking' [The complete history can be exported into a spreadsheet at any point of time]
- 'Flexible Reporting' [Oracle reports writer can be used to generate varied reports from time to time. This is highly configurable by the end user]
- 'Language Support' [Issues can be entered in any language once the MLS/ NLS are enable]
- 'Access Comfort' [Accessing the 'issue log' is similar to the accessing Oracle ERP from any location]
- 'Attachment enabled' [Error messages can be added as attachments for every issue]
- 'Knowledge Management' [Also acts as a knowledge bank to search based on any string]
- 'View your choice' [Customizable view of collection plan for every user]
Additional controls recommended making it more organized and effective
- Freeze the 'Non blank' columns upon saving to avoid communication gap
- New workflow of the built in work flows does not meet the business logic
- 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)
