Infosys-Oracle Blog

The first most important challenge in Linear Asset Management is model the network with the linear assets. Linear assets are not specific to a point of geographic location. They have a definite length or area that requires defining with beginning and ending co-ordinates and other attributes. A network of the asset can be split into multiple segments and each segment has a definite start and end point. The end of one segment will be the start of the other part. This relationship will continue for all segments except the first and last part.
Network modelling can be divided into two parts. The first step is to assign the assets to a specific location on map (like Google maps) and secondly to build a network by connecting all such assets.  Defining a suitable data model is critical for establishing the asset network.
Oracle R12 (12.1.1 onwards) allows us to map each of the asset to geographical location on a map. The required setups can be obtained from Metalink Note 779351.1. The second part is to assign them to a network. This can partially be fulfilled by using the Parent child relation of assets where the whole network is defined as parent and each distinct part of the asset can be defined as the child(s) for the parent assembly. This is not a complete out of the box solution from Oracle EAM. In this case the customers may have to integrate these assets to an external application or opt for bespoke development. The bespoke development need to offer the ability to define the asset network, crossovers, dependencies, relationships etc., and once such relationship is established Oracle EAM can be used effectively for maintenance planning and execution of liner assets.
Let me explain how such a typical asset networking model will look like with a schematic diagram and the important characteristics of each segment to build the relationship with similar segments and intersections with other networks (Where other network cross over this network like a road network crosses the rail network).
The below is simple case of 3 networks that intersect at some segments, Cross over at other segments. This example shows how various attributes can be defined for various segments. Each network is a linear asset in this case.

Important attributes of each segment can be
Length
Owned by: Network Name (Parent Asset)
Starting Point Latitude
Starting Point Longitude
Starting Point Type: Linear (Connects to the segment of own network) / Nodal (Connecting to Other networks
Ending Point Latitude
Ending Point Longitude
Ending Point Type: Linear (Connects to the segment of own network) / Nodal (Connecting to Other networks
Segment Category
Segment Type: Common / Individual
Approval required from Cross over network: Yes / No

This is a data model for a simple asset network using the asset group attributes. Depending upon the type of network it will be required to configure many attribute groups and define the attributes.

In the next blog we will see how to attach non liner assets to a linear assets network.

Posted by Murali Krishna Somisetty at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Rohit Kaul, Senior Technology Architect, Oracle Practice, Infosys

We all know about Exadata as a fast and scalable database solution for most of the enterprise applications. So the next natural question would be - what is the best migration path from current version, platform to the Exadata platform. The basic thought to keep in mind is simply that the target platform is always fixed and would always be an Oracle database version 11gR2 with ASM on a Linux platform (Oracle Enterprise Linux x86_64 (OEL5)) or on Solaris Express - So it is to be treated like just another migration from an Oracle DB/non-Oracle database to another Oracle 11gR2 database on OEL5/Solaris Express platform. So before one embarks on the migration journey one needs to make sure that the application is certified on Oracle database 11gR2. In this blog, I will cover a few preferred migration options and not the exhaustive list, since there would be multiple permutations/ combinations of other possible options considering several factors.

So here is what the preferred migration options are:

A thorough brainstorming and POC of the various options is recommended, before arriving at the migration method to be used. One key thing to keep note of is that network is the biggest bottleneck between the source and the target. With the introduction of Infiniband, there are various options that can be explored and network becomes one key area which needs to be looked at from the eyes of an expert, so it would be best to have an SME who can layout the best possible options from that angle. Although, in some cases, it may not be feasible to carry out a POC for the entire stack of methods a test of the representative data (e.g., top 10 tables) should be sufficient in order to arrive at the throughput calculations for the final option chosen.

It is evident is that the more flexible an option, the more constrained it will be from a throughput perspective, so all in all it is a trade-off between flexibility and throughput. If we extend the discussion to packaged applications migration (e.g., EBS R12, Siebel, Peoplesoft, etc) we will encounter even more options, constraints and complexities. The complexities here provide ample opportunities for innovation and creating differentiators by developing processes and tools which can automate and simplify the decision making & the actual migration process. Reader's thoughts are welcome!

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Meet Infosys experts at Oracle OpenWorld 2011, Booth No. 1813, Moscone South

Explore more at  http://www.infosys.com/Oracle/news-events/Pages/oracle-openworld-sanfrancisco11.aspx

Follow us on Twitter -  http://twitter.com/infosysoracle

____________________________________________________________________________________________  

Posted by Guest Blogger at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Publishing industry of yesteryears consisted of developing content and selling them as books, journals etc. The customer had two choices either to buy it or not buy it. They did not have the opportunity to check the contents of  the book / chapters of the book for a limited time before buying it or for that matter buying only a portion of the book. The publishers at maximum had variants like paper back, hard cover, soft cover with minor price difference to cater to different segments of customers. The business processes of a publisher were mainly related to Sourcing content, Printing the content and selling books / journals from warehouse. 

However with the advent of digital age the changes began to take place and the books needed to be electronic books rather than those bulky print editions. Customers loved to have 12 CDs of Encyclopedia Britannica rather than 12 odd volumes; Customers wanted to have books in electronic format available over the net so that it could be downloaded to their PCs this was the era of digital / electronic commerce. This demanded the modification of the existing business processes and it was a shift in the format of the content being sold and change in the medium of sale, it was no more print but it was electronic. This electronic format however introduced a few new  challenges to the publishers in the domain of security, it was not that books were not copied previously but electronic format of a book was easy to be moved from one person to another, making copies and circulating was cheap and easy hence came new buzzwords DRM (Digital Rights Management). The advent of new business processes mean the supporting IT infrastructure had to change, the ERP packages need to be upgraded from selling hard copies to CD, from one time counter sale to a sale over the internet, to ensure that the book sold over net is not being copied and distributed etc.  The changes did not stop here now the customers of electronic age are far more demanding they wanted personalization as in wanting to read the book in a particular device from Amazon kindle to Nook to various other e readers, Customers want to create their own books as in take 3 chapters from one book 2 from another and so on, Limited time access to the electronic book i.e. not wanting to buy the entire book but read it only or a week and pay a fee, Universities buying access and proving access to multiple students for a limited time to a content over the net. The above scenarios are few new scenarios which need to be addressed during any ERP implementation for any publication house. In terms of Oracle Application EBS support the normal Order to Cash cycle supported by Order Management, Inventory etc. needs to be extended along with other modules like Service Contracts to cater to the different scenario's as mentioned above

Posted by Shome Shankar Sircar at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

As Oracle plans its release of the next version of the NMS, thoughts of planning that next upgrade come to mind.  This upgrade will be different than the usual upgrade though.  Why is that?  The reason is the evolutions in the Oracle NMS product have created some very significant changes.  The big things to keep in mind are 1) the Deprecation of X-Motif, 2) Switchover from JBoss to Web Logic, 3) Required LDAP or Active Directory usage, and 4) Deprecation of PDM (Performance Data Mart).  There are always the usual challenges in an upgrade, but this blog entry is focused on the unique needs of this next upgrade.  Preparing for this upgrade will require more than the usual preparations and planning.

In migrating from X-Motif to the Java tools, there is much to reconfigure.  In prior releases, migration to X-Motif tools was performed by a script or minor adjustments to the configuration, but kept essentially the same.   No migration script can convert X-Motif configurations into Java configurations.  It is necessary to create new configurations for Java.  Before beginning the configurations, the first recommendation is to document what you know you have in the old X-Motif environment.  An example of what to document would be which columns are in Work Agenda, order of the columns, and the sorts, and filters.  If one doesn't already exist, build a workbook while reviewing the current configurations. 

Once the Workbook is built and reviewed, now is a good time try and take advantage of the opportunities reconfiguration provides.  No matter what happens, there will be environment differences between the X-Motif and Java environments.  Make the goal to be having the best, most useful, easiest to maintain environment possible.   Don't make the goal be to look as close as the old system as possible.   This is a great opportunity to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and make future upgrades easier by using as much product configuration as possible.  Oracle maintains product configuration and does the work of migrating product at no additional cost, but customers maintain custom configurations at their own expense. 

In addition to taking advantage of product configuration, this is equally great of a time to include NMS features not in the old installation.  After all, the environment is being reconfigured now anyway.  It would be more expensive in the long run to come back later and add more than it is to do it all from the start.  New NMS features can improve productivity and increase the ability to provide customer service.  Before beginning the configurations of the upgrade, I recommend fully reviewing the functionalities in the NMS User Guide.  Are there any new features that would be of benefit? 

When the configurations are done, the Operator's Workspace will look significantly different to a user and there will be new features.  More complete training is needed to get users acquainted with the new feel and features.  Plan in the time to make materials and schedule all your users for training.

Other than environment configuration, take notice of other product shifts.  A big item is the Web Application Server.  If you have been using JBoss, it is required to switch to Web Logic.  While JBoss was free in the past, Web Logic will require a purchased license.  Oracle doing this gives the NMS one standard platform.   Plan it in the budget and install it before beginning the migration.  It will be needed right from the start.

The third significant evolution in Oracle NMS is that starting in NMS version 1.10, passwords are no longer stored in the NMS database.  Either LDAP or Active Directory authentication of users is required.  This includes test systems too.  This has the most relevance in Load Testing.  In the past, user names like nm1, nms2, ..., nmsn have been used.  If generic user names are needed for testing, authentication must be set up outside the NMS.  Plan whether LDAP or Active Directory will be used and how that is to be set up in your environment.

The fourth area to keep in mind is that PDM is no longer supported by Oracle.  If you haven't already migrated off PDM, it will be necessary.  Oracle now supports Oracle Business Intelligence for Utilities (OBIU).  Learning about the BI, its features, and its maintenance will take time.  It will also take time to build any customer reports or dashboards desired.  BI is a powerful tool full and the possibilities and usefulness of the zones and portals are large. 

In summary, upgrading the NMS will take extra planning and preparation this next upgrade.  With the end of X-Motif, it is necessary to know what was in the old system so the new one can be configured in Java.  But think of this as an opportunity to 1) end up with an even better NMS environment 2) lower the total cost of ownership.   Plan to have the users trained to use the new system, they all will need it.  Remember that Web Logic will be the app-server and not JBoss, LDAP or Active Directory are needed, and plan for Business Intelligence.  If you remember these things and plan accordingly, your upgrade will go smoother. 

Do you have any upgrade tips you'd like to share with the NMS user community?  I'd love to hear them.

Posted by Ross Shaich at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

The market has witnessed multiple vendors with various Social CRM solutions without a deep focus on current enterprise CRM investments, social analytics tightly woven to the offering to determine sentiment, influence outside of global business intelligence enterprise tools, absence of impact or creation of new social workflows inside the business, community and content search optimization, category aggregation, tablets, mobility, social connectors, propriety lock-in platforms to strategically navigate, and so on.

Ironically, all the above complexity (and there is much more) can be boiled down to two simple trends we have witnessed:

1. Enterprise CRM operations from earlier waves have remained fairly static or have become fragmented organizationally by channel or unit, leading to the growth of technology, business, and data silos internally and a decrease in enterprise coordination around the end customer needs.

2. The networked customer increasingly influences a larger portion of the business relationship outside of the enterprise and expects the business, in turn, to interact in a unified fashion, without regard to channel or function.

These two trends, while significant, have ignited a firestorm of activity across all vendors, be it software, platforms, tablets, application developer communities, partner collaboration, alliances, and more. Unlike CMO driven Social Media initiatives, the market for Social CRM and associated enterprise CRM intersections is still in nascent stages. Identification of the most suitable solutions, best-in-class practices and the appropriate enterprise hybrid technology mix for organizations to experience a successful Social CRM implementation is greenfield. And for good reasons. Unlike a Social Media COE, Social CRM has much higher implications for enterprise front office operations, involving potentially thousands of internal resources and significant business implications.

There are a few pioneering vendors that have been able to prove their capabilities and are pursuing a 'suite' position in this market. Yet there is a lot of duplication in the functionality, and, more important, none can claim to replace existing enterprise CRM with new social CRM solutions for the existing enterprise CRM sector. Rather, an integration, hub-spoke, division based, or combination of the above is the sales model approach witnessed.

In other words, there is no one vendor that 'does it all', unlike prior 'feature wars' from the earlier CRM era.

The above trends are indeed influencing key client long term investment decisions (or lack thereof, with a preference to postpone). Yet, business leaders navigating their future customer strategies, full due diligence is required now more than ever before to be positioned for execution. Competitors are completing similar efforts as the recognition to change, the highest 'noise to signal' ratio occuring now, shows no sign of abating. Rather indicators are that it will only increase.

Sitting on the sidelines is not an option.

Posted by Sean Leo Ryan at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Ankush Agrawal, Associate Consultant, Oracle Practice, Infosys

Risk management has always been of prime importance for any industry and more for financial services markets. The financial crisis exposed inherent weaknesses in the risk management system, like outdated systems and processes, poor decision-making, inadequate forecasting, and reporting structures. The negative impact of these flaws on many institutions shocked the industry, and as a result, there has been a shift in attitude toward risk and it has started getting more attention.

The areas of risk management that have emerged or got more attention in recent times are:

1. Regulatory uncertainty - As we move ahead Regulatory requirements are continuously going to change, as and when the system identifies the loopholes.
2. Credit risk - Though credit risk is the most inherent component for Risk management in banking and Capital markets but after this down turn it has become the main point of reference.
3. Compliance with new capital requirement - Capital requirement has also changed and BASEL III guidelines are already released.
4. Increasing competition and falling Interest margin due to volatility in interest rates.
5. Liquidity risk.
6. An integrated IT system that can adapt to the above changes.

There are many lessons to be learned from the crisis. The cost of risk management Practices is continuously going to increase with changing regulatory norms and evolving risk management practices. This is the main reason why technology and IT system plays big role in the Risk management system. our IT system should be such that it can support the changes with the changing risk management practices with minimal cost.

OFSAA (Oracle Financial services Analytical Application) is one such tool which provides great flexibility to the organization to comply with changing Risk management practices; OFSAA is Oracle's integrated risk management application for banking and financial services companies. It can easily incorporate changing trends and requirement in risk management with minimal effort in terms of cost and time.

Features of OFSAA:

• Lower the costs of compliance and regulation.
• Promote a transparent risk management culture
• OFSAA ALM Module helps in complying with asset liability policies and requirement.
• Integration of Risk, Performance Management, Customer Insight, and Financial Compliance
• Managing the market and rate risk of the bank's balance sheet
• Centralized Interest Rate Risk - Oracle Financial Services Funds Transfer Pricing isolates each source of interest rate risk and concentrates rate risk management in your bank's funding center.
• The Retail credit risk solution allows organizations to quickly identify and comprehensively evaluate potential credit risk portfolio problems from multiple product- and enterprise-specific perspectives.

It is not that the risk management practice that we adopt now will always work in future and it will be full proof, it will continue to evolve with system exposing the weakness in it. Important thing is to have a system that can adapt the changes according to the changing needs and Practices Followed in Risk management practices.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Abhishek Prasad Verma, Lead Consultant, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys

Assets are the lifeline for a Power Utility Company. Considerable amount of money is spent in ensuring their availability, longevity and efficiency for power generation/transmission or distribution as this has a direct impact on the top-line and bottom-line of any company. Assets not maintained well can result in accidents causing huge indirect losses in form of penalties and/or compensation.

Traditionally companies have relied on fixed rigid scheduled maintenance where an asset like a distribution transformer is periodically inspected and maintained. This looks simple in theory, but is practically a much costlier affair. It is taxing in terms of resource planning, impractical because of huge number of assets on the field (A distribution company supplying electricity to 7 million consumers would have around 140 thousand distribution transformers on the field) and often ineffective as it focuses on duration of operation rather than fault behavior, operational parameters and root cause trending. Traditional method of maintenance was the only option when there were no systems in place, but now with specialized packages available for utilities, it's time to look at other more intuitive, efficient and cost effective methods of maintenance.

Alternative ways to increase reliability while reducing the cost of needless and sometimes regressive maintenance services is to use Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) and Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM).

CBM uses visual inspection and performance data to assess asset condition and suggests maintenance only when warranted. Information Technology can be used to define operational tolerances for important measurable parameters and trigger maintenance when the instantaneous parameters go beyond the preset tolerances. Improved knowledge of failure mechanisms, advancement in failure forecasting techniques and automatic capturing of key operational parameters through sensor devices in a smart grid help improve understand and define maintenance interval for CBM.

 One of the disadvantages in CBM is that all assets in the same technical condition are treated in the same way i.e. it does not take the importance of an asset in the network/process in account. Hence RCM that combines 'technical condition' and 'importance in network' is often used as an additional tool. RCM is an intelligent logical decision making process to develop effective and efficient maintenance based on the recognition that maintenance requirements of assets are determined by their "function" within the system and on the "consequences of failure". Using FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) i.e. prioritization of failures according to how serious their consequences are, how frequently they occur and how easily they can be detected, RCM can be used to group assets and devise an effective and efficient maintenance strategy.

To conclude, it is important to look maintenance in a holistic fashion and use a combination of maintenance strategies depending on importance of assets in the system/process, consequence of failure, cost-benefit analysis and amount of risk an organization can take without adversely impacting revenue or customer service.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Umesh Tanna, Senior Technology Architect, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys

In Part-1 of this blog we found that Exadata has many features that facilitates database consolidation. This blogs describes those features and explains how it helps in database consolidation.

Database Resource Manager (DBRM)

If we are consolidating multiple databases say for ex. A and B into a single database AB, DBRM would help us control how much resources to allocate to process/programs/sessions of A and B while they run in shared database AB. Basically this enables us to control how CPU are shared amongst A and B and also establish the priorities.  This is implemented with what is known as resource allocation scheme amongst the consumer groups defined within database. Also the allocation scheme changes are dynamic i.e. we can have one resource allocation scheme effective during business hours and can have different during after business hours.

IORM (IO Resource Manager)

If we are consolidating multiple databases A and B on same exadata server but keep those running separately, IORM helps us control how much IO resources to allocate to A v/s B. In order to control between two databases, controller has to be outside the database and in exadata platform, this is best achieved by exadata software which is part of exadata platform but is located outside any single database. This functionality helps coming up with sophisticated algorithm to distributed resources.

IORM and DBRM when combined provide very good solution for both intra-database and inter-database resource management.

Mix Workload

Oracle exadata v1 primarily served for data warehousing environment. However, Exadata v2 is designed to handle both workload - OLTP and Data warehouse. Features such as offloading, compression, flash cache are well suited for OLTP workload. This means that one can consolidate this seemingly different workload into exadata.

Oracle Service

Oracle service is workload management feature.  To manage workload one can design different service for different application or different set of users have different service.  Services are integrated with the Resource Manager, which enables you to restrict the resources that are used by a service. Services add a new dimension. Using services, workloads are visible and measurable and resource consumption and wait times are attributable by application.  For ex. AWR now provides information gathered for services.

Server Pool and Policy-Based Cluster and Capacity Management

Server pool logically divides the cluster into distinct sets of servers. Server resources of server pool can be than controlled using policy based management.

• Enables dynamic capacity assignment when needed to provide server capacity in accordance with the priorities you set with policies
• Enables allocation of resources by importance, so that applications obtain the required minimum resources, whenever possible, and so that lower priority applications do not take resources from more important applications
• Ensures isolation where necessary, so that you can provide dedicated servers in a cluster for applications and databases

RAC One

Let us consider a case in which customer have been using active/passive Oracle database cluster (such as HP MC Service guard or Veritas cluster) and they have taken informed decision to not go for Oracle RAC.  How to design for them in exadata? The answer is Oracle RAC One.  RAC One uses Oracle cluster ware to provide active/passive failover and can be deployed in Exadata. This way it also facilitates in standardizing database environment.

Instance Caging

Instance caging provides way to provide portion of CPU to given instance in multi CPU server. Instance caging can be used in two different ways -

Over-provisioning - This is typically used for non-production environment and provides flexible approach.

Partitioning - This is typically used to partition the available CPUs exactly amongst the available instance.   

Businesses today are faced with problem of how to move from silos of servers that are serving to accommodate peak load however that is inefficient and expensive.  Oracle Exadata v2 helps solving this problem and to achieve required consolidation.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Meet Infosys experts at Oracle OpenWorld 2011, Booth No. 1813, Moscone South

Explore more at  http://www.infosys.com/Oracle/news-events/Pages/oracle-openworld-sanfrancisco11.aspx

Follow us on Twitter -  http://twitter.com/infosysoracle

____________________________________________________________________________________________  

Posted by Guest Blogger at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Since the acquisition of Skywire owned Document Automation Solution - Documaker, Oracle corp. has been trying hard to enrich the product suite in order to make it a more comprehensive and palpable solution for Insurance Carriers.

Recently Oracle introduced a new and improved version of Oracle Documaker. In the latest release, versioned 12, Oracle has introduced features that are more enterprise intensive and bridge some gaps from the earlier version of the product.

The earlier versions of Oracle Documaker did not have any inbuilt workflow management system. This feature has been introduced in the current version by Documaker Interactive. In addition to introduce workflow capabilities based on Oracle BPEL platform, Documaker Interactive also enables the user to create ad-hoc correspondence at any stage of the policy life cycle. For the ease of clients, DI comes with predefined workflows.

 Till Documaker 11.5 Documaker server required clients to implement a system that could pick up the extract file from a location and then trigger the assembly engine. This not only increased the effort and time required in deploying Documaker server but also left lot to be desired from the suite. In version 12, Oracle Document factory has tried to bridge this gap by giving these features "out of box" in enterprise edition. The utility includes an elaborate reporting system that would help organizations to monitor the performance of the assembly system. The reporting system can display the number of publishing jobs in process and keep track of jobs completed in retrospective. This can help the System administrators and form designers to look at more optimized ways of creating forms.

 Equipped with these new features, Oracle Documaker surely is expected to create some waves in Automated Document Generation domain.

Posted by Rohit Kaushal at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

I recently happen to analyze a SOA project which had necessary development process and little or no SOA Governance.  SOA and Agile development methodology were the buzz word for the project.  Everything looks good at first sight, but there is deep problem buried in this rapid development.  I have to tell the client what they are missing but not getting too technical. 

A corporate buys an aircraft. Pilot just drives the aircraft on a runway faster than any sports car and sigh a sense of accomplishment.  If the corporate ask me "Are we missing something?"  My immediate answer would be, Oh yeah!  Aircraft is supposed to fly and you are just driving.  It's a no-brainer question.

To me, I see a parallel between both the scenarios

SOA Suite and Agile methodology could ensure rapid development which is as good as saying you could drive faster than any sports car.  But the SOA Suite (Aircraft) is supposed to fly which cannot happen unless SOA Principles and Governance are given equal or more importance. 

Please do a thorough assessment of your SOA project(s) before it is too late.  To self-check your SOA project health status, read SOA Magazine - SOA Success is Not a Matter of Luck

Share your comments.

Posted by Prasad Jayakumar at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

The suomoto of business intelligence is having access to the right information at the right time. It matters a lot when the decisions are required to be made on the fly - anytime, anywhere. The latest and real time intelligence accelerates right decisions. Mobiles are everywhere, so is the scope for mobile business intelligence!

As per Morgan Stanley's Mobile Internet Report in 2010, there are 5,000 Million plus mobile internet users.  Mobile BI is not necessarily for everyone. The senior or top-level management who need to access information on the move are the prospective customers. The interest is growing. Technology companies understand the importance of making information available on finger tips. All of "Google's" 2011 Strategic Initiatives are 'Mobile'. As per Google, in April 2011, there had been over 3 billion Android apps installed.

Mobile BI market has evolved over the last few years. Evolution from paper based reports to web based and now the portable and interactive mobile way. The new generation of mobile applications, networks and mobile devices encourage the users to leverage the latest and advanced features.

A glance at some key players - Actuate, Tibco Spotfire has a native iPad applications while Cognos has platform-native applications for both iPhone and iPad. MicroStrategy and RoamBI have native applications for Apple and BlackBerry devices. SAP BusinessObjects has native applications based on Flash. Business Objects and Microstrategy support the Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry platform. QlikTech relies on browser-based viewing.

Oracle Business Indicators are iPhone-native applications developed by Oracle for delivering Oracle business information as Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile applications for the Apple iPhone. Intuitive features such as browse, search, and favorites is possible using the business applications. The application provides mobile business users with real-time, secure access to business performance information. Custom reports and analyses using OBIEE can be created and results can be viewed on iPhones with Oracle Business Indicators. Users can easily browse through a catalog of pre-defined reports with a touch or just few taps. As the application is developed on the Apple IOS, device-specific rendering is used to display BI content. Mobile-only versions of reports and dashboards need not be created (advantage of device-native mobile apps over browser-based approach). Individual charts and graphs are displayed in full width and can be scrolled.

The latest version of OBIEE 11.1.1.5 has full support for the Apple iPad and iPhones (supported devices are iPhone 3GS, 4, iPad). Oracle BI Mobile 11.1.1.5.0 is built on OBIEE Foundation and employs an embedded dashboard approach providing support to Oracle Analyses, Dashboards, BI Publisher reports, Action Framework, Scorecards, Alerts, Catalog Search. Oracle promises a zero training to interact with data on mobile devices (such as gestural interactions, orientation recognition and layout optimizations for tablet and smart phone platforms).

Some key features of Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile 11.1.1.5.0 are -
* Webkit layout engine is wrapped in a native iOS shell.
* Mobile Layout property: When this is set to 'OFF', the layout of the dashboard or analysis is the same as that of the full-browser version and does not affect other object types, such as BI Publisher reports, scorecards or alerts.
* The OBIEE Security using SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) and SSO(Single Sign-On) can be leveraged.
* The bookmark feature allows any BI content that you view or want to revisit again to be marked as favorite(s)
* Alerts badge/icon: A red-circled number appears in the tab bar indicating the number of unread alerts you have
* Keyword Search: Search can be performed on BI catalog object names and descriptions but restricted to the objects that are viewed in Oracle BI Mobile.
* Console Logging: This setting can be enabled in the Settings screen but may impact performance

Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile for Apple iPad and Apple iPhone can be downloaded free from the app store.

Oracle also plans for similar ERP, CRM apps and 'Approvals' app that provide in-context analytic information around specific transactions. Oracle's strategy on mobile apps for Android or BlackBerry devices is not revealed. Access to Oracle BI from Blackberry, HTC, Android, Windows Mobile, and Palm PDAs & Smartphones can be achieved by third party vendors.

The BI Vendors meanwhile will continue their pursuit on how to benefit from the usage trends, drive higher adoption rates in user community overcoming the challenges. Next generation mobiles will certainly accommodate features that would further promote mobile BI and may revolutionize the overall use of BI.

The Oracle BI practice at Infosys has proven track record of successful BI implementations. We observe interest from several existing customers to leverage Oracle BI Mobile. The excitement is high within our BI Mobility Lab and looking forward to help more customers leverage the benefits of intelligence on mobiles - the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile way.

Posted by Sparjan Kote at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Rajesh Dhanapal, Lead Consultant, Oracle Practice, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd

In the current era the customers are not interested to wait for months and years for BI project implementation. The customers are keen on quick wins rather than implementing the BI solution from scratch by following traditional BI approach. The Oracle BI Apps solution provides head start for the organisation to reach the to-be state quicker with reduced time and effort, and reduced risk.

The customers who show great interest towards the Oracle products are gradually migrating their home grown and legacy IS applications to standard Oracle based platforms in the CRM and ERP space to get better support and to be abreast with industry standards. Hence for Business Intelligence reporting, they are showing enormous interest towards Oracle BI Apps, as this is prebuilt packaged solution based on the industry best practices and standards. If the customers are already in Oracle application stack, they are showing soaring interest for moving towards the Oracle BI Apps path, as they can develop the solution on top of the prebuilt package.

In my opinion the Oracle BI Apps project should start in a simple way with the following objectives and then should enter into actual full life cycle implementation:

• Set up a pilot environment for Oracle Business Intelligence and there could be two options:
  a). Loading the vanilla data of transactional database to Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse by using the standard out of the box ETL routines
  b). Loading the customer  supplied real-time data to Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse  by using the standard out of the box ETL routines
• Demo the Dashboards and reporting capabilities offered in the out of the box solution.

The recommended approach is to use the customer data, if the customer already has the up and running transactional application. In this approach the customer would be more ebullient as they see their own data in the industry best practice dashboards and reports.

Hence in this pilot approach of implementing a BI Apps, customer keeps the pilot as simple as possible and ensures the minimal SME involvement and then gradually builds the full blown solution from the strong BI foundation. This approach will be best suited for the global deployment and roll-outs, as the initial validation and success is measured during the pilot phase.

After the successful implementation of POC, the customer should get good grip of the vanilla dashboards and reports then the implementation team should assist in determining the following:

• Determine the extent to which "out of the box" Oracle ETL routines plug into deployed Oracle/Non Oracle applications, and associated reporting capability
• Determine the extent to which Oracle "out of the box" reporting solution can mix with the various levels of business reporting requirements
• Perform "Fit Gap" exercise where customisation have been made in the source application
• Determine where an extension of ETL customization will be required

Based on the reporting business requirements and fit gap analysis, the business stakeholders can take better informed decisions with the complete guidance and direction from the implementation team.  The key factor is both the business and IT team should not work towards replicating the legacy reports in BI Apps and they should always consider the BI Apps as new philosophy and new approach for business improvement.

According to me, this is what is customers are really interested in Oracle BI Apps, as they explore and understand what is available as the industry best practice and what is their business objective and they try to implement the best suitable solution for organisation Business Intelligence.

In the current trend, most of the customers do not want to invest heavily and later uncover the major gaps in the implementation. Hence the above stated approach can be used for successful implementation of BI engagements with the right implementation partners, who have an extensive knowledge of Oracle applications, combined with the industry and business expertise. These partners provide end to end advice and support to ensure that business makes the right decision and right choice for Oracle BI Apps implementation.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Guest post by
Mukesh Nakra, Senior Program Manager and GTM Director-Oracle Fusion Applications, Enterprise Solutions, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Tough market competition is putting pressure on organizations in terms of process standardization and access to integrated information. With the availability of the internet and all online content adapting to the Web 2.0 standards, employees and organizations are expecting systems that support businesses to adapt to these standards and new technologies. Oracle supports multiple ERP packages like Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards and Seibel to name a few. Taking advantage of the evolution and availability of new technology platforms and with a vision to standardize the applications, both from a usability and technological basis, Oracle Fusion Applications were created.

Oracle Fusion Applications bring in the best of the functionalities of all ERP products owned by Oracle.

Many of you would have questions on how should you move to Oracle Fusion Applications? Who can help you get there? What is available today and what are some of the Early Adopters working on? Infosys and Oracle are jointly presenting a webcast on Inside Oracle Fusion Applications: Next-Generation Enterprise Resource Planning, where we will address all such queries.

In this webcast, I will cover a brief overview of Infosys, our partnership with Oracle and all investments made in the co-development of Oracle Fusion Applications. I will also bring in some real life examples of how we are working closely with Oracle Fusion Early adopters across various pillars of Oracle Fusion.

If you have started your Oracle Fusion Applications thought process and are considering Oracle Fusion Applications now or just looking to stay up-to-speed on Oracle Fusion Applications; this is the session to attend.

We are pleased to invite you for this webcast:

Inside Oracle Fusion Applications: Next-Generation Enterprise Resource Planning Solutions and Infosys

Schedule:  June 8, 2011, 11:00-12:00 PST
Speakers:  Folia Grace, Vice President - Applications Strategy Marketing, Oracle;
                     Mukesh Nakra, Senior Program Manager & GTM Director-Oracle Fusion Applications, Infosys

Register for the Webcast

Posted by Guest Blogger at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )

Until last month by and large I believed that for the webservices that are to be used internally in an organization, over the intranet, we need not put any extra security overheads around them, like for example use of Oracle Web Service Security Management. By using infrastructural level protection we can attain a safe setup, and this approach worked. A logical way would be to network protect your server which is hosting the webservices to only those machines which need access to it.

So what changed my perspective? The way infrastructure is being used today and indeed in a most optimized way brought in a new dimension to my thoughts.

Let us first look at the need of securing web services. SOA in principle means loose coupling and practically it represents an open plug to which any application can hook for retrieval of data. Most of the data is so mundane that it is of no interest to anyone. But moment any financial data is in picture, it will trigger an itch to those who believe in peeking and poking even though the intention is harmless, you cannot guarantee albeit. So in all such cases security becomes the most critical non-functional requirement. And any kind of programmatic security will hurt the performance.

To build a mechanism that enables strong protection during run-time and beyond infrastructure firewalls one has to use enhanced web service security options. OWSM (Oracle Web Security Manager) comes as a handy option to establish an authenticated security. What has been seen on the other hand is that it will degrade the performance to significant or marginal levels depending on the transactional volume and infrastructural capabilities.

During initial SOA implementations, specifically for platforms where the web services were built only to be used over intranet, in the solution architecture OWSM was kept at bay for the fear of performance attenuation. Infrastructural level firewalls were built where access to webservice layer is confined only to particular IPs. This mechanism of security is commonly called as network filtering and it worked only in favour of architects to corroborate their decision.

However during the most recent implementation the deployment infrastructure appeared a bit different. A very high configuration server is being used for multiple applications in a virtual manner. Network filtering emerged as only half way protection or if one has to not mince any words then it was a weak protection, as the number of IPs that needed access to SOA layer was never a constant. Network filtering would still have left some unknown areas from where intrusion was suspected. Plus what firmed up further the need of OWSM was the stringent DR environment policy. If you migrate from PROD to DR, all IPs are new and all your network filtering will need changes and DRM policy needed a seamless transition. We selected OWSM after proof of concept to rule out any noticeable dent on performance was established.

Oracle Web Services Security supports many policies out of the box and the appropriate policies must be chosen based on the need of the deployment. Judicious consideration should be given to tradeoffs between security and performance. Transport level security is faster than Application level security, but transport level security can be defenseless in multi-step transactions. Application level security has more performance implications, but provides end-to-end security. Each additional policy can impact performance. Custom policy is another area which should be delved into on when it is a dire need. Further if you are exposing your services to external world, the universally accepted standards, include the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) and WS-Federation Language. These languages use XML to exchange authentication and authorization for SOA systems. They use various systems for exchanging authentication information within in SOA, including session keys, tokens and digital certificates.

A careful design can certainly let you savor best of both worlds - security and performance. In the nutshell do not procrastinate your security considerations, address them from day one with appropriate options.

Please do share some of your experiences which have led to alteration of beliefs around web service security in either ways.

Posted by Gaurav Sharma at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBacks ( 0 )