Infosys-Oracle Blog

The Combo for Successful Application Integrations is on its Way!

2010-03-19T05:58:40Z

It makes sense for us to begin the story with the mention of nothing other than the Application Integration Architecture release 3.0 (AIA 3.0) which is going to be out shortly. Application Integration Architecture is an integration solution for orchestrating agile, user-centric business processes across enterprise applications. It offers prebuilt solutions at the data, process and user interface levels delivering a more complete process solution to business end users. With handful of productivity tooling components, reference process models, infrastructure components, methodologies that guide us through the SOA development lifecycle and many more, AIA 3.0 is going to stand out as superior reference architecture for implementing best practice Service Oriented Architecture in Enterprise Application Integrations.

]]> AIA 3.0 is powered by Fusion Middleware 11g which is based on WebLogic Server platform. WebLogic is a powerful Application Server platform which enables application integrations by way of offering best in class capabilities for deploying, testing and managing the composite applications across its life cycle stages.

AIA 3.0 is going to be the major release after AIA 2.5 that got released during last October. The Statement of Direction for Application Integration Architecture Foundation Pack 3.0 that got published in Dec 2009 indicates that AIA 3.0 leverages SOA Suite 11g components and other key FMW 11g features including Oracle Enterprise Repository (OER), Oracle B2B etc., and also has a support for Oracle Service Bus (OSB), the industry’s leading service bus.

People like us who have already started exploring the territories of SOA 11g are probably experiencing the same level of heightened excitement for AIA 3.0 as that exists when the blockbusters of Columbia Pictures flash on our screen. Yes, the excitement is all about the next big title “AIA 3.0”, to be released in the early half of this year. So, let us keep our fingers crossed for this magnificent event.

At this juncture, we are actively making our wish list for AIA 3.0 to test our luck when the release will happen.

However, you have to stay tuned to know the things that top our wish list which we will cover in our next blog (hope this is creating the same excitement that we mentioned above).

Author: Chaitanya Chandu, AIA Center of Excellence, Infosys

Critical Success Factors for Implementation projects

2010-03-15T10:47:02Z

Having managed fairly large implementation projects from offshore namely among them being for a Banking Major & Global power leader , I would like to list down the critical success factors and the key points that we should not lose sight of .

Effort estimation of a project should drive the schedule and Go Live date
Solution Acceptance
PMO governance
Tighter control and tracking process
Data Migration
Infrastructure Planning
Performance/Stress Testing
Cut Over
End User Adoption
Risk & Readiness Assessment
Stakeholder Management & Responsibility Definition
Resource Allocation

]]> Having managed fairly large implementation projects from offshore namely among them being for a Banking Major & Global power leader , I would like to list down the critical success factors and the key points that we should not lose sight of .

Effort estimation of a project should drive the schedule and Go Live date and not the other way around. Working backwards is more or less a recipe for failure. For the Banking major, the program already had a Go Live date fixed and committed even before the Requirements phase and estimation for Build phase was completed and no points for guessing we couldn’t meet the date for various extraneous and unforeseen circumstances

Solution acceptance : Extensions are inevitable in any implementation and that’s a fact we all have to live with as there is no ‘’one size fits all’ package available. However whilst accepting the inevitability of extensions, it is important to keep in mind that extensions have a continuous impact in terms of maintainability of the implemented system. For the Global Power Leader, Infosys implementation methodology was further refined to include a well laid out presentation of solution options for several business processes gaps (along with Pros and Cons) for helping the super users’ decision making (47+ KDD got submitted). Result was minimal change request & high user acceptability of the overall delivered solutions with several extensions getting eliminated.

PMO governance: Ever changing change requests severely affect the solution stabilization which ties to the point above on Solution Acceptance. The later we go into the implementation cycle, it is imperative to enforce only ‘MUST & SHOWSTOPPER’ extensions to be approved. We should also enforce strict discipline & control in implementing Soft & Hard code freeze as this cannot be a moving date. A fully accountable and enforcing PMO needs to be constituted comprising of both client & Infosys representatives to ensure governance

Non-standard extensions should also have a tighter control and tracking process. It is a must to prepare a Business Process- Customization Mapping matrix & a Traceability matrix of all extensions. This will immensely help in future upgrades & also ongoing tasks where patches applied overwrite non standard extensions in standard code

Data Migration : This is the most important part to be successfully planned for a successful go-live as it involves migration of both master & transaction data. A minimum of 4 Dry runs should be planned and woven into the execution cycle with a dedicated Migration instance. All errors and the cause for the errors need to flow back into a master document that serves as a check list to be incorporated before the subsequent iteration. Reconciliation scripts need to be built for every entity that has to be migrated and the results should be published for user verification

Infrastructure Planning: Infrastructure Planning should be done and validated at the start of the project rather than mid-way. For the banking major, we were contracted to do the Upgrade from 11.0.3 to 11.5.10 and implement new modules & custom bolt-ons. The Program Management and Governance and Infrastructure piece rested with the client. Though we were operating as per what we were contracted for, the client didn’t have the foresight to evaluate whether the existing production hardware used in 11.0.3 would scale upto the new volume of data, additional users, additional modules . This resulted in a delayed Go live though the entire functionality was ready for deployment and it was expected that as a trusted partner of choice, we should have been pragmatic and advised the client on the same

Performance/Stress Testing : Performance Testing of critical business processes HAS to be budgeted for with proper simulation using Load Testing tools like LOADRUNNER. Due diligence should be performed well in advance along with the development phase and the scripts for the same need to be prepared/simulated alongside the BUILD phase in time before SIT so that we have a sufficient window before GO LIVE.

Cut Over : Most projects have a small cutover window of not more than 4-5 days wherein the entire transaction data needs to be migrated along with readiness testing and sanity testing. We should ensure there are no manual transactions that are expected to be performed as these have a highly probable chance of being underestimated in volume. For the Global Power major, we had to do reverse moves in 10.7 for all WIP transactions on uncompleted jobs and after transaction data migration, do the moves manually in R12 on the new jobs created. It was assumed in talks with business that the volumes for these move transactions would be minimal and this will be a manual activity. It came as a shock to us when this count ran into thousands closer to UAT and we ended up automating the entire process .Had this not been done, the Cut Over window would not have been sufficient at all. We should give due thought to archival and purge of the historical data prior to the project that results in lesser outage window & better performance of the instance etc

End User Adoption : The biggest risk envisaged by the Client’s Senior Management and PMO is the effective training to large diversified user base that can span a sophisticated production engineer to computer-illiterate warehouse labor. It should be our endeavour to deliver job-oriented, process-focused training (Training Methods), develop concise and work instructions based training contents (Training Development).Last but not the least, make training documents accessible through uploading it as an online help. For the Global Power Leader, Infosys developed and deployed high quality 300+ Oracle Tutor documents and 47+ Oracle UPK simulations which have become ever reliable asset for the client in the years to come. Oracle tutor was envisaged as single means of documenting end-to-end business processes, organizational policies, roles and responsibilities, business flow diagrams and job-specific training document. This best practice should be followed and encouraged by all implementations rather than going for the conventional mode of ‘Ppt and Module based training’

Risk & Readiness Assessment : Risks pertaining to the program need to be continuously documented and mitigation strategies adopted for good health of the project . Many implementations are usually transformation programs with multiple IT & business initiatives as part of the strategy. This leads to dependency on several parallel running programs . It becomes imperative then to monitor risks using well known frameworks such as ‘Failure Mode & Effectivity analysis’ (FMEA) which do help us prioritize Risks based on Severity, Occurrence, Detectability. For the Global power leader, we had also a readiness assessment conducted on 4 dimensions – System, Data, People, Others to test preparedness & readiness before UAT and point out the ‘Lose Sleep’ / ‘Watch Out’ areas with mitigation steps. Both these practices clearly helped us attack all tumultuous and nagging bottlenecks upfront and take the complex project go-live on schedule & within budget

Stakeholder Management & Responsibility Definition : It is imperative that we list down all activities to be performed per phase of the implementation and use the well adopted RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) to distribute stake in the activity across various Project Management, Functional & Technical functions.

Resource Allocation : Dedicated resource allocation to critical projects is a must , especially around Subject matter experts . However I have also noticed that it doesn’t pay to go just by ‘on paper and number of years’ experience. One should have a good balanced team comprising of few senior folks to pave the way & direction and rest comprising of junior resources who have the hunger to prove themselves. We should give people a chance to deliver and more often than not with the right direction, they will surpass our expectations

Though what I have mentioned above is not oblivious to all, it is my earnest endeavour to have this serve as a checklist and I have tried to make it as generic as possible citing examples, situations and solutions wherever faced.

- Sanjay Pinto

Sanjay Pinto is a Senior Project Manager with Infosys Technologies Ltd. He has managed various implementation, support & upgrade projects as an offshore delivery anchor in the Oracle EBS space across verticals – Manufacturing, BCM, IHL

On Demand TMS: A new reality in transportation sector

2010-03-15T06:50:16Z

In the era of traditional Transpiration Management Systems (TMS), a company buys packaged software by paying an upfront license fee and deploys the software on computer platforms within their own enterprise, being responsible for the general technical support of the application.
Over the past few years, we have come across variety of terms like hosted solutions, ASP (application service provider), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The basic idea shared among all such concepts is that rather than installing software on a server within the boundaries of the enterprise’s IT domain, the software resides outside the company’s walls by 3^rd party service providers and delivered over web technology.
SaaS or “On Demand” generally implies a multi-tenant model, where multiple companies share a single/multiple instance of the software and associated hardware / infrastructure. It makes perfect sense for transportation processes to be deployed on SaaS mode as they are

Inherently network centric
Involve extensive communication and collaboration between different trading partners
Standard workflows across companies and industries

On demand TMS is the latest buzzword in the transportation industry. They are developed on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform to keep pace with recent developments in IT industry. On demand TMS definitely scores over traditional TMS in many key areas such as

Incremental implementation (module wise) reduces initial cost overhead & ensures rapid deployment.
Greater willingness to adapt to the application as on-demand TMS is perceived as a “service”, making buyers accept it as more standardized offering and demand less customization.
Ready to use carrier connectivity enables providers to leverage existing carrier connections among common customers
Collaborative transportation opportunities via benchmarking transportation processes across the industry.
Strategic flexibility to “unplug” an on-demand TMS solution and switch to another service provider
Additional advantages provided by on demand TMS providers like process consulting by domain experts, streamlining support escalations and guaranteed performance levels.
On demand TMS is definitely the way forward, but it does not pose an end to traditional TMS implementation as initial subscription cost in this model works out to be higher when compared to traditional TMS deployment. Only ‘vanilla’ configuration can be managed in such formats leaving little room for customer specific enhancements. Moreover, enterprise will always face the strategic risk of exposing company specific data to external world.
Corporate shippers should look at a two step approach to TMS implementation. Initial phase of TMS project should be delivered via on demand service provider, but later with better process maturity, the enterprise should move to in-house TMS deployment to appraise processes to next level and maintain more control over data.
Acknowledgments for inputs from - Nipun Lakhotia , OTM Consultant, Oracle Practice

Managed Solution for Staffing Industry

2010-03-15T06:39:04Z

As staffing industries remain challenged to grow their revenues, their focus areas have also shifted to reduce their back office costs continually, streamline the business process through automation, front to back office integrations and integration with VMS systems. Given their proven experience in implementing and supporting global implementations be it compliance with global accounting requirements or managing global payroll, ERP System integrators are very strongly placed to help staffing companies reduce their back office costs both on the pay side and the bill side, thereby improving their bottom-line revenue.

]]> Staffing industry are entering a perfect storm - they face such challenges as Customer Retention, Supply Shortage & Applicant loyalty, High operation costs, while seeking innovative options and models to reduce their back office costs and improve their profitability. These trends and challenges call for a completely managed solution combining BPO services with internet based architecture and applications that would enable staffing companies to outsource the two-mission critical functions of their industry – billing customers and paying candidates/suppliers. The Staffing companies further pay for all of it according to how much is used. They pay ‘per billed invoice’ on the bill side and ‘per pay slip’ on the pay side. This solution can also accommodate variants such as SaaS in the ‘pay-as-you-use’ model.

-Anil Bhatia

Anil Bhatia is a Senior Engagement Manager with Infosys Technologies Ltd. He leads Business Platform Engagements in Americas and Canada for key verticals such as Manufacturing, Services, Energy, Utilities, Communication and Media.

For more information on the Managed Solution for staffing industry, please meet us at booth#P3 at SIA executive forum. Click here for more details.

Is it possible to achieve “Zero” breakdown in Maintenance World?

2010-03-15T06:26:38Z

In maintenance world when we talk of “Zero Break down” most of the time maintenance crew says that it is not possible to achieve zero break down. So is it really possible to achieve “Zero Break down” for a Machine /Equipment? The answer is “Yes”.

What is breakdown? :- When a Machine (M/c)is working and suddenly something fails for e.g. in case of CNC M/c hydraulic hose pipe rupture and leads to heavy oil leakage ,thus Beak down due hydraulic leakage occurs on the M/C.
Above Failure could have anticipated by doing regular check of hydraulic hose piping by carrying out proper preventive, predictive maintenance
What is “Zero Breakdowns”? :- When a Maintenance Department hand over a M/C to Production department for the Production activities that time maintenance department can confidently tell the M/C would not fail due to “Hydraulic leakage” for another 24 Hrs as they have done a proper inspection/ratification through Preventive and Predictive Maintenance on the M/C on Hydraulic side. This 24 hrs of running time without any Hydraulic failure is said to be “Zero Break Down” in Hydraulic failure.
After 24 Hrs again maintenance team would take the machine in their custody to do preventive and predictive maintenance to ensure that there would not be any failure due to “Hydraulic leakage” for another 24 hrs, thus maintenance team take over the control of M/C after certain running period of the M/Cs and do preventive/Predictive maintenance to active “Zero Breakdown” in specific area e.g. ‘Hydraulic Pipe failure’. Over a period of time by doing proper, regular preventive maintenance on almost all the areas of M/C instead of specific area leads to achieve Total “Zero Breakdown” on an asset for certain mentioned period time frame by the Maintenance department.

]]> What is Preventive and Predictive Maintenance? How Oracle eAM address it?

Preventive maintenance:- A maintenance activity done on a machine at regular interval based on the Preventive Maintenance strategy designed by Maintenance Planning Department by taking inputs from OEM(Original Equipment Manufacturer) recommendation ,from Past Maintenance experience and from Reliability Centered Maintenance Department ,generally at the beginning of each financial year to formulate the Preventive Maintenance execution time frame (PM frequencies) . It does not change frequency of Preventive activities frequently /on ad hoc basis, based on changes and findings during inspection once the PM stagey is defined for the year, which are generally taken care by other type of Maintenance like Predictive Maintenance work.

Case 1
Preventive Activity:- Hydraulic Oil Top up on CNC M/c once in a month
Why Preventive Maintenance required:- This preventive maintenance is required to avoid a breakdown due to less oil level which leads to less hydraulic pressures during M/c operation ,doing so you can at least achieve Zero Break down due to “Low Hydraulic Oil level” , similarly you can indentify frequent failures on M/Cs and try to work on preventive measures as motioned below
How Oracle eAM Helps to achieve Preventive Maintenance Process:-
In Oracle eAM you can generate Preventive Maintenance Work Orders automatically based on meter readings, runtime and/or calendar days. An example of meter-based preventive maintenance is your vehicle oil changes. Most vehicle manufacturers recommend that you have to change your engine oil every 3,000 miles or six months, whichever comes first. A preventive maintenance definition having combination of meter and calendar days can be defined to archive engine oil replacement activity based on the manufacturer’s recommendation.

Predictive Maintenance: - A maintenance activity done on a Machine at regular interval along with Preventive maintenance or on continuous basis inputs from online system e.g. SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) or based on the inputs from other sources (e.g. Machine Operator’s observation) .In predictive maintenance the detail analysis of the inspection data done and based on the analysis results prediction of the Failure is done . To avoid the Failure Machine is taken for the Predictive Maintenance work which may involve some major overhauling or shutdown .
Case 1
Predictive Maintenance carried out along with regular PM
Predictive Activity:- Oil Inspection & inspection result detail analysis
Preventive activity: - Hydraulic Oil Top up on CNC M/c one in a month
Why Predictive Maintenance required: -As a part of normal Preventive Maintenance activity oil is topped up every month in hydraulic power pack, in case of Predictive maintenance oil sample analysis is done in detail e.g. for presence of metal partials, color of the oil due to contamination etc. Based on the detail analysis of the oil if it is found that oil is getting contaminated due to small quantity of coolant leakage and it may lead to change in the oil viscosity and ultimately loss of Hydraulic pressure and thus lead to Break down in future. This failure could be avoided by informing Production department to carryout Oil replacement and arresting of coolant leakage work as predictive maintenance work.
Case 2

Predictive Activity:- Abnormality Observation by a M/C Operator

Why Predictive Maintenance required: -Other than statistical Method as mention in Case 1,you need a mechanism to record any abnormality observed by operator/cleaner of the machine, as they work on M/Cs on daily basis and knows it’s behavior very well and they are first level people who can immediately find any abnormal behavior in the M/Cs e.g. suppose the hydraulic hose clamping bolts loosen due to vibration and hosepipe start rubbing against M/Cs part , this kind of observation could be taken as input to the Predictive maintenance ,M/c could be taken for the tightening of the clamping bolts as Predictive work to avoid the failure due to sudden rupture of the hose pipe due to rubbing against machine part.
How Oracle eAM Helps to achieve Predictive Maintenance Process:-

Using Oracle eAM and Quality module:- You can define the collection which would collect the data during Preventive maintenance and in case of deviation in the inspection results system would automatically generate one system generated work order( Predictive work order ).
Using work Request feature:-The inputs from the M/C operators could recoded as “Predictive work request”. Also the Vibration analysis or other external Tools statistical data analysis result can be entered as “Predictive work request “by configuring request type “Predictive” and maintenance manger can approve it for the Predictive work order.

Lets Be Innovative like our own LIC

2010-03-15T04:20:45Z

LIC – Life Insurance Corporation of India is the largest life insurer of India with an asset base of USD 160 billion and insuring 220 million lives over past 50 years.

It has recently come out with innovative schemes to revive insurance policies of individuals who defaulted on premiums during the global recession of 2009. As per a leading source, it was estimated that around 7 million policies were closed in 2009 alone. The schemes include:

a) Revival of policies with all riders by paying premium along with interest at one go

b) Payment of premium in easy instalments but revive the policies with immediate effect

Such schemes are turning out to be a win win situation for both LIC and the Individuals since the corporation would maintain a healthy bottom line by retaining customers and the individuals would gain by revival of their policies

Taking a cue from LIC, software companies should also start taking measures especially for their Banking and Financial industry clients who were hit hard by recession. For E.g. Software Companies acting in ERP space can identify:

a) Client programs which were called off during 2009 – Review these programs and present how effectively they can be carried forward by remediation or relooking at value proposition

b) Clients would now like to analyze trends like Return on Investment and Pay Back period for investments made in IT, one needs to include such metrics in their proposals and project delivery

c) Advice client to spend in the right place – Post recession clients have become risk averse hence one should suggest projects which would provide value for money in short to medium term with long term vision still intact

d) Device innovative billing methods like “Pay as you deliver” or “Milestone based payment”

e) Identify new opportunities created post recession due to Mergers and Acquisitions

Like LIC, some of the above measures would definitely strike right chord with client and would go long way in redefining the existing relationships and also creating new value based relationships, thereby creating a win win situation by having a shared vision for Client IT strategy

Hitting two birds with a single arrow………. Integrating financial planning to operation reporting

2010-03-09T03:41:29Z

If your organization is relying on spreadsheets to produce the information for forward looking guidance, it might be time to consider a more-robust solution, which provides more control. What more if these information systems can supplement the operational reporting needs?
Just as companies are seeking ways to better utilize their ERP investments, they are also seeking ways to maximize their ROI in business processes through integration and standardization. Industry is grappling with multiple challenges today, but there's no turning back – yes, the financial planners now need sophisticated measurement tools to churn out accurate estimates.
Need for sound financial planning has never been as profound as it is shaping up in wake of recent financial crisis. Businesses are fast recognizing a need to tighten integration of financial reporting; EPM; and governance, risk, and compliance. A greater integration in information delivery systems is being witnessed for serving dual objective of compliance and decision support systems.

]]>

Companies need big capabilities when it comes to financial planning

Growing complexity in business arena is fast changing the paradigm of financial planning. Superior computation capabilities have come in handy and are helping planners scale up forecast process to conceptualize greater number of variables in financial planning process. Improvements in computation methodologies and integration of EPM systems has helped percolate Activity Based Costing analysis down to business users rather than being reserved as a niche area for technology. This has proved to be a great launch-pad for technology to perform as a true enabler.
Integration technologies have gathered critical mass whereby it is now feasible to create a common platform for delivering unified performance management solutions. Web based technologies facilitate rapid dispersal of information systems that in turn ensures close tracking of operations and speedier introduction of ameliorative measures to address economic adversities.
Image of finance department which hitherto has been regarded as a cost center is being reburbished. CFOs are exhibiting greater say role in driving technology decisions. Justification of ROI for financial systems is now being visualized with a broader mindset. With an objective of complementing these growing aspirations, technology is adapting fast and is delivering information in ‘the way business thinks’.

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posted on behalf of Navpreet Singh(Navpreet_Singh@infosys.com)

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Spend Time on your Projects, Not on Reporting

2010-03-05T08:58:18Z

Project Managers work in a constantly changing environment and are often looking for ways to manage the multitude of data elements within their reach. Typically the data is available, but it is scattered across different screens and the project managers need to spend a long time in consolidating them. This would always mean a customization and would require some lead time for the IT team to develop it.

]]> Another major limitation has been that the the Oracle Projects suite of applications requires the project managers to be always connected to the system to access the information. Most of the project managers are at client locations and do not have access to the ERP applications.

What they really desire is that the desired reports can be configured easily and are directly delivered to their mail-box at specified time so that they can take informed decisions. These features have been address by Oracle using the Reporting Pack functionality in R12.1

Reporting Pack is a powerful built-in tool that allows the users to design reports to cater to specific needs of your company. It allows an unlimited number of customs deigns. The user can include charts and graphs also in the report. The reports would indicate the overall health of the project and are delivered to the stakeholders at pre-decided intervals by scheduling the reporting pack.

For example the key stake holders would like to review the status of the project bi-weekly and the format has already been agreed upon. Using XML Publisher tools, the system administrator can create new report templates to configure the content and output to meet the business needs. The report templates support colors, images, font styles, headers and footers, and countless other formatting options and the output can be viewed in PDF Format.

Oracle Projects provides a predefined data definition file that contains XML tags for performance measures and project data. Report can pull data for 200+ measures from .The data can be summarized at the project level, task level or even by expenditure category. The data definition template maps to fields in the Oracle base tables. The fields can be used for complex calculations. The distribution list for the reports can be prepared in advance to make sure that the reports are delivered to the authorized users.

IT - The Strategic Tool for Staffing Industry

2010-03-04T15:00:00Z

The staffing industry has seen a huge swing towards recruiting professionals from varied streams such as Finance, Sales, Engineering, Information Technology, and Management. While this trend provides myriad opportunities for growth, it also brings a unique set of challenges that include Customer Retention & Serving new industries; Applicant loyalty, soaring operational cost due to disintegrated systems in usage; high percentage of manual effort involved in the process of matching the right people with the right job that prohibits a quick response to the customer for an order, and integration of the business processes across geographies.

]]> To stay ahead of the competition the staffing firms depend on the Quality of hiring, Speed of delivering resources, developing Integrity or Credibility, Client Relationship Management, and the statutory compliances to cater to the changing needs of the staffing industry, which is rapidly becoming a strategic partner to its clients by managing the staffing in their global operations and delivering a host of value added services.

A completely integrated front- to back-office solution developed specifically for the staffing industry aptly provides scalability capability for the staffing firms. An integrated solution that seamlessly manages both the front and back office helps staffing organizations drive more business, extend client relationships, and streamline operations. Completely integrated systems, allow the staffing firms to seamlessly transition from job order creation and candidate assignment to time and expense capture, payroll, and billing.

Staffing companies must balance these desirable outcomes with the challenging consequences of technology implementation, such as training costs and misalignments between software and strategy that can threaten the bottom line.

The present state of the staffing industry requires an IT- BPO integrated solution that provides simplified and efficient cost management by pay per usage model, lowers the unplanned expenses, and helps the staffing firms to achieve the economies of scale by shared services execution interweaved with ERP lifecycle best practices.

-Sandeep Deshpande, Lead Consultant, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Hear more on this from us at the SIA Executive Forum to be held on March 17-19 at Red Rock Casino Hotel, Las Vegas

Invigorating the topline of Hi Tech enterprises through a streamlined and efficient Demand to Deliver Value Chain

2010-03-04T10:29:12Z

Most of the Hi Tech Manufacturing organization are reeling under tremendous margins pressure due to flat to modest growth in the topline and ever increasing costs. In this tough environment its absolutely imperative for organizations to capitalize on whatever sales opportunities are presented to them. At the same time they also need to be very aggressive in scouting of new avenues for revenue growth, so that their toplines are positively impacted.

A streamlined, efficiently run Demand to Delivery Value Chain is the key to this objective and this in turn calls for a best of breed, cutting edge, integrated, Enterprise wide solution/application to support the execution of this value chain.

]]> Refer the blog by Abhishek Sabharwal to follow the full storyline. (http://www.infosysblogs.com/oracle/2010/02/demand_to_deliver_value_chain.html)

Infosys has developed an Oracle Applications based Demand to Deliver solution (D2D), which enables the following 3 Business Value Levers, which should positively the topline of the organizations :

1. Increasing the Forecast Accuracy with the Strong simulation capabilities to model strategic business scenarios, leading to better demand capture and fulfillment
   a) Ability to easily add external syndicated, POS and other data sources
   b) Ability to Forecast at any level of time, product, and location aggregation
   c) Ability to support different demand data for each customer and channel

2. Ensuring On Time Delivery leading to quicker Cash flow, enhanced customer satisfaction, stifling the competition
   a) Ability to Plan the entire supply chain with a single holistic plan
   b) Ability to Utilize sophisticated constraints and optimization algorithms
   c) Ability to Include transportation/logistic partners and warehouse teams in the planning process

3. Ensuring lesser Stock Out situations leading to higher demand to sales conversion
a) Ability to do comprehensive inventory and POS management
b) Ability to generate supply chain visibility with accurate real-time POS data
c) Ability to do forward looking replenishment and allocation plans

Oracle BI on the move

2010-03-02T02:46:03Z

Few days back after watching the launch of iPad by Steve Jobs, my thoughts just went 15 years back when mobile phones were a novelty and few could have imagined then that they would become so ubiquitous in just a decade. iPhone was a landmark in what seems to be the dawn of the age of mobile digital convergence. This obviously forebodes that we have a very exciting future as digital consumers.

We all know that the success of iPhone came from its positioning on rich user experience. And the iPad promises to enrich it further. It has a tremendous potential to take Visual BI to the next level with use of multi-touch capabilities. Oracle has taken a step by delivering the business intelligence on iPhone through Oracle Business Indicators. Oracle Business Indicators accesses pre-built reports that are delivered in Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Applications, and include financial, human resources, supply chain, and customer relationship management analytics.

One of the interesting features is that, upon opening the reports in the catalog, you can zoom in and out of report details using the mobile platform’s multi-touch (or “pinch”) technology. You can double-tap to zoom in or zoom out of the data. One can turn the iPhone 90 degrees for a wider view of the data or chart. When you forward a report, Oracle Business Indicators sends an email that contains a link to the report that when clicked, launches the report in a Web browser. The recipient does not have to be an Oracle Business Indicators user to view the report.

I believe this is just the beginning. With advent of iPad, with its 9.7” displays, mobile Business Intelligence apps would become really appealing. Mobile apps can be developed on iPad which enable what-if analysis for business scenarios. Integrating Oracle Business Indicators with Oracle Fusion Middleware will give capabilities to get answers to real-time business questions on their multi-touch iPad screens. One wish I have is that the BI tools should have the capability of dynamic bubble charts made famous by Hans Rosling. The moment we expand our horizons for application of business intelligence, we see that it can move in to much wider realm, from the current focus on business data to any kind of data which can be presented to the new age digital consumers. And it is already happening with the kind of fancy apps you have with iPhone. The tablets of the future would be the real playgrounds for evolution of Mobile and Visual BI.

A diet for your General Ledger system: From “Fat GL” to “Thin GL”

2010-02-28T04:04:58Z

Determining the number and composition of the extended accounts (Flexfield structure in Oracle) has been a topic of debate and angst amongst GL architects.

A “Fat GL” design as the name implies contains a very large number of journals, often containing information that would typically be required for operational management reporting and typically containing minimal summarization.

]]> A Fat GL creates a very large number of “account combinations” and journal lines. The “account combination” is a product of number of values in each segment. Valid combinations might be fewer but the multiplication rule still holds. Even if one segment has a large, and may be growing, number of values the number of combinations will be really large. In the mid 90s, I saw a customer with 11 segment accounting Flexfield, with “Project” being one of the segments. It is easy to see that such a company would likely have millions of journal lines coming to its GL system. This company had a pretty rudimentary project accounting system. Hence GL also acted as its system for project profitability reporting.

Typically you would have multiple books due to currency and/ or statutory requirements. These would require several consolidations and you soon have millions of journal lines sloshing around in the system. Add to that the complex organizations created through mergers and acquisitions in the last decade. Soon the GL system becomes cumbersome to maintain and expensive to retrieve data from.

Why did we design such a GL system in the first place?

Most of the fat is create through the addition of “analytical” fields (segments) in the extended account. In many organizations, GL had become not only the system for financials and regulatory reporting, but also a system for operational management and reporting. Hence if you are project oriented organization and lacked a strong application for project accounting and management, GL became the repository for project level operational reporting.

However, as ERP systems became more robust and extended in areas like order management, projects and supply chain, the sub-ledger systems became robust enough to become systems for majority operational management reporting. In many industries like in manufacturing, high tech and project oriented services organization, the GL system became trimmer and fitter geared more towards financial and regulatory reporting

The Financial Services industry, by contrast, has remained one where the sub-ledgers (like core banking, treasury and brokerage applications), both at the front and middle offices are not typically part of the regular ERP applications. Moreover the large numbers of acquisitions with disparate and often duplicate systems have created a situation GL became pretty much the only system with a company wide view. Hence many Financial Services companies have a Fat GL environment creating challenges in reconciliation, reporting and control.

Financial Accounting Hub based Financial Accounting Architecture

If you look at Oracle’s current offering, you no longer need to be satisfied with this less than optimal situation. An architecture involving Oracle Financial Accounting Hub, a data warehouse and your General Ledger system can create an architecture that is fast, efficient and overcomes many of the weaknesses of a Fat GL.

In a later post, we will discuss how some of the challenges of a Fat GL can be addressed in this architecture

The REST based approach for communicating between Legacy systems and middleware layer.. Part 1

2010-02-26T06:53:35Z

People generally tend to overlook old approaches, but these same approaches, in the past, have emerged as compelling technologies. This very same mindset has also been applied to the REST approach. The idea may be old but when realized, it becomes a technology that uses existing protocols of web to build robust web services.

It is not a set of tools but rather an architectural style in which the Web already works. When we re-construct what we already know about web and frame it into a set of principles, then what we get is the REST approach.

]]> In Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), we all are familiar with interacting with end applications by sending Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages. But, there are other systems such as the legacy systems that could be interested in communicating with the middle ware layer using HTTP requests rather than SOAP requests. In such a scenario, the end systems would not provide us with Web service Interface (WSDL) to invoke them, but would give the middle ware layer, HTTP URLs, on which they expect us to post xml messages. This process of communicating with external systems using HTTP requests rather than SOAP messages is REST BASED APPROACH for invoking services.

REST uses the existing web interfaces - GET, POST, PUT and DELETE - to communicate between web services. Unlike SOAP, there is no need for a new message format; REST uses simple XML for message communication.

REST is Representational State Transfer. In REST, every web service is treated as a Resource and can be identified by a URI/URL. In order to modify these resources, their representations are used. So, the next set of questions that arise are:

Q: What is a Representation of a web service?
A: The answer is the web page that a client requests for.

Q: What is State?
A: It is the application state or a session state.

Q: What is Transfer of state?
A: We can maintain an application/session state by transferring it from client to server and again back to client.

And with this, we come to the end of my brief introduction to the REST based approach. Stay tuned for my next blog on how REST works and what are its benefits!

Do feel free to send in your comments..

Demand To Deliver Value Chain for High Tech

2010-02-25T09:46:04Z

Are the Traditional Package based IT solutions helping us bridge the gap between various departments to give an enterprise level view?

]]> Over the last decade or so, no other industry has undergone such profound changes as the High Tech industry. This industry is witnessing increasing supply chain complexity with the introduction of new products every now and then with short product life cycles, relentless pressures on margins, outsourcing to cheaper destinations, heightened customer expectations, forward and backward integration of the supply chain constituents, need for better collaboration for inventory and forecasting. All these shifts have led to multiple issues, the key being :

Lack of effective supply chain and inventory visibility
Demand volatility leading to lower planning accuracy
High risk of product obsolescence, High No of SKU's, slew of NPI's, Complex Master Data Management
Margins under tremendous pressures, sometimes as low as 1-2%

Traditional Package based IT solutions also do not help the cause as they take a departmental and siloed view of the entire Business, where client will get different modules/applications for different Business functions like Procurement, Finance, Sales, Logistics etc. Client will then have to struggle to integrate all these myriad of modules/applications to make them work seamlessly and coherently and deliver the entire value chain. Also measurement of the performance of these functions/processes becomes a tedious job as there are no end to end overarching KPI’s being defined and measured, leading to dilution of process level accountability and view. This may lead to dissatisfied customer and suppliers for the client. This problem becomes more acute as there is plethora of applications available in market even under same product vendor for each business function. So the selection process itself becomes quite a challenge.

Oracle and Infosys are currently engaging some of their best talents to create an out of the box Oracle Applications based Demand to Deliver (D2D) solution, which is going to help clients achieve demand oriented value chain, superior performance, efficiencies and help outperform the competitors.

IFRS would change a company's financial statements forever

2010-02-24T12:49:50Z

Come 2011 and there would be a major transformation in the manner Indian companies present their profit and loss accounts and balance sheets. 2011 is when it becomes mandatory for them to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

What is IFRS
-- International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) has issued principles based pronouncements comprising of standards and interpretations which are popularly known as IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).

-- Replaces existing Country specific Accounting Standard which are rule based

-- IFRS compliance is not just accounting change, its impact will be on all entities connected with an organization including shareholders and employees. Policy and Procedural changes need to be analyzed across all areas e.g. Organization, Taxation, Systems, Processes and Controls

Impact on Financial Statements:

Extensive Disclosures: The market value of Financial Derivatives, ESOPS, Properties , Machineries etc need to be disclosed as opposed to current practise of accounting only at historical cost. This would facilitate all stakeholders to assess the correct market value of organization.

Greater transparency: Goods will have to be sold to end consumer to be reflected as revenue instead of existing rule of recognizing revenue by just sending the goods to distributors godown

Risk related disclosures: Investors would have better access to information on company's exposure to interest rate risk, forex risk etc since such disclosures would be mandatory under IFRS. This in turn would help better risk management for the investor

Information Complexity: Since it is a principles based accounting standard, their may be lack of uniformity in disclosures by companies leading to increased complexity for investor. Investors must adjust themselves to such fluctuations

Overall it would increase the length of financial statements due to extensive disclosures but facilitate better and informed decision making for all stakeholders

To conclude, post IFRS the Financial Statements would be Re Born for ever, so are you ready for the change?