Impressions from OOW11

After the notes when I just arrived on which was going to be the focus this year, I am shocked on the lots of people attending the event.

It was the first time ever seeing people outside the sessions trying to enter and security stopping them.

The keynote from Larry on Sunday was focused mainly on hardware. Exadata, Exalogic, and key words such as Parallel Everything, x times faster. He introduced the new Exalytics Business Intelligence Machine.

The main comparisons were to IBM

hey, you blue guys

and how Oracle Hardware runs faster than IBM’s. No words on Salesforce but we’re anxious waiting for Benioff’s speech on Wednesday at 10am to see what he has to say. Specially base on some tweets from Salesforce’s CEO saying that Larry’s was one of the worst Keynotes ever. Anyways, that’s the “showbiz” between CEOs besides the technology.

20111004-153249.jpgOn the other hand IT Convergence was presented as Oracle Fusion early adopter and we’re working hard to make it happen. After a meeting with a VP of Oracle’s Financials applications he confirmed that Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2 will be released within the next calendar year -not now as we expected- but some selected companies are joining the Early Adopter Program for that release which will bring big changes on the technology stack such as Weblogic!
IT Convergence started the contacts to become part of this program and we hope to provide an update in a few weeks.

Finally I delivered a presentation on Oracle Business Intelligence which had a full house, and even people standing at the back because there were no seats. The presentation went great and concluded with an applause which is great for the presenter. Thanks to everyone that attended and for those who are interested on the presentation, feel free to send me a PM on Twitter for a copy.

Now is time to continue attending sessions and learning all the options Oracle has to offer.

 

Arriving to Oracle Open World 2011

Yes, it is the time of the year again. “Time flies” said a coworker when he saw me with the luggage at the Buenos Aires office. It is so true. I remember the first time I came to OOW in 2007, to discover the show. We were talking about new releases, Oracle acquisitions, a few new products. It looks decades ago but it is just 4 years.

After that show, the following OOW were different to me since I came as speaker which makes you live it in a different way. Even more, last year, I was invited by Oracle, doing press rounds and recording an interview for Oracle Latinamerica.

This year the expectations are going to be around cloud computing (will Larry fight -by words again with Benioff?) and how the new Oracle gear, inherit by the Sun acquisition will impact. The other big topics are going to be: Oracle Fusion, which was presented by Steve Miranda in 2010, but did not hit the road (GA technically speaking) and finally expecting some news about E-Business Suite, such as the new 12.2 which the Release Content Documents (RCD) are available at Oracle Support. Oh right, I’m focussed on applications if you didn’t notice yet :-).

Setting expectations, discovering about product roadmaps, networking with colleagues, meeting new people, learning new products, also having some fun and more. That is Oracle Open World about.

I’ll be trying to keep at least more than a daily post and will keep my twitter accounts pretty active: @ggonza74 personal and mostly Spanish, and @ggonza4itc work related and English.

Preparing for an Oracle R12 Upgrade @NYC

Are you willing to visit New York City in Fall? Are you an Oracle expert willing to go the extra step with E-Business Suite R12? Are you planning to perform an upgrade to your Oracle ERP soon? If your answer is yes, then don’t miss this opportunity of a 3 days intensive workshop at IT Convergence’s office in New York City starting on September 28th, 2011.

This workshop gives you a detailed overview of technical and functional issues of Oracle R12 Upgrade that you need to take into account when planning an upgrade or reimplementation to Oracle Applications Release 12. This workshop discusses absolutely everything you need to consider in planning your migration to Oracle R12, from hardware requirements, planning, and conversion strategies to configuration, user adoption and documentation to support the upgrade. You will create a plan for your upgrade to take back to your organization and jump start your project.

Oracle ACE ♠, Gustavo Gonzalez will be delivering this workshop prior to his visit to Oracle Open World 2011.

Don’t miss the opportunity, register now here.

11th Hour R12 Planning Webcast

Since Oracle will begin charging extended support fees in November, the main focus of the webcast will be on the basics of an R12 Upgrade plus the most important changes in R12 Financials

The webcast recording can be seen here

Remember that it was recorded on Webex format so you have to download the Webex Network Recording Player here.

Take advantage of this Q&A to get the answers to your questions from last week’s webcast!

Check it out below:

1. We are doing an Oracle R12 upgrade now. the current system has huge customization database tables, views, etc, which connect and integrate with ESB black database box. what are your recommedations for us to assure database migration from as-is to to be?

This needs further evaluation. In terms of the database and version. For Oracle Applications R12 a minimum requirement is Oracle 10g and because of the upgrade customizations and extensions might be impacted because of the changes on the data model.

2. Is there any charge for an Oracle R12 assessment?

Yes, there is charge for that type of assessment because it requires a lot of resources and work that is part of this very important phase of the project. As you can saw on the webcast there are lots of deliverables and the amount of work based on the footprint of your Oracle E-Business Suite environment.

3. What do you mean by close all periods? Does it mean we should not have any periods open during an upgrade? (both subledger and gl periods)

We recommend doing pre-close and cleaning all the interfaces. Since all the data model on General Ledger it is extremely important this for the success of the upgrade.

4. I would like a more detailed explanation of the blended approach to that you discussed as being sort of a middle point between a vanilla Oracle R12 upgrade and a full Oracle R12 reimplementation.

The blended approach is something very commonly used in many Oracle R12 migrations. Since Oracle has provided many tools to perform the R12 upgrade, our experience has given us the chance to work on upgrades whose scope has included the implementation of new modules and/or some process re-engineering with existing accounts. We’ve even changed the Chart of Accounts. All of this is perfectly doable with a proper planning and execution.

5. Could you please share with us a sample project plan for an R12 Upgrade project (having minimal customizations)?

As part of our Oracle Applications Workshops (in particular the Oracle R12 Strategy and Planning workshop held at Harvard) we share examples of project plans that include key milestones and best practice tips.

6. Is Oracle going to charge me more on existing support fees if I don’t upgrade?

Oracle has extended support for 11i running through November 2011. After that you can continue with their 11i support but the costs do increase. For the first year the cost of extended support increases 10% and in the second year it goes up another 10%.

7. Are there recommended patch levels that customers should be on when doing an upgrade to Oracle R12 to help minimize the downtime? (other than what Oracle has published for their minimum patch level for 11i).

I’d recommend applying the patches on 11.5.10.2 for the extended support as the basis for the upgrade. Minimum Baseline Patch Requirements for Extended Support on Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10.

IT Convergence would like to invite to its next webcast, “New Features in Oracle R12 Financials.” Please register here!

In addition to webcasts, IT convergence is proud to offer an upcoming Oracle R12 Stategy and Planning workshop at Harvard University.