We are pleased to announce the certification of the Platform Migration Methodology for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1. The existing documentation has been updated to be generic for all Release 12 versions.

The platform migration process provides a way to quickly and easily move an existing Oracle E-Business Suite application tier to a different platform, allowing you to utilize different hardware for the application tier.

We are soliciting your feedback on our recently announced E-Business Suite Release 11i + 10gR2 Cross Platform Transportable Tablespaces (XTTS) database migration process.

We know that quite a few of you have requested this and are curious as to how you might be faring with it. For those customers who have downloaded the controlled patch (6158038) required for this migration of the EBS database, we would love to hear your answers to the following questions:

I'm very pleased to welcome John Abraham to this blog's panel of guest authors.  John is part of the same team led by Terri Noyes, who joined this blog's panel earlier this year.  With John's participation, we are able to...

While effective talent management has always been a key differentiator for successful businesses, the recession forced everyone to reexamine both their internal processes and how best to invest resources in order to maximize strategic growth. Today, the need for cost-cutting and a focus on workforce efficiency are still very much a reality for most companies, while continuing to try and prepare for tomorrow.

Applications Release 12 users can configure their environments to delegate user authentication to an external Single Sign-On 10g instance. In this optional configuration, Single Sign-On validates E-Business Suite user credentials against an external Oracle Internet Directory instance.

Oracle Single Sign-On (SSO) and Oracle Internet Directory (OID) 10g version 10.1.2.3 are now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (12.1.2) on the IBM: Linux on System z platform.

Our Oracle Forms team has consolidated a large number important fixes on top of Forms and Reports version 10.1.2.3.0 into a new bundle patch. This patch is available for download now under the ungainly title of:

* MLR Tracking Bug for Forms 10.1.2.3.0 Bundle Patch (Patch 9593176)

This bundle patch is now certified with EBS Release 12 for all supported platforms except Linux on IBM System z.

Attend our live webcast, September 9th at 11:00 PT / 1:00 ET, to to hear Donna Malloy, Associate Dr. Demand Planning, and Ralph Martin, IT Business Relationship Manager, share specifics on how Genzyme Diagnostics implemented Oracle's Value Chain Planning solutions with HCL Tech's services to achieve real time, accurate and shorter forecast cycles with collaborative, proactive budgeting & planning across multiple functions and geographies. Register using this link.

The final integration in this series of releases, Recruiting Solutions 9.1, designed to allow current PeopleSoft HCM 9.0 customers to implement 9.1 talent applications is now available to customers through MyOracleSupport (MOS) and completes the 9.1 to 9.0 integration set.

A second set of Talent 9.1 to HCM 8.9 Integrations are planned for release in 2010 and will include the full Talent applications set - ePerformance, eCompensation, Career & Succession Planning, and Recruiting Solutions.

Michael Fauscette, Group VP at IDC, recently wrote a very compelling article about the continued shift in organizations away from an industrial model and towards a social business model. He highlights the types of traits you find in a traditional business model and the ones that will be needed in a more social business model, and how these traits will give organizations a clear competitive advantage over their competition.

The Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway service-enables Oracle E-Business Suite public APIs for Service Oriented Architecture. This feature was released in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1.

One of the most common questions that Oracle E-Business Suite developers have is, "How do you secure E-Business Suite web services?" Generally, web service security consists of authentication, message integrity and confidentiality.

In a recent phone interview, the head of the Oracle retail business and senior VP Duncan Angove described a range of breakthrough ideas and technologies currently turning the long-stuffy retail business into a fusion of merchandising wizardry driven by social and mobile technologies and hard-core logistics discipline enabled by standardized, deep, and robust enterprise-infrastructure software.

The whitepaper below will step you through the business value delivered in HCM 9.1 and help you better understand the benefits and drivers you need to create your business case to upgrade to Peoplesoft HCM 9.1.
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/peoplesoft-enterprise/hcm/delivering-value-ps-hcm-075955.pdf

ComputerWorld just published a really great article on how jobs and the workforce will change under the leadership of Gen X and Gen Y in the next decade or so. The office environment of the 20th century won't look anything like the office of environment of the 21st century, and this is important for HR managers and executives to understand and be prepared for. For instance, Gen Y'ers expect more flexible work hours and environments (like working remotely) than their predecessors, and are happy with more frequent, bite-sized promotions based on performance versus seniority.

Scott Ewart, Senior Director of HCM Product Marketing at Oracle, gives a great overview of what's new in HCM 12.1 and why E-Business Suite customers should consider upgrading now to take advantage of the new global human resource, payroll and talent management functionally. Monica McClain, CPP, Payroll Supervisor, Lake County Government Ramesh Pappannan, Project Leader, HCM & Finance Systems from Lake County Illinois also provides a synopsis of their upgrade experience including what drove them to upgrade and benefits they are achieving.

Oracle OpenWorld is staring us in the face. With the combination of iDevelop, JavaOne and OpenWorld, San Francisco will be an overflowing mass of humanity determined to attend sessions, network, and socialize. And what would OpenWorld be without another "What Looks Good To Me" blog post?

We're often asked in Service Requests (SRs) to advise on the appropriate hardware specification for an Oracle Applications environment. The term most commonly used term for this exercise is 'sizing' and it is the process of working out how much disk space, memory and processing power you will need to run your Oracle Applications environment.

Sizing for the rest of us is not such a simple process and has to take into account many factors. With that in mind, I'd like to go into a bit more detail of what you need to think about when sizing your hardware.

The transition to extended support for EBS 11.5.10.2 is right around the corner - November. Some of ya'all are obviously going to stay with 11i and take advantage of the one year of free extended support. Fair enough…I've said before it would make sense for some customers to wait.

I know that many of you are actively planning your Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 upgrades right now. The following webcast isn't directly techstack-related but may be of general interest.

Our Customer Programs team has arranged a live webcast with AT&T, who will share their experience with their Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 upgrade:

Friday, August 27, 2010
2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (11:00 a.m. Pacific, 1:00 p.m. Central)

Premier Support for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i ends in November 2010. Extended Support begins when Premier Support ends. Extended Support comes at an additional cost, but these are waived for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i through November 2011. I'm in EBS Development and not sales, so you should contact your Oracle account manager with questions about Extended Support costs.

A new set of minimum technical requirements for Apps 11i goes into effect when Extended Support begins in November 2010.

Just a quick note: did ya'all catch the release of E-Business Release 12.1.3 over the weekend?

R12.1.3 is a maintenance patch, which means it can only be installed on an existing R12.1.x installation.

You can read about the details at Steven's blog: http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/2010/08/ebs_1213_available.html.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We have publised a note on how to implement basic email address validations in the iRecruitment candidate registration process in MOS Note ID: 1182533.1. For example: If the candidate has entered an invalid email address, i.e., without the '@' symbol or with multiple '@' symbols, or a space character etc, you might want to display an error message.

I was talking today with a friend about the razor blade strategy: give away the razor itself and make money on the refill cartridges. It's a play to reduce up-front purchasing costs for customers in order to generate revenue (usually at phenomenally high margins) on the recurring sales required to keep the originally purchased goods useable. Check out the price of a Gillette razor, the check out the price of the refill blade packs and do a little math...any guesses as to where Gillette makes their profit on the deal?

I'm very pleased to announce that Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 is now available for download:

* Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Update Pack (Patch 9239090)

For installation instructions for EBS 12.1.3, see:

* Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Readme (Note 1080973.1)

This release update pack (RUP) combines error corrections, statutory/regulatory updates, and functionality enhancements into a consolidated, suite-wide patch set. This release is a maintenance pack and can only be installed on top of an existing EBS 12.1 environment.

Oracle is a sponsor and will be attending the IE Group's S&OP Innovation Summit in Boston, the first of its kind on the East Coast. This Summit will bring together forward-thinking business leaders to shape the revolutionary ideas that spark innovation in Sales & Operations Planning. Join professionals from Alkermes, Analog Devices, Black & Decker, Bose, Chemtura, Fairchild Semiconductor, Nuance, Sharp, and Siemens and Oracle in learning about the newest technologies and best practices in sales and operations planning.

OpenWorld 2010 San Francisco is just around the corner. We have a very full lineup of E-Business Suite technology stack-related sessions this year. If you're going to be joining us at the conference this year, we've published a summary of all of the EBS techstack-related sessions here:

*
Focus On Applications Tools and Technology
(PDF, 284K)

We have almost forty sessions this year intended for EBS architects, systems administrators, DBAs, and consultants. These sessions include:

Check out this excellent slideshow posted to CIO Insight by Dennis McCafferty on 2010-07-12. Mr. McCafferty quotes from a recent book by University of Michigan business professor Dave Ulrich. Ulrich identifies key performance indicators that can help every CIO determine the value of engaging employees with meaningful work. These include very tangible measures, such as stock gains for top-ranking workplaces, as well as a direct impact on factors such as employee willingness to recommend your company's products or services to others.

PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 is the most robust release in years with over 9,000 enhanced pages, 270 new features, 83 new Web services and 8 new solutions. Tune into this conversation with Jay Richey, Director, Product Marketing for Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management Solutions to understand how this solution can improve the effectiveness of your workforce, drive higher organizational productivity, and continue to leverage your strategic investment in PeopleSoft HCM.

We certified Discoverer 11g version 11.1.1.3 (a.k.a. Patchset 2) with the E-Business Suite on six platforms last month. Those certifications included Oracle Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

As a follow-on to that original certification announcement, Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 Discoverer version 11.1.1.3 is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and R12 (12.0.x, 12.1.x) on a dozen additional platforms

The painful saga of our recent JRE releases' issues with the Oracle E-Business Suite is almost over. It is expected that a future release of JRE 1.6 will contain a mainline fix for the "Mismanaged Session Cookie" issues that exist with JRE 1.6.0_18 to 1.6.0_21, inclusive.
There is an interim workaround until that new release is available. JRE 1.6.0_21 build 8 (6u21-b08) is now available and certified for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i and R12.