| 1. What are the typical project phases in Project implementation? |
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| 2. What are the primary considerations for an upgrade to latest Oracle version? |
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| 3. What are some of the key advantages of Release 12 over prior versions? |
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| 4. What kind of skill set is needed for upgrading Oracle Applications? |
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| 5. What is a typical approach for testing Oracle Applications? |
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| 6. In what circumstances customization of Applications recommended? |
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| 7. Can Oracle Applications be integrated with external, third party, applications? |
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| 8. Does Oracle have any self-service modules? |
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| 9. How does reporting works in Oracle Applications? |
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| 10. Can Oracle be implemented in small and medium scale enterprises?
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| 11. What are some of the improvements of replacing “Set of Books” with Ledgers? |
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| 12. How much involvement is required by a company during the process of upgrading Oracle Applications? |
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| 13. What is Fusion software and how does upgrading to R12 relate to Fusion software? |
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| 14. What are Oracle Accelerators and what role do they play in implementation?
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| 15. What is AIM methodology, and what are the benefits of using AIM? |
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| 16. What is OBM and what are the benefits of it? |
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| 17. What factors influence the length of implementation? |
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| 18. What are some Flex Field differences between releases 11i and R12? |
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| 19. What is Automated Functional Testing and what are some of the benefits using it? |
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| 20. What are some of the different paths for upgrading to Oracle R12? |
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| 1. What are the typical project phases in Project implementation? |
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| Oracle Applications implementation or upgrade projects typically include Initiation, Planning, Execution, Transition, and Production. Initiation is where the project team is assembled. Planning phase involve determining project objectives, approach, and baseline of the system architecture. Execution phase is all about configuring system, developing custom objects, testing and integrating components of the solution. Transition phase involves installation of the solution, testing, and launching the live application. Production involves operating the system, maintaining the system, and assessing the success of the system. |
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| 2. What are the primary considerations for an upgrade to latest Oracle version? |
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| The primary considerations for an upgrade to Oracle R12 include an opportunity to re-engineer, more business-handling capabilities, numerous design improvements, reduction in maintenance cost, improved performance, and increase in stability and supportability. |
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| 3. What are some of the key advantages of Release 12 over prior versions? |
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| There are numerous advantages of the Release 12 over prior versions. Some of the significant improvements include replacement of forms with Oracle Applications Frame Work (OA Framework) for purchasing transactions, and customer and vendor maintenance, the replacement of Set of Books with Ledgers, introduction of advanced Sub-ledger Accounting, and shared functionalities amongst OPM and Discrete. |
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| 4. What kind of skill set is needed for upgrading Oracle Applications? |
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| The skill set that is need for upgrading Oracle Applications is a project team that is knowledgeable of the Oracle software. The project team should consist of Oracle functional consultants, technical consultants, business users, and project management resources. |
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| 5. What is a typical approach for testing Oracle Applications? |
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There are many different approaches for testing Oracle Applications and depends on the nature of Organization’s technology architecture and business operations. One of the most popular strategies involves conducting a series of conference room pilots. During the first pilot, basic applications, configurations and functionality are tested. During the second and subsequent pilots, converted or entered data, revised setups, and end-to-end business processes are tested. The tests should cover most important and realistic business scenarios for identifying any gaps or errors in each application, and fixing them before going live with Applications. |
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| 6. In what circumstances customization of Applications recommended? |
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Any implementation of Oracle Applications should completely suit the organizations’ needs without inefficient work-around or manual work. Customization allows organizations’ to satisfy all of the goals established before implementation. Customizing involves modifying the base install to suit the unique needs of the company. Customizing can be as simple as setting a single profile or as complex as writing a new application for your instance. |
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| 7. Can Oracle Applications be integrated with external, third party, applications? |
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Oracle has been able to develop many seeded applications that can be seamlessly integrated with an external party. Two of the most significant collaborations were with ADP and the Bank industry. Oracle collaborated with the Banking industry to invent an Integration package for bank accounts. The package of applications supports crucial processes that make it easier for banks to achieve a single view of the customer, streamline account opening and fulfillment as well as facilitate selective service request management. Similarly, Oracle teamed up with ADP and integrated the Oracle Human Resource Applications to provide seamless payroll processing and data centralization. |
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| 8. Does Oracle have any self-service modules? |
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The latest version of Oracle R12 as well as prior versions contains numerous self service modules. Some of the prominent self-service modules offered by Oracle Applications include iProcurement, iExpense, and Time management in Human Resources module. These self service modules are tightly integrated with Oracle Approvals Management system for control, security and achieving efficiency in transaction processing. |
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| 9. How does reporting works in Oracle Applications? |
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There are many different options for reporting in Oracle Applications. Oracle standard reports that come along with installation allow fixed format reports. These reports cannot be modified. The other options include Oracle Discoverer, FSG, and Business Intelligence (BI). Discoverer is an intuitive tool for creating reports and performing on-line analysis. FSG reports is a powerful report building tool for Oracle General Ledger. Some of benefits of using this tool are that a user can generate financial reports, and schedule reports to run automatically. Business Intelligence is a set of tools to provide high level integration and analysis of information for the leaders and decision makers of the organization. |
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| 10. Can Oracle be implemented in small and medium scale enterprises? |
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Small business can be defined as an independently owned and control business of under 100 employees. A medium business can be defined as a business ranging from 100 to 1000 employees. Oracle Applications can be implemented in small and medium enterprises using “eBusiness suite Special Edition”, which is a cost effective, preconfigured solution of enterprise resource planning system and is specifically designed for this segment of businesses. |
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| 11. What are some of the improvements of replacing “Set of Books” with Ledgers? |
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One of the main differences between Oracle 11i and R12 is the replacement of Set of Books with Ledger. The replacement supports parallel accounting which is a function that many organizations would use and perform much more efficiently. There are many benefits from replacing Set of Books with Ledgers. Some of the key benefits include explicit accounting modeling for Legal Entities, Cross Ledger processing and reporting, and efficient management reporting. |
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| 12. How much involvement is required by a company during the process of upgrading Oracle Applications? |
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The organization will work closely with the consulting team in implementing Oracle Applications. The consulting team will work with the organization or project team in establishing realistic goals, producing a quality outline for implementation, organizing the design and customization of the software to fit all of the organization’s needs, and sustaining the software after implementation. The consulting team will also train the “Oracle Super Users” in the organization along with developing documentation and training manuals for future reference. |
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| 13. What is Fusion software and how does upgrading to R12 relate to Fusion software? |
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Project Fusion is new generation information oriented architecture and application set maintaining the top features, flows and usability traits of Oracle, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft products. The new applications suite leverages Web services in a service-oriented architecture. By implementing Oracle R12, the organization will be positioning itself for an easy transition to Project fusion when it becomes available. |
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| 14. What are Oracle Accelerators and what role do they play in implementation? |
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Oracle Accelerators provides an accelerated implementation option for users. The benefits of opting to use Oracle Accelerators can be significant and may well account for reduction in implementation time by more than 50%. |
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| 15. What is AIM methodology, and what are the benefits of using AIM? |
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AIM stands for “Applications Implementation Methodology” developed by Oracle. AIM consists of project management documentation templates, set of iterative processes that support the tasks performed during Oracle Implementation or upgrade. The phases of Aim include Definition, Elaboration, Build, Transition, and Production. Some of the key benefits of Oracle AIM are – it provides a rapid deployment environment, facilitates in diminishing common errors, facilitates faster and accurate data conversion, improves interface design and development, and helps faster configuration of Oracle Applications. |
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| 16. What is OBM and what are the benefits of it? |
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OBM stands for Oracle Business Models. Oracle Business Modules are reference models that illustrate common business processes. OBM facilitates designing or redesigning of business processes during Oracle implementation. Companies can also incorporate some of the OBMs and then customize them to fit their unique needs. |
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| 17. What factors influence the length of implementation? |
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There are many factors that need to be taken into account when estimating the time period involving initial implementation or upgrade to Oracle R12. The implementation time depends upon the number of modules, magnitude of industry specific or customer specific customizations, functionalities required to be implemented, number of interfaces, conversions and reports. |
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| 18. What are some Flex Field differences between releases 11i and R12? |
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The most significant change in Flex fields in the latest release of Oracle R12 is its ability to coincide the context field value with the reference field value for descriptive Flex fields. |
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| 19. What is Automated Functional Testing and what are some of the benefits using it? |
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The objective of “Automated Functional Testing” is to form a regression test kit that can be updated with each new release and can be used repeatedly without having to tap the business users time and again. Some of the benefits of using Automated Functional Testing are a reduction in cost of repeat testing and higher quality production releases.
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| 20. What are some of the different paths for upgrading to Oracle R12? |
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The upgrade path scenarios depend on the existing version of Oracle Applications the company is currently operating on.
Path 1: If a company is currently using Oracle 11.5.1 to 11.5.7 or 11.0 then the initial step would be upgrading to version 11.5.10.2. After the upgrade to 11.5.10.2, using Dual-Phase Upgrade, software would be upgraded to R12.
Path 2: If a company is operating with version 11.5.9.2 or 11.5.10.2 already, then using DB Patches and Apps Upgrade, software would be upgraded to R12.
Path 3: The last scenario would be if a company is currently running on versions 11.5.9.1, 11.5.10.1, or 11.5.8, it would require a usage of Single-Phase Upgrade tactics to upgrade to R12. |
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