Be aware of R12 Data Model changes to properly assess R12 upgrade rework

Posted on 13-May-11. Filed under: R12 | Tags: , , , , , |

Any entity upgrading to R12 should sufficiently understand the data model changes between 11i and R12.  Based on an entities’ dependence on the existing 11i data models that change, there can be a significant level of rework required to ensure that existing custom RDF/BI Pubisher Reports, Discoverer Reports, outbound interfaces, custom views, custom SQL & PL/SQL, etc. will function properly in the R12 environment.  Analysis of custom objects relative to the data model changes can’t just be limited to whether objects will compile or run in R12, but should also include analysis of whether the proper data is returned from both upgraded 11i transactions and new transactions generated in R12.  To properly plan and allocate resources to an R12 upgrade project, the impact of these changes to an entity should be thoroughly analyzed.

For example, in my years working in the Federal Financials space, I’ve seen a fairly heavy reliance on the gl_je_lines.referenceX (journal import references) columns for creating custom reports that provide subsidiary information (e.g. PO Number, Vendor, etc.) and gl information together.  I’ve seen reports/interfaces often built from gl_je_lines up to best ensure the detail reports balance with trial balance amounts.  In R12, the gl_je_lines.referenceX columns are no longer populated or are populated in a different manner.  Thus any custom report, interface, etc. that leverages these fields will likely have to be reworked (or overall approach addressed) to continue to meet end-user requirements.  The R12 GL -> Subsidiary drilldown path now runs through gl_import_references and a new suite of XLA tables as shown in this diagram.

An additional problem that confronts Federal Financials customers with this change is (more…)

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Installing Discoverer 10.1.2.3 Client Software on Vista (32 & 64-bit)

Posted on 2-May-09. Filed under: BI | Tags: , , , , |

Although not Federal specific, I thought I’d post the steps I came up with a ways back to install the latest Discoverer client tools (Desktop and Administrator) on Vista as there’s a bit more to the approach than a couple clicks.  I know of a number of users who fought with the process for a few days, so just follow this if you need to install and you should be good to go.  A co-worker recently confirmed this approach also works for Vista 64-bit.  Here is the doc I put together.

-Update 1June09: I did successfully install on Vista 64-bit using the doc.  I added two items to the doc:  1) Be sure to always execute the install processes as Adminstrator (right click on the setup.exe and select ‘Run as Adminstrator), and 2) I suggest using a short path name for where you unzip the files (e.g. c:\oraclesoftware\BI Tools 10g), as the installer seems to fail when executing from a directory with a long path name.

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Webinar on NoetixViews for Oracle U.S. Federal Financials Available for Replay

Posted on 1-May-09. Filed under: BI, Events | Tags: , , |

If you were interested in attending the webinar on the new NoetixViews for Federal Financials, but weren’t able to sit in on it this week, Noetix has made it available for download here.  The webinar includes live demos.  I sat in on the call and I thought it was a good presentation.  Noetix has developed and is now offering 35 Federal-specific views (of course, some provide a lot more value than others) in addition to their many other standard Oracle E-Business Suite views.  The views are based on both 11i and R12 accounting architectures, so R12 Federal customers can benefit from the increased capabilities that SLA brings to the table, while 11i customers can still get value from the offering.  Any real-solid Federal Financials consultant could develop most of what they’ve got so far, but I think they’ve put together a good starting baseline of views that an agency can simply purchase instead of needing to develop in-house and maintain.  Potentially, the offering could also be expanded/extended in the future to include even more views.  The status of funds views provides real-time capability, which shows that Noetix has done their homework to understand what’s going on underneath the covers of Oracle Fed Financials (e.g. merging funds available balances from gl_balances and gl_bc_packets together to give a real-time picture).

Noetix’s web-page on the Federal Financials offering is here.

I was impressed by the work that went into putting the help documentation together on these views and fields.  While help documentation is often an afterthought, Noetix, seemed to put a decent amount of time into explaining each view and each field within the view.  So then users who are working to create reports on the views (whether in Discoverer, OBIEE, or other BI tool) can get a good understanding of what the view and data elements are going to provide them in the report.  Noetix’s goal is to make life easier for query users and thus the reason for the focus on providing good documentation, as obviously that is key in helping the users better understand the fields they need to complete their report objectives (versus having like 2 people in the organization who can really build reports, because no-one else understands the data good enough).

I’ve also got a copy of the static PowerPoint presentation here if you’d be interested in looking at that also.

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NoetixViews for Federal Financials Web-Seminar 4/28

Posted on 21-Apr-09. Filed under: Events, News | Tags: , , |

I had previously posted about the release of NoetixViews for Federal Financials here.  The previously scheduled web-seminar seems to have been rescheduled to 28 April.  Details on the web-seminar are here.

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New NoetixViews for Federal Financials, Web Seminar 3/24

Posted on 7-Mar-09. Filed under: News | Tags: , , , |

Noetix just announced a package of 35 views for Federal Financials and will be hosting a web seminar on 3/24 to introduce them. Click here for the link to the Noetix page discussing the offering and here to view details on the Web Seminar and sign up.

For those not familiar with Noetix views, they have historically been used as a supplement to Discoverer.  The views are marketed as a mechanism to access E-Business Suite data easier through simpler data element naming and other functionality.  Any BI tool could use the views into the E-Business Suite data though, it doesn’t have to be Discoverer.  Personally, I don’t have any intimate experience using Noetix views, but I have heard positive reports in the past.  Oracle doesn’t provide any Federal-specific views as part of the Discoverer Apps views (Discoverer users utilize a standard Federal Administrator Business Area that simply mirrors the FV schema and users can leverage the standard Apps views for other modules, but no specific Federal views), so this can fill a bit of void there.

We’re probably all aware of the strong push from Oracle to move toward the OBIEE architecture for BI and with new Federal OBIEE content soon to be released, there’s some competition here.  Although, these two architectures are definitely different.

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