Collaborate ’09 Recap – A Federal Spin
Now that I’m back in Denver, here’s a recap from the Collaborate ’09 conference in Orlando that I thought would be helpful to share. I definitely enjoyed seeing friends, meeting new ones and taking in as much information as I could during the conference. Being responsible for three different presentations was a bit more than I would have preferred (especially with a newborn and a 3 year-old at home, along with supporting a pretty demanding project cutting into the prep time), but it seemed that the presentations went well and were favorably accepted. Thanks to everyone who came to them and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any follow-up questions. The presentations are available here.
Here’s an attempt at sharing some of the past week’s events, announcements and information of Federal relevance (with a few other items) that I picked up. The link to the Oracle Collaborate 09 Media Kit, which provides press-releases and additional info on a number of these items is available here.
E-Business Suite 12.1 Released – 12.1 (12.1.1) was made Generally Available on Monday, May 4th. 12.1 brings a variety of new capabilities to the table, but for the Federal community, the biggest news with 12.1 is the important step forward in the long awaited “Projects Federalization“. 12.1 now provides the capability to create the required USSGL Budgetary postings from PA Agreements/Fundings, Revenue and Costs. Projects has never provided USSGL Transaction Codes or any other solution for creating these entries and this gap has been a long-time Federal Top-Ten enhancement request.
Other top 12.1 new features include:
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )R12 FSIO Certification Press Release
I finally ran across an official press release from Oracle on the R12 FSIO certification. Here’s the link.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )FSIO Qualified Software now states Oracle E-Business Suite R12
I haven’t seen any press release, nothing on metalink or anything else official, but the FSIO Qualified Software page now shows version R12 as the certified version. Surprised there hasn’t been a bit more fanfare around this yet, but maybe some will be coming. Click here to go to the FSIO page.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )FSIO Certification of R12 Rumor Mill is Definitely Hot
Judging by the uptick in blog hits and searches like ‘R12 FSIO’ that are referring searchers here, many are hearing the same rumors I’m hearing. No official announcement yet (nothing on FSIO, metalink or any press releases yet), but the word is out that Oracle has received a FSIO letter for R12 certification. When I see anything official, I’ll update with a link/info. Or if anyone beats me to the punch, just go ahead & post a comment.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Latest on R12 FSIO Status
Here’s an update I saw today from Oracle. “Federal Financials development delivered a second R12 demo to FSIO on January 7, 2009. FSIO needs to review the reports / output from the demo. FSIO did not commit to a date, but said they would probably need at least two weeks. At the end of this process, [Oracle] expects R12 to be FSIO certified”.
For what its worth.
December Federal CAB Info
The most recent Oracle Federal Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting was held on 3-December.
A few interesting points of info include:
-Both Oracle and FSIO are pointing to January 2009 as finalizing the R12 FSIO certification
-In the Oracle Development update, Oracle pointed identified R12.1 as targeted for release in calendar year 2009 (12.1 is slated to include additional out of the box integration for Projects SLA items such as the capability for creating standard journal entries for Unfilled Customer Orders when an agreement is baselined). This obviously doesn’t really give much specificity, but at least they mentioned it.
Here are the slides from the meeting as presented from Oracle and OMB FSIO.
Oracle CAB Development Update (Dec. 3, 2008 )
R12 Overview for Dec 2008 Cab_v1
FSIO Presentation at Oracle 12-3-08
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )FSIO requests a 2nd R12 presentation/demo from Oracle prior to Certification
On the monthly Oracle Federal Financials Special Interest Group (FEDSIG) call this week (held on November 18), Oracle identified that FSIO has requested a 2nd followup presentation/demo from Oracle prior to certifying R12. Oracle provided an initial R12 demo/presentation in September to FSIO in hopes of attaining a thumbs-up on gaining the R12 certification, so this 2nd request seems to be a bit of a setback in terms of finalizing the certification. Details of the rationale were not disclosed and Oracle is eager to complete the process, however a date has not yet been set for the follow-up presentation.
Hopefully, this will not delay the process significantly as a number of agencies are eagerly awaiting the go-ahead from FSIO. Of course, the irony of the situation is that R12 solves a number of issues (due to SLA and other capabilities) and I’d consider it to be more compliant with FSIO requirements than prior releases
Other news from the call:
-The next Federal Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting is scheduled for 12/3 in Reston. This is typically an invite-only event for Federal Financials system owners/executives.
-Next FEDSIG call tentatively scheduled for 12/16.
-The FEDSIG will be extending its time frame for collecting enhancement requests from agencies. See the template at http://fedsig.oaug.org and contact information for forwarding the enhancements.
-AP Patchset O created a number of issues for an agency on the call, suggest testing it well prior to moving into prod.
-A straw poll was taken of how year-end closing processes went. For the most part, it seems agencies are getting through year-end easier with each passing year. Numerous agencies reported needing to develop custom year-end processes.
-2 large agencies have mentioned significant performance considerations with rebuilding summary accounts. Oracle is apparently working on some performance enhancements to the summary account build process so maybe we’ll see that in the future.
-Multiple agencies indicated continuing problems with unaccounted AP invoices (due to failures of the Payables Accounting Process) and mentioned the desire for enhanced focus by Oracle to assist with mitigating these continuing issues in the future (note: due to the changes in R12 SLA, these specific issues should go away and lets hope we don’t have too many new ones)
-A few months ago, Mike Barker (Oracle Federal Development Lead) offered up the possibility of providing a web conference on new R12 capabilities aimed to help agencies comply with CGAC. This is still being considered, however the current highest priority is getting through the FSIO process for R12. The webinar won’t be until after the next R12 demo/presentation with FSIO.
-The FEDSIG chair is researching the preferred time-frame of the OAUG Collaborate ’09 FEDSIG meeting. Options are somewhere between 1 hr & a half-day.
If anyone reading this is unsure on how to join the FEDSIG or is interested in getting on the distribution list for the monthly calls, see http://fedsig.oaug.org.
Oracle Federal Applications 