Professional Documents
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APEX 5
Features that make life easier and
work more fun for Developers
OracleScene
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12
by Chris Muir
32
by Simon Haslam
54
A ROADMAP FOR
DECIDING AN ORACLE
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
TECHNOLOGY
17
24
28
35
38
APPLICATIONS
Oracle Tears Down the Final Barriers to Cloud Adoption:
Finding Your Perfect Path to the Cloud by Joyce Boland
Should I Stay or Should I Go? by Steve Davis
Integrated Real-Time Reporting from E-Business Suite at the
University of Oxford by Susan Gillis
44
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EVENTS
FOCUS ON
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REGULAR FEATURES
OracleScene
62
06
03
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
First Word
First word
Welcome to this bumper winter edition of Oracle
Scene. Yes it is a larger edition as we have squeezed
in as much practical content as it was possible to
because this is the type of content you have been
telling us that you love to see.
This edition also coincides with the big annual flagship
UKOUG conferences. These are the Technology (TECH15),
Applications (APPS15) and the JD Edwards (JDE15) conferences.
This year Apps15 & Tech15 are co-locating with JDE15 at the
ICC in Birmingham after spending the last couple of years in
Manchester and Liverpool. I really love these conferences, they
are the best and one of the cheapest ways to access the latest
and greatest of what is going on in your area of expertise.
Again this year there is the Super Sunday event prior to these
conferences. If youre going to Tech15 and can get to Birmingham
on the Sunday morning you can attend some top notch sessions
covering core internals of the Oracle Database, lots of topics for
the APEX fans, practical sessions on Cloud and then there is my
favourite topic of Analytics and BI. But sign up quick for the Super
Sunday event as places are limited. You sign up as part of your
Tech15 registration via www.tech15.ukoug.org.
I said earlier that this is a bumper edition. We had such an
incredible number of fantastic articles submitted and what you
see in this edition is just a subset of what we could have included.
Were holding onto a lot more for the next edition. I would like
to thank everyone for submitting not just for this edition of
Oracle Scene but to all our editions this year. We look forward to
receiving your articles in 2016 and beyond.
ABOUT
THE
EDITOR
Brendan Tierney
Consultant, Oralytics.com
Brendan is an Oracle ACE Director, independent consultant and lectures on
Data Mining and Advanced Databases in DIT in Ireland. Brendan has extensive
experience working in the areas of Analytics, Data Mining, Data Warehousing, Data
Architecture and Database Design for over 20 years. He started working with the
Oracle 5 Database, Forms 2.3 and ReportWriter 1.1, and has worked with all versions
since then. Brendan is editor of the UKOUG Oracle Scene magazine and is the deputy
chair of the OUG Ireland BI SIG. Brendan is a regular presenter at conferences
around the world.
Contact Brendan at: editor@ukoug.org
04
www.ukoug.org
flexible
hardworking
UKOUG Membership
helpful
friendly
professional
informative
confident
charasmatic
Knowledgeable
organised
Membership Team
efficient
skilled
cheery
driven
experienced
Martin Smithers
Ashley Soucy
Michelle Harris
Head of Membership
Membership Executive
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
K E N S I N G T O N C L O S E H O T E L | L O N D O N | #ukoug_lme16
February
UKOUG Project Management SIG,
London
UKOUG Hyperion SIG, London
UKOUG Oracle Financials SIG, London
March
OUG Ireland 2016, Dublin
UKOUG Business Analytics SIG, London
UKOUG Application Server &
Middleware SIG, Solihull
UKOUG HCM SIG, London
UKOUG Licence Management Event
2016, London
UKOUG Systems SIG, London
partneroftheyear
2016 Dates
Were excited to announce that
Oracle Scene is evolving into a
quarterly magazine in 2016.
The larger magazine will offer the
same amount of content for our
technical readers, but from spring
2016 will also enable us to include
more pages for the non-technical
reader too. So if you are working
in the applications space and have
stories to share with our readers, we
want to hear from you! Make a note
of the 2016 deadlines below and
send your article proposals and/
or finalised pieces to
articles@ukoug.org
Issue 59
11th January
Issue 60
4th April
Issue 61
27th June
Issue 62
5th September
06
2015/16
Wed like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who took part in voting for UKOUG
Partner of the Year Awards 2015/16. We received a staggering 4,666 votes from more
than 2,300 Oracle end-users around the world - the highest weve ever had and its all
down to you! Your winners received their awards at a ceremony on 15th October. Check
out pages 20-22 to see who topped the winners table in each category.
Women
in IT
December Breakfast
Meeting
On Tuesday 8th December from 08:00 09:00 well be hosting our Women in IT
breakfast meeting at Apps15, JDE15 &
Tech15 for all members of the community
to network and find out more about how
UKOUG
Out n
About
Delivering
Direct ROI
to Partners
the following positions up for election Member Advocate and President Elect.
We will be announcing the call for
nominations shortly.
www.ukoug.org/about-us/governance/
appointments-group
www.oug.org/ireland
www.oug.org/scotland
www.ukoug.org
07
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Technology
Oracle
Mobile Cloud Service
Technology Overview
Addressing the enterprise challenges of moving to a mobility-first world
Mobility, in an era of disruptive digital technology, has become a priority for
enterprises to remain competitive and keeping their ever more mobile savvy staff
and customers happy. Yet in adopting the mobile-first mantra enterprises quickly
realise that there are significant challenges in providing mobile solutions beyond
creating their first Android or iOS apps. Security, mobile to enterprise integration,
data integrity and synchronisation, governance, analytics, all these cornerstones
of sound enterprise development do not disappear in the mobile world, but in
fact become more critical for enterprise mobile apps where your standard 8 to 5
corporate user becomes a 24 by 7 mobile user.
Chris Muir, Senior Principal Mobility and Development Tools Product Manager, Oracle
To tackle these concerns head on,
Oracle has introduced Oracle Mobile
Cloud Service, a specialised mobile PaaS
commonly known in the mobility industry
as a Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS).
A typical MBaaS is designed to reduce the
burden on mobile development efforts,
essentially reducing the time to market
taken by your development efforts.
Oracle Mobile Cloud Service differentiates
itself from the MBaaS crowd by not
just addressing the needs of the mobile
developer, but all parts of the business in
building and delivering and monitoring a
successful mobile campaign.
08
www.ukoug.org
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 1
>>
09
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 4
10
www.ukoug.org
Conclusion
Ultimately, Oracle Mobile Cloud Service is a unique product in that it acts both as a glue and oil between the mobile-savvy
development world and traditional enterprises. By providing integration and data transformation services between enterprise
systems and mobile apps, as well as giving a nod to traditional enterprise needs like lifecycles, multiple environments, analytics,
diagnostics and logging, Oracle Mobile Cloud Service essentially acts as the glue between the two parties so they can work
together. Yet in providing prebuilt, mobile-friendly RESTful APIs and services such as push notifications, flexible custom API
programming through the likes of Node.js, and providing native-optimised-mobile SDKs to mobile developers, Oracle Mobile
Cloud Service acts as a slick oil to ensure mobile developers can move at a pace theyre accustomed to even when working with
traditional enterprises. All with the goal of making your enterprise mobility development a success.
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Chris Muir
Senior Principal Mobility and Development Tools Product Manager, Oracle
Chris Muir is an Oracle Senior Principal Product Manager, of the Oracle Mobile and Cloud
Development Tools customer enablement group. The group performs an outbound
product management role with a wide range of tasks focused on enabling customers
across the globe to be successful with Oracles mobile, cloud and web development
solutions.
Blog: blogs.oracle.com/onesizedoesntfitall
au.linkedin.com/in/chriscmuir
@chriscmuir
READ
WATCH
JOIN
cloud.oracle.com/mobile
youtube.com/user/OracleMobilePlatform
bit.ly/oramobcom
www.ukoug.org
11
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Technology
SPEAKER
Presenting at Tech15 on
9th December at 11:20
Questions a WebLogic
Administrator Might Ask
Simon Haslam, Principal Consultant, Veriton
12
www.ukoug.org
FIGURE 1
Following provisioning,
which takes from around
40 minutes to an hour
or so depending on the
components chosen, you get
several new virtual machines
running pre-configured
Oracle software. In theory
you are then ready to deploy
Java applications.
FIGURE 2
www.ukoug.org
In addition to technical
operations, given that it
is very easy to create new
instances, someone within
your organisation needs to
monitor the billing side of all
your Oracle Cloud services to
make sure they are remaining
within budget.
How will JCS integrate with all the
other systems that I run?
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
14
www.ukoug.org
Another consequence of a
fully Oracle-provided platform
is having a single point of
support responsibility.
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Simon Haslam
Principal Consultant, Veriton
Simon is a consultant and Oracle ACE Director (Middleware & SOA) who helps mid-sized
organisations get the best value from their Oracle platforms. Hes a Fusion Middleware
enthusiast and, as of July 2015, an Oracle JCS Specialist, who spends a probably unhealthy
amount of time working with Oracle technology. Simon also invented O-box, a product
that provisions highly available and secure SOA environments onto Oracle Database
Appliance hardware - very quickly!
Blog: simonhaslam.co.uk
www.ukoug.org
uk.linkedin.com/in/simonhaslam
@simon_haslam
15
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
SPEAKER
Presenting at Apps15 on
9th December at 13:10
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
16
ACE DIRECTOR
ACE
ACE ASSOCIATE
Debra Lilley
Debra Lilley, UKOUG Member Advocate
Debra Lilley, Board Member Advocate UKOUG and VP Certus Cloud Services Certus
Solutions. Debra has worked with Oracle Applications for more than 18 years.
Blog: debrasoracle.blogspot.co.uk
uk.linkedin.com/in/debralilley
@debralilley
www.ukoug.org
Presenting at Tech15 on
7th December at 11:20 &
9th December at 15:30
Mastering the
APEX Universal Theme
In the spring of this year the long awaited version 5.0 of Oracle Application
Express (APEX) was released. This version was not just another update, but
a major overhaul with two goals: increase developer productivity and create
better-looking applications on every device.
Roel Hartman, Director & Senior APEX Developer, APEX Consulting
downside is, you need a lot of templates for each and every
building block: one for a region with a border and one for a
region without a border; one for a report with a header and
one for a report without one. So you end up with an impressive
number of templates, and making general changes, e.g. a
change that applies to all region templates, is a lot of work. So
that should be made simpler.
>>
17
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Universal Theme
Next you have to add the Template Options itself. So click Add
Template Option. Pick the same Template Type as you used for
the Option Group, Field in this example, and select the group
you just created. Then enter a display name, this is what the user
of your Template Option, the developer, sees. Then define a CSS
class associated with this Option, e.g. Ukoug--Uppercase (see
figure 4). Do the same for a lowercase option.
Template Options
Running the page will add the CSS class you associated with the
option to an element on the page as you can see in figure 6.
FIGURE 2: TEMPLATE OPTIONS
18
www.ukoug.org
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Summary
APEX 5 brings a lot of features that make life easier and work
more fun for a developer. Productivity and ease-of-use
are the words that describe this version best. Just get your
hands on the tool and experience it yourself.
If you want to know a lot more about the Universal Theme,
we will be running a one-day class on Thursday 10th
December in Birmingham following the annual UKOUG
conference. See http://apextraining.eu for more details.
Roel Hartman
Director & Senior APEX Developer, APEX Consulting
Roel Hartman carries over 25 years of Oracle experience of which around 10 years of APEX.
He is an independent consultant in The Netherlands and runs his own company APEX
Consulting. He is an Oracle ACE Director and a co-writer of three books, Expert Oracle
Application Express being the latest.
Blog: roelhartman.blogspot.com
www.ukoug.org
nl.linkedin.com/in/roelhartman
@RoelH
19
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
UKOUG
partneroftheyear
2015/16
P R E S E N T I N G Y O U R
2015/16 Winners
Huge congratulations to all of this
years UKOUG Partner of the Year Award
winners who were presented with
their awards at a ceremony on 15th
October. Look out for the winners at our
December conferences. If you would
like more information about the awards
visit www.ukoug.org/pya - the 2016/17
nominations will open in Spring 2016.
Enigen UK
Atos
r
15 0 nso or
CH 6 o ns
TE and k Sp Spo
St tac on
At ti
C tra
RA gis
Re
Gold: Explorer
APPS15 Notebook Sponsor
Silver
Bronze
Gold: dsp
Silver
Bronze
Version 1
Hitachi Consulting
Gold: Succeed
APPS15 Stand: 58
Rittman Mead
Accenture Enkitec Group
Silver
Bronze
Codec-dss
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Esteem
Inoapps
Silver
Bronze
Madora Consulting
Infuse Consulting Ltd
www.ukoug.org
APPS15 Stand: 64
APPS15 Stand: 53
15 9
PS : 3
AP and
St
15 9
PS : 3
AP and
St
Silver
Bronze
TECH15 Stand: 61
Gold: AMOSCA
Silver
Bronze
Certus Solutions
Rittman Mead
Silver
Bronze
Succeed
Excel4apps
APPS15 Stand: 24
21
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
5
E1 14
JD nd:
a
St
insightsoftware.com
Redfaire
Gold: Estafet
Infomentum
Steltix UK Ltd
JDE15 Stand: 09
TECH15 Stand: 61
22
APPS15 Stand: 35
Silver
Bronze
Gold: Succeed
Succeed
Evosys
Silver
Bronze
Silver
Bronze
Gold: Succeed
Cedar Consulting
Inoapps
dsp
Red Stack Tech
Silver
Bronze
Silver
Bronze
Silver
Bronze
Silver
Bronze
Certus Solutions
Rittman Mead
www.ukoug.org
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Technology
SPEAKER
Presenting at Tech15 on
7th December at 16:30
An Introduction to
Oracle Read
Consistency
It is vital, for any corporate data store, that when you access your data you know that what you
see is consistent and reliable. In this third article in a series giving an overview of how Oracle
works, Ill show you how Oracle ensures you see a point-in-time and consistent view of the
data, no matter what changes as your query runs. Finally, I will describe the very fast method
Oracle uses to find your data in the buffer cache.
Martin Widlake, Database Architect & Performance Specialist, ORA600
When you query a relational database, you want the data to be
accurate. Firstly, you want the data to be referentially correct.
That is, you want:
One and only one set of customer details for each customer
(we do not want two versions of the truth!);
Every order to link to a single customer, as it makes no sense
to have it any other way;
To be able to identify each customer and each order uniquely.
We use Primary key, Unique identifiers and Foreign keys
(amongst other things) to ensure these rules. There are lots of
articles and examples of this on the web and I am sure you all
understand the basic concepts of relational data. But we need
something else, we need to know that the data is consistent at a
point in time.
Let us consider an example. If we start running a report on all
orders received and their status at 13:00 exactly and that report
runs for 5 minutes, do we want to see an order that came in at
13:04? You might say yes, but think about it. Depending on
where the query has got to in the data set at 13:04 you may
or may not see that new record. If the SELECT statement was
just to show you the data as it finds it, the data you would
see would depend on how long that report ran for. Also, what if
someone had entered a new order at 12:59 but not committed
it - and in fact deleted it when they changed their mind at
13:01? You would not want to see that record at all.
24
www.ukoug.org
your session that the change vector has been written to the
online redo logs on disc. So the redo log record is done first (1).
Then the change is done to the table block in memory (2). The
final step is for the block to be saved to the database files by the
DBWR process (3). It can take a while for (3) to occur a second
or three.
The first is the System Change Number. You can think of this as
a clock with a very accurate time but it is in fact an incrementing
counter, held in the SGA. If this is a RAC database, the SCN is
the same and shared across all nodes in the RAC. Each time a
change is made to the database the SCN increments. A change
is any change at all to a database block in the database, including
internal changes to data dictionary objects. It is possible for the
same SCN to be used for several changes, e.g. for several records
inserted at the same time - but only if they are in the same
transaction. In this way, every database change gets an SCN
recorded with it. In figure 2 this is represented by the SCN clock.
www.ukoug.org
At the point the user commits the change, Oracle finalises the
data being written to the redo logs and confirms the commit.
But what if you cancel the changes? You issue a rollback, your
session terminates or, heaven above, the database crashes?
All those changes that have been done need to be undone.
That is where the UNDO tablespace comes in. Oracle can use
that data to unpick the unwanted changes. It is not the most
efficient process but that is because Oracle does not expect you
to rollback many changes. The whole process of writing and
controlling the changes you make to the database is designed to
make doing and committing the changes as fast as possible, not
undoing them.
To come back to our figure 2, when the Oracle Server Process
wants to update a block, be it for the table or an index it:
0. Gets the current SCN and uses it to mark the change.
1. Writes the change description for the table/index to the redo
log, including the SCN.
2. Writes the change description for the undo to the redo log,
including the SCN
3. Applies the change to the UNDO tablespace block, including
the SCN
4. Applies the change to the database block, including updating
the SCN on that block
I have labelled the getting of the SCN as 0 just to highlight
the point that it has to be done before all the other changes
(which may not be done in exactly the order I say, for example
both undo and block change can be written to the redo at the
same time) and the same SCN can be applied to more than one
change within a transaction.
As I said above, if the change is now rolled back, the undo
information is used to undo all the changes to the table and
index data. It is not a free activity, because it is designed to
be most efficient when you complete your changes. So if you
think that inserting a set of records to a table and then rolling
it back does not really do any work, please think again. In fact,
>>
25
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Technology
The first block has an SCN of 45123. This is prior to our Querys
SCN of 45678 so the data in the block can be safely read. The
next block is examined and is found to again have an earlier
SCN, of 45007. However, the next block has an SCN of 45688,
compared to 45678 when our query started running. The block
has changed since our query started.
26
www.ukoug.org
See figure 4. Here we are putting a string that represents the block
identifier into the hashing algorithm and getting a seven digit
number. Note how only the last character of the block identifier
changes but the resulting number is significantly different.
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Martin Widlake
Database Architect & Performance Specialist, ORA600
An independent consultant specialising in Oracle database design,
performance and making systems work better. Martin has been
working with Oracle technology for half his life. Despite this he is
passionate about user groups, sharing knowledge and explaining
how Oracle works. He is a regular conference presenter both in the
UK and internationally. Martin is an Oracle ACE Director and a
member of the OakTable Network. His blog is part technical, part
management and part just musing on working in I.T. His real passion
is genetics. And cats.
FIGURE 4: FIND A BLOCK VIA HASHING, HASH BUCKETS AND
BLOCK CHAINS
www.ukoug.org
Blog: mwidlake.wordpress.com
uk.linkedin.com/pub/martin-widlake/2/7a2/8b/en
@MDWidlake
27
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Technology
SPEAKER
Presenting at Tech15 on
7th December at 11:20
Something for
the Enterprise?
You may have
already heard that
Oracle Database
Standard Edition
will have a
dedicated track
at this years
UKOUG Tech15
Conference on the
7th of December in
Birmingham.
Ann Sjkvist,
Oracle Standard Edition
Database advocate
28
www.ukoug.org
$ 5,800
$17,500
$17,500
$47,500
MOS 2027072.1
Database Licensing
Database License Features & Options Information
Now let us look a little deeper into what Standard Edition can
and cannot bring.
SE functionality of interest and feature replacements:
When we have a SE2/SE1/SE database environment, we need to
think beyond the out-of-the-box solutions and can, with a
little more effort, work around some of the limits. Examples of
these are:
Partition Views to replace Partitioning. This was a technique
that we used back in Oracle 7.3 version and still works. If you
are interested in how-to-do-this please check my blog.
RMAN parallelism. When the application data model is well
designed and system is under-stood well, executing multiple
RMAN commands in succession through a Linux/Unix Pipe
might provide an acceptable solution.
Physical Standby database can be accomplished with 3rd
party applications.
Some people think that RAC is not available on the contrary,
it is and is free (unlike on EE).
From the release of 10gR2, the Oracle SE includes the Real
Applications Clusters option.
Oracle SE2 includes RAC (max of 2 one-socket servers).
Oracle Statspack is still available and works well on SE/SE1/
SE2, plus lots of free and purchasable 3rd party analyses/
monitoring tools are available.
www.ukoug.org
29
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Technology
Data Guard
Real Application Security
Fine-Grained Auditing
Oracle Virtual Private Database
Build index online
Parallel Execution
Encryption (TDE, backup encryption, network encryption)
Replication
Compression
Performance (Diagnostic Pack and Tuning Pack)
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Ann Sjkvist
Oracle Standard Edition Database advocate
Ann Sjkvist is an Oracle Standard Edition Database advocate and blogs about it. She was
born in Sweden and moved to Finland in 1985 where she learned the Finnish Language
and started her IT career. Ann has worked in many different roles within IT such as
analysis, system analysis, software test engineer, software test manager, customer care
support, project manager, integration specialist, and SaaS production man-ager. She is an
Oracle Certified DB Professional, and former COO. All these roles have helped to develop
her innovativeness, creativeness and curiosity into a solution finding mindset.
Blog: www.sejustloveit.com
30
fi.linkedin.com/in/annss
@annsjokvist
www.ukoug.org
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DOWNLOAD THE
BROCHURE NOW
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OracleScene
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Technology
32
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OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
reference back to OEAF in the Envision stage. But, if youve not yet
adopted OUM or even necessarily decided on Oracle products and
processes you can still leverage OEAF. Typically though, OUM is
used to help shape and drive the delivery phases rather than the
work to develop strategic thinking.
So having done a potted view of Oracle EA, how does it reflect in
our experiences? Getting TOGAF established has proven difficult
in so far as creating the breathing space to do the tailoring, and
then trying to get other parts of the organisation to go on the
journey without seeing value almost immediately has proven to
be enormously difficult. As a result weve picked up aspects of
TOGAF that have proven easy to work into the organisation and
applying existing processes and governance. The company has
taken an approach of investing in TOGAF training for its Architects
(along with the expectation to get their certification), from a
practical basis of providing something to standardise the practise
around, but also a factor that may help with recruitment.
But this approach hasnt yet yielded the benefits we would like
to see, which can support the organisations need for things
Summary
So, to summarise, the key values of Oracle Enterprise Architecture Framework are:
TOGAF derived meaning youre building and exploiting the vast amount of effort into a proven architecture framework
Focus on quick value delivery which means you should see information that will define or give validity to strategies and not
seriously impacting change programme timelines
Using this framework isnt locking in Oracle products, if you have alternate products available or even want architectural
consistency in areas outside of an Oracle ecosystem. But if you want Oracle solutions, youre going to be guided the best answers
A means by which you can architecturally share vision with Oracle or its partners very easily, combined with the meta
material then in theory any TOGAF aware organisation can work with your models, which will promote solution thinking not
product thinking
Linked with other major Oracle design & delivery processes (OUM, ITSO).
The bottom line is that here is a framework that can help with Oracle, but need not be used in an Oracle environment that
allows the possibility of giving EA adoption some agility.
Some Helpful resources:
Oracle.coms Enterprise Architecture Home http://bit.ly/1LXHp1o
Whitepaper on OADP and position to TOGAF etc http://bit.ly/1H28Y1u
Id like to thank Mike Blackmore at Oracle to providing support from an Oracle perspective.
https://mp3muncher.wordpress.com/category/technology/togaf/
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/entarch/itso-165161.html
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/consulting/resource-library/oracle-unified-method1-069271.pdf
4
https://mp3muncher.wordpress.com/category/technology/oracle/itso-oeaf/
1
2
3
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Phil Wilkins
Enterprise Integration Architect, Specsavers
Phil Wilkins has over 25 years experience in the IT industry having worked across many
different domains. Hes been working with Oracle technologies extensively for the last 4
years, during which he has become an active volunteer for UKOUG and advocate for the
user group within Specsavers. Phil has contributed his expertise and understanding to a
range of books as a technical reviewer during the book development phase and as a
reviewer for published books as well.
Blog: oracle.mp3monster.org
34
uk.linkedin.com/in/philwilkins
@mp3monster
www.ukoug.org
Technology
SPEAKER
Virtual Tuning
Virtual Tuning
The ideal for fixing performance problems, especially if youre using a 3rdparty product, is to find a way of making a difference without changing
the code and without fiddling with indexes or otherwise adding physical
overheads (like materialized views)
create table t1 (
to the application.
id
not null,
Jonathan Lewis, Freelance Consultant,
JL Computer Consultancy
Oracle has given us Stored Outlines, SQL Plan Baselines, SQL
Profiles, SQL Patches and (in 12c) SQL Plan Directives to help, but
theres a completely different technology thats been around for
several years that can solve many of the performance problems
caused by a bad choice of execution plan. Its the virtual
column which, particularly when it can be assisted by suitable
constraints, can bypass the problems of badly written SQL and
help the optimizer to create new access paths for existing code.
Sample Data
www.ukoug.org
date_time
not null,
small_vc,
padding
)
nologging as
with generator as (
select rownum id
from dual
connect by level <= 1000
)
select
rownum id,
(trunc(sysdate) - 150) +
((rownum-1)/1440) date_time,
rpad(x,10,x)
small_vc,
rpad(x,100,x)
padding
from
generator, generator
where
rownum <= 1440 * 150
;
begin
dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(
ownname
=> user,
tabname
=>T1,
method_opt
=> for all columns size 1
);
end;
/
alter table t1 add constraint t1_pk primary key(id);
create index t1_i1 on t1(date_time);
>>
35
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Next Steps
can give the optimizer that might help it realise that the existing
index could be helpful? Heres a very simple thought: by definition
trunc(date_time) cant be greater than date_time so what
happens if we point out this obvious truism to the optimizer? Figure
3 shows how we can do that and the resulting execution plan:
alter table t1 add constraint t1_dates check(date_time >= trunc(date_time));
--------------------------------------------------------------------------| Id | Operation
| Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
0 | SELECT STATEMENT
|
|
1 |
19 |
33
(4)|
|
1 | SORT AGGREGATE
|
|
1 |
19 |
|
|
2 |
TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| T1
| 10800 |
200K|
33
(4)|
|* 3 |
INDEX RANGE SCAN
| T1_I1 | 1440 |
|
5
(0)|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
--------------------------------------------------3 - access(DATE_TIME>=TRUNC(SYSDATE@!)-1)
filter(TRUNC(INTERNAL_FUNCTION(DATE_TIME))>=TRUNC(SYSDATE@!)-1)
Virtual Columns
end;
/
dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(
ownname
=> user,
tabname
=>T1,
method_opt
=>for columns date_only size 1
);
--------------------------------------------------------------------------| Id | Operation
| Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
0 | SELECT STATEMENT
|
|
1 |
19 |
579 (14)| 00:00:03 |
|
1 | SORT AGGREGATE
|
|
1 |
19 |
|
|
|* 2 |
TABLE ACCESS FULL| T1
| 1440 | 27360 |
579 (14)| 00:00:03 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
--------------------------------------------------2 - filter(T1.DATE_ONLY>=TRUNC(SYSDATE@!)-1)
www.ukoug.org
alter table t1
add constraint t1_dates check (date_time >= date_only);
------------------------------------------------------------------| Id | Operation
| Name | Rows | Cost (%CPU)|
------------------------------------------------------------------| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT
|
|
1 |
6 (0)|
| 1 | SORT AGGREGATE
|
|
1 |
|
| 2 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| T1
| 1440 |
6 (0)|
|* 3 |
INDEX RANGE SCAN
| T1_I1 |
10 |
5 (0)|
------------------------------------------------------------------Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
--------------------------------------------------3 - access(DATE_TIME>=TRUNC(SYSDATE@!)-1)
filter(T1.DATE_ONLY>=TRUNC(SYSDATE@!)-1)
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Summary
If you have columns with not null constraints on them it is
worth remembering that the optimizer can play some clever
games turning other constraints on those columns into
predicates.
In particular you might be able to construct a constraint that
tells the optimizer how an index can be used for a predicate
that doesnt quite match the index definition. In some cases
you may find that the simplest strategy is to create a virtual
column that matches the target predicate and then use a
constraint to connect the indexes to the virtual columns
youve created.
There are still some anomalies in the way the optimizer
works with the extra predicates that get generated, so you
may need to experiment a little with the options: essentially
you have to worry about the access path, the cardinality,
and the cost and at present it looks as if manipulating
constraints may allow the optimizer to get two out of the
three looking reasonable, leaving you have to hope that the
third one is good enough to avoid problems.
Jonathan Lewis
Freelance Consultant, JL Computer Consultancy
Jonathans experience with Oracle goes back more than 25 years. He specialises in
physical database design, the strategic use of the Oracle database engine and solving
performance issues. Jonathan is the author of Oracle Core, Cost Based Oracle
Fundamentals and Practical Oracle 8i Designing Efficient Databases and has
contributed to three other books about Oracle. He is one of the best-known speakers
on the UK Oracle circuit, as well as being very popular on the international scene,
having worked or lectured in 50 different countries. Further details of his published
papers, presentations and tutorials can be found through his blog
Blog: jonathanlewis.wordpress.com
www.ukoug.org
uk.linkedin.com/pub/jonathan-lewis/2a/93a/340
@JLOracle
37
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Technology
Oracle 12c
new features
38
www.ukoug.org
and our file is loaded, using the implicit configuration (the input
file name is the table name with the suffix .dat, it is located
in the current directory, its structure is identical to the tables
structure, the fields are terminated by commas, and many more
defaults). Many attributes of the default configuration may be
overridden using optional command line parameters.
Task: set a unique number to ASSIGNMENT_ID (implicitly) for
every new PROJECT_ASSIGNMENTS record
Before 12c we could use a sequence and a BEFORE INSERT
trigger to achieve this. For example:
11g> create sequence project_assignments_seq;
11g> create trigger project_assignments_bir_tr
before insert on project_assignments for each row
begin
:new.assignment_id :=
project_assignments_seq.nextval;
end;
www.ukoug.org
>>
39
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Session-Level Control
The call to dbms_flashback_archive.enable_at_valid_time
affects all the subsequent queries in the session; in this case
showing only assignments that are currently active:
12c> begin
dbms_flashback_archive.
enable_at_valid_time(CURRENT);
end;
/
In Oracle 12c this can be achieved using the new Row Limiting
clause, which can be added to the end of SELECT statements.
The size of the page is defined by either an absolute number
of records or a specific percent of records out of the complete
result set. You can define whether the page starts from the first
record of the original result set or from some offset. It can also
be defined how to treat ties (i.e. when several records with
the same value are on the borders of the page). So our query
becomes as simple as:
12c> select project_id, person_id, assignment_id,
assignment_period_start, assignment_period_end
from project_assignments
order by project_id,person_id
offset :page_size * (:page_number - 1) rows
fetch next :page_size rows only;
when:
there are many records in the table
most of them are obsolete (i.e., their ORA_ARCHIVE_
STATE!=0)
ROW ARCHIVAL VISIBILITY = ACTIVE (the default behaviour)
We should remember that Oracle actually translates our
statement to
40
www.ukoug.org
Task: write a query that shows all the people with a valid date in
their GENERAL_INFO column
We can write a small function - is_date - that gets a string input
and checks whether it represents a valid date or not, and then
we can call the function from the SELECT statement:
select * from people where is_date(general_info) = 1;
Oracle 12c offers a better option. The WITH clause can now
include not only subquery factoring but also PL/SQL declarations
of functions that can be used in the query (and procedures that
can be used in those functions). This allows for embedding
ad-hoc functions, that are relevant only for a specific SQL
statement, in the statement itself. In our case:
12c> with
function is_date(i_info in varchar2) return number
as
l_date date;
begin
if i_info is null then
return 0;
else
l_date := to_date(i_info, dd/mm/yyyy);
return 1;
end if;
exception
when others then
return 0;
end is_date;
select p.*
from people p
where is_date(p.general_info) = 1;
Conclusion
Weve seen several features that were added in Oracle 12c and can make our life as developers easier:
- With SQL*Loader Express Mode we can write less configuration
- With Identity Columns, In-Database Archiving and Temporal Validity we can write less application code
- With Row Limiting we can write less code in SQL statements
- With Package-Level Collection Type Un-nesting and PL/SQL in the WITH Clause we can write less inappropriately located code
These are only few of the new features that allow us to write less. Others include LATERAL Inline Views, Pattern Matching,
Extended Strings, the ON NULL Clause, Multiple Partitions in a Single DDL, and more.
To learn more about the features introduced in this article you are welcome to read the Write Less with More series of posts on
my blog: www.db-oriented.com/category/writelesswithmore
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Oren Nakdimon
Oracle Developer and Instructor, DB Oriented
Oren Nakdimon is an Oracle ACE Associate with more than 20 years experience with
Oracle-based systems, as a developer, DBA, manager and instructor. Oren gained lots of
knowledge about databases in general, and Oracle in particular, and likes sharing it. He
believes in good collaboration between developers and DBAs and tries to bridge the
traditional gaps between these two worlds.
Blog: db-oriented.com
www.ukoug.org
linkedin.com/in/orennakdimon
@DBoriented
41
Mark Sweeny
engage Business Support ensures that your Oracle Cloud services are supported by
an expert team for less cost than an in-house support function. We proactively guide
customers through the Cloud update process and manage all interactions with Oracle
on their behalf, leaving customers to focus on their core business. We will support you
through those next steps you take.
2015
2016
OF THE
Y E A R AWA R D
PA R T N E R
OF THE
Y E A R AWA R D
2015
2016
SILVER WINNER
STOP PRESS
Certus wins Gold for the second time running at UKOUG Partner of the Year Awards.
Press Release http://tinyurl.com/qhouage
2015
2016
PA R T N E R
OF THE
Y E A R AWA R D
GOLD WINNER
www.ukoug.org
43
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Technology
Joyce Boland,
VP Applications
Marketing, Oracle
www.ukoug.org
>>
www.ukoug.org
45
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Conclusion
The cloud is not a new concept. At Oracle weve spent years evangelising its capabilities and investing in the development of an
exceptional portfolio of cloud solutions. Weve broken down every barrier to adoption from addressing security concerns to
helping organisations plot a simple and manageable migration path.
Oracle Customer 2 Cloud is our solution to one of the final remaining barriers: the feeling that a move to the cloud can
46
www.ukoug.org
only come at the end of a support period for on-premise apps. By giving organisations that have invested in our on-premise
applications the chance to turn their support spend into an investment in innovative cloud apps, were creating a great
opportunity to move to the cloud today.
For some organisations this may be enough to get them talking seriously about the cloud for the first time. For others it will
be the final motivator they need to finally make the leap. But for every eligible company, its an opportunity that merits serious
consideration.
If youre interested in finding out more about Oracle Customer 2 Cloud, Oracle is happy to provide a free analysis of your current
on-premise applications and support contracts to assess how much you could re-allocate. To find out more, talk to your Oracle
rep or partner.
I also encourage you to participate in the UKOUGs Applications Innovation program. There are several upcoming events where
you can learn from your peers and subject matter experts on the transition to the Cloud giving you unique perspective and
insights that can help make your own journey even simpler.
Dont miss out get in touch today and see if you can turn your unused on-premise support spend into a cloud advantage for
your organisation.
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
www.ukoug.org
Joyce Boland
VP Applications Marketing, Oracle
Joyce is responsible for driving marketing and demand generation programs for Oracle
Applications business across the globe. Joyce has over 20 years experience in the
enterprise applications market. She came to Oracle from Gartner where she was Vice
President of Enterprise and Supply Chain Management at Gartner Europe. Before
Gartner, Joyce held various positions with Dun & Bradstreet Software in Europe
and the US.
47
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Women in IT
Ambition in the
Face of Adversity
In a recent survey of IT professionals by Evolution Recruitment Solutions
and the UK Oracle User Group, over half of women believed that they
would be employed in a more senior role within
the next 5 years.
48
BELIEVE
FT
BE IN A
MORE
SENIOR
ROLE IN
TIME
2/3
F DI
PROSPECTS
50%
EARN
<30k...
EE
LS
ALA
RY
...COMPARED
WITH 34%
OF MEN
OM
PA
RED
% OF
on 70k+
% of
on 70k+
www.ukoug.org
CAREER
DONT KNOW
IF EMPLOYER HAS
A WOMEN IN IT
SCHEME
PEE
ABOUT
TO
PEERS
1IN 3
1IN 6
IT SPECIALISTS
ARE WOMEN
AS THEIR
POSITIVE
LOW
AS
VALUED
MORE
IS
FEEL
A LA
YEARS
1/3
T
PU
WOMEN
ARE
65 %
FIVE
GH
HR
OU
THEY
WILL
OF
JOBS IN IT
CTO
Y
S IT
KO
56
VE R
49
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Should I Stay
or Should I Go?
As The Clashs Mick Jones and Joe Strummer lyrics said all those years ago;
If I go there will be trouble, an if I stay it will be double.
Steve Davis, COO, Namos Solutions
Decisions, Decisions
50
So what were going to discuss here is, what are the drivers or
reasons why?
1. You could stay on 11i, if not forever at least for a while
longer or put it more bluntly, why should I move off a stable
platform?
2. If I decide to move, is R12 a good place to go, and what is
considered a stable version of this release?
3. Is Fusion (sorry Cloud slap wrist) the way to go or is it really
still bleeding edge, and is there really such a thing as coexistence?
www.ukoug.org
The question then dear readers, and this isnt just focused on
11i users;
Money, time and resources that quite frankly the business see as
being spent more wisely making the business more profitable.
Will a new version of their ERP really help with that or is
moving on just a necessary evil that must always be costed for
eventually?
Of course these arent the only reasons, but unless there is a real
driver to move on, then why do it? In fact dont do it! Therell be
plenty of people who will be able to help you, and sometimes
the bravest and most sensible decision is the one that is do
nothing. However, remember that youll need to review that
decision on a regular basis to ratify it.
What are the alternatives, and this isnt just for those of you still
on 11i, it has pertinence to current R12 users as well? Lets have
a quick overview of some of the options and well go into more
detail later on.
1. Release 12, but which version/release?
2. The Cloud slowly becoming the C word that offends people
more than any other. Well discuss this option, but Im sure
those of you who are seasoned readers and APPS conference
attendees there are many a Cloud-related session and article
that can do the subject more justice than myself here and now
3. A co-existence model, ironically does co-existence exist and is
it really viable?
4. Oracle wont thank me for this, and a strange one to raise in
an Oracle publication, but hey I always struggled to conform.
Lets mention it and move on to the other three in more
detail, but for some it has been or will become a viable option.
Clearly moving away from Oracle altogether will mean users
starting again from scratch on a completely new system, all
that data migration, all that user training but is Cloud so like
11i or R12 that you wont have to go through that anyway and
youd still have the reimplementation costs?
From my experience its a grown up conversation to have with
my clients and, as you would expect the cost of change is
usually higher than staying put with a particular provider, but
its healthy to do the due diligence in this respect and it puts
pressure on Oracle to up their game and provide systems that
really work for the user masses. Also if your company didnt
grow or is not using your current Oracle solution to its full
potential, then is it time to move software provider to reduce
running costs or better still take up an Oracle SaaS Cloud
offering, the savings could be significant?
>>
www.ukoug.org
51
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
R12
Cloud
Criteria
EBS R12.1.3
EBS 12.2.X
Infrastructure
Advantages
Typically requires 40-50% less disk
space than 12.2
Plenty of stable choices that are
reliable
Multiple instance costs are less than
12.2
Memory and processing requirements
are fewer than 12.2
Advantages
WebLogic clustering on multiple apps
tiers
WebLogic load balancing
WebLogic helps integrate 3rd party
apps
Newer infrastructure options
Disadvantages
Is becoming outdated
Total cost of ownership
Disadvantages
More specialist skills needed to
maintain
Higher cost than 12.1.3
Infrastructure more complex
Criteria
Public Cloud
Private Cloud
Infrastructure
Advantages
No infrastructure on site
Advantages
Control of infrastructure (unless
outsourced)
Only way to directly customise apps
TABLE 1: R12
Disadvantages
Little control in comparison to owning
the architecture on site
Disadvantages
Deemed to be costly and complex
Up to 4 times the level required
compared to R12
TABLE 2: CLOUD
52
www.ukoug.org
www.ukoug.org
Steve Davis
COO, Namos Solutions
15
ps 67
Ap and
St
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
uk.linkedin.com/pub/steve-davis/a/298/81
@DeadlyNamos
53
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Oracle Implementation
Strategy
Kartik Subbaraman & Chinmay Jain, Infosys
As corporations look to adopt global Oracle ERP systems, one of the primary strategic decision points
they face is whether to go for a big-bang approach for global implementation or to implement their
systems in a phase -n m wise manner (rollouts) or a combination of both. An ERP programme in
todays world is considerably complex, has a long gestation period and involves substantial monetary
commitment. The adoption of an incorrect implementation approach can lead not only to significant
monetary losses but also a serious erosion of competitiveness in the marketplace. The paper
endeavors to provide a comprehensive model illustrating strategic and operational parameters that
any programme management team must consider before deciding on implementation approach. It
illustrates a step-by-step methodology that should be adopted while attempting this exercise which
will aid implementation teams in evaluating their options.
Corporations in todays world operate in an extremely diverse
and competitive environment spanning multiple business lines
and geographies, each with their own unique set of challenges.
Add to that a plethora of software applications being adopted
and integrated, any change to the existing systems becomes
an extremely challenging and arduous task. Any Oracle ERP
implementation involves significant commitment of money,
resources and time. One of the first and foremost questions that
any programme management team on the road to an Oracle
implementation has to answer is What will be my approach
54
www.ukoug.org
Strategic Levers
Technology
Is the corporation in an industry where the use of technology
is critical differentiator between the organisation and its
competitors?
How frequently does the organisation foresee changes in
technology which will make the existing systems obsolete?
An organisation in an industry where technology is a key
differentiator would be better off implementing in a Big Bang
approach across all units simultaneously because the gains
from the Oracle implementation would accrue to all units
resulting in better competitive advantage overall. Usage of latest
features of Oracle across the entire organisation would result in
streamlining processes and operations, companywide. Phased
Levers
Elements
Importance
Approach Definitions
Go Big Bang
Strategic
Operational
TABLE 1
www.ukoug.org
Hybrid Approach
Phased Rollout
Technology
High
Key competitive
differentiator
Technology is an enabler
Implementation
objectives
Moderate
Process standardisation
Acceptance by key
stakeholders
Step-by-step process
improvement
Business
environment
Low
Mature industries
Organisation
Moderate
Homogenous
organisation culture
Common business
process landscape
Common process
landscape in certain
clusters but not across
the organisation
Multiple geographies
Varied business
requirements
People
High
Financial
High
>>
55
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Operational Levers
Organisational
The structure of the organisation, the kind of business it is in, the
geographies in which it operates are all critical factors in deciding
on an implementation strategy. Corporations operating in multiple
geographies generally tend to have different business process,
taxation and reporting requirements (specific to each individual
country). Harmonising all these requirements could prove a tedious
and challenging task. In such cases a Hybrid approach of grouping
business units with similar lines of business, common taxation
needs and shared reporting requirements, and implementing
the Oracle solutions for these clusters together, would realise
value and better benefits. A Phased Rollout is best if the grouping
organisations in common clusters is not possible or is difficult.
People
The people or users who will finally use the Oracle system
determine the success or failure of any implementation
programme. Hence considering the people aspect is extremely
important while determining any strategy for implementation.
While deciding on any implementation approach the programme
team must consider the number of users who will be impacted,
the training needs, the cultural background of diverse teams,
availability of skilled personnel who will be available to support
the implementation team and the geographies in which the
users are present. Typically in a Big Bang approach the people
aspect often acts as a stumbling block in the successful
implementation of an ERP programme. The ability to co-ordinate
change management activities of a large number of employees
across multiple geographies presents a significant challenge. If
an implementation team has the resources and the ability to
manage these aspects of the programme a Big Bang approach
Conclusion
Any implementation methodology must be specifically tailored to meet an organisations unique set of challenges and
requirements. Organisations with faster go-to-market needs, using obsolete technologies or wanting to have accelerated
return on investment, should adopt a Big Bang approach. Organisations in mature industries with streamlined processes and
technologies or having people/resource constraints would prefer a Phased Rollout. A Hybrid approach is best for geographically
dispersed organisations who have areas of commonalities which can be grouped together for faster deployment. With rapidly
changing market dynamics and technologies, organisations are also considering Agile and DevOps methodologies for design
and development. A well-thought out and carefully crafted implementation strategy, tailored to the specific needs of the
organisation, will be critical to the success of any Oracle implementation.
ABOUT
THE
AUTHORS
Kartik Subbaraman
Principal Consultant, Infosys
Kartik Subbaraman (kartik_subbaraman@infosys.com) is a Principal Consultant in the
Oracle Manufacturing Practice at Infosys Limited. He has overall 12+ years of experience
post his MBA, which includes 11 years of experience in the Oracle Applications space. In
this span, he has worked and successfully delivered multiple end to end Oracle
Implementations for Retail, Manufacturing and Hi-Tech vertical clients.
Chinmay Jain (chinmay_jain@infosys.com) is a Senior Industry Principal in the Oracle
Practice at Infosys Limited. He has overall 18 years of experience post his post graduate,
which includes 14 years of experience in the Oracle Applications space. In this span, he
has managed and successfully delivered consulting assignments and multiple end
to end Oracle Implementations for Manufacturing and Hi-Tech vertical clients.
56
www.ukoug.org
www.vipappsconsulting.com
ASSESS
IMPLEMENT
MAP
STRATEGY
SYSTEM
BUSINESS
BENCHMARK
OP
O
OPTIMISE
WHY
value.innovation.process
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
SPEAKER
Presenting at Apps15 on
7th December at 17:20
Implementation
58
The hard work started once the choice had been made of
course: defining all of the reports without a stable environment
and whilst the business processes were still being revised and
www.ukoug.org
All reports are run through this single responsibility and the
reports that are available to any specific user will be determined
by the responsibilities assigned to that user. This works for the
University because the reports can be assigned optionally to
responsibilities or request groups (we use the latter generally).
So a Central Finance user will see a different list of reports to a
Finance Officer within a department.
www.ukoug.org
59
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Administration
The XL Connect user front-end is being rolled out to all users for
running reports without logging into the Oracle E-Business Suite
application. So our users can accomplish all of their reporting
needs within an Excel interface connected to E-Business Suite.
60
www.ukoug.org
(XML) and RTF, and each report can have as many, or as few,
of these options as needed. There is also a graphical output
module for charts and dashboards that we will be looking into in
the near future.
Conclusion
Did we get what we wanted? The EiS eXpress reporting tools delivered everything on our need to have and, following various
upgrades, also the nice to have lists. For Go Live, we only delivered the first set of requirements but gradually all the optional
requirements are being met as additional functionality is rolled out.
EiS Technologies have guided and supported us over the whole period, providing training and expertise when we asked for it.
They have responded positively to all our requests for functional development. The question I have been most often asked is:
would I have chosen the EiS eXpress tool for the University of Oxford? And my answer has always been, Yes, absolutely.
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Susan Gillis
Finance Systems Reporting Manager, University of Oxford
Susan manages the team within the Financial Systems Support
Centre delivering both new and improved reports using EIS
eXpress, plus supporting users on reporting, including GL and
XL Connect. Susan has been at the University over 9 years
moving through a variety of posts to get to her current position.
You can hear more from Susan at Apps15 at 17.20 on Monday
7th December www.apps15.ukoug.org
uk.linkedin.com/pub/susan-gillis/27/a9b/b51
www.ukoug.org
61
OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
SPEAKER
Presenting at Apps15 on
9th December at 11:20
Key Considerations
for Cloud Adoption:
A Decision
Framework
Sean Snow, Manager - IT Advisory, KPMG
62
Risk:
Is cloud infrastructure secure? Is it
compliant with our regulatory, legal,
and contractual obligations?
What are the risks? How do we mitigate
and manage them?
People:
What is the likely impact on our
organisation and staffing? What new
skills do we need to develop or acquire?
And the Chief Information Officer (CIO)
has additional concerns:
Legacy Investment & Optimisation:
How can we maximise use of existing
assets? How do we turn-up and down
capacity to avoid overpaying?
Vendor Selection & Management:
Who do we partner with and how do
we avoid vendor lock-in? How do we
contract and monitor Service Level
Agreements (SLAs), performance and
quality?
Architectural & Technology:
What are our practical options? What
should the target state look like? Which
is best?
Migration:
What should the roadmap look like?
Which applications and data must be
moved together?
S
tage 1: A high-level cost run rate
model based on a 5 year timeframe that
helps assess the viability of the cloud
compared to alternative on premise
proposition(s). Typically achieved
through collection of basic information
(Implementation & upgrade; licence
and support; Infrastructure, Hardware,
Disaster Recovery (DR) and internal
IT support) on the as is state and
comparing this to equivalent cloud
based costs.
Stage 2: If stage 1 proves favourable
then you should develop a more
detailed high-level directional analysis
of the key economic cost drivers. For
a finance system these would include
detailed current finance IT, finance
applications, IT & finance staff costs
and the corresponding cloud finance
cost option.
Stage 3: The final stage involves
a full TCO business case and
implementation roadmap describing
the business challenge, system
options, recommended option and
associated return on investment. The
stage 3 TCO business case should be
comprehensive, including, for example,
the cost of terminating existing
contracts and associated transition cost
in general.
Cloud Strategy
>>
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OracleScene
AUTUMN/WINTER 15
Confirm:
- Which regulatory regimes/legislation
apply to you and what your
responsibilities and obligations are
- The suitability of internal data
controls and the impact of cloud on
these
- The types of data that will be placed
in the cloud
Clarify if the cloud data will move
outside the EEA & how data, DR and
back-ups will be managed
Identify where you can/must prove
compliance to satisfy regulators and
clients
3) Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory views on cloud services are
still to be fully developed, however,
regulations still apply and when using
a cloud service in the UK and European
Economic Area, the Data Protection Act
(DPA) must be followed. For example,
when a regulated firm procures cloud
services, and those services are considered
critical or important, the firm must ensure
that it complies with the FCAs rules on
outsourcing.
64
4) Integration
Integration is a consistent theme of
business system delivery and with an
ever more connected world it is becoming
important that you have an open but
secure means of transferring data to and
from your cloud service. To determine the
suitability of vendor cloud propositions
you should collate your primary decision
points and priority items for discussion
with the cloud vendor:
Current state: e.g. What integration
strategy and policies are in place?
What is the level of implementation
and compliance? Does it support
integration between cloud and on
premise applications, does it need
extending to operate with the target
cloud service provider(s) architecture?
What are the technical and business
impacts?
Strategy: e.g. What are the technical
and business resilience requirement
implications for your future integration
framework in terms of scalability,
availability, recovery and integrity and
how does the cloud provider address
www.ukoug.org
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Sean Snow
Manager - IT Advisory, KPMG
Sean is a Manager in KPMGs UK Management Consulting function with 30 years
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) experience - the last 16 with Oracle and Oracle
partners. Since completing a multi Million procurement assignment for a FTSE100
client in 2014, he has been part of the team building KPMGs Powered Finance Oracle
ERP cloud based transformation proposition.
uk.linkedin.com/in/seanfsnow
www.ukoug.org
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