Insight2013 Q3complimentary

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE Oracle Applications USERS GROUP
fall 2013
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Secrets of the Master
Row Set
10101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101010101010
0 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101
in Oracle E-Business
Suite
010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010
Lessons Learned:01010101010101010
Overcoming
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101
00101001010101010101010101010100101010101110010101000101001010
a Failed E-Business
Suite
Implementation010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000
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Pre- and Post-Upgrade
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Functional Checklists
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Facilitate Oracle EBS
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Upgrades
10101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101
Implementing
Oracle
E-Business
Suite R12.1.2
on Exadata
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01010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010
10
Fall 2013
F e a t u r es
10 Implementing Oracle E-Business Suite R12.1.2 on Exadata
Velcro Industries is currently one of the few customers running the Oracle

E-Business Suite (EBS) database on a certified Exadata machine. Find out how Velcro
Industries, in six months, successfully migrated EBS Release 12.1.2 to the Exadata
machine. by Rajesh Hassija and Tejas Raval
18
Master Row Set Define Rows
Row 1 Title Row 2 Subtitle Row
3 Detail Row 4 Detail Balance
Rows Expenses Rows Set of
Books Name Cash Assets Total
Current Assets New Accounts
Receivable Cash and Short-Term
Notes Column Set Heading
18 Secrets of the Master Row Set in Oracle E-Business Suite
Sequence Numbers Row Orders

Content Sets Report Sets
If you spend WAY too much time writing, and rewriting, Financial Statement

Generator (FSG) reports, using the master row set will allow you to reduce that
time from days to under an hour. by Helene Abrams
22 Lessons Learned:
22
Overcoming a Failed E-Business Suite Implementation

Weve all heard the horror stories of implementations gone wrong havent we?

Learn about Knape & Vogts (KV) experience in implementing the Oracle E-Business
Suite (EBS), from the initial failed implementation to the revamped successful efforts
to date. by Salli Churchill
OAUG leadership
2
4
6
8

OAUG2013 Star Partners

OAUG2013 Board of Directors
Presidents Perspective
OAUG Viewpoint
oaug g eos & s i g s
30 SIG Update
32 Geo Update
34 Geo Spotlight: Ohio Valley OAUG
global u se r s
36
OAUG Member Snapshot: Kevin Brownlie
38 New and Returning Members
ora c le d i r ect i ons

42 Trends in IT for Financial Services:
Increasing Transparency and Accountability

by Maneesh Chhabra
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
global so l u t i ons
26 Pre- and Post-Upgrade Functional Checklists
Facilitate Oracle EBS Upgrades

Where do I start my Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) R12

upgrade, and how do I maximize its efficiency? Having
and following a functional checklist that includes preand post-upgrade steps will position the application
to have the fewest problems. by Christine Hipp
40 Vendor Corner: Taconic Takes Charge of Oracle R12

Reporting with GL Wand from Excel4apps
A year after implementing Oracle in the U.S., Taconic
discovered GL Wand, an Excel-based financial reporting tool
from Excel4apps. Via a direct link between Oracle and a
user-friendly Excel front end, GL Wand provides immediate
access to real-time GL data without a data warehouse, as
well as instant drill-down functionality for accessing the
transactional details managers request. by Chris Meyer
O A U G M ember B enef i t
28
The OAUG Conference Paper Database
oaug.org
oaug star
oaug
star partners
partners
FIVE-STAR PARTNERS
FOUR-STAR PARTNERS
The OAUG Star Partner program gives Associate members a bundled

approach to active, integrated participation in the OAUG community. The
program combines membership, advertising and conference benefits
into a value-priced package that delivers recognition, premium advertising
opportunities and outstanding conference visibility.
O
O AA UU G
G leadership
LEADERSHIP
For more information on the OAUG Star Partner Program, please

contact Christine Hilgert at +1 404.760.4234, or via e-mail at
chilgert@oaug.com.
(list updated as of press time)
THREE-STAR PARTNERS
TWO-STAR ELITE PARTNERS
Red River
Solutions
TWO-STAR PARTNERS
Data Communication
Solutions
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The Bean Consulting Group

Thomson Reuters
RISING-STAR
PARTNERS
FulcrumWay
oAppsNet
Partners, LLC
SPECIAL
THANKS
Oracle Validated
Integration
The OAUG Star Partners

are a vital force in supporting the OAUGs
mission of providing Oracle Applications users
the tools required to enhance their productivity,
maximize their investment, and influence
the quality, usability, and support of Oracle
Applications. Participants in the OAUG Star
Partner Program represent some of the most
experienced and most successful providers
of services and solutions to the Oracle
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oaug.org
oaug board of directors

A Publication of the
Oracle Applications Users Group
3525 Piedmont Road, Building Five,
Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30305
phone: +1 404.240.0897, fax: +1 404.240.0998
email: membership@oaug.com, oaug.org
Steven R. Hughes, Executive Director
Cindy Force, Director, Marketing Communications
ONeill Communications, Graphic Design
To contribute to OAUG Insight, send letters to the
editor, or obtainadvertising information, contact:
Cindy Force, Director, Marketing Communications
3525 Piedmont Road, Building Five,
Suite 300, Atlanta,GA 30305
cforce@oaug.com
Photographs appearing throughout OAUG Insight
courtesy ofMeeting Expectations.
2013 Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) Board of Directors. First row (seated): Joe
Imbimbo, Margaret Wright, Christine Hipp, Alyssa Johnson, Peter Gee. Second row (standing):
Donna Rosentrater, Steven Hughes, Melissa English, Mark Clark, Danica Bartolf, John Bushell,
Patricia Dues, Rob Tudor, Tammy Norton, Karl Kirsch, Kaberi Nayak.
Margaret Wright,
OAUG President
Southern Company
Alyssa Johnson,
OAUG President Elect
ROLTA
Peter Gee,
OAUG Treasurer
Ryerson University
Christine Hipp,
OAUG Secretary
Los Alamos National
Laboratory
Steven R. Hughes
Executive Director
Karl Kirsch, CAE
Chief Operating
Officer
Melissa English
Alticor, parent company
of Amway Corp.
Joe Imbimbo
PPG Industries
Danica Bartolf
CH2M HILL
Kaberi Nayak
MITRE Corp.
John Bushell
JT&M Bushell
Tammy Norton
Alvarez Marsal Business
Consulting LLC
Mark C. Clark
O2Works LLC
Patricia Dues
City of Las Vegas
O A U G l e a d e r s h i p
Donna Rosentrater
Cobham PLC
Rob Tudor
LifeWay Christian
Resources
OAUG Insight is designed to provide members of the

Oracle Applications Users Group with organizational
and other information. The opinions and viewpoints
published herein are not necessarily those of OAUG.
OAUG, its article writers, directors, officers, employees,
agents, and members and Oracle Corp. make no
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of any information herein, nor do they have any
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No partofthis publication may be reprinted or
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for the sole and express purpose of enhancing
members ability to network with other members.
Unauthorized copying or redistribution of this
information or use of company or contact names
for recruiting or direct marketing purposes is strictly
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membership. This restriction applies to information in
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coordinators, lists of attendees at OAUG conferences,
and any other member contact data. Recruiting in any
form during conferences is strictly prohibited.
oaug.org
TUNE IN
to the OAUG
The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG)

broadcasts time-saving and efficiency-building
knowledge to individuals at thousands of
member organizations worldwide.
Tune in for Education: get instant
access to solutions to real problems
through conferences, webinars, and an
extensive conference paper database.
Tune in for Networking: connect
with other people who are using the
same applications and share ideas and
best practices.
OAUG
Tune in for Influence: share your thoughts

and suggestions with Oracle through the
OAUG. Oracle listens to the collective
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92%
of OAUG members
would recommend
OAUG membership
Visit www.oaug.org/membership or
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the benefits of tuning in to the
OAUG for you and your organization.
Learn more about OAUG membership at Oracle OpenWorld!

www.oaug.org/openworld
presidents perspective
Connecting With Other Users:

Learning from Each Other
One of the greatest advantages
for members of the Oracle
Applications Users Group
(OAUG) is being able to
meet and learn from other
Oracle Applications users. It
is these connections between
individuals that foster the
dynamic interaction we value.


enables us to continue to learn from other users
every day. We use the database as a way to share
information among the team members who were not
able to attend a particular conference.For example,
we used the Oracle EBS R12 upgrade planning and
lessons learned papers to help us plan and execute our
upgrade. The lessons learned from other members
were extremely valuable to helping us avoid some
of the upgrade pitfalls. Through the OAUG, we
know that the answers we need are available when
we need them. To learn more about the OAUG
Conference Paper Database, please see the article on
As employees of OAUG member
organizations, we have countless opportunities
page 28 in this issue of OAUG Insight magazine.
to connect with other Oracle Applications users.
The OAUG provides the framework for this
eLearning sessions. These live webinars bring the
interaction and facilitates these connections.
experts to us via a computer and telephone. And, if
We learn from
Margaret Wright
OAUG President
mwright@oaug.com
My colleagues and I also participate in OAUG
we cant participate in a particular session when it is
each other at face-
presented, we can download the recording and listen
to-face events, but
in at our convenience. With a wide variety of topics
the opportunities
and impressive depth of expertise literally at your
for learning
fingertips, OAUG eLearning is an invaluable resource.
dont end when
OAUG User Communities offer specialized
we get back to our jobs. My colleagues and I
opportunities for interaction, either locally through
regularly take advantage of a number of year-
a Geographic User Group (Geo) or on a particular
round OAUG programs and resources, such as:
topic or industry through a Special Interest Group

(SIG). Thousands of Oracle Applications users
meet face to face or via technology through these

communities. If youre not engaged with a Geo
From MPL5 to Release 12.1

O2Works Consultants have
been there every
step of the way.
or SIG, I encourage you to learn more about

them online at oaug.org/communities/geos-sigs.

The quarterly OAUG Insight magazine
contains information about real-world projects

where other users share their unique stories about
implementing and managing Oracle Applications
MPL5
in their organizations. Our project team looks
MPL6
MPL7
forward to every issue and shares copies of the

magazine with others in our organization.

Release 8
Connecting others to learn from each other
is one of the primary purposes of the OAUG.

Practical insights gained by learning from others
experiences with Oracle Applications helps project
teams meet challenges, save time and money,
resolve problems, build in-house capabilities and
achieve goals. Im so glad that my employers
OAUG membership connects me with these great
Release 10
Release 9
Release 11
Release 11i
Release 12
Release 12.1
resources. If your employer isnt an OAUG member,

I encourage you to learn more about all the benefits
of OAUG membership at oaug.org/membership.
Regards,
Call, email, or visit out Knowledge Works center where you

can download white papers, presentations and more.
Margaret Wright
With experience dating back to one of Oracle's first releases

of the Applications, MPL5, O2Works has the knowledge and
expertise to be your trusted consulting partner. From installs
and upgrades, conversions and rollouts, to end-user training
on Release 12.1, our consultants have the technical
proficiency and hands-on industry experience needed
to make the E-Business Suite work for your business.
972.466.2260
info@o2works.com
www.o2works.com/knowledgeworks
oaug.org
oaug viewpoint
The Autumn Checklist
Here in the U.S., were

adjusting to our first few weeks
back at school, gearing up for
football, preparing to rake
leaves and looking ahead to the
holiday season. The year always
seems to go by so quickly.

The OAUG has a busy autumn calendar as well.
Following are some of the important activities, events

and deadlines to add to your autumn checklist.
Board of Directors began with the call for candidates

in August.
Voting begins
on September
OAUGExecutive Director
16 when ballots
shughes@oaug.com
will be sent to
the OAUG
Throughout the week, OAUG members will
present 14 educational sessions.

You can also Tune in to the OAUG live with
RadiOAUG at exhibit booth #3416 in Moscone

West to learn why thousands of Oracle Applications
users around the world connect through the OAUG.
Discover the benefits of OAUG membership and have
your badge scanned to qualify to win some great prizes.

Oracle OpenWorld 2013 takes place September
22-26, 2013, in San Francisco, Calif.
During the month of August, OAUG members
took advantage of more than 30 free OAUG eLearning

sessions featuring stand-out presentations from the
COLLABORATE 13 OAUG Forum conference.
Recordings will be available free for OAUG members
in September and can be accessed via the OAUG
website at oaug.org/education-events/elearning.
Ambassador for each OAUG member organization.
COLLABORATE 14 OAUG Forum
The deadline for ballot submissions is October 1, 2013.
Call for Presentations
Get the details at oaug.org/about/directors/elections.
The OAUG kicks off its participation in the
annual Oracle OpenWorld conference with 15

Geographic (Geo) and 35 Special Interest Groups
(SIGs) hosting meetings during the Oracle Users
Forum on Sunday, September 22. This full day of
Consider sharing your real-world experience using
Oracle Applications during COLLABORATE 14
Oracle OpenWorld 2013
OAUG Forum Recorded Webinar Series
The elections process for the 2014 OAUG
Steven R. Hughes
specific Oracle Applications products.
The Best of COLLABORATE 13
2014 OAUG Board of Directors Elections

focused discussion facilitates networking for users of
next April. This annual conference emphasizes peerto-peer learning and networking by inviting Oracle
Applications users to share how they are deploying
Oracle products in their organizations. No matter how
big or small, the challenges youve faced along with the
s
Bu A
sin TT
es EN
s TIO
Su
ite N
Us
er
E-
Seeking an Easy R12

Reporting Solution?
unique strategies and solutions that youve deployed in

your work place are sure to be of interest to others.

Educational presentation proposals will be accepted
through October 4, 2013. Visit collaborate.oaug.org for

guidelines on submissions. COLLABORATE 14 will
be held April 7-11, 2014, in Las Vegas, Nev.
AUSOUG INSYNC 13 National Conference Series

Join the Fortunate 500 Finance
Join the
Fortunate
finance
teams
Teams
Who Love500
Using
GL Wand
who love using GL Wand
For many years, the OAUG has partnered with
The Australian Oracle User Group (AUSOUG) to

extend our educational content offerings and networking
connections to our colleagues down under. The
Real Time Oracle 11i/R12 Reporting in Excel .
AUSOUG INSYNC 13 National Conference Series
Easier, faster and more efficient than ever before,

GL Wand
5 isTrial
now available
for free trial download.
Free
excel4apps.com/insight13
concludes its six-city program in Perth, November 12-13.

DOAG 2013 Applications
Designed for finance professionals, our award-winning products easily and securely

allow
finance departments to quickly build reports and detailed dashboards within
Microsoft Excel using a direct link to live Oracle 11i/R12 data.
Bring new clarity, depth and focus to your financial reports with:
Furthering our connections around the world,
the OAUG partners with the German Oracle Users

Group (DOAG) to present the three-day DOAG
2013 Applications conference taking place in Berlin,
Germany, October 9-11, 2013.
OAUG Connection Point EPM/BI/EBS 12.X

The call for presentations for OAUG Connection
Plus, three half-day pre-conference workshops offer
learning
options to make your conference
NEW!
additional
No client install
To download your free trial visit:
Live Oracle data in Excel
even more productive and memorable.
www.excel4apps.com/savetime
Effective replacement for Client ADI reporting
Accelerate month end processing

No need for data warehousing
email: info@excel4apps.com
will
Automate
sharing
and distributionD.C.,
of reports
be held
in Washington,
Octoberwww.excel4apps.com
22-23,
Leverage existing Oracle security
2013.
Ease your
to Oracle R12
Theupgrade
pre-conference
workshops take place on
Save 2-4 days per user per month due to productivity gains of using an Excel based
Monday, October 21. The conference website is
reporting process!
connectionpoint.oaug.org/2013/washington.
2013 Excel4apps. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Point EPM/BI/EBS 12.X generated a great selection
Visit oaug.org to locate details about the above
of session abstracts focused on best practices, customer
items. Or contact us at membership@oaug.com or
success stories and how-to deep-dive instruction for
+1 404.240.0897, extension 2, for assistance.
implementing, supporting and maintaining Oracle
E-Business Suite (EBS), Enterprise Performance
Contact me at shughes@oaug.com.
Management (EPM) and Business Intelligence

(BI) systems. A number of experts from Oracle and
Questions and feedback are welcome any time.
Regards,
Steven R. Hughes
third-party vendor companies join the lineup of

knowledgeable presenters.
oaug.org
oaug feature
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010
1010101010101001010101011100101010001010010100100
1010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100
0101001010101010101010101010100101010101110010101
10101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011
1010010010101010010100101010101010101010101010010
000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1
1100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010
1010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001
0 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101
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0010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010
010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101
01010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001
Velcro Industries is currently 1000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
one of the few customers
running the Oracle E-Business1110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101
Suite (EBS) database
1010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001
on a certified Exadata machine.
This article focuses
on how Velcro Industries, in six
months, migrated EBS
0 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101
Release 12.1.2 to the Exadata010101010
machine and covers:
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010
01010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010
l Velcro Industries decision to buy new hardware.
0010100101010101010101010101010010101010111001010
l Selecting and acquiring Exadata.
010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101
l Background on Exadata.
0101001001010101001010010101010101010101010101001
l Deciding on the migration
path.
1000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
l The key issue faced during
the migration.
l Testing the database and1100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010
EBS.
l Performance monitoring tools.
0101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010
l Setting up a standby site 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010
and issues
after go-live.
10101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100
l Our approaches to cloning, etc.
1010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100
010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101
By Rajesh Hassija and Tejas Raval, 10101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011
Velcro Industries
1010010010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010
000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1
1001010100010100101001001010101001010010101010101
10 O A U G F E A T UR E
0101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010
Implementing
Oracle
E-Business
Suite R12.1.2
on Exadata
oaug insight
Background on Velcro Industries

Velcro Industries is the pioneer in hook and
loop fastener technology with more than 50 years of
experience. We strive to be the dominant innovator
in fastening technology through efficient and creative
solutions and are worldwide. We chose Oracle in 1999
and have had many upgrades throughout the years.
Velcro Industries Decision

to Buy New Hardware

Velcro Industries hardware consisted of five-yearold HP-UX servers with NetApps SAN for storage and
a standby site with 10-year-old servers to run our Oracle
physical standby database. Within a couple of years,
Velcro Industries global growth brought many sister
companies to one single instance of Oracle Applications
and expanded the demand on Oracle Discoverer for
reporting. This load on a single node database was
tremendous and caused our old HP-UXRP4440
hardware to reach its limits.
We also experienced almost 18-hour database
clone times for each new instance. Our DBA spent the
majority of his time coordinating processes that could
only be performed during off-business hours due to
the database load and the need to investigate sources
of performance issues. Velcro Industries made the
commitment to upgrade its hardware.
fall 2013
storage issues) was an issue, (4) Lacked plug and play

functionality.

The Oracle team designed a unique solution for
Velcro Industries Exadata acquisition. Oracles Advisory
Committee spent three weeks on-site to study our
HP-UX system and produced a report of 40 pages
outlining risks and areas of improvement based on I/O
on HP-UX system, future growth and existing database
CPU licenses. The solution offered was the Exadata
quarter-rack machine, including a complete explanation
for setup of production and standby sites.

In addition, Oracle provided a dedicated customer
incident manager from acquisition to go-live, a
recommended training program for Velcro Industries
team to prepare them for Exadata and a site checklist to
complete before delivery of the hardware. There is also
a separate group within Oracle Support to specifically
handle Exadata related issues.
Oracles Advisory Committee spent three

weeks on-site to study our HP-UX system
and produced a report of 40 pages
outlining risks and areas of improvement
based on I/O on HP-UX system, future
growth and existing database CPU
licenses. The solution offered was the
Selection/Acquisition of Exadata

Velcro Industries hardware selection process
involved major vendors, including Dell, HP and
Oracle. With each vendor, all of the pros and cons were
evaluated. Overall, we discovered that Oracle provided
all of the features the other vendors offered as well as a
single-vendor solution to back the implementation.

The other comparable solution that we were looking
into had some deficiencies such as: (1) Although the
storage had good cloning capability, it lacked flash cache,
(2) To match up the I/O performance similar to the
Oracle offering, it would then need more storage disks
for parallel processing, (3) Not being a single-vendor
solution (different vendors to handle the servers issue and
Exadata quarter-rack machine, including

a complete explanation for setup of
production and standby sites.
Background on Exadata

Exadata is not just box-built with servers, hard drives
and switches. The heart of Exadata is the features it
provides, including the software it is using: Key areas are
illustrated on the next page in Figure 1.
oaug.org 11
12
0101010010100101010
10101110010101000101
0010101010101010101
1010001010010100100
010101010 1010100101
0101001001010101001
Oracle Exadata Database Machine
Velcro Industries Decision
10101001010101011100
Supported Oracle EBS R11.5.10.2
on the Migration Path
(11i), R12.0.4 and (3) R12.1. 0101010010100101010

First, Velcro Industries decided to move to Linux

Choose the migration physical
or
01010111001010100010
and then migrate the database from HP-UX to Exadata
logical method based on your required
1001010101010101010
(Linux). It then changed from non-RAC to RAC,
business
service
level
agreement.
For details on
1010100010100101001
moved from non-ASM to ASM, migrated from 10gR2
each
of
the
migration
methods,
you
can refer to
to 11gR2 and migrated EBS application server from
0101010101010101001
Migrating an Oracle E-Business Suite Database to
HP-UX to Linux.
0010100100101010100
Oracle Exadata Database Machine [ID 1133355.1].

The factors in determining what migration options
10101001010101011100
Velcro Industries used the logical migration method
can be used for an Oracle EBS database to Oracle
of Oracle Data Pump because 0101010010100101010
source database endian
Exadata Database Machine are all related to the source
01010111001010100010
format and Exadata endian format
are different.
of: (1) Platform operating system, (2) Platform endian
1001010101010101010
format, (3) Database release, and (4) Oracle EBS release.
SELECT * FROM V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM order by 3,2;

The target system is Oracle Exadata Database
PLATFORM_ID PLATFORM_NAME 1010100010100101001
ENDIAN_FORMAT
01010101010
10101001
Machine with Oracle Database 11g Release 2, Oracle
----------- ----------------------------------- -------------Real Application Clusters (RAC), Automatic Storage
1001010010010101010
3 HP-UX (64-bit) Big
Management (ASM), and the platform is Linux x8613 Linux x86 64-bit Little
0 101010010101010111
64, little endian. At the time of the implementation, the
0101010100101001010
01010101110010101000
1010010101010101010
0101010001010010100
1010101010101010100
Exadata Smart Scan:
Exadata Hybrid
iDB protocol to transfer
Columnar1001010010010101010
Compression:
database processing to
0 101010010101010111
10x average
storage
cell nodes using predicate
saving and
10x
scan
0101010100101001010
and column filtering
i/o reduction
01010101110010101000
1010010101010101010
0010101000101001010
Exadata Infiniband:
Exadata Smart
Flash
0101010101010
101010
two infiniband switches
Cache: high performance
for 40Gbps operation
cache for1010010100100101010
frequently
between database nodes
accessed 0101010100101010101
objects
0010101010010100101
01010101110010101000
Exadata I/O Resource
1010010101010101010
Exadata Storage
Management: i/o
Index: reduces
the
0010101000101001010
resource based on user
amount of physical
X2-2 Quarter
0101010101010 101010
specified and priorities
i/o in Exadata cell
Rack
1010010100100101010
010 1010100101010101
Figure 1. Key Features of Exadata
Photo courtesy of
Oracle Corporation.
1001010101001010010
01010101011100101010
0010100101010101010
1100101010001010010
O A U G F E A T UR E

010101010101010 1010
0101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010
1001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101
oaug insight l fall 2013
101010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101
010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010
1010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010
10100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010
010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101

For the EBS database migration, Velcro Industries followed these steps to prepare and export source database:
0101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010
1. Apply interoperability patches for EBS R12.1 for 11gR2 database as per note [ID 1058763.1].
01001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010
2. Prepare the source (10gR2) database for migration as per note [ID 1133355.1].
010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101
10010101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010
3. Apply the applications consolidated export/import utility
patch 13023290.
101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101
4. Apply the XLA performance patch 13344804:R12.XLA.B.
01010010101010101010101010101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001
5. Generate the target database instance creation script aucrdb.sql.
0101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101010101010100101010101110010101
sqlplus system/welcome1
@$AU_TOP/patch/115/sql/auclondb.sql 11
0101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010
01001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010
6. Gather information about advanced queue setting, as we need to enable
them after migration.
010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101
sqlplus / as sysdba @auque1
10010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010
7. The source database is 10g. Then create the parameter file for tables with long columns.
101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010
$ sqlplus /nolog
0010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100
SQL> connect system/;
10010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101
SQL> @aulong.sql
010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010
8. Remove Rebuild Index Parameter in Spatial Indexes. The output of the query below varies based on
0101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010101010010101010111001010100010100
modules companies used in EBS. Velcro Industries changed four indexes:
01010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101010101010101010
sqlplus / as sysdba
010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101
select
*
from
dba_indexes
where
index_type=DOMAIN
and
0101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010
upper(parameters) like %REBUILD%;
0010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100
alter index HR.PER_ADDRESSES_SPT rebuild parameters (sdo_indx_dims=2 sdo_rtr_pctfree=10 tablespace=APPS_TS_TX_IDX);
10010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101
alter index HR.HR_LOCATIONS_SPT rebuild parameters (sdo_indx_dims=2 sdo_rtr_pctfree=10 tablespace=APPS_TS_TX_IDX);
010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010
alter index MST.MST_MD_ADM_BNDS_N1 rebuild parameters (sdo_indx_dims=2 sdo_rtr_pctfree=10 tablespace=APPS_TS_TX_IDX);
0101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001010100010100
alter index MST.MST_MD_HYDROS_N1 rebuild parameters (sdo_indx_dims=2 sdo_rtr_pctfree=10
tablespace=APPS_TS_TX_IDX);
01010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1
9. Velcro Industries got an error while importing the database due to sequence.
0010010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010
To fix the issue, we recreated the sequence before export:
00101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010
select last_number from dba_sequences where sequence_name=AR_PAYMENT_SCHEDULES_S
010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101
DROP SEQUENCE AR.AR_PAYMENT_SCHEDULES_S;
1110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010
CREATE
SEQUENCE
AR.AR_PAYMENT_SCHEDULES_S
10101010101010101010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101
START WITH 2549382
0101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010101010010101010111001010100010100
MAXVALUE 2000000000
01010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1
Velcro Industries used the logical
MINVALUE 1
0010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010
migration method of Oracle Data
NOCYCLE
00101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010
Pump because source database
CACHE 20
010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101
NOORDER;
endian format and Exadata endian
1110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001
format are different.
01010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101010
000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101
0101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
01001001010101001010010101010101010101010101001010101011100101010001010010100100

oaug.org 13
01001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101010101010100101
01000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001
1010101010101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101010
010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010
10100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001
01010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100
0101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111
10. Hold the pending concurrent programs.
0101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101
update fnd_concurrent_requests set hold_flag=Y where phase_code = P;
101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000
Shut down the application server process.
01010101011.1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101
01010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100
$INST_TOP/admin/scripts/adstpall.sh
010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100
12. Drop large XLA Packages (recommended for an Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 source system).
1010100101001010101010101010101010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010
create sql script genDropXLA.sql--add xla in front of table name
01011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101010101010100101010101110
set pages 0 head off feedback off lines 170 echo off trim on verify off termout off timing on
0101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101
spool dropXLA_AAD_Pkgs.sql
101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000
select distinct(drop package || db.owner || . || db.object_name || ;) from dba_objects db, xla.xla_subledgers xl where
010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101
db.object_type=PACKAGE BODY and db.object_name like XLA%AAD%PKG and substr(db.object_name,1,9) =XLA_||
01010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100
LPAD(SUBSTR(TO_CHAR(ABS(xl.application_id)), 1, 5), 5, 0) and
db.object_name NOT IN (XLA_AAD_HDR_ACCT_ATTRS_F_
PKG,XLA_AMB_AAD_PKG) order by 1;
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010
spool
off
0101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101
set timing on
010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101
@dropXLA_AAD_Pkgs
Exadata is not just box-built with
100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101
10101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010101010010101010111001010100
servers, hard drives and switches.
13. Export the EBS database.
01010101010Cat10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101
auexpdp.dat
001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010
directory=dmpdir
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010
filesize=1948576000
0101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101
dumpfile=fullexp1_%U.dmp, fullexp2_%U.dmp,
fullexp3_%U.dmp,fullexp4_%U.dmp, fullexp5_%U.dmp
full=y
010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101
exclude=SCHEMA:=MDDATA
100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101
exclude=SCHEMA:=OLAPSYS
10101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010
14. Export tables with XML data types.
exclude=SCHEMA:=ORDSYS
01010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101
vi auxmlexp.dat
exclude=SCHEMA:=DMSYS
1001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001010100010100101
auxmlexp.dat
9 lines, 116 characters
exclude=SCHEMA:=OUTLN
0 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010
file=xmlexp.dmp
exclude=SCHEMA:=ORDPLUGINS
grants=y
010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101
#transform=oid:n
log=auxmlexp.log
1010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010
logfile=expdpapps.log
tables=(
METRICS=Y
0100101010101010101010101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010
AZ.AZ_REPORTER_DATA,
PARALLEL=16
10101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010101010010101010111001010100
AZ.AZ_REQUESTS,
/ as sysdba parfile=auexpdp.dat
01010101010expdp
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101
AZ.AZ_DIFF_RESULTS,
1001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001010100010100101
CSR.CSR_RULES_B
0 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010
exp / as sysdba parfile=auxmlexp.dat
010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101
15. Recreate XML packages.
01010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101
Sqlplus apps/123 @xla6128278.sql xla6128278.lst
10100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001
0010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010
0101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101010101
1010010100100101010100101001010101010101010101010100101010101110010101000101001

14 O A U G F E A T UR E
010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010101
0010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010
1010010100100101010100101
010 1010100101010101110010
0010101010010100101010101
1010101011100101010001010
010100101010101010101010
1001010100010100101001001
Key Issues Faced
10101010101010 1010100101
During Migration
0101001010010010101010010
1010 10101001010101011100
With EBS already being certified for
0100101010100101001010101
Exadata, all of the reports and forms
0101010101110010101000101
migrated without any issue. The key issues
we faced during our migration were:
0010100101010101010101010
001010100010100101001001
l Ensure the password for apps and
10101010101010 1010100101
system users is changed, recreate Oracle
0101001010010010101010010
Create and import the target database:
password file and change attributes of
1010 10101001010101011100
1. Login on Exadata commute node using root account
default database profile e.g., failed_login_
0100101010100101001010101
and execute/opt/oracle.SupportTools/onecommand/
attempts, password_life_time, etc.
tmp/prd-dbsw.sh
script
to
install
database
software.
0010101010111001010100010
l Recreate custom and standard database
The prd.rsp file has configuration information about
1001010010101010101010101
links e.g., EDW_APPS_TO_WH, APPS_TO_
the database.
1110010101000101001010010
APPS, etc.
2. Apply the latest
database bundle as per note 888828.1
1010101010101010
10101001
l Follow note 832459.1 if XML data types
and configure listener using netca.
001010010100100101010100
objects are not loaded for AZ schema.
3. Create the database parameter file as per Oracle
1010101010100101010101110
recommendation, and create the database using
l Make sure you gather Schema Statistics
0010010101010010100101010
aucrdb.sql script.
that failed due to duplicate records in
0010101010111001010100010
4. Run post-installation SQL scripts for Exadata and
FND_HISTOGRAM_COLS table.
1001010010101010101010101
database patches.
l Be sure to change profile option
1110010101000101001010010
5. Set up RAC, and register the newly installed database
Concurrent:TM Transport Type to Queue
1010101010101010 10101001
in grid using srvctl to control startup/shutdown.
if you moved from Non-RAC to RAC
0001010010100100101010100
6. Define Huge pages on each database node as per
database.
101010 101010010101010111
note 401749.1.
1001001010101001010010101
l Apply 10024524 and 9459708 to fix the
7. Import source database to Exadata database using
0100101010101110010101000
issue of ATP Data Pull failed if you get the
parallel clause:
1010010100101010101010101
error ORA-00980: synonym translation is
impdp / as sysdba parfile=auimpdp.dat
0111001010100010100101001
no longer valid error.
8.

Implement
Autoconfig
and
recreate
XLA
objects.
01010101010101010 10101001
alter session set optimizer_features_enable=10.2.0.4;
001010010100100101010100
@xla6128278.sql xla6128278.lst
101010 101010010101010111
1001001010101001010010101
9. Edit context_file of each application node to point s_apps_jdbc_connect_
descriptor to new database as well as change s_dbhost, s_dbdomain, s_db_
0100101010101110010101000
serv_sid and s_dbport if database name or port or domain change.
1010010100101010101010101
10. Gather statistics for sys schema and re-create custom database links.
1011100101010001010010100
101010101010101010 101010
0100010100101001001010101
10101010 1010100101010101
1010010010101010010100101

oaug.org15 15
1010010101010111001010100
0101001010010101010101010
16
10101001010101011100101
0101010010100101010101
10101110010101000101001
0010101010101010101010
1010001010010100100101
010101010 1010100101010
by replaying recorded database
queries and transactions
The Testing of Database/EBS
0101001001010101001010
from our old production environment on the Exadata

During testing, we focused on identifying all of our
10101001010101011100101
machine to see real workloads and performance.
custom objects on a global scale as well as third-party
0101010010100101010101
systems. Velcro Industries followed standard method of
01010111001010100010100
How Velcro Industries Set Up its
testing performing p2p, o2c, month-end processes, etc.,
100101010101010101010 1
Standby Site for Go-Live
for each organization within the global company. In
1010100010100101001001

Our System Design/Architecture
- Velcro Industries
addition, we used Oracle Application Testing Suite for
has two Exadata quarter 0101010101010101001010
machines to support our
testing of functional, regression and load for our Web
production and standby site.
The production Exadata
0010100100101010100101
applications and services.
machine has a high performance
drive (600GB
10101001010101011100101
15000RPM),
and
our
standby
Exadata
has (3TB
Performance Monitoring Tools
0101010010100101010101
7200RPM). Our production Exadata machine only holds

The monitoring testing tools we used covered a
01010111001010100010100
a couple of databases to provide us high performance
range of areas. We used Oracle Enterprise Manager
100101010101010101010 1
drive with less space. However, our standby Exadata
12c, which provided a holistic approach to manage the
1010100010100101001001
machine holds DR, a couple of Development and UAT
Exadata Database Machine as well as a comprehensive
01010101010
10101001010
instances so that it is configured
with high-capacity
lifecycle management for both monitoring and ongoing
drives with lots of space. 1001010010010101010010
Velcro Industries uses ZFS as
maintenance.
the storage device for database
backups.
0 101010010101010111001

We checked I/O, physical reads, networks, waits,

Figures
2
and
3
show
architecture
for both the
etc., during load. Real Application Testing allowed us to
0101010100101001010101
production and standby site:
fine tune changes before we moved them to production
01010101110010101000101
1010010101010101010101
0101010001010010100100
1010101010101010100101
12c EM, Catalog Database
& Monitoring Server
Concurrent Node
Form & 1001010010010101010010
Apache Node
0 101010010101010111001
0101010100101001010101
SunFire
SunFire
2Gbps
X4270 M2
X4270 M2
RAM 64G
RAM 64G
01010101110010101000101
Tape Drive
End Users
1010010101010101010101
0010101000101001010010
1Gbps0101010101010 101010010
1Gbps
1010010100100101010100
1Gbps
1Gbps
01010101001010101011100
0010101010010100101010
1Gbps
01010101110010101000101
40Gbps
1010010101010101010101
0010101000101001010010
40Gbps
0101010101010 101010010
Figure 2.
1010010100100101010100
Oracle E-Business Suite R12.1.2
Exadata Quarter Rack
ZFS 010
Storage1010100101010101110
Appliance
High Performance
with Exadata (Production)
1001010101001010010101
01010101011100101010001
0010100101010101010101

1100101010001010010100
010101010101010 1010100
1010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101010101010100101010101110010101000
1010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101
1010010010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001
010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001
101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100
0101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111
00101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101
101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000
Form, Concurrent Node
Form, Concurrent Node
Form, Concurrent Node Form, Concurrent Node
&
Apache
Node
&
Apache
Node
&
Apache
Node
& Apache Node
1010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101
01010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100
SunFire
SunFire
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010
X4270 M2
2Gbps
X4270 M2
RAM 64G
RAM 64G
10101010010100101010101010101010 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101
Tape Drive
010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011
10010101010101010101010101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010
1010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101010101010100101010101110010101000
1Gbps
1Gbps
1010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101
1Gbps
1Gbps
1Gbps
01010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 101010
1Gbps
10101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101
40Gbps
010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101
0100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101
40Gbps
10101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010
Figure 3.
101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101
Exadata Quarter Rack
Oracle E-Business Suite R12.1.2
1001010010010101010010100101010101010101010101010010101010111001010100010100101
ZFS Storage Appliance
High Capacity
with Exadata (Standby Site)
10 101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101010101010101010101
010101010010100101010101010101010 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010
1010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101

From our experience, we feel the migration of
Life After Go-Live, Approaches
0100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101
the EBS database to Exadata from
any platform is
to Cloning, etc
10101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010
an achievable, straightforward task. Oracle has well

The first 10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101
task after go-live was to set up a standby
101010101010
documented the migration process with all required
site and clone the database for testing. Velcro Industries
1001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001010100010100101
patches and examples. We found there was value in
combined a couple of methods to clone a new EBS
10 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010
the Oracle EM 12c, which has plug-ins to monitor
instance. We used a RMAN duplicate on the standby
0010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101
the Exadata machine.
database to clone a new Oracle database and then rapid
01010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
10101001010101

Our EBS concurrent programs, Discoverer
clone to clone the Oracle Application. From there, we
reports, portlets and RMAN backup now run much
010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001
applied patch 11715084 on the standby
site to clone the
faster than on the old hardware. Oracle
continues to
database. Velcro Industries uses Enterprise Manager 12c
010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101
release Exadata bundle patches each quarter for all
to manage the database and Exadata machine.
01010101010101010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010
components of the Exadata machine covering OS,
1001010010010101010010100101010101010101010101010010101010111001010100010100101
Exadata software, database software, switches, ilom,
Conclusion
10 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010
etc. One bundle patch is cumulative and it contains
The commitment Velcro Industries made in the
0010101010010100101010101010101010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101
both security and bug fixes.
acquisition of Exadata now provides us the structure
01010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010

Lessons learned from this implementation and 10101001010101
needed for our projected growth. We feel we had
010100101010101010101010
10101001010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001
past upgrades will be formulated to help us improve
success as Oracle worked with us each
step of the
0010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
101010010101010111001010
our process and prepare for the next
major upgrade/
implementation. We encourage anyone facing the same
migration.
10101010101010
challenge to invest101010010101010111001010100010100101001001010101001010010101010101
in the Oracle Advisory Committee, the

installation package and the one-year patching support.
101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010
1010100101010101110010101000101001
1010 1010100101010101110010101000101001010010010101010010100101010101010101010 10

oaug.org 17
01001010101001010010101010101010101010101001010101011100101010001010010100100101
01010101011100101010001010010100100101010100101001010101010101010101010100101010
oaug feature
Secrets of the Master Row Set

in Oracle E-Business Suite
If you spend WAY
too much time
writing, and rewriting,
Financial Statement
Generator (FSG) reports,
Master Row Set Define Rows

Row 1 Title Row 2 Subtitle Row
3 Detail Row 4 Detail Balance
Rows Expenses Rows Set of
Books Name Cash Assets Total
Current Assets New Accounts
Receivable Cash and Short-Term
Notes Column Set Heading
Sequence Numbers Row Orders
Content Sets Report Sets
find out how using the

master row set will
allow you to reduce
that time from days
to under an hour.
By Helene Abrams, eprentise
he master row set is a super set of all the

rows in your reports and includes the
attributes or characteristics of every row
and row set in a single, super report. Youll save

time and provide both agility and consistency.
Learn the secrets to keeping FSGs to a minimum,
and be the master of your own reporting destiny.

18
FSG: Rows, Row Sets, Columns

and Column Sets

A master row set eliminates the requirements of
rewriting each report in order to get the particular
information you need at a certain time. It gives the
business users the capability to generate a variety of
reports utilizing the built-in reporting features of
Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS). Within the FSG,
each financial statement is built around the fundamental
concepts of a row and a column, which you will
define and use to build your own financial reports.
The major steps of the process are:
1. Decide which rows and columns you

need to display in your report.
2. Define the rows, columns and attributes
those rows and columns have.
3. Build a report using those rows and columns.

Generally, accounts are assigned to row definitions,
while amount types (or period ranges) are assigned
to column definitions. It is important that your chart
of accounts has values that are organized in logical
ranges for you to get the most out of FSG. Figure 1
shows some examples of row and column definitions
for a typical income statement in FSG (column
definitions are independent of the row definitions).

A powerful feature of FSG is the ability to collect
multiple row or column definitions into sets. For
Figure 1.
example, suppose that youve just defined a report
that uses two columns with the attributes Year Ended
12/31/2011 and Year Ended 12/31/2012. If you want
to use these columns for multiple reports besides the
current report, you can define and save a column set
that consists of these two column definitions. Then,
whenever you need a new report based
on these two columns, you tell FSG to
build a report using these column sets.

You can do the same thing for row
sets groups of row definitions that you
are likely to re-use in the future. Row sets
are similar but are collections of accounts
types or calculations as opposed to amount
types, as in column sets (Figure 2).
Figure 2.

Row sets and column sets are the two primary
building blocks of FSG reports. For our purposes, well
focus on row sets and extend the concept to create a
master row set that will fulfill almost all of your potential
row definition needs for creating reports, making it
virtually unnecessary to create additional row definitions
for reports once the master row set has been defined.
The Master Row Set

A master row set is a super set of all the rows in all of
your reports. Using a master row set enables you to use a
top-down approach as opposed to a bottom-up approach
when reporting with the FSG. Rather than defining new,
customized row sets with the parameters specified for a
particular report (bottom-up approach), you can start by
creating an inventory of all of the requirements across all
of your reports. That means that you will define a row set
that contains the entire range
of account values as well as
the entire range of segment
values for each segment in
your chart of accounts on
the account assignment. For
each row, determine all of the
possible characteristics of that
row. Lets look at the example
on the next page (Figure 3).

In the first report, the Balance Sheet Corporate,
Row 2 Subtitle may not be indented, but in the second
report, the Balance Sheet North America, Row 2
Subtitle may be indented three spaces. In the first report,
the detail under CURRENT ASSETS may have a
subtotal, while in the second report, only the ASSETS
are totaled. The master row set would have all of the
Cash and Short-Term Notes Column Set Heading Sequence Numbers Row Orders Content Sets
Report Sets Master Row Set Define Rows Row 1 Title Row 2 Subtitle Row 3 Detail Row 4 Detail
Balance Rows Expenses Rows Set of Books Name Cash Assets Total Current Assets New Accounts
eceivable Cash and Short-Term Notes Column Set Heading Sequence Numbers Row Orders Conten
Sets Report Sets
oaug insight
fall 2013
oaug.org 19
eport Sets Master Row Set Define Rows Row 1 Title Row 2 Subtitle Row 3 Detail Row 4 Detail
alance Rows Expenses Rows Set of Books Name Cash Assets Total Current Assets New Account
ceivable Cash and Short-Term Notes Column Set Heading Sequence Numbers Row Orders Conte
Sets Report Sets
Figure 3.
different formatting, all of the permutations of totals

or other calculations, and the display characteristics
from these two reports as well as all of the rest of the
reports in a single report. In other words, the attributes
or characteristics of every row and every row set are
included in a single super report. It represents a complete
inventory of all of the row sets in all of your reports.

For all other reports, you will just need to copy
this master row set and then delete all rows that are
not wanted for each new report (top-down approach).

Following are detailed instructions and
examples of how to use your new master row to
quickly create any report you might need:
2. Assign descriptive names to the row set being
copied such as Balance Rows or Expense Rows.
3. Note that the Title field is what shows up on
the printed report. There is a single line for the
title, and it will print in the center of the page
underneath the Set of Books Name. The third
title line of the report is the Period for which
the report is run. The date and time of the report
and a page number will print on the upper left
corner of each page. Additional title lines can be
typed into the Column Set Heading field.
5. Assign sequence numbers for each row to reflect

the accounts in that row. Use the same number
of digits as the value for the accounts in that row.
The account number order is generally the order
Sequence numbers for all asset

rows might start with a 1xxxx.
Rows with cash accounts

might have a sequence
number of 11xxx.
Rows with liability accounts

might have a sequence
number of 3xxxx.
6. Make sure the sequence number

reflects the type of row.
1. Give each report component a unique name.
4. Draw each report on an Excel spreadsheet. Note

similar flexfield assignments, calculations and totals
for each report. Determine standard characteristics
for the rows. For example, always group cash
accounts together and report them as one total line,
but list expense accounts individually on all reports.
Rows with sequence numbers ending in 0

or 00 should be header rows or subtitles.
Sequence number 11000 should be a header

row with no account assignments or calculations
and should be titled Cash Assets.
Rows ending in 99999 or 9999

should be totals or subtotals.
Sequence 11999 would be a subtotal

of all cash asset rows.
Sequence 19999 would be a net of all asset

rows. Parallel the names and numbers in
the values for the account segment of the
flexfield, and use the 9 as a parent or summary
account. Have the value description read Total
Current Assets or Net Accounts Receivable.
Enter the value set descriptions in a form
that does not require substantial retyping.
7. Autocopy completed row sets, and then make

modifications for each of the other reports.
Autocopy all report components (column sets,
content sets, row orders, reports, and report sets).
Master Row Set Define Rows Row 1 Title Row 2

Subtitle Row 3 Detail Row 4 Detail Balance
Rows Expenses Rows Set of Books Name
By adopting a single chart of
Cash Assets Total Current Assets New Accounts
accounts,
companies
can restructure
Receivable
Cash
and Short-Term
Notes Column
Set Heading
Sequence
Numbers
Row Orders
transactions to accurately reflect
Content Sets Report Sets Master Row Set Define
changes in their businesses.
Rows Row 1 Title Row 2 Subtitle Row 3 Detail
Row 4 Detail Balance Rows Expenses Rows
Set of Books Name Cash Assets Total Current
20
in which reporting is usually

completed. Examples include:
a. Use Autocopy to make a copy of

your master row set (Figure 4).
data stewardship in the form of frequent, time-consuming

rules analysis and reformulation in order to prevent a total
implosion of data governance its more work, not less.
As companies grow and change, they frequently
create multiple charts of accounts to compensate for an
original chart of accounts design they have outgrown.
In some cases, current chart of accounts have become
obsolete, running out of room to meaningfully track
financial transactions. In the worst cases, companies
have defined the new charts of accounts with different
segments and values than the
original, resulting in the need
to rely on spreadsheets and
other offline workarounds.
b. Delete rows that are not necessary

in the report you are creating.
c. Create or use pre-defined column
sets to define the amount types.
Thats it. You have a top-down procedure for creating
any type of report in a matter of minutes, reducing the
time to information and allowing management to get the
enterprise information they need on a real-time basis.
This significantly reduces

and potentially eliminates the
opportunity to leverage the
value of a master row set.
By adopting a single
chart of accounts, companies
can restructure transactions
to accurately reflect changes
in their businesses. A single chart of accounts will also
improve the accuracy and speed of reporting by reducing
the use of spreadsheets and maintenance of cross
validation rules, as well as the ability to utilize a master
row set to streamline reporting and provide flexibility.
Figure 4.
Usability of the Master Row Set

In order to streamline the effort required for
developing your master row set, it is essential that
your chart of accounts values be organized into logical
ranges for each segment. Then, you can put in a range
of values for each row, and when you want to display
detailed rows, you can display at the detail or summary
level. If each segment is not in a logical range, the
values that are out of range increase the number of
rows that are necessary in order for a master row set to
capture all account values, opposing the fundamental
motivation of the concept of a master row set.
It is common for growing companies to end up with
values that are all over the place due to overcrowding of
the range of values and when there are no values left in
a particular range that a new account (or other segment
value) should logically fall in. A workaround is to create
the new value anyway, anywhere that it will fit in the
chart regardless of whether or not it should be there.
Not only does this practice hinder the opportunity for
using a master row set for FSG, it cramps previously
designed cross-validation and security rules, requiring
Conclusion
Building a master row set for your FSG reports will
save time, provide agility and consistency, and allow
business users the ability to quickly create new reports
on the fly. With a single chart of accounts and account
values in logical ranges for each segment, you will be
able to fully utilize this cost saving, built-in feature of
Oracle E-Business Suite. Build a master row set and you
will become the master of your own reporting destiny.

Helene Abrams is the founder and CEO of eprentise
(www.eprentise.com), a leading provider of Oracle E-Business
Suite transformation solutions. With eprentise software,
companies can change their charts of accounts, consolidate
instances and modify underlying structures of their EBS to
improve agility, adapt to changing regulations and avoid a
costly reimplementation.
Report Sets Master Row Set Define Rows Row 1 Title Row 2 Subtitle Row 3 Detail Row 4 Detail
Balance Rows Expenses Rows Set of Books Name Cash Assets Total Current Assets New Accounts
eceivable Cash and Short-Term Notes Column Set Heading Sequence Numbers Row Orders Conte
Sets Report Sets
oaug insight
fall 2013
oaug.org 21
oaug feature
Lessons Learned:
Overcoming a Failed
E-Business Suite Implementation
Weve all heard the
horror stories of
implementations gone
wrong havent we?
By Salli Churchill, Knape & Vogt

Manufacturing Company
About Knape & Vogt
In this article, you will learn about Knape

& Vogts (KV) experience in implementing
the Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS), from the
initial failed implementation to the revamped
successful efforts to date. I will share the steps
that Knape & Vogt took to set the project up
for success before the implementation and
how lean process analysis and organizational
change techniques are now used throughout
the project to engage and prepare the user
community for business transformation.
22

Founded in 1898, KV has long been a leader
in the drawer slide market, providing drawer slides
to distributors, kitchen cabinet and office furniture
manufacturers, and do-it-yourself consumers. KVs
core sliding system products have evolved into
automotive usage (sliding center consoles), appliances
and other emerging markets. Our product line
also includes many other storage, organization and
hardware products, such as kitchen organization; waste
and recycle products; garage shelving and organization;
closet organization; and many different flavors of
shelving and bracket hardware.
oaug insight

When it comes to computer systems, we often joke
about being a mid-size company with the complexity of
a larger global organization because of the wide variety
of products that we sell, as well as the many different
markets and channels we sell to. This variety can often
make seemingly simple business processes much more
complicated, which results in the need for a robust ERP
application.
KVs Oracle Journey

KV was purchased in 2006 by Windpoint Partners, a
private equity company. Since that change in ownership,
the company has made several acquisitions and rapidly
expanded its global footprint. A decision was made in
2007 to replace the 20-plus-year-old mainframe system
with an enterprise-wide business system that could
accommodate expected growth and provide more global
capabilities. Oracle E-Business Suite was selected, and
the initial implementation began in January 2008.

After several delays, many issues (explained further
in the What Went Wrong section below) and a severe
economic downturn, the project was stopped. As KV
began to recover from the economic downturn, decisions
needed to be made about the future of the Oracle
Applications. KV was still working on a 20-plus-yearold mainframe system, which was significantly hindering
progress when it came to financial reporting, acquisition
and global transactions.

With significant investment already undertaken
and confidence that the Oracle Applications would
provide the business capabilities to meet any future
requirements, the decision was made to revive the Oracle
implementation. Our primary concern was to make sure
we didnt repeat the same mistakes that we made before,
so we took a vastly different approach this time, the
details of which are described on page 24 in the What
Went Right section.

We are now well on our way to implementing the
remaining modules and have a solid roadmap for future
efforts. As of this writing in early 2013, we have now
implemented the first two phases of Oracle on time and
on budget. Our final phase began in November 2012 and
is tracking to another on-time/on-budget completion
fall 2013
in the fall of 2013. Future

A man can
endeavors will include Business
get
discouraged
Intelligence and/or other
many times but he is
reporting solutions, along
not a failure until
with continuous exploration
he begins to blame
of other functionality that
somebody else and
we can take advantage of as
our business continues to
stops trying.
expand and change.
John Burroughs
While
it is never
easy to talk about a failed project, we hope that by
sharing our story we can help other organizations avoid
those same pitfalls. We strive to be a culture in which
mistakes are not punished but treated as valuable lessons
that only make us stronger.
What Went Wrong

Looking back, we can see several areas where we
could have done a better job preparing ourselves for and
managing the implementation project. We bought the
idea of the Oracle business accelerators hook, line and
sinker, without really understanding what they did, how
they worked or whether they were a good fit for our
business.
What Went Wrong (the first time)

l Lack of understanding of what Accelerators could and
couldnt do and the complexity of Oracle.

l Big Bang approach huge scope.
l Unrealistic timelines (lack of due diligence up front).
l No up-front process analysis.
l Multiple implementers with no skin in the game.
l Lack of common methodology for implementation.
l Implementers not regarded as strategic partners.
l Team comprising SMEs that were
very functional / silo oriented.

l No change management focus.
l Conflicting priorities within the
organization.

l Economic downturn.
oaug.org
23
Willingness
to change is a
strength, even if it
means plunging part
of the company
into total confusion
for a while.

We set up an
extremely aggressive
implementation schedule,
which had us going live on
all modules in six months.
That is a huge
Jack Welch
scope to
undertake,
especially for a company that was using a 20-plus-yearold mainframe system and had many employees using the
system for 20 years or longer. Our system and business
processes were heavily ingrained in our people, however,
very little time and effort went into planning and
managing the huge amount of change we were bringing
to the organization. From the very beginning, we did
not do our homework to fully understand what we were
about to undertake.

Another key issue we struggled with was our
implementation partner(s). We chose to work with two
companies who were each very strong implementers
in their own right. However, we had one company
working on the technical side and a different company
working on the business process side. Both companies
were contracted on a time-and-material basis with no
dedicated project manager. This meant that KV was
What Went Right (the next time)

l Intense partner selection process to find a strategic
partner, not just an Oracle implementer.

l Fixed-fee, milestone-based contract.
l Phased approach.
l Partner provided best-practice processes and willingness
to push back on KV to make the best choices.

l Built in change management throughout the project.
l Lean process analysis.
l Internal team comprising
process focused change

agents vs. SMEs.
l Dedicated team with backfill
of temporary resources.
l Single executive owner.
24
expected to manage the effort, even though we had

no one in house that had implemented or used Oracle
before. That also meant that the implementers really had
no skin in the game they were collecting their pay
regardless of the outcomes. If that doesnt sound like a
recipe for disaster, I dont know what does!

We also had several issues with our internal processes
and project structure. Our internal team comprised the
subject matter experts for the various areas. While those
team members were very knowledgeable regarding the
legacy system and business processes, they struggled
to look beyond their functional silo and think about
different ways of doing things. We were headed down
a path of putting the same business processes into a
new system without considering improvements and/or
needed business change. Our team members were also
expected to perform their regular duties along with those
required of the implementation project, which meant the
implementation efforts often took a back seat to other
business issues and/or customer demands.

Finally, we had other conflicting priorities internally
that strained our resources, even further moving the
Oracle efforts to the back burner.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. We can look back
now and see what a recipe for failure we were creating,
but that doesnt make it any easier when you are going
through it and cant see that coming. Luckily, we were
able to not only recover from that failure, but to go on to
successfully implement in smaller phases, on time and on
budget. Read on to see what we did differently the next
time around!
What Went Right

Our first step after regrouping and restarting the
project was to engage in an intense partner selection
process. We looked for like-minded companies that had
very strong business process acumen, that placed high
emphasis on change management as part of the overall
effort, and that had solid, proven methodologies and
experience in implementing Oracle EBS.

We engaged our selected partner on a milestonebased, fixed-fee contract so that they were as motivated
as we were to deliver results on time and on budget.
oaug insight
Our partner provided best-practice business processes

that we utilized as our starting point for building
our Oracle implementation and forced our business
community to justify anything outside of standard Oracle
functionality.

From a project planning standpoint, we set up the
implementation in three separate phases so that we could
start with a very manageable scope and get a success
under our belt fairly quickly. Each phase began with a
business case analysis so that we understood the cost/
benefit of that portion of the implementation and we
had key improvement objectives to ensure the investment
would provide a payback. We built project and change
management into the core of each project phase and
dedicated resources to those areas.

From an internal standpoint, we have an executive
owner for each phase that has overall accountability for
completing the project on time and on budget.

We selected team members who were process
focused and had demonstrated adaptability and
willingness to change. In many
cases, these were not
necessarily the people
Remember
doing those jobs day to
day, so they spent time
that failure is
in those areas learning
an event, not
the processes as the
a person.
first task in the project.
The teams are
Zig Ziglar
100
percent
dedicated to the project, are moved to a project war
room and their jobs are reassigned or backfilled with
temporary resources. We also look for creative ways to
reward and motivate our project teams. In many cases, we
gave them new opportunities after the project completion
so that they could continue to learn and grow.

Our key motto with our projects has been: The
main thing, is to keep the main thing, the main thing.
Although this is not always easy to do, we have managed
to keep our project teams focused and motivated
while the rest of the business handles the day-to-day
operations.
fall 2013
Summary: Lessons Learned

l Executive ownership and buy in.
l Manageable scope.
l Strategic implementation partner.
l Incentive-based contract.
l Best-practice processes.
l Internal team selection / dedication.
l Change management focus.
Summary of Lessons Learned

The bottom line is that you must fully understand
and plan out what you are going to do before you do it!
Each aspect of the project needs to be well thought out,
from the partner you choose to help you implement,
to the internal team, to the prioritization of the project
among other activity happening in the business. If you
cannot get the organization to put this effort as the top
priority or dedicate the star performers to the project,
then you should stop right there.

Make sure that your project structure, i.e., phases,
timeline, etc., is realistic, your internal team is motivated
and dedicated to the effort, and the entire company
understands the importance of the project.

Finally, dont forget to build in the project and
change management efforts as a core part of the project
plan. These efforts for KV have paid off with two
successful implementations under our belt and a third in
progress. Has it been pain free
and issue free? Of course
not! But for KV, it has
The Main
certainly helped us
overcome a negative
Thing is to Keep
situation and turn it
the Main Thing the
around into a success
Main Thing.
story to be
proud of.
Our Motto

oaug.org 25
global solutions
Where do I start my
Oracle E-Business
Suite (EBS) R12
upgrade, and how do I
maximize its efficiency?
For those just beginning the process,
these are the questions we attempt to
answer in our planning sessions. Many
have been through prior upgrades of
Oracle EBS, but the magnitude of the
R12 upgrade makes it a vastly different
experience, requiring new approaches from
those used in the past.
In talking to many companies about
their lessons learned, one area always stuck
with me: the difficulty in creating that first,
usable instance and resolving the errors that
some encountered even up to and into their
production instance. How can we plan for
and mitigate the challenges in creating the
upgrade instance?
When you take that first clone of your
11i environment, often the DBAs will be
responsible for compiling a checklist and
executing the technical upgrade against the
checklist to ensure that patches and upgrade
steps are completed in the appropriate
order. What is important and differs from
past upgrades is the significance of also
having and following a functional checklist
that includes pre- and post-upgrade steps.
The checklist will position the application
to have the fewest problems.
So, where can you go for information
to help you develop a pre- and post26
O A U G so l u t i on
Pre- and
Post-Up
grade
Function
al
Checklis
ts
Facilitate
Oracle E
B
Upgrade S
s
By Chris
tine Hip
p,
Los Ala
mos Na
ti
o
nal
Laborato
ry
upgrade
functional checklist?
There are several places. First, Oracle
provides the EBS R12.1 Information
Center (ID 806593.1) on My Oracle
Support, which contains all current
documentation for Release 12.1. If you are
moving from 11i to Release 12.1.3, you
can review the Oracle E-Business Suite
Upgrade Guide Release 11i to 12.1.3,
which contains functional pre- and postupgrade steps by module. Another option
is to use the Oracle Maintenance Wizard
to help guide you through the steps of an
upgrade.
Another option is to hire consultants
who know the necessary steps from prior
upgrade experiences.
Oracle
users groups, such
as the Oracle Applications Users Group
(OAUG), or one of the many special
interest groups related to your industry
or specific Oracle Applications can be
invaluable in the planning exercise.
Participation in these groups offers many
avenues to explore while planning and
executing the R12 upgrade. Through
these sources, I was able to determine
the importance of having a pre- and post
-upgrade checklist as well as what tools to
use to create one.
Here at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, we are pursuing a combination
oaug insight
of all three of these knowledge areas in

order to compile the most comprehensive
pre- and post-upgrade step checklist. In
doing the research, we determined that
for our particular footprint, the following
areas are critical to ensuring a usable postupgrade environment:
If you are running Accounts Payable,
it is critical that you run the 11i

Payables Accounting Health Check
(ID 416699.1) and work to resolve
issues with existing 11i data through
Service Requests with Oracle Support
prior to upgrading the data in R12.
In 11i, this is run via SQL PLUS
as APAtgHealthCheck.sql. Once in
Release 12, it is run from the Oracle
Diagnostics responsibility. You can
upgrade without running the health
check, but doing so can help you
identify and eliminate the source of
ongoing data corruption issues in your
Accounts Payable environment into go
live. Cleaning up this data in advance
reduces the risk of corrupted AP data
in your upgraded R12 environment.
Either before the clone is taken for
upgrade, or in the cloned environment

but before technical upgrade steps
begin, it is key that functional staff
ensure that all financial transactions
are cleared out of the interface tables
by running appropriate jobs and
resolving errors.
In line with the above requirement, it
is preferable to perform the upgrade at

a fiscal period begin so as to be able to
completely close the financial month

and clear out all transactions, moving
into the new period clean so as not
to encounter issues with transactions
crossing from 11i to 12.
A functional decision needs to be
made in the pre-upgrade steps as to

the amount of Subledger Accounting
data to be converted. As a default,
the upgrade converts the data of the
current fiscal year plus any necessary
for the prior fiscal year to ensure that
there are six periods included in the
upgrade. If you want to convert more
than this, then the DBAs need to
apply patch 233248 to your Release
11i APPL_TOP and submit the SLA
Pre-Upgrade program.
Delete custom folders from users and
responsibilities to avoid corruption to

these in the upgraded environment.
It will be necessary to have users
re-create any custom folders in the
new R12 instance.
If you are running Oracle Enterprise
Asset Management, you must have

Install Base in your 11i environment
before beginning the upgrade. For
more information you can see Oracle
Note ID 884201.1.
fall 2013
So, where can you

go for information to
help you develop a
pre- and post-upgrade
functional checklist?
against your 11i environment and
then compare to queries run against
your R12 instance when the technical
upgrade is complete.
These are a few of the key, functional
tasks to consider as you prepare your
environment for upgrade. There are
several ways to build this checklist for your
companys upgrade based on the specific
EBS footprint at your site. The key is to
create a detailed list of these activities and
the appropriate timing for them in the
upgrade, which will be reusable for each
R12 instance built in the course of the
project.
Christine Hipp is an Oracle financials
analyst and the finance lead for the Oracle
EBS R12 upgrade at Los Alamos National
Laboratory. She is on the OAUG board of
directors and has spoken at numerous OAUG
and Oracle conferences.
Identify key Oracle reports and queries
to run, which will be used for post

upgrade validation. For example, the
Trial Balance Report and key queries
on unpaid invoices, open purchase
orders, vendor counts, number of
projects, etc., are essential to run
This article was originally

published by SearchOracle.com,
a TechTarget publication, and
is reprinted with permission.
oaug.org
27
Member Benefit Showcase
Have you ever wondered how

other companies handled
their most recent upgrade?
l Have
you ever wished you

knew exactly how someone
else uses a particular
Oracle Application?
l Have
you ever wanted to

attend an OAUG conference
but couldnt get away?
The OAUG Conference Paper

Database is the answer. This
comprehensive resource contains
nearly 5,000 conference papers
and presentations from educational
events including the COLLABORATE
and OAUG Connection Point
conferences since 2009.
Each paper or presentation
contains real-world information about
the use of Oracle Applications.
So, the next time youre looking
for answers, check the OAUG
Conference Paper Database.
Simply go to oaug.org, click
on the Education and Events
tab and then choose Conference
Paper Database. The papers and
presentations are searchable in a
28
number of ways, including keywords,

abstract, conference name, user
community, conference track, and of
course, title, author and company.
Searching the OAUG Conference
Paper Database and browsing results
is free and available to everyone.
However, only employees of OAUG
member companies can download
the papers or presentations.
oaug membe r benef i ts
If your organization is not an

OAUG member, join online at
oaug.org/membership, or call
+1 404.240.0897 today so you
and your colleagues can start
using the OAUG Conference
Paper Database and all the other
benefits of OAUG membership.
The RighT Tools

aT YouR FingeRTips
Are you searching for tools that can help you

better manage your Oracle Apps?
Dial in for one of our free monthly oaug
orientation webinars to learn about educational and
networking opportunities for oracle applications
customers. great tools at your fingertips.
Visit www.oaug.org/membership/orientation
for details.
oaug.org +1 404.240.0897
membership@oaug.com
Attend an OAUg Orientation

before december 31, 2013, and
youll be entered to win a
$5OO AmEx gift cArd.
oaug sig update
Update on
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
What is a Special Interest
Group (SIG)?
Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are

user groups that bring together members
that share a common interest with specific
Oracle Applications products. SIGs
may also bring together members that
represent a specific industry, such as the
public sector or manufacturing. Additional
SIGs are affiliated in response to the
development and expansion of the family
of Oracle Applications. SIGs are open for
worldwide membership and operate online
communities, with many hosting meetings
at the annual COLLABORATE or Oracle
OpenWorld conferences.
A complete list of SIGs, upcoming
meetings, website addresses and contact
information is available at oaug.org under
the User Communities tab.

2013 Special Interest Groups

ADI SIG
AP SIG*
AR, Credit & Collections SIG
Archive & Purge SIG
Assets SIG*
BI Publisher SIG
Change Management SIG
Channel Revenue SIG
Communications Billing and
Revenue Management
(BRM) SIG
Communications MetaSolv
Solution SIG
Configurator SIG*
Consumer Goods SIG
Contracts SIG
Cost Management SIG*
Customer Experience
Community (CXC)
CRM On Demand SIG
Siebel SIG
Customization and Extension SIG
Database SIG*
Demantra SIG
Discrete Manufacturing SIG*
E-Business Applications
Technology SIG*
E-Business Suite SIG
E-Business Suite User
Management SIG*
EDI (e-Commerce Gateway) SIG
Endeca SIG
Energy & Utilities SIG
Engineering & Construction SIG
Enterprise Asset
Management (EAM) SIG*
Enterprise Visualization SIG

Federal SIG
Financial Services Industry SIG
Fusion Middleware SIG
General Ledger (GL) SIG*
Governance, Risk &
Compliance SIG
Government Contractor SIG
Higher Education SIG
Hyperion SIG*
Incentive Compensation SIG
K-12 Education SIG
Logistics SIG
Master Data Management SIG
Migration and Integration SIG
Multi-National/Multi-Org SIG
Oracle Agile/Enterprise PLM SIG
Oracle Business Intelligence
(OBI) SIG*
Oracle Primavera SIG (OPSIG)
Order Management &
Advanced Pricing (QP) SIG
Oracle Tax Management SIG
OTM SIG
Process Manufacturing SIG*
Procurement SIG
Projects SIG*
Property Manager SIG
Public Sector SIG*
Quality SIG
SysAdmin SIG
Treasury & Cash Management SIG
UPK SIG
Upgrade SIG*
Value Chain Planning SIG
Workflow SIG
* Special Acknowledgement 2013 OAUG Geo/SIG

Certificate of Distinction Award recipient
30
oaug G E O S & S IG S
oaug.org
OAUG Vendor
Awareness Sessions
appAUGMENTER
TM
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session today!
A LEARNING OPPORTUNITY
OAUG associate members have the
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which are held several times each month.
These interactive webcasts provide
information about a variety of products
and services that complement Oracle
Applications. Visit oaug.org and click
on the Partners tab for details.
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11i/R12
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If you are an Associate member of the OAUG and

would like to host a Vendor Awareness session, visit
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31
oaug geo update
Update on
Geographic User Groups (Geos)
What is a Geographic User Group (Geo)?

Geographic user groups (Geos) are independent OAUG affiliated user
groups that bring together a variety of Oracle Applications users within

a defined geographic region. Geos create opportunities for members to
discuss a variety of applications and share ideas. Currently, the OAUG has
Geo affiliates in the continental United States, Canada, AsiaPac, Latin
America and EMEA.

There are many benefits of membership and participation in a users
local Geo. These benefits include:

l Communication with OAUG members to learn tips and tricks for
installation, integration, utilization and maintenance of Oracle
Applications.
l Knowledge of best practices from colleagues utilizing Oracle

Applications.
l Local meetings and training sessions featuring Oracle experts.
l Direct access to local Oracle management and much more.

A complete list of Geo groups, upcoming meetings, website
addresses and contact information is available at oaug.org under the

User Communities tab.
Geos and SIGs serve the grassroots of the Oracle

community and offer additional educational
opportunities and new product enhancements through
their links with Oracle Corporation.
2013 Geographic
User Groups
Atlanta OAUG*
Ausoug (Australia)
British Columbia OAUG
Calgary OAUG
Central States OAUG*
Colorado OAUG
DC-OAUG
Eastern States OAUG
Florida OAUG*
German Oracle Users Group (DOAG)
Heartland OUG
India OAUG*
Israel Oracle Users Group (ilOUG)
Japan-OAUG
Latin OAUG*
Michigan OAUG*
Mid-Atlantic OAUG
Middle East OUG
Netherlands OAUG
Nevada OAUG*
New England OAUG*
New Jersey OAUG
New South Wales OAUG
North Central OAUG*
Northern California OAUG*
Northern Ohio OAUG*
Northwest OUG
NYC Metro OAUG (New York City)
Ohio Valley OAUG*
ORAUG-Brazil
Pittsburgh OAUG
Queensland OAUG
San Diego OAUG
South Central OAUG
South Texas OAUG
Southern Australia OAUG
Southern Ontario OAUG
Southwest Regional OAUG*
Twin Cities Financials OAUG
Twin Cities Manufacturing OAUG
Victorian OAUG
Western Australia OAUG
* Special Acknowledgement 2013
OAUG Geo/SIG Certificate of
Distinction Award Recipient
32
oaug.org
the source for
oracle
applications
users
Let the OAUG help you find the
products and services that can help you
improve the use and management of
Oracle products in your organization.
Visit oaug.org to access the 2013
OAUG Buyers Guide. Browse the
searchable online listings for
up-to-the-minute information.
Or download a copy.
Contact sales@oaug.com for details.
2013 Edition
oaug geo spotlight
Ohio Valley OAUG (OVOAUG)

The Ohio Valley Oracle
tracks developed for
Applications User Group (OVOAUG)
Oracle E-Business
is a group of financial, accounting,
Suite, Hyperion
manufacturing and information
and CRM users.
systems professionals dedicated
to increasing Oracle customers
customers/users to present sessions
knowledge and understanding of
or lead panel discussions at its
Oracle Applications. Serving an
regional conferences to facilitate the
audience located primarily in southern
sharing of real-world experiences
Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, the
and successes among fellow Oracle
OVOAUG addresses topics related
Applications users. Dedicated
to the installation, implementation,
discussion tables set up during lunch
configuration, support and future
provide opportunities for attendees
direction of Oracle Applications
with similar interests or
and supporting products.
challenges to network with
like-minded peers.
OVOAUG regional conference
The OVOAUG encourages Oracle
events are held three times a year,
typically in February/March, June and
Oracle and the vendor
September/October. These full-day
community also support
events feature a keynote speaker who
OVOAUG events by
may be an Oracle expert, motivational
working with the
speaker, local celebrity or executive.
OVOAUG to identify
Following the keynote presentation,
timely topics of
attendees can attend education
interest, obtain speakers,
OVOAUG conference events
take place throughout the Ohio

Valley region. Corporate event hosts
include the Cincinnati Public Schools,
Humana, LexisNexis, Louisville Gas
& Electric, NCR and Papa Johns.
The first-ever event in Indianapolis
is planned for October 2013.
In addition to its own regional
meetings, the OVOAUG and its
members regularly present
at Oracle OpenWorld,
COLLABORATE and OAUG
Connection Point conferences.

Since its inception in 1998,

the OVOAUG has been an Oracle
Applications Users Group
(OAUG) affiliated Geographic
User Group (Geo) and maintains
an in-compliance good standing. The

OVOAUG earned the distinguished
Im proud to be associated with an energetic group of fellow

volunteers, supporting an active member base where we continue to
see year-over-year membership growth. Theres excitement and energy
around our newer interest tracks including CRM, and our dynamic
keynote speaker program featuring unique professional development
opportunities. We are excited to host our next event in Indianapolis and
hope to further expand interest in that geography.
OVOAUG President Jon Riley
and promote the events.
Experts from
sessions in parallel interest
34
provide sponsorship support
OAUG Geo/SIG Certificate of

Distinction award in 2012 and 2013.

The OVOAUG is led by a volunteer
board of directors. Elections for

board positions are held twice
each year on a rolling basis.
Visit ohio.oaug.org to review the
meeting calendar for the remainder
of 2013, submit white papers
and proposals for a presentation
at an upcoming meeting, access
presentations from past meetings
Ohio Valley OAUG

Board of Directors:
l President, Jon Riley, AXIA Consulting
l Hyperion Speaker Coordinator,
Subrata Debnath, Analysis Express
l Communications Coordinator,
Carole Landgrebe, Intelligrated
l Treasurer, Hildy McNulty,
Toyota Boshoku America
l eBusiness Speaker Coordinator,
Dan Patterson, AXIA Consulting
l Vendor Coordinator, Jeremy
Raucci, Teradata
l
Facilities Coordinator, Diana

Wainscott, GE Appliances
Mission Statement: The general purposes

and objectives of the OVOAUG are
to inform and educate our members
on topics relevant to the installation,
implementation, configuration, support and
future direction of Oracle Applications and
supporting products while providing and
facilitating a regional forum for professional
networking among peers to share their
experience and knowledge.
Website: ohio.oaug.org
and find out how to participate with this dynamic
group. Oracle users, IT management, consultants
and sales/marketing professionals connected
to the Oracle marketplace are invited to join.

Contact Jon Riley, jon.riley@axiaconsulting.net,
if you require
additional
information.
oaug.org
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global users
OAUG Member Snapshot:

Kevin Brownlie
For this issue of OAUG Insight,
in sharing successes and seeking
we want to publicly acknowledge
resolutions to implementation
the contributions to the Oracle
challenges with other users and with
community by Kevin Brownlie, a man
Oracle. This led him to the OAUG
who is exceedingly active in every
Customer Support Council, where he
sense of the word. A kayaker, biker,
has been an active member during
hiker, rugby player and traveler, this
the last four years. He says the OAUG
man takes the word active to the
Customer Support Council offers a
next level. But in our minds, the
very effective way for users to work
most obvious way he showcases
directly with Oracle Support to voice
his active spirit is in his OAUG
their needs and make a difference.
membership, namely serving on the
Oracle not only uses the council
OAUG Customer Support Council.
as a sounding board, but takes into
of their OAUG membership and
careful consideration our concerns,
the inherent benefits it offers.
big and small, which oftentimes
It is not one persons voice;

there are many collectively
promoting ways to constantly
improve. And Oracle listens,
which makes this forum
especially powerful.
As the senior director for business

applications and technology for
Hologic, Inc., Kevin started his active
leads to positive change. One such
networking opportunities available are
example is when Oracle waived the
invaluable, and it offers direct access
Extended Support Fees for Oracle
to influential Oracle executives.
E-Business Suite customers based
The OAUG represents users in the
on our feedback, said Kevin. It
real world, with similar challenges
is not one persons voice; there
and frustrations, and brings them
are many collectively promoting
together to learn from one anothers
ways to constantly improve. And
experience. Youre never alone in
Oracle listens, which makes this
the OAUG; there is always someone
forum especially powerful.
else dealing with the same issues.
Kevin is also an active member
membership within the OAUG almost
of the Oracle Usability Advisory
12 years ago just before the company
Board, an Oracle Customer Advisory
rolled out Oracle E-Business Suite.
Board (CAB), which is a direct
He said that becoming a member of
communications channel to Oracle
the OAUG was one of the smartest
for improving the user experience.
decisions the company has made
By taking advantage of these two
in terms of making that transition.
channels, he can share important
As his experience working with
updates and topics between groups.
Oracle E-Business Suite grew, Kevin
O A U G membe r s h i p
members to get the most out
The OAUG represents users

in the real world, with similar
challenges and frustrations,
and brings them together
to learn from one anothers
experience.
Kevin strongly encourages
became more and more interested
3366
The countless educational and
oaug.org
A Lot Can Happen in Two Days.

Register now, and join us for networking, collaboration and education focused on
implementing, supporting and maintaining Oracle E-Business Suite, Enterprise Performance Management,
and Business Intelligence systems.

October 21-23, 2013 Hiltona Alexandria Mark Center Washington, DC
Presented by: OAUG, DC-OAUG, and the OAUG Hyperion, OBI and Upgrade SIGs
Educational sessions will be offered in the following tracks:
Business Intelligence:
Oracle Business Intelligence Tools and Technology (OBIEE)
Oracle Business Intelligence Applications (OBIA)
Big Data
Endeca Information Discovery (Unstructured Data)
Enterprise Performance Management:
Oracle Hyperion Financial Close and Reporting
Oracle Hyperion Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting
Oracle Business Intelligence/Essbase
Emerging Products and Technologies
Infrastructure/Technical
Oracle E-Business Suite:
Oracle E-Business Suite Technical
Oracle E-Business Suite Functional
Oracle E-Business Suite Strategy and Roadmap
NEW THIS YEAR:

Half-day pre-conference workshops that
dive deeper into the three key learning areas
will be offered on October 21. You can
register for these workshops when
you register for the main event.
For more information, or to register now:
Learn more at cp.oaug.org
global users
New and Returning Members

Returning
Associate
Members:
Accenture
CedarCrestone
Centric Consulting
Returning
User Members:
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AAR Corp.
Accellent, Inc.
Accenture Japan
Accenture Netherlands
Achmea Active
Achmea Arbo
Achmea CB
ACI Worldwide
ActewAGL
Actuant Corp.
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Aker Kvaerner B.V.
AKZO Diosynth B.V.
Alpha Natural Resources
Altasen
Alysis
AmeriCredit Corp.
Amerifit Brands, Inc.
AMIS Services B.V.
APJ, Oracle Competence Centre
AppsTec International
APRO Consulting Services B.V.
ArboNed
Archer Daniels Midland Co.
ArvinMeritor B.V.
ASCO Controls B.V.
Associated Wholesalers,
Inc. (AWI)
Atos Origin Nederland B.V.
Atos Origin Telco Services
ATOS TSS
AVR
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Axioma
Bahwan CyberTek Inc (BCT)
Belonje Consulting
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Cap Gemini Ernst & Young B.V.
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Catharina Ziekenhuis
38
Centraal Boekhuis B.V.

Centraal Bureau voor
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Incasso Bureau
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Chellomedia
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Credit Acceptance Corporation
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CTA
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DCMR Milieudienst Rijnmond
Deloitte Consultancy
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Den Oudsten Bussen B.V.
Denso International America
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Intl (DDI)
Diebold EMEA Logistics
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E-Business Solutions Group
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Erasmus Medical Center
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Fair Isaac Company
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O A U G membe r s h i p
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Global Knowledge .
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Stichtse Rijnlanden
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Incore Solutions B.V.
Infotec Nederland B.V.
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ING / OPS&IT
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koker communicatie
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KPMG Meijburg
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Kuipers CVK
Landcorp
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Las Vegas Valley Water District
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Leiden Univ.
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Management Control
& Accounting
Mark Gurry & Associates
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Companies, Inc.
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MediaCompetence B.V.
Medical College of Wisconsin
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of Independent
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Synventive Molding
Solutions B.V.
Teradyne, Inc.
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA
Thales Nederland
The Wendys Company
Tiscali
TopConsult
Toshiba Medical Systems
Europe B.V.
Tracklane B.V.
Transfer-Solutions
Transport & Logistiek/
Freelance
Triangle Group
TweeSteden Ziekenhuis
Tyco Valves & Controls Europe
UMC St Radboudziekenhuis
University of Bergen/
Uni Research
University of Oslo
University of Twente
Unocal Netherlands B.V.
UPC
UPC Nederland
Veenman B.V.
Vertis B.V.
Videojet Technologies
Europe B.V.
oaug.org
The OAUG welcomes the following new and

returning members who joined May 1, 2013,
through June 30, 2013.
VNU
Vodafone
VU Medisch Centrum
VVAA Groep B.V.
WE Europe
Weir Minerals Netherlands B.V.
Welzorg B.V.
Wesco Distribution, Inc.
Westpac Banking Corporation
Ziekenhuis Gelderse Vallei
Zorggroep Suydevelt
New Associate
Members:
Alvarez & Marsal
Fujitsu America, Inc.
New User
Members:
AAI Corporation
Aderans Co., Ltd. Japan
Alcoa World Alumina Australia
American Municipal
Power (AMP)
AMICO
Aurora Public Schools
Avon Products Co., Ltd. Japan
Bob Evans Farms, Inc.
Calsonickansei
Corporation Japan
Central Bank of Trinidad
and Tobago
Central Glass Co., Ltd. Japan
Chugai Pharmaceutical
Co., Ltd. Japan
Citigroup, Inc.
City of Oakland
Cobham Plc.
Coloplast K.K. Japan
Department of Transport WA
DJO
Ernst & Young Japan
Federated Investors Inc.
Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO)
Fujifilm ComputerSystem
Co. Japan
Gamakatsu Co., Ltd. Japan
Group Publishing, Inc.
Group Voyagers, Inc.
HART (Honolulu Authority for
Rapid Transportation)
Hawaiian Airlines
Hitachi Solutions Japan
IBM Australia Limited
IHI Compressor and Machinery
Co., Ltd. Japan
Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings
Ltd. Japan
JEA
Jupiter Shop Channel
Co., Ltd. Japan
Kohls Department Store
Misumi Group, Inc. Japan
OIA Global Logistics
Panasonic Electric Works
Information Systems Co.
Panaya Inc. Japan Office
PTI Technologies, Inc.
Q and A Corporation Japan
QOL. Co., Ltd. Japan
Realogy Corp.
RGIS
Riken Technols
Corporation Japan
Risingsun Planning Co.,
Ltd. Japan
Schneider National
Source Interlink companies
South African Reserve Bank
Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. Japan
TDK Lambda
Corporation Japan
theflag Japan
TRINIFY K.K
University of Northern Iowa
Valspar
Ville de Qubec IT Dept.
YP LLC
oaug.org
39
Special Advertising Section
oaug
strategies
vendor
corner
Taconic Takes Charge

of Oracle R12 Reporting
with GL Wand
from Excel4apps
By Chris Meyer, President, Americas, at Excel4apps
Excel4apps
is a 2013 OAUG
Star Partner
LEVEL five
s a provider of life sciences

solutions to researchers
worldwide, Taconic Inc. supports
living cell studies and drug
discovery through seven breeding
facilities and three service labs in
the U.S. and Europe. The company
has 750 global employees.
Editors Note: The Vendor Corner section of OAUG Insight provides

information on products from OAUG vendor members. The OAUG does not
specifically endorse any product or service from any of our vendor members.
40
vendor co r ne r
vendor corner
Special Advertising Section

oaug insight

Taconic implemented Oracle
E-Business Suite (EBS) R12
throughout its U.S. operations
during 2009 but soon realized
some shortcomings in its reporting
capabilities. Taconics Finance team
at the Hudson, NY, headquarters
found that creating standard monthly
reports was a challenging multistep process. It involved use of
standard Oracle Financial Statement
Generator (FSG) reports to access
GL data, which was then published
to Excel for further manipulation
and formatting. While this process
was less than optimal, the companys
even bigger frustration came when
creating relevant management reports.

Standard Oracle FSGs were
limited and difficult to use in general,
and they were often too high level
for our managers, who preferred
information about underlying
transactions to compare actuals
vs. budget for individual sites and
functions, said Rodney Tillinghast,
corporate controller, Taconic. Even
with a cumbersome workaround
through Taconics old F9 data
warehouse software, managers still
did not see the level of detailed
information they were accustomed
to before Oracle was implemented.
Finance also tried cobbling pivot
tables out of FSGs, along with
other attempts at extracting data.
Free Trial of Excel-based Tool

A year after implementing Oracle
in the U.S., Taconic discovered GL
Wand, an Excel-based financial
reporting tool from Excel4apps. Via a
direct link between Oracle and a userfriendly Excel front end, GL Wand
provides immediate access to real-time
spring 2008
GL Wand provided an immediate

improvement in both quality of information
and efficiency, helping drive at least 4-5
days out of our monthly closing process ...
Rodney Tillinghast, Corporate Controller, Taconic
GL data without a data warehouse, as
well as instant drill-down functionality
for accessing the transactional
details managers were requesting.

After a free trial, Taconic
recognized GL Wands potential
for accelerating its month-end and
management reporting processes. There
was some internal pushback, however.
In addition to concerns that GL
Wand might impact general Oracle
performance, there were many who
felt that Oracle should do everything
for us, Tillinghast described. GL
Wand installed quickly, though, and
initial concerns were soon put to rest.

A user test group of five quickly
picked up on using GL Wand, with
the help of webinars and training
conference calls from Excel4apps.
The team realized that GL Wand
not only could replace and improve
upon FSGs for monthly reporting, it
could also delve into GL details for
managers. Within hours of basic GL
Wand training, Taconics financial
analysts had access to information
that the IT group had struggled to
drill into with Oracle Discoverer.
Tool for Auditing, too

Taconic also found key audit
benefits from the new solution. Because
Taconics auditors recognized that
GL Wand is an Oracle Validated
Integration solution, the finance group
can provide the auditors with trial

balances for any set of global books
directly out of GL Wand by setting
up a GL criteria sheet, updating
it and sending it back to them.

GL Wand gives auditors the
assurance that they have as much
mastery over every balance as we do,
Tillinghast said. Before GL Wand, we
were doing Excel pivot tables out of a
text report from Oracle. Every refresh
took an hour to prepare, including time
for quality checks. Now, its a fiveminute job from beginning to end.
New Level of Stability

GL Wand solved reporting
problems for Oracle users at Taconic.
Weve reached a level of stability
in our reporting now where almost
all of our reports are standardized
and its just a matter of refreshing
them, said Tillinghast. GL Wand
allows us to continually improve
our monthly reports, as well as the
level of information provided.
Chris Meyer is President, Americas,
at Excel4apps, a provider of Excelbased reporting, inquiry and budget
uploading solutions for Oracle
E-Business Suite. Contact Chris at
chris.meyer@excel4apps.com or visit
www.excel4apps.com/oracle to access
a free trial of the GL Wand solution
today.
oaug.org
41
oracle directions
Trends in IT for Financial Services:

Increasing Transparency and Accountability
By Maneesh Chhabra
he demands on
financial institutions
are two-fold: increase
transparency and do more with
less. Modernizing IT systems and
creating centralized accounting
platforms and single sources of
truth can help meet both demands.
Heads of shared services and accounting operations
institutions are deploying data governance initiatives and
are focusing on reducing the burden of manual and

complex accounting processes, such as reconciliations
and intercompany transactions. IT leaders are also
under pressure to do more with less by reducing system
complexity and sprawl across the finance IT ecosystem.

Many financial institutions are modernizing
critical parts of their financial data supply chain that

originate in the source systems, travel to the corporate
general ledger (GL) and then get transmuted for
financial and management reporting paths. These
Financial statements of large banks are opaque
and do not provide an accurate, complete picture
implementing next-generation finance and accounting
of the business; this perception appears to be
platforms to enable their transformation journey.
growing. Regulators are becoming increasingly
Finance Function Challenges
active and demanding more transparency and
disclosures. International Financial Reporting
pathways leading into and out of the GL have grown
Standards (IFRS) for United States-based financial
over the years to integrate large numbers of source
services entities is gaining pace. Externally focused
systems and accounting sub-systems in line-of-business
segment reporting requirements are also likely to
(LOB) organizations. This ecosystem has evolved
add to the already onerous reporting burden.

Accounting operations and the financial data
over the years to a point where a high degree of
As a result, leaders in the finance function
complexity drives some of the following pain points:
of large financial institutions are being asked to

deliver on major transformation priorities. CFOs
Finance systems architecture:Multiple
of financial institutions are focused on improving
LOB-level accounting systems and source
the scalability of the finance functions systems and
systems that push data into the GL,multiple data
processes, enhancing data integrity and operational
repositories andextensive custom applications
visibility for the business, and sustaining employee
andintegrationsdrive up the cost of finance IT.
engagement while reducing overall operating costs.
42
oaug connect i v i t y
Forward-thinking
managers at leading
financial institutions are
creating a single source
of accounting truth for
multiple external and legacy
systems using business-user
defined accounting rules.
Process complexity: Extensive manual

processes, a large number of manual controls and
significant effort on manual reconciliations and
adjustments cause upstream and downstream
users of financial data to spend significant time
collecting data instead of doing analysis.
Scalability and change

management:Accounting rules are
implemented in various source systems,
which makes enforcing corporate accounting
addition, parallel data paths for finance, risk and
standards difficult and IT change management
management reporting can lead to meaningful
costly. This architecturereduces flexibility to
differences in outputs that reduce data confidence
respond to a changing regulatory and business
and require additional work to reconcile.
environment; in addition, new acquisitions
There are a number of steps business and IT
require more effort to be integrated.

l
leaders can take to address these challenges.
Data granularity:As the financial transaction

data travels from upstream users (LOB source
systems and division-level accounting systems)
to downstream users (corporate general
ledger,management reporting and consolidation
platforms), it loses context and details. This
Thin ledger architecture at the corporate level

reduces complexity and accelerates closing cycle
times. However, the trade-offs involved in a
thin ledger architecture can reduce flexibility and
lack of granularity adds to manual controls
operational visibility for LOB and downstream
and increases error risks and audit costs.

l
1. Establish a single source of

centralized accounting truth.
users, who need to drill into additional details.
Reporting and data credibility: Many
Leading financial institutions are streamlining
institutions lack a single, credible source of
the data flow of financial data from source
financial data and have limited self-service
systems into the GL by deploying a single
reporting capability, resulting in long lead times
source of accounting truth that sits between
for new operating reports for the business. In
various source systems and the corporate GL.
oaug.org
43
2. Reduce data breaks and

improve drive transparency.

The centralized accounting platform also

enables drill-back from the GL to details in the
sub-ledger/accounting repository to facilitate
reconciliations. It should deliver enriched
financial transaction with additional attributesand
reference data to support various upstream and
downstream consumers of the GL data.
3. Transform the reporting infrastructure.

The detailed sub-ledger and accounting

data repository can be exposed to business
and downstream users through robust data
warehouse and self-service reporting tools.
Forward-thinking managers at leading financial
institutions are creating a single source of accounting

truth for multiple external and legacy systems using
business-user defined accounting rules.These
are based on a centralized accounting platform,
significantly reducing manual effort on reconciliation
and adjustments across the board. This will lead to
improved time to market for operational reporting
andenhanced data integrity, a reduced number of
manual controls and error risk, and reduced IT costs.
Maneesh Chhabra is a director of Industry Strategy
and Insight at Oracle.
From Oracles Profit magazine,

reprinted with permission.
44
oaug.org
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THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE Oracle Applications USERS GROUP

18 Secrets of the Master Row Set in Oracle E-Business Suite

Sequence Numbers Row Orders

Overcoming a Failed E-Business Suite Implementation

OAUG2013 Star Partners

oaug g eos & s i g s

OAUG Member Snapshot: Kevin Brownlie

38 New and Returning Members

ora c le d i r ect i ons

Where do I start my Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) R12

40 Vendor Corner: Taconic Takes Charge of Oracle R12

The OAUG Conference Paper Database

The OAUG Star Partner program gives Associate members a bundled

For more information on the OAUG Star Partner Program, please

(list updated as of press time)

TWO-STAR ELITE PARTNERS

The Bean Consulting Group

The OAUG Star Partners

oaug board of directors

OAUG Insight is designed to provide members of the

The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG)

Tune in for Influence: share your thoughts

Learn more about OAUG membership at Oracle OpenWorld!

Connecting With Other Users:

The OAUG Conference Paper Database

As employees of OAUG member

organizations, we have countless opportunities

page 28 in this issue of OAUG Insight magazine.

to connect with other Oracle Applications users.

The OAUG provides the framework for this

eLearning sessions. These live webinars bring the

interaction and facilitates these connections.

experts to us via a computer and telephone. And, if

My colleagues and I also participate in OAUG

we cant participate in a particular session when it is

each other at face-

presented, we can download the recording and listen

to-face events, but

in at our convenience. With a wide variety of topics

and impressive depth of expertise literally at your

fingertips, OAUG eLearning is an invaluable resource.

dont end when

OAUG User Communities offer specialized

we get back to our jobs. My colleagues and I

opportunities for interaction, either locally through

regularly take advantage of a number of year-

a Geographic User Group (Geo) or on a particular

round OAUG programs and resources, such as:

topic or industry through a Special Interest Group

meet face to face or via technology through these

From MPL5 to Release 12.1

or SIG, I encourage you to learn more about

The quarterly OAUG Insight magazine

contains information about real-world projects

in their organizations. Our project team looks

forward to every issue and shares copies of the

Connecting others to learn from each other

is one of the primary purposes of the OAUG.

resources. If your employer isnt an OAUG member,

Call, email, or visit out Knowledge Works center where you

With experience dating back to one of Oracle's first releases

The Autumn Checklist

Here in the U.S., were