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Oracle Named Best Database in InfoWorld 2009
Technology of the Year Awards
As a result of what InfoWorld calls “the supremacy of Oracle Database,” Oracle has
joined an elite group of winners in the InfoWorld 2009 Technology of the
Year Awards. Oracle
Database 11g earned the Best Database
award.
According to InfoWorld, “our prize for Best Database went to the incomparable Oracle Database 11g, a titanic release with capabilities—namely Real
Application Testing and Active Data Guard—that DBAs previously could only
dream about.”
InfoWorld Media Group helps IT solutions management
choose the right technology, within the context of a cohesive strategy, for
business impact at their organizations. Rather than merely covering the
enterprise technology market, InfoWorld identifies and promotes emerging technology segments
that add
unique value for the organizations that implement
them, as well as the vendors that provide those solutions.
To learn more, read InfoWorld’s June 2008 article, Lab
Test: Oracle Database 11g shoots the moon, in which the publication states, “Oracle's enormous 11g release rumbles with an impressive array of performance
and management aids, elegant application testing, standbys that earn their
keep, and the promise of lower storage requirements.”
Oracle
Placed in Leaders Quadrant in Latest Business Intelligence Platforms Magic
Quadrant
Gartner’s
2009 “Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms”
positions
Oracle in the Leaders Quadrant.
Gartner
Magic Quadrants position vendors within a particular market segment based on
their completeness of vision and their ability to execute on that vision.
According
to Gartner, “leaders are vendors that are reasonably strong in the breadth
and depth of their BI platform capabilities, and which can deliver on enterprise
wide implementations that support a broad BI strategy. Leaders articulate a
business proposition that resonates with buyers, supported by the viability
and operational capability to deliver on a global basis.”
The Oracle Business Intelligence
Foundation (Oracle BI Foundation) provides comprehensive business
intelligence (BI) and analytic capabilities based on category-leading
products for OLAP, interactive dashboards, ad hoc analysis, proactive
detection and alerts, advanced reporting and publishing, mobile analytics,
desktop gadgets, and more. The software's hot-pluggable design enables
organizations to generate greater value from existing Oracle and non-Oracle
data sources and applications, including SAP systems.
The
Oracle BI Foundation, consisting of Oracle Business Intelligence Suite
Enterprise Edition Plus, Oracle Business Intelligence
Publisher, Oracle Essbase, and Oracle
Real-Time Decisions, is the technical foundation for
Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) system, including pre-built Oracle
Business Intelligence Applications (Oracle BI Applications).
Oracle
BI Applications are complete, packaged BI solutions that deliver role-based
intelligence across an organization to enable better decisions, actions, and
business processes. The applications help organizations realize rapid
deployment, lower Total Cost of Ownership, and take advantage of built-in
best practices.
Oracle’s
EPM system, which consists of the Oracle BI Foundation, Oracle BI
Applications, and Hyperion performance management applications, supports
financial, strategic and operational management processes across a common
foundation enabling organizations to become smarter, agile and aligned.
“We
believe Gartner’s designation of Oracle in the leaders quadrant validates our
efforts to provide organizations with the most comprehensive, standards-based
suite of BI products for use in any environment,” said Paul Rodwick, vice
president of Product Management, Oracle Business Intelligence. “The complete,
open and integrated Oracle BI platform is a reflection of our commitment to
help customers make smarter, more informed decisions to drive better business
performance.”
Siebel CRM 8.1.1 Drives Cost Savings, Boosts
Customer Loyalty
Marking the second major
release of Siebel CRM under Oracle's Applications Unlimited program, Siebel
CRM 8.1.1 includes an end-to-end customer loyalty solution and expanded,
industry-specific customer self-service—even as it drives down costs with
increased support for open standards.
“Now more than ever, companies need to support cost-effective CRM efforts
while improving the customer experience,” says Rebecca Wettemann, vice
president, Nucleus Research.
“CRM solutions that drive greater visibility into customer communication
across the organization deliver both bottom-line cost savings and top-line
benefits in greater customer retention and profitability,” adds Wettemann.
Building
Customer Loyalty
Oracle’s Siebel Loyalty Management 8.1.1 offers the industry's only
comprehensive, packaged, and fully integrated application for managing the
complete loyalty program lifecycle.
With Siebel Loyalty Management, airlines and other companies gain more
accurate views of customer behavior—and can use this insight to provide
differentiated incentives and rewards to market more quickly.
The solution also provides support, backed by deep industry expertise and
best practices, for each phase of
loyalty program management,
including member enrollment and management, points accrual and redemption,
personalized loyalty promotions and member communications, multichannel
customer care, and cross-industry partner management.
Driving
Down Costs with Open Standards
With Release 8.1.1, Oracle has also updated Siebel Self-Service, including
Siebel E-Support and Siebel E-Commerce applications, with Java-based J2EE
applications built on Oracle Fusion Middleware.
This move extends Siebel’s CRM product to the Web channel, enabling a more
compelling user experience while lowering total cost of ownership.
Driving
Superior Self-Service
The new release also includes key industry-specific self-service enhancements
for the communications and public sector industries.
Siebel CRM 8.1.1 delivers deeper, more comprehensive search capabilities;
integration of multichannel applications with Siebel Chat; and deeper, more
comprehensive search capabilities.
As a result, telecom customers can quickly adjust plans and add accessories,
and public sector organizations can enable citizens to fill out and submit
PDF forms online.
Five Ideas: Getting IT Done in 2009
January
2009
“When I talk to customers today about
strategies to take IT costs out of the business, I encourage them to lay out
a multiyear road map and then identify an area where you can make progress
very quickly, maybe in six or nine months. You can’t do everything at once,
but you can make progress in areas that might be strategic to your business,
such as the front office.”
—Ed Abbo, senior vice president in charge of
applications development at Oracle
“Every capital expenditure—including those
for IT—is being scrutinized over and over again. There is a greater focus on
project definition and execution planning as well as accurately quantifying
the anticipated benefits. For IT projects, that means controlled scope, low
risk undertakings with a short timeline and tangible benefits that will be
realized quickly. Midsize customers tell me they are still getting projects
through the CFO if they meet those requirements."
—Tony Kender, senior vice president, Oracle's Global
Accelerate Program Office.
“The notion of sustainable computing
finally seems to be hitting a critical mass, and for the usual reason: money
talks... In Gwinnett
County, we have found
that new energy-efficient blade servers can double performance and use far
less power. When you’re looking at hundreds of servers across the enterprise,
that
power reduction does have an impact on the
bottom line.."
—John Matelski, chairman of the International Oracle
Users Group Community and CIO for Gwinnett County, GA.
"We are at a new stage of cooperation
between IT and the business, where using effective data from IT can help the
business better understand customer behavior and improve business processes,
and consequently IT practices. More-effective alignment of business and IT
can also help suggest better applications or new technologies that will improve
the business processes."
—Jean-Pierre Garbani, vice president, Forrester
Research
“Typically the business says [to IT and the
business unit], ‘Don’t talk to each other—you must go through the liaison.
The appropriate role for the liaisons is to serve as a facilitator to make
sure these conversations are appropriate and effective, whenever they can and
as often as they can.”
—Jerry Luftman, distinguished professor and executive
vice president of the Society for Information Management
NATO Takes Command
Oracle E-Business
Suite Provides Global Accountability for the World’s Foremost Military Alliance.
In
the wake of the Second World War, the North Atlantic Treaty established an
alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe
known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It was a historic
moment that has influenced
the
freedom, security, and values of the world for half a century. While NATO’s
political and military activities often make headlines on the world stage,
few people have an inkling of the operational complexity underlying this
vast, global operation. The Brussels, Belgium-based international
organization employs tens of thousands of people in 26 countries.
The
difficulties inherent in running such a sprawling and diverse organization
have increased in recent years, partly as a result of new regulatory
strictures such as the International Public Sector Accounting Standards
(IPSAS), which NATO must implement for all property, plants, and equipment by
2010. IPSAS is governed by an independent standards body that seeks to serve
the public interest by developing high-quality accounting standards for use
by public sector entities around the world in the preparation of
general-purpose financial statements. The objective of this standards body is
to enhance the quality and transparency of public sector financial reporting
and strengthen public confidence in public sector financial management.
NATO
is confronting these challenges with a centralized financial system based on Oracle E-Business Suite 11i.
Surveying the IT
Landscape
NATO uses Oracle
E-Business Suite software to manage a wide range of operations, including
budgeting, travel, treasury, disbursement, procurement, and supply functions.
NATO is also in the process of deploying Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Business
Intelligence, and Oracle Business Intelligence Applications to improve
reporting and analytic functions.
In
2001 NATO launched the NATO Automated Financial System (NAFS), a decentralized
set of financial applications maintained by
NATO’s
Allied Command Operations (ACO). Following a three-year rollout, NATO
deployed the financial system to about 1,200 active users at 24 sites.
NAFS
is built around several modules in Oracle E-Business Suite including Oracle
General Ledger, Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables, Oracle Purchasing, and
Oracle Cash Management. About 5,000 users depend on the travel management
components of the system.
NAFS
quickly brought new efficiencies to many of NATO’s core operational
processes, including budgeting, travel, treasury, disbursement, procurement,
and supply functions. Over time, however, driven by the need for centralized
financial processes and the challenge of meeting the requirements of the IPSAS
guidelines, NATO required additional functionality.
“Obtaining
a consolidated view of operational and financial positions has long been a
manual, time-consuming, and resource-intensive process,” admits Philip
Declerck, a project manager in the NATO Communication and Information Systems
(CIS) Services Agency (NCSA). “Our organization must deliver information more
quickly than ever, along with visibility back to source data and complete
audit trails.”
NATO’s
financial controllers are aware of the benefits of centralized accounting
practices, such as the ability to meet fiduciary and statutory requirements
more efficiently and more comprehensively manage risk across the extended
enterprise. “Our main motivation for updating NAFS to a centralized system was
the creation of NCSA as a single agency with a decentralized structure, but
with one financial controller and a
central
accounting department responsible for all decentralized sites of NCSA,”
explains Lieutenant General Ulrich H. M. Wolf, NCSA director.
According
to Wolf, NATO’s technical goals for the new centralized financial system were
to support the IPSAS accounting standard, improve information sharing, and
provide a consolidated reporting base for creating financial statements. If
all went as planned, Centralized NAFS (CNAFS) would provide one standardized
platform that reduced total cost of ownership and offered new financial
capabilities throughout NATO.
“Our
principal task is to install, operate, maintain, and support the
communication and information systems of the affiliated headquarters during
peacetime and crisis,” Wolf says. “A centralized approach not only enables
new functional opportunities based on improved information sharing and
consolidated information but also reduces administration and support costs,”
he adds. “Consolidating several systems reduces overall costs while enabling
the alliance to create better financial forecasts.”
__________________________
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__________________________
Downsize HR and Cut Costs Without Reducing
Services
Spurred by the promise of wide-ranging cost
savings, a growing number of HR departments are replacing their multiple
Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) platforms from a variety of
vendors with a single, enterprise-wide HRIS, reports Debra Garcia, Oracle
director of the HCM product line.
HRIS consolidations, begun in some cases
before the slump, are being accelerated as large companies eye efficiencies
made possible when they no longer need to staff to support outdated, often
customized HRIS or call centers for multiple platforms, which often grow up
because of mergers or decentralized decision-making.
A single HRIS can provide a foundation for
efficient HR services that are shared corporate-wide. “I’m engaged with one
client in the Atlanta area that has three outdated HR systems, and they’re
now deciding which one to upgrade so they won’t need three different staffs
to maintain three different systems,”
Garcia says. A similar move allowed a chemical-industry company to expand its
employee-to-HR-staff ratio from 60 to 1 to 200 to 1, she adds.
When HR departments standardize on a core
system and upgrade their choice to its latest release, they’re also better
positioned to manage today’s varied workforces, which may span Baby Boomers
to young “Generation Y” employees. “Companies have difficulties accommodating
all of the different learning styles, compensation needs, and desires for
work/life balance with older HR systems chosen because of features that were
important six or seven years ago,” Garcia points out.
Garcia advises HR managers to evaluate HRIS
upgrades in part for the modern HRIS components they offer, such as portals,
Web 2.0 collaboration tools, and self-service applications. “These
capabilities provide the first line of defense for answering questions so
employees contact the call center only for information they can’t get elsewhere,”
she explains. “That’s when efficiencies really come into play, because you’ll
need only a fraction of the HR employees you might otherwise require.”
Many organizations that have already
centralized to a single HRIS system and helpdesk are now taking the same
standardization model to their newer, strategic applications that help manage
talent. This new, integrated HRIS and talent framework provides immediate as
well as long-term benefits to the bottom line and help companies forced to
“do more with less.”
Management Excellence: Surviving and
Thriving in a Tough Economy
Businesses are discovering that
in both good economic times and bad, the competitive advantage afforded by
operational efficiency has begun to fade with widespread adoption of ERP
solutions. That’s why, in the current economic climate, organizations that
reach beyond operational efficiency to achieve "Management
Excellence" can position themselves not just to survive, but actually
thrive.
"That is why Oracle is pioneering the technologies and business
processes that enable Management Excellence. That is, the automation and
integration of management activities into large-scale management processes,
which are in turn linked to operational systems," says John Kopcke, BI
thought leader and senior vice president, Enterprise Performance Management
Global Business Unit, Oracle.
Smart,
Agile, Aligned
To achieve Management Excellence, according to Kopcke, companies must be
"smart," analyzing data in faster, smarter ways. They must be
"agile," using that intelligence to drive timely action across the
enterprise. And they must be "aligned," ensuring that everyone in
the organization is working toward a clear set of goals.
"Oracle's pioneering Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) System—the
industry’s first integrated, hot-pluggable, end-to-end EPM system—is uniquely
able to
drive Management
Excellence," adds Kopcke.
From
Crisis to Opportunity
"Many companies do a fine job of reporting quarterly performance
results," says John O'Rourke, senior director, EPM product marketing.
"However, in the face of rapidly changing conditions, those
organizations that are able to report on key indicators and metrics on a
monthly, weekly, or even daily basis have the potential to gain key
advantages over their competitors."
To focus on future market opportunities, tools offered by Oracle such as
predictive modeling and simulation can be particularly effective at this
time, according O'Rourke.
Again, it comes down to being "smart, agile, and aligned,"
according to O'Rourke.
"Companies need to be 'smart,' closely monitoring demand and keeping
costs in sync with revenue," says O'Rourke. "They need to be
'agile,' monitoring changes in their markets and businesses so they can
respond quickly to both negative and positive changes. And they need to be
'aligned,' investing resources in the most profitable opportunities and
empowering line managers to make informed decisions on a daily basis."
Hear John Kopcke lay out the
principles of Management Excellence.
Oracle CFO Summit Showcases Strategies for
Capitalizing on the Economic Downturn
Although the world’s economies may be in for a protracted
downturn, savvy companies will continue to invest in strategic IT and
business-process optimization projects to give themselves a competitive
advantage when better times return. That was a key take-away from Oracle’s
fourth annual CFO Summit, held November 5-6, 2008, in Chicago.
The event, titled “Preparing for Better Times: CFO Strategies for Managing
Through the Downturn,” brought together leading economists, academics, and
CFOs from across the nation to discuss how to protect the bottom line through
the current economic downturn, while still investing strategically in
globalization, M&A, technology innovations, as well as, other business
levers to drive competitive advantage when better times return.
Keynoting at the CFO Summit was renowned economist Martin Feldstein, chairman
emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the former chairman
of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan. Feldstein
told attendees that current economic problems could continue for at least
another 18 months, despite billions of dollars worth of financial bailouts by
governments
around the world to address financial and credit volatility.
According to Oracle Chairman Jeff Henley, the current crisis offers a perfect
opportunity for companies to push through politically sensitive internal
initiatives that can reduce IT complexity and costs today, while creating a
single, integrated platform to understand your business better and roll out
new products and services much more quickly to customers when the economy
recovers.
“Having been a CFO through several major downturns, I’m a firm believer that
sometimes a crisis can provide you with an opportunity to transform your
organization in ways that wouldn’t be possible during good times, because the
circumstances demand that you create leaner, more efficient operations,”
Henley told summit attendees. “That’s what happened to Oracle in the late
1990s, when our operating margins were under pressure. In 1998, we embarked
on an initiative to consolidate 52 application instances into a single global
instance, rationalize our data centers from 40 to 2, and standardize our
processes worldwide. By the time Oracle had emerged from the dot-com bust in
2003, we had more than doubled our operating margins and created a strong,
integrated platform to support our M&A and organic growth strategies.”
Chicago-based Exelon also understands the importance of continuing to invest
in technology transformation initiatives during the current downturn. The $19
billion electric utility recently launched an ambitious project to create a
more efficient, integrated financial platform by standardizing on Oracle
Hyperion and PeopleSoft solutions. Exelon Senior Vice President and CIO
Daniel Hill told CFOs present at
the event that Exelon remains committed to that effort, despite the
extreme volatility of natural gas prices and the U.S. credit crunch.
“Despite current market uncertainties, we can’t afford to stop investing in
initiatives like our finance transformation program that will help us
navigate through volatile business cycles, make prudent investments in our
operations, and return value to investors,” he explained.
Read more about the smart IT strategies that
companies are adopting to gain a competitive advantage in today’s uncertain
economic environment.
The Go-Betweens
Ten tips for connecting information technology with business. By Minda
Zetlin, February 2009 edition of ProfitOnline
Bobby Cameron, vice president and principal
analyst at Forrester Research, thought he was attending a meeting with
business leaders at a regional bank to explain the best practices of the IT
department. Instead, he found himself listening to complaints that IT never
met its commitments—with specific examples as proof.
“They would start up with both business and
IT involved in planning, but the CFO would take each organization off in a
room and they would hammer out the final specifics of that organization’s
budget,” he says. The two organizations would not reconcile their budgets
before they started spending. By then, it was too late for IT to influence
the process or review project
requirements, and the business side invariably wound up with some
unmet expectations. “It could have been handled much more cleanly if someone
from IT had been involved all the way through,” Cameron says.
It’s a familiar story that’s led many IT
departments to handle relations with business departments on an ongoing
basis, rather than project by project. In fact, Forrester found that 37
percent of CIOs deploy a group with the sole function of managing IT’s
relationship with its business counterparts.
Reflecting the nuances of the IT/business
relationship, there are many names for these go-between teams. Many companies
use “program management” or “portfolio management” to indicate oversight of a
collection of IT projects (while “project management” oversees one project at
a time). Others call it “relationship management,” focusing on the ongoing
interchange between IT and business rather than on projects. For especially
evolved companies, Forrester favors “demand management,” a more global view
based on understanding business needs and inclusive of technology in use,
including outsourced solutions.
Ten Tips: Structuring
Your Go-Between Strategy
Whatever you call it,
creating a go-between team really can improve IT/business alignment. Here are
some tips from IT leaders who’ve been there and IT experts who’ve seen it
done right—and wrong.
1. Create strategic discussions
between business and IT.
A
successful joint operation between IT and the lines of business requires the
liaison team to avoid getting bogged down in operational or organizational
details. The relationship should be a strategic
one. Andrew Horne, senior research director for the CIO Executive
Board, a division of the Corporate Executive Board, says recent research
supports this point. “We found liaisons sometimes mistakenly think they need
as much time as possible with their business partners. Actually, using the
time they have to create high-level discussions is what drives a successful
relationship.”
2. Include specialists from all relevant
areas. At one large company, Adam Nelson, director of
management and IT consulting at Keane, assembled go-between teams with a
liaison leader, a business analyst, a systems architect, a developer, and a
software tester. Each team was assigned to a different business unit. While
it may sound like a lot of personnel to fulfill the go-between function, it
turned out to be highly efficient, he says.
In
a typical situation, a project question from the business side is addressed
by a single liaison with the IT project manager—and the project manager
contacts the project team to get an answer. What develops is a confusing game
of telephone, especially if a technical issue lies outside the liaison’s
expertise.
In
Nelson’s model, a systems architect on the liaison team can answer an
architecture question without the game of telephone. And, if needed, that
architect can go directly to the architect on the project team and get an
informed answer. “Although you have more people on the team, you are breaking
down silos,” Nelson says.
Also,
it’s important to include people from the business units on the go-between
team—which might be easier than you think. “Most IT people are surprised at
how many business employees want to learn more about IT and what happens behind
the curtain,” says Jerry Luftman, distinguished professor at
Stevens
Institute of Technology’s Howe School of Technology Management, in Hoboken,
New Jersey, and executive vice president of the Society for Information
Management.
3.
Choose team members with great care. Whether hiring from IT, the business side, or
outside the company, selecting liaison team members must be done with great
care, Nelson warns. “It’s very difficult to find the right people and very
easy to staff this function inappropriately,” he says. This could jeopardize
buy-in from business contacts, who may ignore the liaisons and existing
contacts to deal with IT issues. Team members need to have a good
understanding of business and technology cultures. Calm is also necessary,
Luftman says. “Look for people who don’t panic, don’t point fingers, and also
don’t take everything on themselves but instead marshal forces to get the
problem resolved. Collaboration is key.”
Succession planning is also essential. What
will you do if one of your liaisons moves on to a different job or goes on
leave? “If you lose a team member, you’re hurting,” Nelson says. “So you have
to be careful who you put in that role. You have to make the investment in
getting the right people in those roles.”
4.
Make sure go-between teams do not report only to IT.
IT consultant and author Eric D. Brown discovered an issue when a
client required that projects go through a project management office—which
reported to the CIO. “The only projects that got done were ones that
interested the IT group or the CIO,” he says.
But even a team created and funded by the
IT department will be most effective if it also reports to top
business managers. “I don’t generally
believe in ‘matrixed’ organizations, where employees report to more than one
area at once. But in this case, it’s justified, because you need them to
report to two different managers and have access to two different managers to
do their jobs effectively,” Luftman says.
Indeed Brown says one of the most effective
go-between groups he’s seen reported to a chief strategy officer, completely
separate from the IT department. “They were involved early in any five-year
plan, and that helped them set strategy not only for technology but for the
organization as a whole.”
5.
Include senior-level IT staff on the team. Senior IT/business liaisons will need respect from
senior-level business staff—and they’ll have an easier time getting it if
they’re seen as equals within the organization. “They need to be respected by
both business and IT stakeholders—otherwise they’re dead meat. It’s one of
the toughest jobs in IT,” says Luftman.
Horne says research from the CIO Executive
Board finds more senior-level IT execs are joining go-between teams. “They’ve
gone from people who were essentially order takers and become people who can
actually sit on the executive committee of a business unit and help shape its
strategy,” he says.
6.
Do not put the go-between team in a project management role. Although successful team members may come from a
project management background, they should give up their project management
roles when they become IT/business liaisons. “A project manager will tend to
take the position that his or her project should be the priority. It’s a
natural
psychological transition,” says Nelson.
Instead, a good relationship manager should
take a macro view of projects and favor those with the biggest potential
benefit. “Of course, investment and return should be balanced against other
organizational priorities, such as customer service, that also provide
benefit,” says Nelson. “Having multiple liaison teams helps to create that
balance.”
7.
Make sure liaisons meet on a regular basis, even if they are assigned to
separate business units. Without this monthly or weekly contact, liaisons can
wind up isolated from the rest of the go-between team and from IT itself.
“You want to make sure each business unit leader meets not only their own
team members, but team members for the other business units as well,” Nelson
says. “If they see IT servicing all the business units in the same way, it
will increase their respect and trust of IT.”
8.
Don’t make the team the only point of contact between business and IT. Having IT/business liaisons shouldn’t eliminate
other contact between the two organizations. Luftman believes getting a
variety of IT and business people working together yields better
relationships and understanding. But where does that leave your new
go-betweens?
“Typically the business says, ‘Don’t talk
to each other—you must go through the liaison,’” Luftman says. “The
appropriate role for the liaisons is to serve as a facilitator to make sure
these conversations are appropriate and effective, whenever they can and as
often as they can.” However, these conversations can affect morale. It’s
natural for liaisons
to see multiple points of contact as
undermining their core charter. But their job is to keep the conversation
going, not shut it down. Senior management’s job is to assure the liaisons
these conversations generally make things better, not worse.
9.
When devising a go-between strategy, consider the size of your organization. More than anything, Cameron reports, the size of the
IT department determines whether it has a team of IT/business go-betweens.
“We think the turning point is around 50 people,” he says. “Below 50, the CIO
can do ‘water cooler’ relationship management. Past 50, it starts to get
rough.”
At that point, Cameron says, organizations
must become more structured, with specialized tasks and standardized
methodologies. A program management office may start dealing with the overall
business and capital budgets, beyond the day-to-day project grind. As IT
departments grow to 100 or 150 people, he adds, the organization will start
feeling the need to assign relationship management as a full-time role. “The
bigger the IT department, the more disciplined it needs to be,” he says.
10.
Assure a clear career path for the team (and beyond). Don’t expect your liaisons to stay liaisons forever. “You have to
make sure that the person taking this job—which is a pretty important
one—sees it as a great career opportunity,” Luftman says. Someone coming from
IT will gain an opportunity to learn more about the business, while someone
coming from a business unit may get the chance to learn not only about IT but
also about some of the other business units in the company.
In either case, Luftman says, the new job
should be seen as either a promotion or a path to a future promotion. “The
attraction is that they’re coming onto the team as a grooming experience and
will come out as something better,” he says. “You want to make sure other
candidates see that’s the case.”
Generally, he advises planning for liaisons
to stay in their jobs for a maximum of two to three years, but he notes that
some organizations “manage this very well” as a permanent job. “That’s partly
because the people who do it are excellent facilitators, and they expand
their roles into a larger initiative that can cross organizational borders,”
says Luftman. “So there’s an opportunity to grow within the relationship management
function.”
Recruiting and deploying an effective
go-between team takes effort, but it’s worth the trouble. Tom Trainer,
executive vice president and CIO-in-residence at BTM Corporation, set up an
enterprise program management office when he was CIO at Pepsico—and it became
central to IT strategy. “As an element of our overall governance process,”
explains Trainer, “it gradually gave us the ability to make much better
investment decisions that made sense across the whole business.”
The
Value of Sticking with Vanilla
By Carol
Hildebrand, February 2009 edition of ProfitOnline
Andy Ziegele makes a living by assessing
the operational value of corporate technology—as a senior manager at Ernst
& Young’s transaction advisory services, it’s his job to make sure his
clients know the business value of the assets they want to buy and sell. Profit
spoke to him to get his perspective on customization of business
software—which he says can turn out to be a challenging business investment
for enterprises.
Profit: How pervasive is the issue of software
customization?
Ziegele: It’s been an issue since the early days. Doing
technology due diligence for buyers looking at companies, I’ve run into it
with companies that have customized versions of ERP [enterprise resource
planning] software. Overall costs may increase without the companies
realizing any long-term business benefits. I’ve seen systems that are so
customized that the base package is unrecognizable and that have hundreds of
add-on packages that do odd things. Over the years, shareholder value has
decreased due to customization.
Profit: Why do companies customize if it causes such
tremendous challenges?
Ziegele: To be fair, companies start out by making one small
decision, and it goes on from there—they end up with a hugely customized
system
a thousand small steps at a time.
Some decisions may be the right ones in the
near term but costly in the long term. The temptation is to make a few small
changes in ERP software to pacify the user base. However, many small changes
can turn into a big change over time.
Profit: What problems do companies generally run into when
they customize?
Ziegele: When you customize ERP software, it can be more
challenging to maintain and to upgrade to newer versions of the software.
With each upgrade, you have to go back in and reapply the custom code, which
often lacks documentation. It’s not unheard of to have customizations that
are completely unknown by the company, as the creators didn’t document the
changes and may have long since left the company. As a result, many companies
stick with older versions of their ERP software simply because it is
difficult and expensive to upgrade.
Profit: Sounds like a risky situation for businesses. What
are the primary issues that you see right now?
Ziegele: Customized ERP software can hamper growth strategy.
For example, I ran into one company that wanted to implement scheduling
software, but the solutions the IT staff evaluated called for a more recent
version of the ERP software. The company was stuck with its highly customized
older version, so it had to develop custom interfaces.
Running older versions of ERP software also
increases your vulnerability to viruses and malware. I’ve seen companies that
have to run their ERP system in isolation to safeguard it from attack; it’s
an extreme case, but more often than not, the company did not budget for that
amount of maintenance and
programming work. If they did the analysis and took a holistic view of
what customization might mean to the business, they might have decided not to
proceed with those customizations.
Profit: With such issues, are you finding that more
companies are considering vanilla implementations?
Ziegele: I would love it if going vanilla became a trend,
but it hasn’t yet. Customization is very pervasive in the culture. I’ve
looked at more than 200 companies of different sizes and industries, and I’ve
seen very few people who stick to vanilla implementations.
Profit: What do you think is the main reason for this
resistance?
Ziegele: Most of it is political. Users are convinced that
they have unique business processes so they resist the notion that they can
work with a standard vanilla ERP system. I implemented a vanilla ERP system
in a previous position, and business users insisted that they needed
customization. I said, “OK, we will meet your needs,” and we never had to
customize. It’s a difficult battle to win, but it’s worth it. Leaving the ERP
system vanilla helps keep the overall IT costs down.
Profit: How can CIOs maximize their chances of
implementation success?
Ziegele: If I had to pick a critical success factor for
getting vanilla ERP systems implemented, it has to be executive sponsorship.
You have to be able to sell the idea. It requires a salesperson to convince
management to keep the software standard.
Getting to a stable and vanilla software
implementation can be challenging, particularly if you have to revamp a
highly customized environment. But if you can take your
closing from 23 days down to 5, for
example, and easily handle follow-on projects because the budget isn’t paying
for maintenance staff, management will listen.
Discounted
Collaborate09 Registration Rates for Public Sector
Registration for Collaborate09 is open
and Quest is again offering a discount on registration fees for this event to
Public Sector employees. Public Sector customers can register at the early bird rate of $975 for
paid members and $1,100 for non-members through April 2. (This
represents a savings of up to $360 compared to the second cheapest early bird
rate!)
To request this discounted rate, please contact registration@questdirect.org.
Generally, if your email comes from a governmental email domain, that will
document your eligibility for the government discount. If Quest has
questions, they may ask that you send a copy of your governmental ID for
verification. Once they confirm your status, Quest will send you a code
to enter during on-line registration.
Collaborate09 promises to be great - we're looking
forward to seeing you there!
Forrester Research Talks Oracle
Data Masking
In the second of a series of Webcasts on database security, Forrester
Research analyst Jonathan Penn discusses why data masking is a cost-effective
way to reduce the risk to sensitive data in non production environments such
as test or development environments, or when sharing data with business
partners.
·
View the Webcast: Oracle Database
11g:
Data Masking
·
Get your free Oracle Data Masking
resource kit
Special Report:
Project Management
In today's market, project managers are
under more pressure than ever to launch successful initiatives while keeping
costs low. How can they do more with less? According to a recent article from PM Solutions,
they should focus on eliminating wasted effort, find real ways to measure
improvement, develop strong employees, and align projects with their
strategy. Read on to get more ideas for launching successful projects from
other project management experts, including Oracle's own team.
Ten Tips For Aligning Business With IT
Many companies use “program management” or “portfolio management” to indicate
oversight of IT projects. Whatever you call it, creating a go-between team
really can improve IT/business alignment. Here are some tips from IT leaders
who've been there and IT experts who've seen it done right—and wrong.
iSeminar: Complete Enterprise Project Management for
Internal IT
Learn how to improve internal IT operational efficiencies and control costs
with Oracle Projects. Register to get a free podcast, white paper, and
personalized ROI Study.
Next Generation Project Management
Today's project portfolio management (PPM) software is making IT transparent
for the business and enabling a true partnership between the CIO and the
business—especially when companies install PPM software that is compatible
with their other enterprise software, such as ERP, customer relationship
management, accounting, and sales force management applications.
White Paper: Why Projects Fail (pdf)
As executives' expectations reach new levels, the enterprise is tasked to
deal with conflicting objectives around increased complexity in the
stewardship of their project investments while responding to the need for
higher transparency. Avoiding the common project pitfalls will help the
enterprise successfully navigate the challenges and better position projects
for success.
How Technology Drives Project Management Success
Companies large and small rely on an array of complex,
expensive projects. Here, Oracle customers
and experts discuss projects and
technology, revealing how they drive their projects forward.
Blog: Project Management 2.0
From Andrew Sparks, Senior Practice Director, working for Oracle EMEA, “In
many respects the Social Projects Office mockup presented features common to
many web-based project (portfolio) management tools. But it had some very
intriguing crossovers from the Web 2.0 world. For example, you could sign up
and follow projects that you are fan of
(though not necessarily a participant) by tagging them."
Oracle Customer Services – Open House Series
Learn how Oracle can help you optimize your
Oracle investment now to drive down Total Cost of Ownership, Reduce the risk
of IT projects and Drive higher business value from your IT investments.
You'll learn practical examples of how you can drive cost and risk from your
IT infrastructure.
Information Technology leaders are under pressure to reduce costs while
driving increased IT business value and reducing risk. The Oracle Customer
Services Day is focused on helping customers across the product portfolio
optimize their investment by leveraging the experience, knowledge and insight
of the over 14,000 service professionals and their average of over 6 years of
helping customers like you optimize their Oracle investment.
Learn and discover ways to drive
increased value from your Oracle Software and Support Services.
Hear practical examples of how we have helped companies like yours drive
increased value from their Oracle investment.
· Lower Total Cost of Ownership – Drive down labor
costs though better systems management and maintenance across the entire IT
solution lifecycle
· Lower Business Risk – Leverage industry and Oracle
best practices to optimize results
· Higher Business Value – Drive better business
results through better software utilization
Current schedule of Seminars:
February
3 - Atlanta
February 19 - Miami
March 19 - Boston
March 26 - New York City
April
2 - Toronto
April 16 - Reston
April 21 - Chicago
April 28 - Dallas
May 13 - Redwood Shores
Be sure to check out Oracle Events website for seminars
near you! You can also Register Now by calling 800.820.5592
ext. 5952
Gartner Ranks Oracle Hyperion as
Strong Leader in New Magic Quadrant
In its recently released Magic Quadrant for
Corporate Performance Management Suites, Gartner gives an admiring nod to
Oracle's Hyperion applications and enhancements
resulting from the two companies' integration.
According to Gartner, "Oracle Hyperion continues to deliver on its
product road map, adding a new predictive-planning capability... Oracle
Hyperion has added new capabilities, delivering Oracle
Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management using an
OLAP-based allocation engine to support cost and revenue management. Oracle
Hyperion is also further integrating all elements of its EPM suite through a
common foundation for easier administration, shared metadata, unified
security and simplified installation." To review this powerful
validation go to the
complete report.
Oracle Continues to Offer
Flexible Payment Options to Help Customers Acquire IT They Need
During uncertain economic times, customers expect
their IT investment to play a significant role in realizing value from their
business operations. Through Oracle Financing, Oracle’s ability to offer
flexible payment options helps customers acquire the IT they need while
stretching their IT budget and turning large up-front cash outlays into
affordable payments over time.
“Oracle continues to have broad credit approval
bandwidth, competitive rates, and a solid foundation for funding,” said Anil
Vora, VP, Oracle Financing. “Customers will appreciate the flexibility payment
plans afford them now more than ever. Large customers value our flexibility
and our ability to incorporate a total cost of ownership approach that aligns
business value with payments; and midsize customers appreciate the
availability of financing.”
Customers can use Oracle
financing, leasing, and custom payment plans to acquire Oracle products and
services, solutions built on Oracle technology,
and related products and
services, from Oracle or a distribution partner. Benefits to customers
include the ability to:
§
Match payments to budget constraints
§
Align payments to deployment and productivity
gains
§
Significantly reduce upfront cash outlay
§
Access capital through preservation of credit
lines
§
Choose from multiple payment and lease options
for Oracle products and services
§
Utilize total solution financing for the
entire IT operation (consulting, leasing, software, hardware, etc.)
Oracle Financing has
helped more than 10,000 Oracle customers in more than 50 countries acquire
the IT they need over 20 years of global leadership in software financing.
Quest Enhancement Request System
Would you like
for your job to be easier? Quest's enhancement request system can help! By
using the Quest tool and vetting enhancements through Quest Special Interest
Groups, Industry Users Groups and/or Product Users Group, you can shorten the
time it takes for you to find out which
enhancements
are most important to customers. Let them decide and do the work for you! For
more information on the Quest enhancement request system and how Quest can
help you, contact jesse.howard@questdirect.org or click here to get involved today!
_________
Product News & Announcements
The Post Sales Reference program at
Oracle helps customers talk to customers!
This is NOT a
typical reference program - this program links Customers-2-Customers! You
will be able to talk to people that are interested in what you know and find
what you need to know!
Log on to mix.oracle.com and search for the group
Customers-2-Customers. Send a request to become part of the group and
check each day to see if there are any new requests you can answer!
NEW - PeopleSoft Issues List
The Quest
PeopleSoft Advocacy Committee is creating an issues list to track questions
and answers on your PeopleSoft product due to the huge success of the JD
Edwards EnterpriseOne Issues List. Please take a moment to provide Quest with
some questions you would like to have answered then watch for answers to
those questions in upcoming Quest communications. Click here to take the survey.
NEW - JD Edwards World Issues List
The Quest JD
Edwards World Advocacy Committee is creating an issues list to track
questions and answers on your World product due to the huge success of the JD
Edwards EnterpriseOne Issues List. Please take a moment to provide Quest with
some questions you would like to have answered then watch for answers to
those
questions in upcoming Quest communications. Click here to take the survey.
NEW - Oracle Utilities Issues List
The Quest
Utilities Advisory Council is creating an issues list to track questions and
answers on your Oracle Utilities products due to the huge success of the JD
Edwards EnterpriseOne Issues List. Please take a moment to provide Quest with
some questions you would like to have answered then watch for answers to
those questions in upcoming Quest communications. Click here to take the survey.
Agencies Cut Costs of PeopleSoft
Implementation with Oracle’s PeopleSoft Accelerator for Public Sector
Two
U.S. state governments are currently in the midst of adopting the new
preconfigured PeopleSoft Accelerator for Public Sector from Oracle Consulting
that promises to reduce the time and effort of statewide PeopleSoft
Enterprise implementations by an average of 30 percent.
“Spurred by the chance to also see a similar reduction in implementation times,
a number of other federal agencies, local governments, and K-12 school
districts in the U.S. are now evaluating the accelerator approach for new
PeopleSoft installations,” says Jackie Cheng, senior director of Oracle
Consulting.
Oracle’s PeopleSoft Accelerator for Public Sector is a preconfigured database
instance with a prepopulated
set of
templates for the core PeopleSoft modules designed for U.S. public sector
organizations. The accelerator aggregates best practices developed during
previous public sector engagements and is designed to jump-start many of the
set-up routines and workflow processes that are common across the public
sector.
“With preconfigured best practices we can say, ‘This approach has worked for
others when they set up their chart of accounts; will this work for your
operations?’” Cheng explains. “This allows public sector customers to quickly
configure many of the basic elements to reduce set-up time and costs, and
allow the organizations to devote more of their resources to the areas that
are unique to them.”
In addition to charts of accounts, customers can also take advantage of
templates for establishing procurement catalogs, purchasing workflows, and
annual financial reports within PeopleSoft.
“Moreover, the preconfiguration approach also reduces risk,” Cheng says.
“There are times when a customer perhaps isn’t familiar with all the
inter-workings and the business flows of their systems. Because many of the
basics are already preconfigured, we can help them to make better decisions
about how to accomplish specific goals.”
Cheng adds that Oracle Consulting now also offers a PeopleSoft to Hyperion
Integration accelerator to help public sector customers speed connections
between the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and performance management
systems. __________________
Podcasts
Spotlight Customers Saving with Oracle Database 11g
Oracle
Database Podcasts showcase the latest information on Oracle Database from
Oracle technical experts, customers, and partners. Send customers to our
Podcast Center on oracle.com to see the dozens of available topics. Visit the
Podcast Center.
New Recorded Webcast Series: Get
More from Your Applications with Middleware
This
new webcast series provides viewers with the latest tips, techniques, and
best practices on middleware for Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards,
PeopleSoft, and Siebel applications. Topics include how SOA integration,
portal technologies, identity management, and other middleware approaches can
help customers get more from their applications. This series is for an
application developer, application technologist, fusion developer, or
middleware developer who wants to learn from product experts about how to
better leverage application investments. Specific webcast topics and links
are posted on oracle.com.
Access the
recorded webcasts.
__________________
Pella Corporation
to Host Super Reference Showcase
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, April
28 – Thursday, April 30, 2009 and plan now to join Pella & Oracle for
2 days of interactive discussions on how and why these two companies have partnered
and planned for success today, tomorrow and beyond.
Sneak Preview
· Exclusive C-Level Session
· Gain insight into the Pella & Oracle
partnership – how & why it works
· Learn about Pella lean initiatives
· How Pella has taken SOA and other Oracle Technologies
to the next level
· Hear from a Special Guest Analyst
· Attend a Breakout Session (Flow Manufacturing,
OM/Configurator, ASCP/Demand Planning and much more)
· Request a 1:1 demo session with Pella & Oracle
· Participate in a Plant Tour
For more
information click here or contact your Oracle account
representative.
__________________
Announcing One Additional Year of
Extended Support for Oracle's PeopleSoft HRMS 8.8
Oracle’s PeopleSoft
HRMS 8.8 customers will be able to purchase an additional year of Extended
Support. This adds a fourth year to Oracle's existing three-year timeframe
and extends the overall Extended Support date from December 2010 to December
2011. Oracle’s PeopleSoft HRMS 8.8 will move to indefinite Sustaining Support
in January 2012. Working closely with our User Groups and incorporating their
feedback,
additional time is
being provided to allow customers to plan, budget, and upgrade to newer
releases of the HRMS applications. The additional year of Extended Support
will be available at the same rate as the third year. For more information,
please contact your Oracle Support Sales representative.
This announcement is also posted on MetaLink, clear here for more information!
__________________
SPECIAL DELIVERY!
The latest Oracle information
delivered right to your desktop
Inside
news and original content you won't find anywhere else, delivered to your
inbox each quarter, on Oracle applications and technology solutions.
Subscribe to Oracle Newsletters
(You may be asked to register.)
Choose from these
editions:
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Oracle BI product news from both the technical and the applications
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(Every two months) [See a sample]
Content Management
News on Oracle's content management suite and platform, including Oracle
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Customer
Relationship Management
Oracle and Siebel CRM products, including Siebel CRM On Demand, focusing on
sales, marketing, customer service, analytics, and call center topics. [See a sample]
Database Insider
News on Oracle Database 11g, including
interviews, market news, executive webcasts, and user group and tech guru
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Weekly Bulletin
Keep up with Profit Online every week with the newly launched Executive
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Financial
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Focused on content for CFO's, including product and event news, in-depth
analysis from industry pundits, and Oracle executive content. [See a sample]
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Insightful looks at the global financial services market, including product
news and reviews, special content from i-flex, and emphasis on regulation and
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News, reviews, and insights on the continually evolving, industry-leading
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(Every two months) [See a sample]
Human Capital
Management
The latest news on Oracle and PeopleSoft HCM applications from drill-downs
into Release 9 and Web 2.0 innovations to interviews with industry pundits
and analysts on major trends in HR. [See a sample]
Lean Supply Chain
News and analysis from the fast-moving world of global manufacturing, with an
emphasis on the growing movement in Lean philosophies and the importance of
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Linux
News on Oracle's continuing contributions to the Linux community, including
events, offers, and links to technical articles on OTN and in Oracle
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On Demand
Articles on evolving trends in the growing world of software-as-a-service,
including new services and technologies available from Oracle. [See a sample]
Oracle's Crystal
Ball
The latest global news, resources and training information for Oracle's
Crystal Ball software. [See a sample]
Procurement
Product news and industry analysis on managing, leveraging, and maximizing
supplier relationships in a fast-moving global economy. [See a sample]
Public Sector
News on Oracle solutions for government organizations and educational
institutions, as well as news about how local, state, and federal agencies
are embracing new technologies and best practices from private enterprise. [See a sample]
____________________________
DBA Resolutions for 2009
Tom Kyte, Oracle DBA and
founder of the Ask Tom blog, gave the Oracle Database Insider his resolutions
for 2009 in hopes that other DBAs will follow suit. "In the coming
year," says Kyte, "I resolve to...
· - Practice a restore at least once a
month under different scenarios. DBAs are allowed to make mistakes—with one
exception: They
· cannot make
mistakes in recovery. We can fix any other mistake easily, but not recovery
mistakes.
· - Learn something new. When was the last
time you read the "what's new in" chapters in the documentation?
Take a couple of minutes to see what's new.
· - Participate in user group discussion
forums. If I just do the same thing day in, day out, never experiencing what
others are doing, I'll stagnate. The easiest way to stay current, to network,
and to learn something new is to participate.
· - Become a mentor for someone more
junior. I'll get two things out of this: First, I will learn a ton of new
stuff because they will ask me things I don't fully know. Second, I'll have
put in place the next generation of DBAs so that I can move up or move over
in the future. Training your replacement is one sure way to be able to
progress yourself.
· - Be more thoughtful, don’t jump to
conclusions, take my time. As the old saying goes, haste makes waste. And
that is never more true than when doing something that will take hours or
longer to accomplish, as many DBA tasks may take. I will study the options
and pick the one
·
· that is best suited for the problem at
hand—realizing that the approach I take in 2009 might be very different from
the one I took in 2008, 2000, 1995, or any other time.
|
