Convergence

Convergence (\kən-ˈvər-jən(t)s\)

1  :  the act of converging and especially moving toward union or uniformity; especially :  coordinated movement of the two eyes so that the image of a single point is formed on corresponding retinal areas

2  :  the state or property of being convergent

3  :  independent development of similar characters (as of bodily structure of unrelated organisms or cultural traits) often associated with similarity of habits or environment

4  :  the merging of distinct technologies, industries, or devices into a unified whole

"Convergence." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

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We're seeing convergence in process, right now, in Oracle's enterprise applications.  Some examples:

Simplified UI:   Take a look at Simplified UI in Fusion Applications Release 8.  Then look again at the Simplified UI recently announced for the E-Business Suite.  And then take another look at the new UI for PeopleSoft 9.2.  They're all looking and working in a similar fashion.  Built on different technologies, to be sure, but providing a similar user experience.  Functional design patterns are driving a convergence in the user experience for Oracle's packaged applications.

Continuous Delivery:  PeopleSoft uses a continuous delivery model - feature packs developed incrementally, then automatically distributed to end users for review and application in an incremental fashion.  Not upgrades, but incremental enhancements of the existing version...which may eventually lead to the end of major upgrade events for PeopleSoft altogether.  With online patching as of release 12.2,  the E-Business Suite seems headed in the same direction.  With Fusion on the cloud as SaaS, moving to a continuous delivery model is not a difficult matter (in fact, short of the branding of new releases and the perception that branding creates, Fusion Applications is already built on a continuous delivery model).

Cloud:  The convergence here seems to be one of industry strategy.  Commercial industries on cloud, public sector industries on cloud, and the recently announced clouds directed at the higher education space.  Oracle is utilizing their basic cloud applications services, then supplementing with additional services built for specific industries.  Again, the higher education market is the best example of this:  Student Cloud, Higher Education Cloud, and new higher education specific functionality for Fusion Applications.

These are simply the most visible examples of the convergence trend taking place within Oracle's enterprise applications.  There are more taking place, and I'm sure the future holds even more.  We're barely at the beginning of this trend.

The real question here:  what does this mean for the customers?  IMHO, it's significant...but each customer will probably come up with different answers.  Just some ideas to get the gears turning:  co-existence between different Oracle applications with a single, consistent user experience; hybrid platforms running transactions on-premise, but with big data processed on the cloud to provide information through a combination of transactional reporting and embedded analytics; moving from teams supporting major upgrade efforts to small teams engaged in continuous delivery, thus freeing up more resources for important, strategically-oriented work.

That's all I can jam into this post without turning it into an epistle.  Hopefully I've left you with your brain cells jiggling about what convergence within Oracle's enterprise applications means to you.  Thoughts?  Comments?  You know what to do.

14 for 14

So all the cool kids are sharing their predictions for 2014.  While I'm not much of a prognosticator, I thought it would be fun to share my own thoughts on the upcoming year.  If nothing else, we can all have a good laugh in 12 months over how poorly my crystal ball works.  Here we go:

1. The difference between fads and serious uptake will depend more than ever on whether we can figure out ways to add real value (better, faster, cheaper) for people and enterprises.  Wearable tech, big data, and the internet of things all fall into this category in 2014.

2. Enterprises moving to the public cloud will become a stampede in 2014.  The savings in total cost of ownership throughout the life cycle are just too good to pass up, security concerns aside.  Follow the money.

3. The combination of HTML5 and JavaScript for web development will continue to take the world by storm.  Frameworks (Oracle ADF, Twitter Bootstrap, Node.js) and design patterns make the builds easy and allow us to focus on the user experience design...which is the make or break point for web-based apps.

4. The differentiating factors for enterprise applications on the cloud will be:  ease of use, ease of services integration, ease of data integration, ease of simple customization, and cost.  Any product missing on any of these points will fizzle out, especially in terms of net new customers.  

5. Experienced enterprise applications customers, defined as those with more than five years experience under their belt, will realize that they’ve squeezed all the productivity gains available to them from automation.  2014 will be the year that the need for information from all that transactional data becomes the predominant demand from existing enterprise applications customers.  Which will make that ease of data integration point raised in #4 above a really, really big deal.

6. Hand-in-hand with #5 above, we’ll see a significant rise in 3rd-party reporting and BI solutions offering technology-agnostic “information as a service”.  Pentaho, Domo and Good Data are companies already well-positioned to take advantage of this trend.  OBIEE in the cloud could take off as well if the integration and pricing are right.

7. Somebody will finally figure out that your phone is not the right platform for complex reporting and analytics.  The phone, however, is a great platform for executing simple business transactions.

8. Oracle will continue with their transition from a database company to a technology company.  The transition will not be complete in 2014, but that’s not a worry…Oracle has the balance sheet to play a very long game.  And we will see concrete, measurable signs of their progress in 2014.

9. Oracle will also begin the evaluation of their numerous and somewhat disjointed array of products.  Those that make sense to the roadmap and those that make money will be separated from those that don’t.  Oracle management will begin working the exit plan for those in the latter set.

10. Technology consulting:  think consolidation and change here. Many implementers and integrators  will close up shop, unable to compete as the market continues to morph into a price-driven commodity space. Others will move into pure consulting plays, offering advice (road mapping, product selection, etc.) rather than implement/build services.  And some will shift into staff augmentation shops, offering services during workload peaks and specific projects.

11. Coupled with #4 above, we’ll see a significant rise in the acceptance and use of Integration-as-a-Service (“IaaS”); integration offered as a transparent service a la SnapLogic, Informatica Cloud, and MuleSoft.  One interesting angle in the mix, however…enterprise applications vendors will discover that a good API library will be a differentiating factor selling cloud-based applications.  SalesForce has this nailed already with their Salesforce1 platform.  

12. Enterprises will stop managing the mobile device you use as they figure out that the name of the game is managing resources, not devices.  As a result, any IT used by the enterprise will have to be platform-agnostic…’Droid, Windows, iOS, whatever else.

13. Watch for Amazon Web Services to lead an outpouring of new offerings from cloud vendors moving up the tech stack as the tech stack itself becomes less relevant:  platform-as-a-service (“PaaS”) and higher value services for enterprises.  Lots of returns available here in “adding value around the edges” of the enterprise.  This is another example of what I call the “gold rush business model”; check the history of any gold rush and you’ll see that it was not the miners who got rich, but the businesses selling supplies and services to the miners - adding value around the edges of the mining operations.

14. Oracle Fusion Applications will build more momentum in 2014, especially in the HCM market.  FUSE...The simplified user interface, combined with the SaaS offerings, will prove to be a sweet spot in adding value while lowering the cost.

So, there you have it - 14 predictions for 2014.  Thoughts, comments, discussion, critiques are all welcome...at least until New Year's Day ;)

Past Discoverer...And Beyond!

Apologies to all you Buzz Lightyear fans for the title...

If you pay any attention to the Oracle enterprise applications space, you’re likely aware of the fuss being raised over the impending demise of Oracle Discoverer.  Discoverer is a pretty nifty ad hoc reporting tool used for both enterprise applications and in “home grown” data applications.  It’s been a pretty good tool when used properly.

The thing is, Discoverer has been around for a very long time.  And, in all honesty, it just doesn’t play well with the other components in Oracle Fusion Middleware (“FMW”). As FMW continues to evolve and progress, Discoverer has unfortunately become a casualty of that evolution and progression.  While you don’t want to stop the continued improvement of FMW over a single component, the sunsetting of Discoverer does leave Oracle customers in a bit of a pickle moving forward in regards to handling ad hoc transactional reporting.  With that pickle in mind, let’s take a look at your options moving forward:

And a few notes to supplement the table of options:

1.  I’m not planning to discuss the legitimacy of the fuss over the sunsetting of Discoverer here.  You can check it for yourself at Page 8, Line Item 9 in the Oracle Lifetime Support document for Fusion Middleware at http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-support-middleware-069163.pdf. 

2.  Oracle’s recommended path is for Discoverer users to leverage Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence, which is part of the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition platform.

3.  Feedback from those using DOMA indicated that only the simplest of Discoverer workbooks will convert automatically.  Most require significant manual assistance.

So what’s the upshot of this blog post?  So that you can be informed and begin to prepare for the change.  While it’s not time to panic by any means, it is time to get ready:  consider your options, lay out your roadmap, then execute against that roadmap.  Discoverer is sunsetting.  What’s your plan?

Crazy Game Of Poker

Who's up for game two
What to do
My wallet's gettin thin
And I just lost my watch last night
Well I gotta problem
Just one answer
Gotta throw it all down
And kiss it goodbye
Yeah! 

That was a crazy game of poker
(That was a crazy game of poker)
I lost it all
(I lost it all)
But someday I'll be back again
And I, never to fold.
(Never to fold)

          - From O.A.R.’s “That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker”

I try not to be too self-centered here, because I’m pretty convinced you don’t want to read that kind of tripe.  But it’s been a crazy game of poker for the past few days, so I thought I’d share a little bit on here.

First - LinkedIn Went Crazy

I was touching up my LinkedIn profile over the weekend and changed the title of my current job from “Executive Vice President” to “EVP” (more on that in a second). LinkedIn interpreted that as a new job and the congrats have been pouring in since.  Digging all the good will, but nothing really happened.

Second - Accolades From Forbes

Earlier this week, Forbes designated my humble Twitter feed as one all Oracle users should read.  Wow.  I’m honored, especially when I look at the other folks on the list.  Grateful to be included as part of that crowd.  Pretty doggone cool.  So, if Forbes has enticed your interest, it’s twitter.com/fteter.

Third - I Resigned From EiS Technologies

Yup, I resigned from my current job at EiS Technologies effective December 31.  Now you know why I was tweaking my LinkedIn profile over the weekend ;)  And I don't even know here I'm going next.  Now why would I do a dumb thing like that?

The cause behind the departure is pretty simple.  I had five changes I wanted to mainstream into the business.  All successfully done.  Made things better.  But the owners and I talked recently, and we agreed we see things differently going forward.  And while their path may turn out to be great for EiS,  it’s not really my cup of tea.  We’re all on good terms and will probably be working together in one way or another for some time to come, but it’s time for me to take my bag of skills elsewhere.  It’s been a great experience all around.  In fact, leaving is bittersweet...really enjoyed working with that team.  We all learned a bunch from each other, and I’ve added a quite a bit to my own tool bag.  Applying those news tools/skills/experiences in a new setting will be on my mind while I help manage a smooth transition at EiS. 

Yeah, it’s been a crazy game of poker over the past few days.  Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Upgrading OBIEE to 11.1.1.7

I've gotten quite a few questions lately about upgrading OBIEE from older versions to 11.1.1.7: how to get it done, what are the steps, etc. In other words, "Floyd, how are you getting it done?"

Well, the honest-to-goodness truth is...I follow the instructions of people who are smarter about it than I am. It's a practice I follow quite often. Albert Einstein used to say that he never memorized anything he could look up. As a lazy guy, that sounds really good to me; it's worked out well.

So, in terms of steps for upgrading OBIEE to 11.1.1.7 (or anything else regarding OBIEE, for that matter), I look to the very bright people at Rittman-Mead. You can find all you'll ever want to know about the upgrade here. That's it.

Google (or Bing or whatever your search engine of choice happens to be) is your friend.

More Collaborate Teasers

Since I put up the Collaborate 13 Teaser post revealing the Welcome screen for the new EiS Technologies Reporting and BI product, I've been swamped by folks asking to see more.

Keep in mind that there are some limits on what I can say before Collaborate 13 (I may not work at Oracle, but it sure feels that way at the moment).  Still, one particular request seems like it won't get me in too much trouble:  "C'mon, Floyd.  You have 5 tabs in the screen you've shared.  Can't you at least show us the other 4 tabs?"  Yeah, I can do that...

Administrator

 

 

Domains

 

 

Reports

 

 

 Dashboards

 

Still some work left to do on the UX Design, especially with the Dashboards portion, but it's coming along.  Feedback, opinions, suggestions...all welcome.

And be sure to see EiS Technologies at Collaborate for a live drive after the new product announcement (Monday of Collaborate week, if all goes according to plan).

One more thing...I'll be need some charitable contributions until I find some work in the event I get fired for sharing this...just keep that in mind ;)

 

Learn To Live With It - Multiple BI Tools

We all want 'em
We all got 'em
Well what do we do with 'em
                    -- From Jimmy Buffett's "Fruitcakes"

Ok, admit it.  In the heat of all the enterprise business intelligence hype, your enterprise has purchased and installed multiple BI platforms. Oracle, Jaspersoft, Microsoft, Indicee, Actuate, Microstrategy, WebFocus, Cognos, Tablue, QlickView, Tibco...the list of players and products goes on ad naseum.  And, despite the multiple tools, you're still having trouble keeping up with the BI workload.

Hey, don't get flustered.  We're all in the some boat.  And with good reason.  See, the BI industry has a secret.  I'll let you in on it. Shhhh, keep it down, we don't want this to get out.  The deal is....the perfect BI platform has yet to be built.  Each BI platform has strengths and weaknesses in both approach and features.  Odds are that you're dealing with multiple BI platforms because because your end users have needs that a single BI platform can't meet, at least not in a way that makes consolidation of BI platforms a solid value-add.

But what about standardization?  Doesn't that make the argument for consolidating by reducing maintenance costs and add value?  Well, it does...so long as all those user needs still get met in a relatively painless manner.  Yeah, I agree...not gonna happen.  Great for textbook theory, but it seems all those textbook authors never dealt with multiple business user personas.

So, what to do in this Frankenstein monster of multiple BI platforms?  Well, consolidation is still a good idea.  But do it at the BI level rather than ripping and replacing your existing BI platforms.  Yup, I'm suggesting the BI equivalent of web application "mash ups":  combining disparate content in new and creative ways.  I've seen a few very forward-thinking enterprises do some great work mashing up content from Oracle's OBIEE and Microstrategy.  I've also seen good work done mashing up Jaspersoft and Cognos.  So don't dismiss this idea too quickly...just give it some time to percolate in your brain.

Oh, and about that workload you're struggling to keep up with?  Keep in mind that good BI, well used, generates questions.  Answers are delivered through BI analytics.  Now think about using those BI "mash ups" with a focus on analytics.  Hey...that idea has some potential, doesn't it?

Multiple BI platforms will be around for some time yet; BI nirvana has yet to be found.  We'll all have to learn to live with multiple BI tools for some time to come.  In the meantime, think about BI "mash ups" focused on analytics.  It may be the best thing to do with 'em.

Thoughts?  The comments are at your service.