When Less Is Best

Late in 2019, Apple obsoleted my trusty iPad Mini II.  No more OS updates, may not run the latest apps, etc.  So I figured it was time for a new iPad... right up until the time I saw the prices. Yikes!!!

The expense of a new iPad, even a Mini, made me step back and reconsider my approach.  I started by considering my uses of the iPad.  I don't really create much with an iPad - it's just too limited for the type of work I do. And I don't communicate much with it, as I have an iPhone for calls, txt, and video chats. I use my iPad to consume:  books, movies, social media and news.

Once I understood my own use cases for the iPad, I realized I could fill my needs with a much less expensive device.  I settled on an Amazon Fire HD 8 (thanks to my kids for the nifty Christmas present).  And it works great for what I do, especially after setting it up to side load from Google Play.  My old Mini has been retired to a life as a digital photo frame and I'm really happy with the Fire.  Is the Fire as elegant of an experience as the Mini?  Not by a long shot.  But it gets the job done quite well.  And, at last check, the Fire is about 20% of the price of a new iPad Mini.  A great example of less being best.

I see this quite a bit in the way users work with enterprise applications - in my specific case, observations are from helping customers with Oracle HCM Cloud Enterprise Applications.  Users expend significant costs in terms of time and labor facilitating some very complicated use cases, many of which are either unnecessary or rarely encountered.  When we collaborate with those customers on those use cases, the end result is often that less is best.  Often they're focused on a specific use case because they have not considered another process for getting the job done. Other times it's a matter of the use case not being as critical to the business as originally thought.  And sometimes it's due to a legal or industry requirement that no longer exists.  And there are many more causes.  But it always makes my day when the lightbulb comes on and people realize they can make do quite well with much less than they originally thought.

I've seen this surface frequently in working with customers on the mobile-enabled Responsive UX.  Simplification was a driving design concept in building out Responsive UX, which means some less used and less important features were culled from the product.  Less is best, based on the feedback we've received from customers who have adopted the new UX.

So the upshot here?  Step back, take a breath, and think about how you use your enterprise apps.  Can you find instances where less would be best?  I'll bet you find more than one.

Blowing Out Barriers

I was chatting with a new friend last weekend.  Turns out we're both in the enterprise apps business: I work for Oracle on HCM Cloud apps while he works at a small start-up building and selling a warehouse management system.

While we were chatting about the biz, we got into SaaS and Cloud.  My friend made a statement I really want to share:  "Cloud blew out all our barriers to entering this marketplace; we wouldn't be in business without Cloud."  When I pressed him on this, he made the following points:

• Our entire development platform is cloud-based; no on-prem servers whatsoever
• We track our bugs and manage our development cycles with JIRA
• All our accounting, HR, and sales apps are SaaS with providers focused on SMB customers
• We don't even have internal email - we have a Slack channel
• Our product is SaaS-based and runs on two IaaS partner platforms.  Our SMB customers would not be able to afford the infrastructure required to run on prem.
• Most of our user documentation is visual and chart-based.  Our off-shore team uses LucidChart to build that stuff. 

After hearing all this, I expressed that my mental image of his company was a small group of people in a local office sitting around a conference table with laptops and cell phones.  He corrected me:  5 people in North America, developers in Vietnam and documentation team in India - no brick and mortar offices anywhere.

I walked away from the conversation thinking: "Isn't this cool?  These guys have leveraged the cloud to build a product startup about to break into 9-digit revenue (in U.S. dollars) with zero infrastructure.  These guys get it."

This has always been the promise of the Cloud: do business without large capital investments.  It was just neat to experience yet another example of this promise fulfilled IRL.

Tell me again why you're running on-prem enterprise apps?

What Looks Good To Me: Oracle OpenWorld 2019

As I write this, we're a week away from Oracle OpenWorld 2019.  And, as always at OOW, there are a flood of sessions, events and gatherings that compete for your attention.  So I thought I'd share some thoughts on what looks good to me.  Keep in mind that my current focus is Oracle HCM Cloud Applications, so I'll be limiting my shared thoughts to that subject area.

Needless to say, the executive keynotes and the HCM Cloud Roadmap sessions are high points.  For the most part, I won't be calling those out here even though I personally plan to make as many as I can.

For starters, note that I'll be hosting or co-hosting several sessions myself:


You'll note that the first two sessions have the same title.  Here's a pro tip for OOW 19:  look at the first three letters in the Session Number.  TRN indicates a presentation, while CLS means more of a round-table discussion gathering.  You'll see I'm mostly doing round-table discussions.  And I'm pretty happy about that, as I prefer conversations over more structured presentations.

For the remaining list, I limited myself to the top 15 sessions that look good to me.  Your interests may be different.  And it's also worth stating explicitly that, while I'm an Oracle employee, my opinions and selections are strictly my own:


So that's my take on the 15 most interesting looking HCM Cloud Applications sessions at OOW 19.

One more thing:  I'm hoping to meeting with lots of customers one-on-one.  Especially those customers interested in Oracle HCM Cloud's mobile responsive Newsfeed UX or automated functional regression testing.  If you're attending OOW 19 and you would like to meeting, ping me on Twitter @fteter and we can set up a meet.  Hope to see you there!

New Admin Pages

As you all know, I've been deep into the new mobile responsive Newsfeed UX for Oracle HCM Cloud since last year.  And, like most everything else in a continuous service delivery model, new features and functionality have been rolling out incremental with each new update.  And the latest update, 19C, continues that trend.

One of the big changes in 19C is the uplift of administrative pages (aka professional landing pages) to the Newsfeed UX look and feel.  It's coming to all users, regardless of whether you're still using the classic Simplified User Interface or the new mobile responsive Newsfeed UX.  For customers still on the classic UI, this provides an opportunity to dip your toes in the water with Newsfeed UX without any configuration effort.  For those customers already on Newsfeed UX, this makes the look and feel of the administrative pages consistent with all the other pages.

Here is a before and after screen shot example so you can get a feel for what I'm talking about:

Before

After

Personally, I've found that the Search feature at the top of the page in the new layout is really handy.  I don't need to scroll or try other navigation - just search for what I need.  Nice cool factor for ease of use.

This brings me to a really important point:  if you are an Oracle HCM Cloud customer who has not switched to mobile responsive Newsfeed UX, I have to ask why not?  It is Oracle's strategic direction going forward - we're releasing more and more new functionality that ties into Newsfeed UX.  So the longer you wait, the further behind you fall on benefiting from that new functionality.  Is that really where you want to be, burping and chirping behind the curve while the rest of your industry grabs the gains of those new features?  Just a thought... you can always sound off with your own perspective in the comments.

The Old Bugaboo

So after a bit of a hiatus, I've decided it's time to get off my butt and start writing again...

Today I'm raising an old bugaboo, but I'm adding a new perspective.  The bugaboo? Customizing packaged software.  It's more expensive than either building your own apps from scratch or buying software off the shelve.  But you all already know that because we've previously hashed that out at length here.

On to the new perspective.  As many of you know, I've been up to my eyeballs in helping customers switch to  the mobile responsive Newsfeed UX for Oracle's HCM Cloud Applications.  And we're finding customers love it.  The ease of use, the consistency of the user experience between mobile and desktop platforms, the overall look and feel, the short learning curve, the high levels of user acceptance smoothing the change management involved in the switch.  Newsfeed UX is a huge hit.  But I digress, so let me get back on track.  We offer several tools for personalizing, extending and customizing this new user experience.  Between the components of the HCM Experience Design Studio and Page Composer, customers can change the UX in pretty much any way their heart desires.

But just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something.  I'm seeing quite a few customers burn quite a few calories on customizations with relatively minor impact, mostly involving the user interface rather than the user experience. (What's the difference?  The user interface is about the look and feel.  The user experience is about the way you work.  The latter has a much broader and more meaningful impact than the former.)  Changing the color of the text in a button.  Removing the category title from an event.  Substituting a seeded icon for one of their own design.  To sum up... making big efforts to change minor details, things that don't impact the ability to conduct critical business processes or provide meaningful business intelligence.

Changing minor UI details, in and of itself, is not so bad.  I often think the energy expended is over the top in comparison to the return.  But if it is important enough to a customer to burn their resources in that way, that is their choice to make.  But the thing so few realize when implementing these changes is the cost going forward.  That cost comes in testing and maintaining those customizations as part of each and every system configuration change.  A new patch is applied?  Better test our customizations.  Implementing a new interface?  Better test our customizations.  A new release or update?  Better test our customizations. And, by the way, redesign and reapply those customizations as needed.  A change in application architecture?  We need to redesign and reapply those customizations.  Start thinking about the frequency of these and similar cases, then consider the resources involved.  You'll get the idea.

One more time:  just because you can do something doesn't really mean you should do something.  Are there times when customizing is the right choice?  Of course.  If a customization is necessary in order for you to execute a critical business process using packaged apps or services, then that is what you do.  Just consider it carefully first.  Because the old bugaboo of customization is the gift that just keeps on taking.

Bits And Pieces

Lots of innovative change afoot in the Oracle HCM Cloud space, so I thought I'd catch y'all up on the more significant bits and pieces.

• Enhanced Talent Profiles:  Oracle Recruiting Cloud ("ORC") and Oracle Learning Cloud ("OLC")customers must upgrade to Enhanced Talent Profiles as part of their 19A uptake.  See My Oracle Support Doc ID 2421964.1 "Upgrading Fusion Profile Management" for more info. This is a really cool upgrade for the ORC and OLC customers - you'll want to jump on this one.

• ORC customers:  must switch to Newsfeed UX as the first step in upgrading to Enhanced Talent Profiles.  This essentially means that ORC requires a switch to Newsfeed UX and an upgrade to Enhanced Talent Profiles as part of the 19A uptake in order for the app to function going forward.  Double benefits here:  a mobile responsive UI and the Enhanced Talent Profiles!

• File Based Loader:  File Based Loader ("FBL") will not be supported as of update 19B (which begins to roll out to HCM Cloud customers in May).  Last I looked, there were still a small set of customers using FBL.  If you're one of those customers, may I suggest that you make the move to the more powerful HCM Data Loader ("HDL") now?  

• Newsfeed UX:  It seems that Newsfeed UX may become the default with the 20A update, which is due begin rolling out in February 2020.  But, in the meantime, we're seeing new and very cool functionality appear that only works in Newsfeed UX - with more on the short term horizon.  So the longer you wait to switch, the further behind you'll fall.  So the question is not "when will Newsfeed UX become the default", but "how soon can we switch to Newsfeed UX?"  I recently had a customer tell me switching to Newsfeed UX "...is the best thing we've ever done for our users!"  So what are you waiting for?

We have some additional innovation goodies on the verge of coming out, but I'm not at liberty to discuss those yet (one of the very few downsides to this job).  But I can say that sine of those goodies depend on you taking up the changes listed here.  So roll up your sleeves and get going - we have lots of cool innovation available and in the pipeline, but it doesn't do you any good until you take it up!

Listening To Customers

The Oracle HCM Cloud team hosted their annual Customer Advisory Board meetings at Oracle HQ last week.  I've always enjoyed the CAB meetings because it's the one event where we reverse the flow of information:  customers tell us about how they use our products rather than us showing customers how to use those products.  I learned a few lessons in listening to our customers last week.

Customers today are more concerned with the pragmatic aspects of AI

To be honest, I went to the CAB meetings prepared to talk about the innovative projects happening around AI:  quantum computing, artificial decision-making, responsive vs structured chatbots.  But our customers wanted to talk about the pragmatic aspects of AI, especially robotic process automation.  I ended the week feeling that I'd been prepared to talk about running while our customers are still focused on learning to walk.

Innovation is cool, but customers want to know more about optimizing what they have now

Surprisingly, most of my one-to-one conversations with customers were not about upcoming new features.  Instead, the dominant theme was about their hunger to better use the features they already have in hand.  "How can I make better use of..." or "How can I meet the challenge of... when I get back to the office on Monday."

Mobile - Finally!

You've heard the message for years:  "If you ain't got mobile, you ain't got nothing."  2019 is the year that our Oracle HCM Cloud customers are moving out on that idea.  About 20 percent of the customers attending the CAB meetings had gone mobile with their self-service HCM apps in the prior six months.  Everyone else... and I do mean everyone else... is planning to go mobile in 2019.  So the party has been a little slow in getting started, but it's really catching fire now.  Different approaches to the self-service mobile user experience was a hot topic.

Functional regression testing has become a bottleneck

Now that continuous service delivery is a reality, functional regression testing has become a bottleneck.  The classic approach of fully manual, end-to-end functional regression testing simply does not meet the schedule requirements of a continuous service delivery model - just not enough time.  Customers had serious energy around regression testing strategies as well as automated testing tools - they're compelled to change and are still figuring out just how to change.  Interesting side note - we also heard some overlap here with the interest in robotic process automation.

So those were the customer messages I took away from the CAB meetings.  I'll wager others heard different things, but this is what I got out of the meetings.  So now I've got some new ideas regarding my own work agenda for 2019 - how can I help in some small way to bring direction and clarity by responding to what I heard?  Stay tuned for more.

A Cloud Endorsement

As I write this, it's super early on Monday morning in my part of the world.  And this morning, I've already spoken to three different customers suffering major service disruptions in their IT applications - one can't process incoming orders, one can't ship product, and another one can't do either (among other things).  The only things still running - their cloud applications.

This raises a pretty good point for those of you out there plugging along with your on-premise applications - cloud applications provide a level of stability that just can't be matched on-prem.

If I'm a cloud services provider, reliability is a key component of my business.  I'll invest as much as necessary because it's a core part of my business.  Most end users have an entirely different business model - IT in most enterprises is a cost center rather than a profit center.  So, ideally, the idea is to keep the IT investment to a minimum.  And, in each case, you get what you pay for.

It really comes down to an idea we often hear in the enterprise applications world:  put your IT services in the hands of the best IT stack and team available.  And the best IT available to most enterprises?  From a cloud services provider.

Listen To The Music - OOW 2018

Don't you feeling it growin', day by day

People gettin' ready for the new

Some are happy, some are sad

Oh, we got to let the music play

          - From The Doobie Brothers "Listen To The Music"

So it's Oracle OpenWorld time again.,, can you hear the music playing?  It really kicked off last Thursday, but the event really starts peaking today (Oct. 22nd) through Thursday.  Gazillions of people descending on downtown San Francisco to hear the latest about Oracle products and services.  It's a massive event, with lots of people and venues scattered through the downtown area.  It's tough to take it all in.

In the Cloud Applications or SaaS segment, you should pay special attention to a few specific themes:

1. Oracle's progress in shifting from a products-focused company to a product-as-a-service company.  We've made some notable progress over the past year.  Is it enough?  Personally, I'm too caught up in the trees to evaluate the forest without bias.  So the story will get told and y'all get to make the evaluation.
2. The positive disruption coming from customers moving to SaaS.  In all honesty, we've been more than a little surprised here.  It's bigger than I personally anticipated.  You'll hear some open and frank stories on this front.
3. We've built quite a bit of AI capability into the Cloud Applications.  You'll hear quite a bit on how that effort is playing out in the market.
4. Specific to HCM Cloud Applications, you'll hear quite a few customer experiences around Newsfeed UX (aka Mobile Responsive).  We've had a large group of customers uptake this new UX during the 18B update and expect quite a few more to make the move in 18C (which comes out shortly after OOW).  From my own perspective, this is one of the coolest innovations to hit the enterprise applications market ever.  I'm looking forward to hearing what people think of it after hearing the stories we'll present at OOW.

For those of you attending OOW, or those of you not attending but paying attention, I'd really like to hear your thoughts and impressions about the conference.  After listening to the music, find the comments and share what you think.

Ya Gotta Water The Garden

With his love
And his carin'
He puts his life
Into beauty sharin'
And his children
Are his flowers
There to give us peace
In quiet hours

And I'll do anything I got to do
Cut my hair and shine my shoes
And keep on singin' the blues
If I can stay here in Johnny's garden

                         - From "Johnny's Garden" by Stephen Stills


We're getting down into the weeds today...

Every gardener knows; once you plant a garden, you need to invest time in energy in maintenance so that your garden will flourish.  Weeding, fertilizing, watering, trimming, amending the soil... it takes carefully planned time and effort.

It's the same concept when you start to extend and customize packaged software.  It's not building the extension or customization that represents the big investment.  It's the maintenance as new versions and updates of that packaged software roll out.

I'm living this right now.  As many of you readers already know, the Oracle HCM Cloud team rolled out the latest update (18B) last weekend to the first wave of customers in their stage pods.  And I've been spending most of my energy this week helping many of those customers work through issues that relate to custom security roles.  We give users the ability to create custom security roles.  And many customers take advantage of this functionality.  But what I often find is that maintenance is a substantial stumbling block.  This mostly crops up like "I can't count the number of fuzzy navels in my workforce anymore.  I could before last weekend, but it's been broken since the update was applied."  I ask if it works when using an account with a seeded security role rather than a custom security role.  And, more often than not, the answer is "yes".  Which takes us back to the idea that those custom security roles need maintenance.
Very often, when we roll out updates to Oracle HCM Cloud applications, the updates include new functionality.  And part of offering that new functionality is securing it, so that only those authorized to use the functionality and see the data have access.  And this often shows up in the form of new security privileges of some type.  And, because the architecture is very intertwined, existing functionality is also affected.  

When we introduce new security privileges, we typically add those new privileges to the seeded roles as appropriate (new Payroll security privileges get applied to the Payroll Manager role... that sort of thing).  But what we can't do, because we can't anticipate every custom role every user might create, is match and add these new security privileges to custom roles.  So users have to add these new privileges to the custom roles on their own.  It's part of maintaining custom roles.  Just like maintaining a garden, custom security roles (much like all extensions and customizations) need maintenance in order to continue working effectively.

Maintaining those custom security roles can become important when we role out a bushel basket of new privileges necessary to secure new functionality.  And that's definitely the case as we've moved from R12 to R13 in the HCM Cloud.  Lots of new stuff, which in turn means lots of new security.  So there has been a significant bit of maintenance for custom security roles as we've progressed through 17D, 18A and now 18B.  Which means customers need to plan their security maintenance and execute on that plan.  Fortunately, Oracle has a guide to help customers plan out and execute that maintenance.  

Most gardeners have some type of reference book they rely on:  The Farmer's Almanac, a regional gardening guide, or something similar.  And we offer something similar for customers maintaining custom security roles.  Oracle Support Document ID 2023523.1, "Upgrading Applications Security in Oracle HCM Cloud" includes an R13 Upgrade Security Guide that walks you through all the new security privileges, what they do, and which seeded role includes each new privilege as part of the update (which give readers a clue on how to apply the new privileges to their custom roles).  It even includes a set of appendices showing the reader how to do what needs to be done.  Highly recommended reading.

So today's message:  just like maintaining a flourishing garden, so must HCM Cloud customers maintain their extensions and customizations.  Security roles are just one example, although a pertinent one because I've been dealing with it all week.  

Maintenance is easy when you do it consistently.  And it keeps the garden in good shape.  Read the gardening book and do what it says when it says to do it.  Read the Security Upgrade Guide and do what it says when it says to do it.  And your garden will flourish.

Something to share on this topic?  Plant your seeds in the comments.

Sneak Preview of Newsfeed UX

I've recently have a chance to get deeply involved with a new User Experience ("UX") rolling out in Oracle HCM Cloud 18B, due out later this year.  We're rolling out some pretty cool work.  I like it for a few reasons:

1. A fully responsive user interface - one code line that responds that provides the optimal UI for laptop/desktop, tablet and phone.
2. More emphasis on Quick Actions, giving users shortcuts directly to transactional pages rather than compelling them to navigate through an application
3. Redesigned self-service pages with full transactions being completed on a single page - no multi-click drill downs, no moving to another page via a hyperlink, no nothing.  Combining this with Quick Actions, navigation to a transaction is a single click...period.

In fact, I like this UX so much that I want to share...so let's take a sneak preview at what's coming by  sharing some screenshots.  When we started this effort within Oracle, the project was called "Mobile First".  So it only makes sense to show the mobile screen first:

And let's go to the desktop/laptop browser rendering next:

Now let's check out the redesigned Self-Service pages:

Note that the upper left shows some notes about the page design, the lower left depicts the rendering on a phone, and the right shows the appearance in a browser on a laptop/desktop.

So that's a quick taste of the Newsfeed UX coming out in HCM Cloud 18B.  Want to learn more?  Check out the briefing here.  Or hit me up on Twitter (@fteter) and we'll make some arrangements.  In fact if you're going to the OHUG 2018 conference, we can meet up there for a "live drive" demo.  Or you can always get to me by leaving a comment.

OHUG Solutions Central - Come See The Experts

Don't try to describe the ocean if you've never seen it
Don't ever forget that you just may wind up being wrong
                                     -  From Mañana by Jimmy Buffet

Having been in the enterprise software business for longer than I really care to admit, I've witnessed an awful lot of smoke blown up an awful lot of skirts.  Lots of people can talk the talk, but it's the rare few that can walk the walk.  So when I see an event where people in that latter class are gathering together, I tend to get pretty enthusiastic about it.

At the Oracle HR User Group ("OHUG") conference this year, Oracle and a select group of partners are getting together in a single location - Solutions Central.  Product experts from across Oracle HCM development to answer your questions.  Round-table discussion with Oracle experts and other customers.  The ever-popular Report Jam - bring your reporting needs and walk out with the report you need.  A demo theater focused on specific features and solutions.  1-to-1 discussions with the experts.

Now you can always drop into Solutions Central while you're attending the OHUG conference.  But the smart people, especially those wanting 1-to-1 discussions, will book a reservation ahead of time.  You can book yours anytime up to June 10th here.

The people in Solutions Central...we've seen the ocean:  whitecaps, hurricanes, the doldrums, the whole thing.  And we're itching to share what we've learned.

OHUG 2018.  Come join us.  And do come into Solutions Central.

Getting Ready, Part II

A recent post here, "Getting Ready", was all about getting ready for the Oracle Cloud Applications upgrade from R12 to R13.  Now that the upgrading is underway, I thought it might be a good time to add a bit to the info passed along in that prior post.  I'm thinking a basic bullet list is the best way to get this done, so here we go.

• Upgrade Readiness  Checklist:  You can find a pretty nifty upgrade readiness checklist in My Oracle Support Doc ID 2354604.1.  
• Upgrade White Paper:  There is a great white paper on the recommended approach to upgrading here.
• When Will I Get My Upgrade?: Upgrades are in full swing now.  If you don't have an upgrade date yet, work with your Oracle Customer Success Manager to get that scheduled.
• What Is The Opt In Feature?:  Oracle is sensitive to change management issues when we roll out new features, so we're expanding the time window for customers to uptake new features with the option to opt in.  You can read about how to opt in for new features here.
• Learn About The New User Experience Features in HCM Cloud: You can get the straight scoop from the man himself (@chrismleone) right here.

So there ya go.  Between the two posts, you're getting a bucketload of information on R13.  But my little pea brain obviously can't think of everything.  So if there is something more you need to know, hit me up in the comments.  I'll answer if I can.

Testing Latency On The Oracle Cloud

One of the best things about working on the HCM Cloud Center of Excellence team at Oracle is that you learn something new every day.

I recently worked on an inquiry from a customer asking about latency testing: has anyone ever done it and, if so, how did they go about it?  In all honesty, it was a stumper for me.  I had no idea how to respond.  Fortunately, one of the folks on the team put the question out to a wider audience.  The answer that came back was pretty spiffy.

Oracle offers latency testing as a service (LTaaS?).  You can get the basic explanation on how it works here.  But a short explanation follows:

Step 1:  Log into Oracle MyServices.

Note that you'll be asked details here about the Cloud Account you'd like to test.  If you're like me, you don't exactly have those details memorized or close at hand.  No worries; See the Orange zone to the right?  Click on the "Account Details" button - you'll have the opportunity to get information on all the Oracle Cloud accounts and services tied to a specific email address.  I actually tested this; received my results via email in about five minutes.

Step 2:  Select the domain you'd like to test.  Click on your username drop-down and select "Diagnostics.

Step 3:  Click on "Test" (I've put a red box around the Test button in the image below)

Step 4:  Once the test completes, you'll see something like the following result:

Step 5:  See the "Details" selection above?  Click it to get details similar to those below:

These details show the five tests run, the file sizes for each test, and the related network latency and throughput.

Like I said, pretty spiffy.  I did this myself for my Oracle HCM Cloud environments.  Took about 10 minutes total, including getting the info on my various accounts.  So, for those of you wanting to perform latency testing on your Oracle Cloud environments, the service is the way to go.

Now, because it's important to give credit where credit is due, the gentleman who educated me on this  is Oracle's Pierre-Luc Pelletier.  Because most of us in the States will butcher the French pronunciation of his name, we refer to him as "PL".  One of my incredibly smart teammates and the source of a wealth of information.  We're fortunate to have him on the team.

So, now that the word is out, y'all can go forth and test your own network throughput.  I look forward to hearing about it.  Comment welcome.

Picking Your Partner

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions.  History shows I just don't keep them.  Take my first New Year's celebration, for example.  My Dad told me I could stay up to ring in the new year if I could put meaning into it by making a resolution.  My resolution was to swear off chocolate cake.  So I rang in the new year with my folks; afterwards, they asked me what I thought of it.  I responded that it would have been better with chocolate cake.  It's been all downhill with resolutions ever since.

So this year, rather than making resolutions, I decided to count my blessings.  I made a list of the things that make my life great:  personal and professional.  No question I'm a lucky guy; I came up with a long list.  Lots of things about my health, my family, my friends, my job, and so on.  And I'd like to share one of the really cool parts about my job here, because I think it has relevance for many of the folks who read my ramblings on this blog.

One of the really cool things about my job is that I get a bird's eye view of quite a few Oracle HCM Cloud implementation projects.  It's an opportunity to learn a ton from the experiences of others in terms of what works and what doesn't.  And I see what customers go through in picking Oracle implementation partners.   It can get to be quite the beauty contest with various partners promising different approaches and prices in attempting to win the business.  Evaluating partner offerings can get pretty complicated; hardly a week goes by that I don't get someone asking for guidance in evaluating partners and their proposals for implementation projects.

One indicator customers should consider in evaluating implementation partner offerings:  does the partner have consistent communication with Oracle's HCM Cloud Development team?  The Oracle HCM Center of Excellence team (I'm a member of that team) holds regular "cadence calls" with a number of Oracle implementation partners: strategic partners, emerging partners and industry specialist (i.e. Public Sector, Higher Education, Healthcare, etc.).  In those cadence calls, we talk with partners about their current projects:  the approach, the current status, issues they're working through...whatever is relevant to the success of their projects.  I'm fortunate to engage in some of these calls:  I learn a ton and get to provide some help as well.

So thinking about all this, the thought struck me:  if I were a customer picking from several partner proposals for an HCM Cloud implementation, I think one of my selection criteria might be whether or not a partner is communicating with the HCM Cloud Center of Excellence team on a regular basis.  Because there is nothing quite like getting pointers from the folks that built the software.

Happy New Year!

Getting Ready

I don't think it's any big secret that we're getting close to R13 of Oracle Cloud Applications.  We've been talking about it publicly since Oracle OpenWorld 2017.  Having seen R13 up close, I'm very excited to see it come to market.

But, my excitement notwithstanding, I also know that existing customers get a bit antsy in the face of an impending upgrade.  Because preparation for an upgrade is important, and that preparation requires information.  What new features come with the upgrade?  What is the impact to the way my enterprise does business?  What should I be doing to help get my enterprise ready?

Having been part of the Oracle ecosystem for more years than I care to count as a consultant, a customer, and now a member of the Oracle team, I can recall the days when it was very difficult to learn about new features and perform impact assessments.  The information was tough to come by.  And, by the time we got the information, the timeline to upgrade was too tight to perform an in-depth impact assessment.  Which lead to encountering some fairly significant surprises during the actual upgrade.

Fortunately, those days have over and done with.  Because now we have Cloud Readiness sharing the information customer and partners need to prepare for an upgrade.  You'll find that Cloud Readiness offers quite a bit of information:

• Spotlights: videos that highlight top level messages and product themes
• New Feature Summary:  summary description of each new feature

• What's New:  Learn what's new in this release and how to plan your upgrade by reviewing expanded discussions of new features, including capability overviews, business benefits, setup considerations and usage tips

• Release Training:  online sessions providing an in-depth view of the release enhancements.

• Product Documentation:  Provides detailed product guides and training tutorials to ensure successful implementation and use of Oracle Cloud Applications.

All the information you need.  Even better, it's all in one place.  You can check it out for yourself here.  And once you've looked over our Cloud Readiness information, please let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Imagine If You Will - The Oracle HCM Cloud Solution Library

Foreword:  When I was young, I tried like heck to develop a Rod Serling imitation.  I was a big fan of The Twilight Zone series, including the various revivals.  Alas, I was unable to get anywhere close and eventually gave it up.  But I admittedly still love the phrase "Imagine if you will".  So it's cool that I get to use it here.  See?  Work can be fun.

Imagine if you will the opportunity to ease the implementation and use of Oracle HCM Cloud Applications through learning by example.  Wouldn't it be helpful to have examples of known good solutions to look over?   Configurations, approaches to common challenges, best practices...plus the ability to upload those solutions to a non-production instance to see how they work?

Enter the new and improved HCM Cloud Solution Library – a collection of known good solutions provided in the form of Solution Packages.  User can review the contents online, download and review specific solutions, and upload those solutions to a non-production instance for evaluation.

Just in time for Oracle OpenWorld 2017, I'm please to share with you the new and improved HCM Cloud Solution Library, available right now on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect*.  Just click here and choose "HCM Cloud Solution Library" from the list under "Global Human Resources".

We've admittedly started small:  some solution packages for Talent Management and one for U.S. Payroll Elements.   But we'll soon be growing with Solution Packages for Payroll in the U.K., Canada, Latin American, and Asia Pacific.  New on the road map comes Absence Management, Benefits and Compensation.  What comes after will be determined by what we hear from Oracle partners and customers.

So what's in a Solution Package?  First, an annotation providing a technical description of the business objects and data provided in the solution package. Second, the actual data itself, in a file format that supports the relevant upload tool.  For example, the Talent Management solution packages are in a file format that's ready for the upload feature in Functional Setup Manager.  The U.S. Payroll Elements solution package is in a format ready for the Payroll Batch Loader.

You'll also note in the user interface that we've included a "Solution Library Overview" link.  That document provides deeper detail about what the Solution Library is and how to use it.  We've also include the HCM Cloud Application release number for each solution package.  And, yes, we'll be updating those solution packages as new releases become available.

Our hope is that, by providing examples based on known good solutions, we'll help increase the realization of the SaaS promise for "better, faster and cheaper" experiences in implementing and using Oracle HCM Cloud Applications.

So check it out.  And feel free to click the "Share Your Feedback With Us" link to let us know what you think.  Or you could just hug the comments here.

*If you're not already a member of Oracle Cloud Customer Connect, may I suggest that you get it done now?  Signup is quick and free.  There's a wealth of information, tips and tricks from Oracle people, partners and customers.

Diving Into Deep Links

I had another one of those eye-opening customer experiences recently.  I was engaged in a web conference with an Oracle customer discussing some UX extensibility features that come out of the box with HCM Cloud Applications.  During the conference, we got into a brief demonstration that included utilization of some deep links. Went over pretty well, people got excited, we had a rousing exchange on the benefits of deep linking and I was feeling pretty good about where we were going. right up to the end of the session, which was reserved for Q&A.  That’s when somebody asked “Could we revisit deep links for a minute?  Help me understand what a deep link is and how it works.”  

Popped my little balloon of pride in a job well done right away…I’d demonstrated nifty features without explaining the basics.  I suspect this happens in a great many demos, where people smile and nod about things they don’t understand - and are often afraid to ask about (kudos on this point to the person who asked the question during my demo) - while the demo speeds on through the script.  Yeah, really...happens more often that one would expect.  It pays to take time with the fundamentals.  So back to my specific experience, let’s eliminate any lack of knowledge about deep links by going through a layman’s explanation right here.

Within the context of enterprise applications, a deep link is a URL that opens and directs a user to a specific point in an application other than the application’s home page.  The general idea is to reduce the number of mouse clicks needed to perform a task that requires functionality found in another application or location.  Fewer clicks = greater ease of use = user does what you want them to do more quickly and/or more often.  So, if I wanted to look up information about deep linking on Wikipedia, rather than linking to a home page (http://en.wikipedia.org) and searching for information on deep links, I would link directly to the page discussing deep links (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_linking).

In Oracle HCM Cloud, the deep links are a bit more complicated only because each link includes more information.  But the same concept still applies.  For example, if you were on the Person Management screen the link that would show in your browser would like something like this: 

https:///hcmCore/faces/FndOverview?fnd=%3B%3B%3B%3Bfalse%3B256%3B%3B%3B&fndGlobalItemNodeId=itemNode_workforce_management__person_management&_adf.no-new-window-redirect=true&_adf.ctrlstate=1b532wjs56_5&_afrLoop=6435279788503&_afrWindowMode=2&_afrWindowId=xkhwjhcv9#

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking right now…”good grief, that’s a load of technical gobbledygook that I don’t want to deal with.  Forget this!”  But just hang with me for a minute while we quickly break this mess down.  

First, we care about the base URL:  https:///hcmCore/faces/FndOverview? This essentially calls out the hierarchy or scheme for the application.  

Next we care about the parameter:  fndGlobalItemNodeID.  This essentially indicates that the link should include a page id value.  

Just as you might expect, next we include the page id value:  itemNode_workforce_management_person_management.  

All the remaining hooey you see in the original link is session data that will be automatically generated once the user has authenticated…so we don’t need it for our deep link.  

So, combining our base URL with our parameter and our parameter value, we come up with the following bookmarkable URL to Person Management:  https:///hcmCore/faces/FndOverview?fndGlobalItemNodeID=itemNode_workforce_management_person_management.  

Ta da!  There’s our deep link (note that a user who has yet to log in will be redirected to an authentication screen aka login screen).

So now you know the details of how a deep link works and how to build one manually.  But wait…there’s more!  One of the Simplified UI Extensibility tools that comes with Oracle HCM Cloud Applications provides a point-and-clink method of creating deep links.  You can follow this deep link to learn about that.

The Key To The Kingdom

I spend quite a bit of my time these days advising Oracle customers on implementing and using HCM Cloud Applications.  Makes sense, as that is the primary role of my group 😉  And I’m often asked about where I get my own information.  While I get some of it through hands-on experimenting and experience, I also have a treasure trove of online information.  And it’s all centralized.  And I’m going to share it…this is "the key to the kingdom”.

My go-to reference for information on the HCM Cloud comes from a linked index of all the white papers for HCM Cloud Applications.  The index is maintained as Oracle Support Document ID 1504483.1 titled “All White Papers for Fusion Applications HCM”.  You can find it here.  Yes, you need an account with My Oracle Support to access this info.  If you’re an Oracle customer or partner without a MOS account, I can only say that you’re reeeeeally behind the curve…get that done today.  Hit the comments if you need help.

This doc is a wonderful guide to the type of information that Oracle customers and partners need for HCM Cloud Applications.  You’ll want to bookmark it and check back often - it’s being updated continuously.  To give you and idea of the depth and breadth of this resource, at the risk of being redundant, here is the list of white papers (including doc id) as of the date I write this:

HCM Cloud Service

Document 2248507.1 - Oracle HCM Cloud Checklists for Upgrading to Releases 11 and 12

Document 2046184.1 - Oracle Human Capital Management Cloud: Get Started with Your Implementation

Document 1589571.1 - Getting Started with Oracle HCM Cloud Service PDF and Video

Document 2004494.1 - Oracle Applications Cloud Service Entitlements

Document 2016981.1 - Oracle Applications Cloud – Release 10 Upgrade Planning

Document 1928157.1 - Oracle Fusion Applications Release 9 Upgrade Process for Oracle HCM Cloud Service

Document 1510580.1 - Guidance for Managing Customizations in Oracle Cloud Application Services: HCM Extract Definition Migration

Document 1510577.1 - Guidance for Managing Customizations in Oracle Cloud Application Services: Business Intelligence Migration

Document 1537461.1 - Managing Fusion HCM Cloud Service Environments

Document 1934619.1 - Guidance for Oracle HCM Cloud Service Cloud Patch Testing

Document 1646394.1 - Oracle Fusion Applications Cloud Concurrent Patching Option

Document 2248523.1 - Oracle HCM Cloud Impact Analysis for Releases 9, 10, 11 and 12

 Fusion HCM General

Document 2278686.1 - Person Legislative Developer Descriptive Flexfields

Document 1526848.1 - Oracle Fusion HRMS Person Employment Lookups

Document 1554816.1 - Managing Workflow Notifications in Oracle Fusion Applications

Document 1987850.1 - Frequently Asked Questions About Approvals

Document 2267369.1 - Configuring Approval Rules using Advanced Mode in Oracle BPM Worklist

Document 1600717.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: Business Units

Document 1608114.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: Legal Entities

Document 1930419.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud: Predictive Analytics

Document 1964959.1 - Oracle Fusion HRMS: Data Validation Report

Document 2006603.1 - Oracle Fusion Position Statement: Employer Shared Responsibility Payments Provision

Document 2043581.1 - Oracle HCM Cloud: Data Loading and Data Extraction Best Practices

Document 2068535.1 - Using the Person Synchronization ESS Job

Document 2159758.1 - Validating National Identifier Numbers in Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management

Document 2140848.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM: HCM Address Validation

Document 2146270.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM: Person Name Validation

Document 2268945.1 - Position Synchronization Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Fusion Absence Management

Document 2176568.1 - Evaluate Remaining Entitlement without Absence Record

 Fusion Benefits

Document 2076392.1 - Affordable Care Act (ACA) – Minimum Required Setup in Oracle Fusion Benefits

Document 1554835.1 - Benefits and Oracle Fusion HRMS (US) Position Statement: Health Care

Document 1456985.1 - Benefits Fast Formula Reference Guide for Oracle Fusion Benefits

Document 2100688.1 - Oracle Fusion Benefits Cloud Customization Guide

Document 2017049.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Benefits Cloud Extracts User Guide

Document 2017578.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Benefits Cloud: Collapsing Events

Document 2015531.1 - Oracle Fusion Benefits Global Transfer

Document 1585975.1 - Managing Open Enrollment Using Oracle Fusion Benefits

Document 2085295.1 - Processing of Action Items and Suspensions in Oracle Fusion Benefits

Document 2291677.1 - Using Plan Copy to Export and Import Your Plan Configuration

Fusion Compensation 

Document 2161552.1 - Fusion Workforce Compensation Example Formulas for Prorating Eligible Salary

Document 1589502.1 - Configuring Payroll Elements for Use in Oracle Fusion Compensation

Document 1585971.1 - Workforce Compensation: Delegating Workers to Other Reviewers

Document 1556468.1 - Fusion Security and Workforce Compensation

Document 1518935.1 - Workforce Compensation Configuring the Statement Template

Document 1450891.1 - Workforce Compensation Worksheet Configuration Definition

Document 1950856.1 - Oracle Fusion Compensation: Changes to Compensation Security for Release 9

Document 1968170.1 - Oracle Fusion Compensation Security Troubleshooting

Document 2006603.1 - Oracle Fusion Position Statement: Employer Shared Responsibility Payments Provision

Document 2147372.1 - Oracle Fusion Compensation: Total Compensation Statements

Document 2168552.1 - How Salary and FTE Work Together

Document 2203074.1 - Using Manage Stock Grants

Document 2203085.1 - Salary Components

Extracts

Document 1559127.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Extracts Guide

Document 1565118.1 - Database Items for Extracts and Formulas in Oracle Fusion HCM

Document 1573099.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Extracts: Delivery Options

Document 1677090.1 - Fusion HCM Extract Step-by-Step Approach and Troubleshooting Guide

Document 1964920.1 - Oracle HCM Extracts: Running a Changes-Only Extract

Document 1429892.1 - Defining a Simple HR Outbound Interface Using HCM Extracts

Document 2017049.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Benefits Cloud Extracts User Guide

Document 2062561.1 - Oracle HCM Extracts: Work Structure and Worker Predefined Extracts

HCM Data Loader

Document 2216828.1 - Disposal of Employee Data in Oracle Fusion HCM

Document 2022627.1 - HCM Data Loader: Loading Talent Data

Document 1664133.1 - Oracle HCM Data Loader: User Guide

Document 2020600.1 - Oracle HCM Data Loader: Business Object Documentation

Document 2022617.1 - Data File Validator Tool for HCM Data Loader

Document 2022630.1 - HCM Data Loader Frequently Asked Questions

Document 2132109.1 - Purging Data from Stage and Test Environments

Document 2206596.1 - Transitioning from HCM File-Based Loader to HCM Data Loader

Localization - Australia

Document 1628365.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Australia: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 2054144.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Australia: Absence Management

Localization - Canada

Document 1679504.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Balance Adjustments

Document 1993400.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Balance Initialization

Document 2100839.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Batch Balance Adjustments

Document 2096315.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: End-of-Year Processing Guide

Document 1921082.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Implementation and Use

Document 2277771.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Loading Reporting Information Cards for Canada Using HCM Data Loader

Document 2152133.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Payroll Legislative Updates (Basic Personal Amount Increase for Prince Edward Island)

Document 2173363.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Payroll Legislative Updates (Legislative Updates for End-of-Year 2016 and Year Begin 2017)

Document 2141730.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Payroll Legislative Updates (Vertex Monthly Updates for Postal Codes)

Document 2170948.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Canada: Payroll Reconciliation

Localization - China

Document 1520975.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for China: HR Organization Setup

Document 1466218.1 - How Do I Load Chinese Geographies

Localization - France

Document 1542406.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for France: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

 Localization - Germany

Document 1580084.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Germany: HR Implementation and Functional Consideration

Document 2062116.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Germany: Absence Setup and Functional Considerations

Localization - Hong Kong

Document 2117338.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Hong Kong: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations 

Localization - India

Document 2062193.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for India: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

Localization - Ireland

Document 1565206.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Ireland: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

Localization - Japan

Document 2087317.1 - Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources Cloud Services for Japan: Solution Overview of My Number Act 2016 Japan

 Localization - Kuwait

Document 1567455.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Kuwait: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 1663730.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Kuwait: Payroll Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 2031407.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Kuwait: Additional Social Insurance Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 2127657.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Kuwait: Absence Management Implementation and Functional Considerations

Localization - Mexico

Document 2175160.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Mexico: HR Implementation and Use White Paper

Document 2116899.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Mexico: National Identifier Validation

Localization - Netherlands

Document 1572711.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Netherlands: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

Localization - Saudi Arabia

Document 1567452.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Saudi Arabia: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 1619159.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Saudi Arabia: Payroll Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 2127642.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Saudi Arabia: Absence Management Implementation and Functional Considerations

Localization - Singapore

Document 1996677.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Singapore Implementation and Functional Considerations

 Localization - Switzerland

Document 1572755.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for Switzerland: HR Implementation and Functional Consideration

 Localization - United Arab Emirates

Document 1565436.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Arab Emirates: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 1565449.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Arab Emirates: Payroll Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 1918703.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait Upgrade to Global Absences and Functional Considerations

Document 1995899.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for(United Arab Emirates Payroll Error Issue After Upgrading to Release 9

Document 2127677.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Arab Emirates: Absence Management Implementation and Functional Considerations

Localization - United Kingdom

Document 1531728.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Kingdom: HR Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 1921464.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Kingdom: Payroll Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 2000651.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Kingdom: Balance Initialization

Document 2006584.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Kingdom: Pensions Automatic Enrolment and Functional Considerations

Document 2009287.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Kingdom: Court Orders and Student Loans Implementation and Functional Considerations

Document 2133313.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United Kingdom: Payroll Reconciliation: Functional and Implementation Considerations

Document 2098480.1 - HCM Data Loader: Loading Calculation Cards for United Kingdom

Document 2235239.1 - Setting Up and Migrating UK Statutory Absences 

Localization - United States

Document 2091789.1 - Overview of Payroll Year End Processing (Recording)

Document 2067997.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Payroll Legislative Updates

Document 1597039.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Payroll Involuntary Deductions

Document 2043941.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Third-Party Involuntary Payments Interface

Document 1594079.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Third-Party Tax Filing Interface

Document 1600728.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Balance Adjustments

Document 2053488.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Balance Adjustments Batch Processing

Document 1912298.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Balance Initialization

Document 1944400.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States End-of-Year Processing

Document 2064021.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: FMLA White Paper

Document 2059767.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Human Resources Legislative Update

Document 1676530.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Implementation and Use

Document 2067360.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: ACA Implementation and Use

Document 1600746.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States Overtime Rate Setup

Document 2056960.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Tax - Local Tax Configuration

Document 2026696.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Tips Processing Solution

Document 2086251.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Payroll Reconciliation

Document 2111087.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Third Party Wage Payments Implementation

Document 2138998.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management for United States: Courtesy Tax Implementation

Document 2270380.1 - Oracle HCM Cloud for the United States: Payroll Legislative Updates End-of-Year 2017 and Year Begin 2018

Localization - International

Document 1478478.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM: International Human Resources

Fusion Payroll

Document 1436612.1 - Balance Initialization in Oracle Fusion Global Payroll

Document 2136173.1 - Employee Bank Account User Interface Validation Rules

Document 1918574.1 - Global Human Resources Payroll Costing Guide

Document 1569322.1 - How can I customize a payslip in Fusion Payroll?

Document 2274286.1 - How to Print Checks in Multiple Locations

Document 2223242.1 - Loading Payroll Costing Setup Using HCM Data Loader

Document 2241424.1 - Loading Assigned Payroll Data Using HCM Data Loader

Document 2030268.1 - Payroll Batch Loader

Document 1941594.1 - Payroll Proration for Earnings Elements

Document 2285498.1 - R11 Payroll Element Processing Updates

Document 1904188.1 - Setting Up Absence Elements for Oracle Fusion Absence Management for Releases 8 and 9

Document 2102835.1 - Setting Up Absence Elements for Oracle Fusion Absence Management for Release 10

Document 1941591.1 - Setting Up Payroll Costing Reports in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher

Fusion Reputation Management

Document 2136810.1 - Deploying Oracle Fusion Workforce Reputation Subscription Application

Fusion Time and Labor

Document 1990057.1 - Time and Labor Fast Formula Reference Guide

Fusion Goal Management

Document 1934593.1 - Oracle Fusion Goal Management: Manage Goal Plan

Document 2094398.1 - HCM Data Loader: Loading Goal Data

Document 2102073.1 - How to Use GetManager Function in Goal Management Approval Rules

Document 2026761.1 - Oracle Talent Management Cloud: Evaluating the Upgrade of Goal and Performance Management

Document 2134145.1 - Reporting on Pending Performance Goals in Release 10

Document 2257712.1 - Uploading Goals Using ADFdi Workbooks

Fusion Performance Management

Document 2287336.1 - Performance Rating Calibration in Oracle HCM Cloud

Document 1430113.1 - Customizing Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Reports for Oracle Fusion Performance Management

Document 2003002.1 - Setting Up Rating Models

Document 2026761.1 - Oracle Talent Management Cloud: Evaluating the Upgrade of Goal and Performance Management

Fusion Profile Management

Document 2022627.1 - HCM Data Loader: Loading Talent Data

Document 1441574.1 - Using Rating Models in Oracle Fusion Profile Management

Document 2003002.1 - Setting Up Rating Models

Document 1453118.1 - Uploading Competencies and Content Items into Oracle Fusion Profile Management

Document 2043543.1 - Oracle Fusion Profile Management: Best-Fit Analyses

Fusion Talent Management

Document 2022627.1 - HCM Data Loader: Loading Talent Data

Document 1441597.1 - Defining Configuration Templates in Oracle Fusion Talent Review

Document 1453067.1 - Using Oracle Composer to Modify Display Options in Oracle Fusion Talent Management

Document 1676554.1 - Creating and Uploading Talent Profile Data in Oracle Fusion HCM

Document 2003002.1 - Setting Up Rating Models

Document 2221024.1 - Adding Analyses to the Oracle Fusion Talent Review Dashboard

Document 2234224.1 - Oracle Talent Management Cloud List of Delivered Notifications

Oracle Tap

Document 1582753.1 - Oracle Fusion Tap for Oracle Applications: User Guide

Reporting

Document 2023155.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM: Resources for Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence

Document 1486948.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: Reporting Across OTBI Subject Areas

Document 1430113.1 - Customizing Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Reports for Oracle Fusion Performance Management

Document 1941591.1 - Setting Up Payroll Costing Reports in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher

Security

Document 1946961.1 - Using the Oracle Fusion Applications Security Console

Document 1556500.1 - Fusion HCM Security Role Mappings

Document 1950731.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: Using Dynamic Security Profiles

Document 2023523.1 - Upgrading Applications Security in Oracle HCM Cloud Releases 10, 11 and 12

Document 2103099.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: LDAP Request and Person User BI Publisher Reports

Document 2165248.1 - Encryption and Decryption Methods in Oracle HCM Cloud

Document 2230339.1 - REST API for Oracle Global Human Resources Cloud Additional Security Setup

Fusion Taleo Integration

Document 1947417.1 - Integration Guide for Oracle Fusion HCM and Taleo Recruiting

On Premise

Document 1395863.1 - Getting Started with Oracle Fusion Applications: Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management On-Premise Implementations

Wow, you made it all the way to the end of this list…look at your diligent and persistent self!  Anyway, as you can see, there are truckloads of information here.  All branching out from one spiffy document.  So bookmark it.  Use it.  And tell me how you like it.