Tech and Social Isolation

We're living through some uncertain times these days.  I keep trying to draw historical parallels in the hope of finding some pearls of wisdom for dealing with COVID-19...

As a very young boy, I can remember stories from my grandparents about living through the Spanish Flu epidemic from 1918 to 1920.  And I can’t help but draw parallels with today’s COVID-19 pandemic, especially the social isolation required to combat the spread of both viruses.  But I also contemplate the one huge difference:  today’s ability to use technology to keep work going, help others and to keep in contact with those we care about.  Some examples:

• Even with three-quarters of the world’s population under shelter-at-home directives, we’re still able to deliver Office Hours for Responsive UX to audiences averaging roughly 200 attendees. Even better, many Oracle customers are making the switch while their entire workforce is working remotely.
• My wife is building and donating effective respiratory masks.  After researching the material 3M uses to make their N95 masks, Marlene developed a mask pattern for full facial respiratory masks.  She cuts the masks (made entirely out of the N95 filter material) on her Silhouette Cameo 4 (a programmable material cutter) in bulk and then sews on the elastic straps.  She has provided masks to family, friends, health-care providers, law enforcement and local hospitals.  And she has also provided kits with cut material, elastic bands, and instructions for those who can sew. 
• A close friend's family celebrates Easter, typically by gathering for an Easter feast.  This year, they all cooked at home and gathered via Google Duo for a virtual family feast.  A gathering made possible by technology.

I’m not sure how those folks back in 1918 survived the separation with their sanity, but I am certainly grateful for the blessings technology brings in the face of today’s social distancing!

Tell us how you're using tech to keep things going while sheltering in place.  The comments await!

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 End Is Here

A little different from our usual fare here...

I'm a Mac user.  Switched from Windows to OS X several years ago and never looked back.  As time has passed, Apple has fallen behind on hardware design.  There's no question that the Microsoft Surface line surpasses the MacBook line in terms of hardware elegance and utility.  But I just can't bring myself to leave a rock solid operating system and run it back to Windows as my main operating system (I run both Windows and Linux VMs for when I absolutely have to do work with either).

I'm not alone in the Oracle ecosystem with my choice of OS X over Windows.  I run into Apple users everyday.  Usually they're more technical types, but I have run into a fair number of functional consultants and business end users on OS X.  Heck, Oracle now even gives their employees the choice of a company-issued MacBook Pro.

For those of us running OS X (whether it relates to use of Oracle products or not), we face a major shift coming later this year.  The end is here for 32-bit apps.  When Apple issues the latest version of OS X, Catalina, 32-bit apps will stop working.  Catalina will come out in September.  Apple sounded the death knell in HighSierra with notices about 32-bit app future incompatibility with "not optimized" warnings:

So it's not like we didn't know it's coming.  But still, like many others, it's arrived faster than I would like.  I still rely on some 32-bit apps:

• Cisco AnyConnect - I use this VPN client every day in my work; I'm actually in VPN a majority of my work day.
• Text Wrangler - A wonderful, simple little text editor.  Every week, I write a status report to my management using this app.
• Skype Meetings - I use this once or twice per week for customer virtual meetings.

I could go on, but the list is pretty extensive.  And, again, I'm sure I'm not alone.  To make things even stickier, many of these 32-bit apps do not have 64-bit replacements.  So I'll have to somewhat change the way I work before up taking Catalina.

For those of you out there running OS X, there are a number of ways you can identify the 32-bit apps you're running.  But the easiest is probably a free application called Go64 from St. Clair Software.  The app scans your hard drive and identifies any 32-bit apps.  Pretty handy - after all, the first step in changing behavior is admitting that you have a problem.  And 32-bit apps on OS X are now a problem.

I can't even imagine the level of hurt for someone taking automatic updates who will wake up some fine morning early this fall and discover that mission-critical 32-bit apps no longer work because their operating system upgraded overnight (and you KNOW this will happen to someone - just don't let that someone be you).  So between now and September, I'll be changing the way I work by moving off all my 32-bit apps.  If you're an OS X user, you should be doing the same.   For 32-bit apps, the end is here.

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.

Buffing Up The Crystal Ball

I've had several people ask me lately what I predict in terms of hot tech trends for 2019.  I'm not much for predictions - if you want to hear the universe laugh, share your future plan.  But, just for fun, I pulled the crystal ball out of the closet, buffed it up and took a look.  I also scattered some tea leaves on a table top and read them.  And, just to lock things in, I put all my garbage for the week into a plastic trash bag and whirled it over my head in the front yard at midnight while I screamed like a chicken, seeking a vision.  None of that stuff worked, although that last thing did provide me with a vision of policemen called out by a neighbor.  But I'll still take my chances and throw what I believe are tech trends that will heat up in 2019 in the enterprise software space.

Artificial Intelligence.  We've been seeing some primitive applications of AI cropping up already; chatbots come immediately to mind (a big deal where I work - Oracle - right now).  But I think a shift in the way we approach AI will start to have some impact this year.  We'll start to see a change from decision trees and algorithms attempting to calculate results in favor of more applications for the deep learning approach.  We certainly have enough data on common use cases to make deep learning feasible.

Quantum Computing.  Another old theme that will take on new life in 2019.  To some extent, it goes hand-in-hand with the growth in AI deep learning.  It takes improvement in orders of magnitude for both processing capacity and processing speed in order to support that kind of thing.  If you haven't already, you'll soon start to hear about qubits:  leveraging properties of atoms and nuclei to facilitate them working together as computer processors and memory.  Makes traditional silicon components look like a hammer and chisel.  This one is not that far off:  several tech companies already have projects going with functional quantum computing.  One application:  remote traditional processors feeding a quantum computer for trend analysis on a huge scale.  Takes the idea of Big Data to a whole new level, doesn't it?

Trust.  Wait, how can trust be a tech trend?  It's definitely happen already - more and more end users are opting to pick the honest broker, even when the products or services that honest broker provides are priced much higher than the low bidder.  A former Oracle employee, Patrick Lencoini (you've probably heard of him as the author of "The Five Disfunctions Of A Team"), wrote a book in 2010 on trust that was years ahead to its time:  "Getting Naked:  A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty".  While the fable is really focused on the consulting field, I'm hearing more and more tech service providers using his terms and concepts.  Sometimes even word for word.  The concept of trust will permeate the enterprise software industry in 2019, ranging from client relationships to the way we build and provide products and services to the way we interview potential hires.  I don't have any business relationship with Mr. Lencoini... heck, I don't even know him (but I am a big fan)... but you may want to add his book to your 2019 reading list.

So there you have it:  my picks for hot tech trends in enterprise software in 2019.  You may have different ideas, or maybe even a crystal ball that works.  Share in the comments.  We'll take a look back at the end of 2019 and giggle about our prognostications together!

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.

What, Me Worry?

“What, me worry?” – Alfred E. Neuman

It seems like we have some nervousness settling into the U.S. economy.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down a few percentage points over the past few months.  Facebook, Apple and Google shares (three-fourths of the FANG indicator for the tech market) are all taking a bit of a beating.  We’re watching the process of Treasury Yields inverting, indicating concerns about the long-term debt market.  Folks are starting to speculate that we’re in the last stages of the current bull market, about to descend into a bear market and a recession.  Closer to home, I’m starting to see financial pundits predicting heavy job losses in 2019 as the economy begins to slow down.  WE SHOULD ALL BE PANICKING LIKE OUR HEADS ARE ON FIRE!

Let’s all take a breath and a step back for a minute.  I don’t worry too much about the job market and neither should you if you’re taking the right steps.  Sure, there are times when employers are competing for employees and other times when people are competing for scarce jobs.  But if you’re in the job market or the gig market at all, you should be taking the same steps regardless of the conditions around you.  Stop looking at the various market indicators and direct your energy towards investing in yourself.  The concepts are pretty basic:

1.    Have the right skills

2.    Advertise those skills

3.    Keep your network strong

Have The Right Skills

Even if you’re gainfully engaged in a job or a gig, checki job listings on a regular basis.  So you know what skills are in demand.  When you see a few thousand jobs for people with expertise in SteamingPile Architecture, you’ve identified a skill that’s in demand.

Once you’ve identified that skill, go learn it.  Maybe your current employer will support you.  Or maybe not.  Do it anyway, whether it’s free stuff online, a set of classes, or whatever.  Yes, this will consume some of your discretionary time. Consider it a worthwhile investment in yourself.

After you’ve learned that skill, go use it.  Look for opportunities in your current job or take on a side gig.  Either way, there is no better way to really get a skill than by applying it in a real-world situation.

Advertise Those Skills 

Once you’ve learned and applied those skills, advertise your newly-acquired expertise to the world. Update your online profile. Freshen up your resume.  Tell your peers what you’ve done.  Get the word out that you have a new tool in your toolbox. Do it now – don’t wait until you’re in the hunt for your next job or gig before you start advertising.  Waiting on this is like buying new running shoes halfway through the 100 yard dash.

Keep your network strong

Continually seek out opportunities to help people whenever you can, whether it’s a new acquaintance or someone you already know.  The very best way to build a network is to be sincerely try to help others.  Just try to live the Golden Rule and watch your network grow.  In all honesty, it took me a long time to figure this one out.  But I’m glad I did.

Admittedly, there is no rocket science here.  Only basic fundamental practices, most of which I know you've heard before.  But I can tell you that, as I've incorporated acting on these points into my own professional life, they have served me well in good times and bad.

So my advice in any market is the same.  Keep your skills sharp.  Make sure people know you have those skills.  Build your network.  You won’t have to worry about the economy.  And you’ll sleep better at night.

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As always, comments and feedback are welcome.

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.