BBQ and Enterprise Apps

Anybody who spends more than 10 minutes with me knows I love to barbecue: whether it's grilling, low-and-slow smoking, over a fire pit, or using a buried Dutch oven, I love outdoor cooking.

Implementing enterprise apps is like barbecuing or grilling. It's a pretty easy to take undercooked food, cook it some more, and still come out with a great meal. But there's just no way to uncook food…if you overcook it, the meal is ruined beyond recovery. Implementing enterprise apps can be pretty successful if you take it a step at at time. But it's nearly impossible to unravel once you travel too far down a bad patch.

When I barbecue, I recognize that there are numerous variables involved: the heat of the fire, the particular dish or dishes I'm cooking (and, yeah, I do grill veggies and smoke my own cheese), the temperature outdoors, the strength of the wind, the time on the fire, and so on. Some of those variables are in my control and some are not. So you manage the best you can and have certain points in the process where you check on what you're cooking…not reading the cookbook, but actually checking on what you're cooking. I keep a timer in my pocket with an alarm…when the alarm goes off, I check on the food regardless of how far along I think it might be. It's a technique called "time boxing" that I actually learned from a professional cook.

Enterprise apps implementation projects are pretty similar. Lots of variables involved: project budget, optimum schedule, the skills of the project team, the willingness of users to accept change, changing dynamics around the organization implementing…the list goes on and on. Some of those variables are in our control and some are not. So we manage the best we can and have certain points in the process where we check on our implementation…yup, I'm talking increments and milestones. Whether the project is developing and implementing specific solutions, or implementing packaged applications, you need to have certain points at which you check on what you're cooking for any particular project. My experience says that "time boxes" (we'll show whatever we have on a particular day, whether or not it's completed to the level we'd like) and live demos (don't show them the cookbook, show them the food itself) work best here. Even better, show the results early and often…before you proceed too far down a bad path and wind up with an overcooked result.

I'm hungry now…time to grill up some chicken (boneless chopped chicken breasts, cheese, and garlic bread chunks on skewers, served over a bed of chilled cherry tomatoes and sprinkled with pesto…mmm). Feel free to hit the comments while I'm out cooking...

More Cowbell

For the younger folks in the crowd, "More Cowbell" is a classic Saturday Night Live skit that deals with the theme of emphasizing the details until they overwhelm the product (in the case of the skit, a musical product from Blue Oyster Cult). You can see the entire classic skit, in all it's low-res glory, here.

I see quite a bit of "More Cowbell" syndrome in enterprise apps; big emphasis on small functionality details that tend to overwhelm otherwise solid products. As I see more and more of this, my appreciation grows for clean and simple design.

Enterprise apps could take a page from web apps here. Rather than trying to be all things to all people (and ultimately satisfying none), stick to a basic functionality set and deliver that functionality set really, really well. Apps that attempt to cover 100 percent of the needs for 100 percent of the potential users wind up overwhelming, disjointed and ugly to use. I think apps that attempt to provide a 60 percent solution tend to see higher rates of adoption.

So, to all you enterprise apps developers out there, think twice before answering the next call for more cowbell. I'd rather have a nice little box of Junior Mints than a 12 pound chocolate bar that includes almonds, avocados, peanut butter, peach slices, and corn kernels made with Nutrasweet. Please, dial back on the freaking' cowbell already!

There’s No Pop Left In Big Bang

I have the opportunity to hear from lots of people in the ERP business: customers, ERP software vendors, service providers, consultants…the list goes on. All interesting people with interesting views on marketplace trends. Many of them are continually asking the same question: “When do you think the ERP implementation market is coming back?” My own answer: “It’s not; it’s flattened out; we’re into the long tail at the end of the market.” Now before you all call me a heretic or start watering the lawn with your tears of frustration from my lack of optimism, let explain myself.

First, keep in mind where the real money is for ERP vendors and 3^rd-party implementation consultants: huge big-bang rollouts. The larger and more complex the initial implementation footprint, the higher the cost. The ERP software vendors have figured this out and switched their business models to emphasize cash flow from maintenance revenues that provide profit margins fatter than a redneck trapped in a bratwurst factory (But we’ll stick with the big bang subject here…maintenance margins rate a special post).

So with those two ideas in mind, consider the present growth in the ERP market for new implementations…which really drove the ERP market for years, mostly through big-bang rollouts. Most of the organizations that want and can really afford the big ERP packages (SAP, Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, etc.) already have one installed. SME customers can’t really afford the classic ERP system. So there’s really not a whole lot happening in terms of growth of the market. No big bang stuff coming from here. – the market is already oversold.

But what about upgrades, you ask? Well, applications upgrades are pretty typically activities that are under tight budgets and tighter schedules: no decent margins here. But there’s an even bigger elephant in the room that prevents most upgrades from becoming big bangs. With most ERP customers spending upwards of 60 percent of their operational IT budgets on maintenance (including those sizeable maintenance fees to the ERP vendors), most customers are loath to spend their precious dollars on applications upgrades every two to three years (incidentally, this is right around the time a customer starts to break even from the last upgrade). Rather than paying for upgrades, many customers are simply outsourcing the functionality previously provided by their in-house ERP systems: SaaS, Business Process Outsourcing, On Demand, whatever…it all comes down to following the money and, under current conditions, outsourcing is cheaper than maintaining and upgrading.

Oracle in particular seems to understand that big bang is dead – that’s the whole drive behind the “pillars” concept in Peoplesoft and Fusion Apps that has been ported over to other Oracle Apps Unlimited products. Customers can upgrade incrementally, which lowers the cost of upgrading. Incremental releases also provide more flexibility and “learning as you go” opportunities than big bang, so it’s probably a much better approach – big bang is really hard to pull off successfully. The bad news is that incremental upgrading will likely lead to a rise in maintenance costs due to the increased integration complexity, at least until customers drive the market to a more sustainable cost model for ERP maintenance.

The bottom line is that, for the vendors and service providers, big bang projects drove the market to the soaring heights we all remember. But now, ERP big bang is dead. And the strength of the ERP implementation market has gone with it. It’s not the lousy economy as much as it as that the market as matured – and there ain’t no coming back from that. If you make your living with big bang ERP implementations, stop hanging onto a shriveled market…long past time to find a new gig! Like an old firecracker, there’s no pop left in big bang.

Fusion Applications - Three Reasons To Care

There's a lot to be excited about in the Oracle-verse these days: the EU has finally approved the Sun acquisition, Collaborate 10 is sneaking up on us, the upcoming release of Fusion Applications. It's all very interesting stuff, but it's the last one I want to dwell on for a moment.

During the closing moments of the OpenWorld 09 keynote address, we heard that Fusion Apps 1.0 would be released sometime in 2010. Since that time, I've met quite a few Applications Unlimited customers who are scratching their heads and wondering why they should care. The thinking is that, with the depth and breadth of the Fusion Middleware Suite, they can essentially get all the functionality of Fusion Applications from the E-Business, PeopleSoft, or other Applications Unlimited products they're already running. The point missing in this logic is that it's not just about the functionality of the products, it's about the business value the products provide.

So, with that in mind, let me quickly give you three reasons to care about Fusion Applications:

1) The user interface works like tools we're already familiar with. The first place a user lands is essentially a browser web page. A click or two takes you to detail laid out in a spreadsheet-like format - it's not exactly Excel, but it looks and works an awful lot like Google Docs (which, in turn, looks and works an awful lot like Excel). So, first reason to care: it's a short learning curve to master the user interface, because it works like tools we already know - which equals lower training costs and higher productivity sooner in the lifecycle.

2) The business processes have been reengineered, especially in Financials and Human Capital Management. To reengineer those business processes, teams of Oracle engineers have made site visits to a multitude of customers to learn first-hand about best practices in business domains like Accounts Payable and Talent Management (among many others). They have used that information to redesign business processes for Fusion Apps. It's not all finished - we'll see more business process reengineering surface in the apps in later releases (personally, I'm looking forward to the BPR in Project Portfolio Management). Still, Fusion Apps will have best industry practices built in out-of-the-box. So not only are you buying software, you're buying a best-practices business process model for you enterprise. You should see efficiency gains in short order, simply because the Fusion Apps business process model will help your enterprise do things right.

3) Business intelligence is baked right into the applications…it's no longer separated from the basics of doing the job. What this leads to is the ability to manage by exception…rather than monitoring the 500 purchasing requisitions that are smoothly flowing through the process of becoming line items in a purchase order, let's focus on the three that failed to work through the process - see them quickly (via BI), fix the exceptions (reported by BI), and move on. So now, my detail specialists - the folks who manage the basic business transactions, can work by exception: quickly chasing down the stray lambs rather than shepherding the whole flock - most of whom are doing pretty nicely without any detailed oversight by you, thank you very much! Management by exception increases the throughput of those specialists and reduces the cost per transaction…CFO nirvana!

Now, there are more reasons that just these three. In fact, I could lay out at least another three right off the top of my head…but I think you're getting the idea here, so that would just be a waste of space. I just wanted to lay out three solid business reasons to get excited about Fusion Applications (note that this is a value proposition oriented toward business gains…because, in the end, it's not about the technology but about the business value) and to get ya'all thinking about the business value for your own organization.

Let the commenting begin!

Yet Another "Off To OpenWorld" Blog Post

So, here we go…it's OpenWorld time (as though you didn't know). As usual, my schedule is already pretty much locked down so all I have to do next week is be where my iPhone tells me to be when it tells me to be there. I will say the prep is overwhelming, especially this week (and I'm a customer - the Oracle folks have been much busier, I'm sure) - I'll be really happy when the prep stuff calms down in a few days.

I'm actually flying to San Francisco tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 8th) to spend some time at Oracle HQ: some pre-OOW biz to take care of on Thursday (more on that in a later post - promises to rock in the extreme; yup, this is a teaser) and the ACE Director gathering on Friday. I'll change hotels Saturday morning, settling into downtown San Francisco, and do some preliminary scouting Saturday afternoon. The OOW hubbub starts Sunday and I'll be running hard until the following Thursday - a week of learning, presenting, meeting new friends and catching up with old friends (my favorite part of OOW).

I'll be blogging on the OOW events, although I can't promise how timely I'll be in posting…the days promise to be pretty long and it's tough to keep the energy level up late at night once you get to be my age (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). I'll be as timely as I can.

My wish list for news at OOW:

• Some new info on the progress of Fus…uh, I mean Next Generation…Applications.
• Lots of info about Oracle's pending acquisition of Sun: especially in terms of the future for various Sun products as well as some plans for blending Oracle software with Sun hardware.
• Some specific info about Oracle's plans to continue the integration of Hyperion into the Oracle product family.
• Some info on the future strategy for WebLogic, especially in terms of how it will continue to integrate into Oracle's Applications Unlimited products.
• Future directions for the E-Business Suite: future R12 releases, maybe some incremental changes to the underlying tech stack, etc.
• Finally, some good info on the impact of the retirement of the classic Metalink interface.

One last thing: I'll be carrying a bunch of nifty Jet Propulsion Lab Mars Rover stickers in my bag. If you're into stickers and/or space exploration, track me down and get one before they're all gone.

Any additions to the wish list should be left in the comments. Hope to see you next week!

Oracle Buying Sun - Speculative Fun

So the news is out about Oracle acquiring Sun. It's an interesting acquisition from several perspectives, even though I'm still surprised that Oracle and HP did not team up on this deal (with Oracle getting the software and HP getting the hardware). I usually try not to engage in too much speculation, but playing "what if" with this deal is just too good to pass up. So let's have some speculative fun, shall we?

IMHO, the highlights of this deal are Java and Solaris:

• Oracle has built Fusion Middleware on Java and, assuming this deal goes through, Oracle will own Java lock, stock and barrel. Although I suspect Oracle will still support the open community model, I expect they will attempt to drive the development of future Java standards rather than simply participating.
  

• So far as Solaris goes, Oracle can now engineer a widely-used operating system in conjunction with designing their database, middleware, tools and applications. This could lead to better synchronization between the various components in the software technology stack. I don't see much of a long-term future for "Unbreakable Linux" as Oracle's offering in the enterprise operating systems space now that Solaris is in the Oracle corral.

I'm speculating that MySQL is a non-starter here. One thing I don't anticipate is Oracle continuing to grow and support MySQL as a product. From my perspective, Oracle is first and foremost a database company with their own Oracle database product line. I think it's up to the MySQL community to keep it going...probably not a bad thing if you're a MySQL user.

Another consideration, so long as we're having fun here: Oracle's acquisition of Sun could really give some legs to OpenOffice. How many enterprises would consider OpenOffice as an alternative to MicroSoft Office if OpenOffice offered superior integration with their Oracle products? Hmmmmm...just a thought.

The hardware portion of Sun offers the most interesting opportunity for speculation (and make no mistake, this is all speculation...I have no inside scoop here). I can see it going any one of a number of ways:

• Sun's hardware business has recently evolved into a supply-chain based operation. Oracle could simply shut down that supply chain and let the hardware business fizzle out. Admittely not likely, but possible.

• Oracle could spin the hardware business off to another buyer (HP? Dell?) or as a separate entity.
  

• Oracle could jump in and compete in the hardware marketplace.
  

• Oracle could take the Apple integrated design and sales approach; offering integrated enterprise systems. Offering server, storage, operating system, middleware, development tools and business apps in several levels of integrated, "turn-key" enterprise systems may be a compelling product line for many customers. The value proposition would be ease of use. Imagine taking the iPhone-Touch-iPod-Shuffle approach to the design and sale of enterprise systems.

Whether any of my speculation is accurate or not, one thing is for certain: as I write this, we're in the early hours of a change that will significantly alter the landscape of enterprise software. Oracle can now truely offer products throughout the enterprise technology stack, with the exception of a web browser for thin client presentation. Gosh, I wonder how much the Mozilla team would want for Firefox?

OK, I was just kiddin' about the Firefox comment...don't anybody start a rumor here. In fact, all this speculation has been more in the spirit of fun than anything else. I'm not at all tapped into what Oracle's leadership is thinking here; those folks are proving to be much smarter than I am. In fact, I'll be many of you have a better perspective about this deal than the thoughts I've laid out here. Why don't you hit the comments and share with the rest of us?

Ship Without A Rudder

Now I'm having a big problem with my present day career
My ship, she has a rudder, but I don't know where to steer.

- From Jimmy Buffett’s “Simply Complicated”

This past week has been pretty interesting. I’ve been sick with a virus all week, bed-ridden and counting the pock marks in the bedroom ceiling. Could be the drugs, but I’ve been doing some intense self-analysis about my career.

I’ve had the phrase “manage your own career” (ran across the idea some time ago on the highly-recommended Talented Apps blog) bouncing around in my head lately. When the economy gets bumpy, I always feel better about my own situation if I’m in a situation that allows for a little more independence. I always have more faith in a good outcome when I feel as though I’m depending more on my own abilities than those of somebody else. Consulting, contracting, free-lancing, employment in a meritocracy type of company; those things make me feel like I can steer my ship through the storm. Unfortunately, that’s not the situation I’m in at the moment. I’m in a good situation, but it does not seem like the meritocracy I enjoy most. I may have gotten a little lax about managing my own career.

Coupled with the idea that I’m happier and more secure in a meritocracy, I’ve also been looking at a fork in the road in regards to my own skill set. I really enjoy project management. I relish in leading a small project team facing a tight deadline…not so keen on long projects or big teams. But I also like working hands-on with Oracle technology: be it writing SQL queries, building a quick app in APEX, working with OBIEE, building a business process with BPEL or trouble-shooting issues in the E-Business Suite (my personal favorite!), I’m not really happy with my day unless I can get in some hands-on work. I like the hands-on stuff so much, I’m actually thinking about attempting to develop a DBA skill set. But then there is that fork in the road: the more project management work I do, the less I get to do the hands-on stuff…and vice versa. I’m at the point where I need to make a choice between doing the project work and managing the project work. I have to figure out which path to take.

So between the “manage your own career” thoughts and my "fork in the road" paradox, I’ve been having thoughts lately about whether I’m currently the captain of this figurative ship I’m on or just a passenger. And if I have become more of a passenger than a pilot, I’m not quite sure how to take back the rudder or where to steer when I do get it back…

So am I the only one who is a little confused about their career direction? Or am I the only one who doesn't know where to go next? Find the comments and tell us your story.

I Have Been To The Summit

I had the good fortune to spend three days last week at the IOUC Summit at Oracle HQ in Redwood Shores. Althought this summit has been an annual event for a few years now, this is the first time I’ve been able to attend. Personally, I left on Friday with several “take-aways” and highlights worth sharing:

• Wednesday’s highlight was a brief tour of Oracle’s Usability Labs. Oracle’s Jatin Pinakin Thaker and Alisa Hamai did a great job in teaming up to guide my group through some pretty neat initiatives (the new eye-tracking technology has some serious geek appeal). Oracle’s taking a pretty exciting approach with usability. The rallying cry is: “It’s not the number of clicks; it’s how you work”. We’re seeing some of this work in the most recent iterations of Fusion Applications, and I expect we’ll see more in future releases of Apps Unlimited products. I’m hoping to make arrangements with to spend a full day in the User Experience Lab…I’ll keep you posted.
  

• It seems to me that we’re very close to the general availability release of E-Business 12.1. The Release Content Documents (RCDs) are already available on Oracle MetaLink, and I expect we’ll see some documentation on the value proposition for Release 12.1 (which will be a new thing for Oracle EBS customers) appearing in the next few weeks. I feel comfortable in speculating that the 12.1 release is very close at hand.
  

• Speaking of Fusion Applications, I’d be surprised to see a generally available release anytime in 2009. Oracle is in the early stages of building a list of early adopters or pilot testers. Considering the extent of pilot testing Oracle plans on doing, it appears to me that this phase of Fusion Apps development will take at least a year.
  

• There will be another round of Fusion Middleware's Oracle Excellence Awards this year to recognize Apps Unlimited customers extending functionality with Fusion Middleware in innovative and creative ways. This year, nominations will probably kick off at Collaborate 09 and award winners will be honored at Oracle OpenWorld 09.
  

• A new developer career track is beginning to take shape, the Fusion Developer track. As both customer development and apps development utilizes the same tool set, there is no differentiation between custom developers and apps developers here – there are only Fusion Developers. You’ll see take a little more shape at Collaborate 09 and at Oracle OpenWorld 09.

• Oracle intends to leverage their ACE Directors to conduct hands-on workshops for extending Apps Unlimited functionality with Fusion Middleware. So, if you’re looking for a low-cost, hands-on workshop, track down your local ACE Director (I’m taking my training and receiving my materials sometime in February…I hope).
  

• The migration from MetaLink to MyOracleSupport continues. One of the best things I saw last week was the introduction of support forums as part of MyOracleSupport. These will be product-specific discussion forums where users can share information with each other. In the time since I left Oracle’s employ almost 10 years ago, I’ve always missed the ability to check my issues against the experiences of other customers. Introducing these forums has the potential to restore that information sharing capability. Could turn out to be a very cool thing, especially if the MyOracleSupport forums manage to differentiate themselves from the forums currently found on the Oracle Technology Network.
  

Not a bad collection of highlights and tidbits over a three day period. My thanks to Oracle's Mary Lou Dopart and everyone on her team who helped put this summit together. I’d also like to send out a special thanks to my new friend Vashima Goel, a manager in Oracle’s Global Customer Programs organization. Even though over 100 people attended the summit, Vashima made me feel as though she came all the way from India specifically to make me feel welcome from the moment I arrived at the summit until the minute I left…all too rare a customer experience in this day and age.

Overall, a very interesting week and a great way to start off 2009. I can’t wait to see how this all plays out.

Apps Driving Value

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about how applications, ERP and otherwise, can drive business value. Of course, that's always the promise...it's just that the promise is not always fulfilled. I've been wondering about that. A few days ago, I had an experience that really made the point for me.

As many of you know, I ride a commuter train to the office. It works pretty well most of the time, but there are some glitches from time to time. One of those glitches popped up earlier this week when a freight train running several miles in front of the train I was riding home hit a car at a railroad crossing. As a result, my train stopped at a station about 30 miles from home and the conductor announced we would be waiting at that station for quite some time.

Rather than sitting on a stopped train and stewing about the time I was wasting, I had a software application that I'd obtained specifically for a situation just like this. I pulled out my trusty iPhone and fired up an application named "Call A Cab". This app determines your location and generates a list of cab companies (with phone numbers) sorted by distance from you. Turns out there was a cab company less than a mile from where I was sitting. I called the company, made arrangements for a pickup in 10 minutes, then stood up in the train and loudly asked if anyone would like to split cab fare to the next train station (which was the station closest to my house). Two people jumped at the chance. 30 minutes later, I was home. I learned later that my train was delayed over two hours before it got underway again. The time I saved by using "Call A Cab" represents substantial, easily measured value to me: I spent two hours with family rather than growing frustrated on a train stuck 30 miles from home. In that situation, that app drove value. BTW, "Call A Cab" is a free app from the iTunes store.

My experience with the delayed train and "Call A Cab" really shed some light for me on how apps can drive value. In the business world, I've had some similar experiences as well. An app that gave locations of a building's gas shut-off valves after the Whittier earthquake comes immediately to mind. I know at least one Oracle customer controlling their manufacturing volume and managing their cash flow (and thus their business afloat) by using a Portal-based dashboard to track their book-to-bill ratio in real-time. I see all these examples as instances of apps driving value.

How about you? Any first-hand examples of applications really driving value? Share your story in the comments.

Whither Go ERP Packaged Apps?

Judith Hurwitz recently wrote a great article entitled “Will Packaged Applications Sink Under Their Own Weight? Five Recommendations For Change”. Highly recommended reading, especially for Oracle and SAP apps users.

What appeals to me most about Judith’s article is that she has articulated very well the types of things that have been bubbling up in my own mind lately. Judith is actually a bit ahead of my own thinking, in that she has organized and clearly communicated those things that were just beginning to take shape for me. The old “best of breed” approach to ERP is an early solution iteration in response to the fundamental changes taking place in the ERP marketplace over the past eight or nine years.

Frank Scavo takes Judith’s ideas a step further with his own review of Judith's article, a blog post on the Enterprise System Spectator. Frank concludes that Judith, in her five recommendations, is essentially describing the essence of a service-oriented architecture. In my opinion, Frank hits the nail right on the head.

Now I’ll take it a step further. One of the risks inherent in SOA is the possibility of organizational stovepipes – organizational clusters, formed around processes or groups of processes, that fail to communicate with each other. While organizational stovepipes don’t necessarily need SOA in order to appear, the risk does seem to increase with an SOA environment. This is where social networking and Web 2.0 concepts come into play. Social networking, even behind an enterprise firewall, breaks down the organizational stovepipes by encouraging people to exchange ideas. Social networking keeps an enterprise communicating across functional boundaries even as the organization reforms around business processes. So maybe the realization of the value proposition of social networking in the enterprise is tied, at least in part, to the changes taking place in the ERP marketplace? Hmmmm…let me know what you think.

A Lesson In Caveat Emptor

I received a somewhat painful but memorable lesson this week on caveat emptor. As you probably recall, I’m in the process of switching from the world of PCs and Windows to that of Apple: specifically a new iMac and OS X. A challenge I’ve run into in the process of switching is that some of my heavily-used Windows apps don’t integrate well with apps in the Apple domain.

Microsoft Visio 2007 and Microsoft Projects 2007 are darn near irreplaceable for me. Most of that has to do with the fact that I know how they work and don't relish the idea of relearning the same functionality on new apps. So my idea was to simply bring those apps along with me. I could run a Windows XP virtual machine on my new iMac and happily cruise along with both Visio and Projects for some time to come. So I did some research, asked some Apple gurus, and discovered that VMware Fusion was the top-notch product for Apple-based VMs. About a week ago, I plunked down a few of my hard-earned dollars and purchased a copy of VMware Fusion 2.0 (“VMWF”). In retrospect, I should have known better than to buy any software in a version number ending with a zero – this was the ultimate triumph of enthusiasm over experience.

After my purchase of VMWF, I began working to convert my laptop data into a new virtual machine. My first clue that things were not going to proceed smoothly came early: the documentation and what I saw on the screen were not exactly the same. They were close, but not exactly the same. Still after some puttering, I managed figure things out and get the process going.

I encountered my second clue while converting the data on my PC laptop. According to the documentation, converting the data and moving it to my external hard drive should take about 45 minutes over a USB 2.0 connection for the amount of data I have. My experience was more like 6-plus hours. Now, I’ll admit that I push the envelope in my Windows environment…there are some pretty unique things I have going on there. Nevertheless, missing the documented target by a factor of over six is a pretty big glitch from my perspective.

Third clue: after moving the converted data to my iMac, VMware Tools won’t install. Without VMware Tools installed, the graphics and mouse movements are pretty jerky. In addition, there is almost zero integration between the apps running in the virtual machine and those running natively in OS X…not a good thing.

So after Clue #3, I hit the web to do a little more research. Turns out that there are quite a few VMware users having problems similar to those I’ve had…not all customers, but still a fairly significant number from what I can tell. In addition, there are quite a few virtual machine “experts” sharing the opinion that sometimes that’s just how things go with installing virtual machines; you just have to clean things out and try again. Fair enough – I’ve made cleaned off everything, freshly installed VMWF, converted my data, and so on four times in the past week. No success. I’m all done with “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” approach to these issues. Also tried various other fixes with no luck. In essence, I've burned the better part of a week on this little project without making any progress whatsoever.

So, finally admitting the ultimate geek defeat, I contacted VMware Customer Support. Got a service ticket number. Two days later, I’m still looking for a response. Seems they’re a little busy – no surprise there. So I’m pretty much done with VMWF other than trying to get a refund, although I’m not holding my breath on that. Realistically, I think I’m a few dollars poorer and stuck with some not-quite-ready-for-prime-time software. While that’s a sad story, it’s not really worthy of posting here. But that’s OK, because it’s not where this story ends. Sorry for the long setup, but here comes the good stuff now.

My experience with the desktop virtual machine thing got me thinking. I started wondering if enterprise customers running virtual machines were stuck in the same boat. The sales message is wonderful: save money by eliminating hardware, “Green IT”, and so on. But I wonder if those enterprise customers who bit on the message are really satisfied with what they got. So, I tap into my network by dialing up a few system administrator-types I know to hear their thoughts. While I did not build up a statistically significant sampling of all enterprise virtual machine users, what I heard from the folks I know was pretty interesting.

All the people I contacted stated that their use of virtual machines provided significant cost savings through the elimination of hardware and the reduction in power needs. However, there are trade-offs. I also consistently heard comments like “performance degrades quickly under heavy loads”, “requires more oversight to keep things stable”, and “works great as long as the apps configuration inside the virtual machine is standardized”. The latter comments have made me rethink my perspective on utilizing virtual machines.

The nature of the work I do with applications and technology pushes the envelope. I’m not much for standard configurations when I'm attempting to innovate. Nor do I personally have much tolerance for performance degradation or instability – those types of issues either get resolved through trouble-shooting (minor point: as a fine example of human inconsistency, in spite of my low tolerance for troube, I LOVE trouble-shooting work) or moving to another platform that’s more capable of getting the job done. The technology has to work for me…I don’t work for the technology. In regards to virtual machines, my opinion (and keep in mind that all of this is only my opinion – nothing more) is that they’re probably fine for basic work – standard, even repetitive stuff. Email, web browsing, spreadsheets, word processing, and other types of basic work or transactions. But I would probably be concerned about the viability of a virtual machine platform if I were doing anything too out-of-the-box: critical work with heavy loads or variety in the apps utilized in the virtual machine, for example.

Now I’m sure that virtual machine technology will evolve and get better as customer uptake increases. It could be that I'm just expecting too much too soon in the evolutionary cycle. However, on both a personal and a professional basis, I just can’t wait for the technology to improve.

Getting back to my iMac and me, we’ll probably junk the virtual machine idea altogether and try out some different alternatives: OmniGraffle as a Visio replacement and Open Proj as a MS Projects 2007 substitute. Worse comes to worst, I’ll keep my Windows PC around for awhile until I get this figured out...guess that could make me an "adder" rather than a "switcher".

On an enterprise basis, I’ll be following and recommending the following guidelines for now: 1) virtual machines offer great value so long as you can standardize configurations, stick with fairly basic work, and control the load; 2) if you don’t fit into these constraints, be careful about expecting too much too soon from what is still an emerging technology…caveat emptor.

Elegance Of Design

For those of you who have been reading this blog on a regular basis or following me on Twitter, you know that I've been considering a switch from the PC/Windows world to a Mac/OS X system for the past several weeks. Well, I finally took the plunge this weekend. In fact, I'm writing this particular post on my new iMac.

I've experienced several noteworthy highlights in working through my switch over the past weekend, including improved speed and stability. However, the single most outstanding highlight is my new appreciation for the importance of user interface design. In every instance where the computer system interfaces with the human user, the Apple system is markedly superior to my PC systems. The software's appearance and ease of use (the learning curve in switching is almost non-existent), the tactile response of the keyboard, the feel of the Mighty Mouse in my hand: all these factors have combined to make my initial experience the best technology experience I've had since...hmmm, come to think of it, since I bought an iPhone. Yup, when it comes to elegance of design, Apple gets it.

So, in the realm of Oracle apps, I have to admit that I'm not nearly as excited about the 11i EBS user interface. In fact, I've spent more than a little time this weekend fantasizing about how wonderful it would be if Oracle could come up with a user interface design that provides all the benefits that Apple has worked into their own UI design...at least in terms of the software user interface. Wouldn't it be great if a new user could sit down in front of the Oracle EBS, or PeopleSoft, or Siebel, or JD Edwards, or whatever other apps they own these days, and just start using it because the intuitive nature and ease of use designed into the user interface essentially eliminated any learning curve? Customers would really experience a substantial, measurable benefit from the elegance of user interface design. As I write this, we're a pretty far cry from realizing this dream in the Oracle apps space.

The good news here is that Oracle has a team focused on user interface design. This team leads a program known as the Oracle User Experience, which is intended to use a customer-centric process to deliver high-quality user interface designs. Even better news: you can participate through the Oracle Usability project. Oracle is actively seeking customers to engage in the design process. This is the opportunity for customers to help inject ease of use and intuitive design into the Oracle enterprise apps they use.

After my switch to Apple this weekend, I really understand the importance and benefits of design. Oracle customers can drive the same importance and benefits in their enterprise apps, simply by getting involved. So get involved.

Running The Rodeo

So I'm sitting here on the train platform at 5:00 a.m. on Columbus Day. It's dark, cold and windy in Southern Cal this morning (the Santa Ana winds are raging), but my mind is racing at hundreds of miles a minute (again...a common occurrence at this time of the day). It's the economy that's on my mind, especially the impact of the economy on Enterprise Apps customers. I have several thoughts on the matter. They make make sense or they might not be worth the time it takes you to read them. Take a read and let me know what you think.

I think we have a "Black Swan" situation evolving in the financial markets. The shut-down of world-wide credit markets, to the point where lenders won't even lend to each other, is definitely large-impact, hard-to-predict, and a new experience for all of us. The impact is even greater than it would have been in the past due to huge recent advances in the integration of global markets. In the short run, the past two weeks have been a mess - early international indicators are that today will be substantially better today (October 13, 2008), but it's hard to say what happens after that. While I don't believe this is an economic melt-down by any means and that the global economy will recover in due time, I also believe that we're in for slower economic conditions over the next little while.

It's also important to note that we really haven't yet felt the disruption from the market uncertainty and upheaval of the past few weeks and months. It typically takes about six months for the waves from the financial markets to ripple across the pond and really start to make waves where you and I do business. That's not to say that some of us are not feeling the impact already; I just think we'll see a much bigger impact later on. I'd suggest that many of us will begin to feel the real impact during the first quarter of calendar year 2009. For Enterprise Apps customers, that will likely include a slow-down in the purchasing of new apps and technology...probably okay to anticipate that same slow-down in upgrade licensing too.

My folks were both children of the Great Depression (no, I don't think we're doing that again now...just stop thinking that way! This is more like a big pothole on the highway of life than a Great Depression-type of event). Whenever faced with uncertain times, their mantra was "Let's do the best with what we have." The idea was, rather than replacing a car or an appliance when the economy got a little tight, they would simply make the extra effort to squeeze the maximum value out of the things they already owned. I suspect we'll see quite a bit of this behavior in the enterprise apps space over the next few months - a slow-down in spending for new apps and technology until things start looking better.

So, if we're apt to see a slow-down in purchasing new apps and technology, how will customers continue to leverage IT in making progress of their various initiatives? By squeezing more out of what they already have (customers will also working to reduce post-implementation ownership cost, but that's another story entirely...best told by my friend Vinnie Mirchandani). This is where talent time kicks in: the game over the next several months will be less about buying what software vendors are selling and more about customers getting maximum value out of what they already own. The latter requires access to talented people, either in-house or through carefully selected partners.

Where I grew up, it's a big event when a rodeo comes to town. Everyone in town shows up and it's a big event that takes all weekend. While the wranglers and cowboys are the stars of the show, it's the folks behind the scenes (the rodeo clowns, the event manager, the handlers, etc.) who really make the whole thing work. A rodeo event offers enough prize money, the wranglers and cowboys will show up. Assembling a good team behind the scenes...that's the trick to a successful rodeo. For the next little while, it's the folks behind the scenes in IT - those that can keep the environment running and extend functionality without investing in new tools or technologies - who will be the stars of the rodeo.

Put another way, those who can use underlying apps technology to extend the functionality of those apps will likely be busier than those whose skills are simply in implementing those apps. In the Oracle apps space, someone with skills and experience in building new XML/BI Publisher reports or BPEL-based business processes will likely be more in demand that someone whose skills lie in implementing specific application modules or suites. Premium skills in leveraging Fusion Middleware to extend the functionality of Oracle apps will be in high demand. Overall, apps customers (regardless of whether they're Oracle customers or not) will be competing to trade out skills on their respective teams, replacing apps implementers with those skilled in extensions, enhancements and maintenance...the folks who probably work in your enterprise right now "behind the scenes" or "out of the spotlight".

If you manage an enterprise IT organization, you might want to think about ways to make those employees or partners who do the enhancement and maintenace work feel valued right now. If you are one of those people who really runs the rodeo...rise up, straighten your ties, polish your shoes, and get ready for your day in the sun.

Keep Sight Of The Target

I had an interesting experience this weekend that really got me thinking about the approach to enterprise applications. Hang with me for this little ride and see if it strikes you the same way.

My back gives me a little trouble most of the time and some big trouble ever few years. No big deal, I've learned to deal with it, but the big trouble events usually drive me to the doctor's office. Last Sunday morning as a big trouble event, so I called the Urgent Care center Sunday morning - explained the situation and they had me come right over. After checking in with the receptionist, the nursing staff pulled me into an exam room and explained their new "Proactive Office Visit" procedure. The idea is that, while a patient is in the office, they'll check their medical records and see if any tests, shots or other procedures need to be done. If so, they'll get done while the patient is in the office. So, I think to myself, they're going to catch me up on everything while I'm here and save me from the trouble of future visits to take care of this stuff...pretty slick idea at first blush. So they ran a few tests, took some x-rays (ironically, as it turns out, the x-rays were of my back) and gave me a pneumonia shot, after which they told me "...you're all done, you can go home now." This last statement was a bit troublesome to me, as I had yet to see the doctor about the problem that brought me to Urgent Care in the first place. I shared my concern, which caused quite a bit of puzzlement with the nurses, as their procedure for the "Proactive Office Visit" instructed the nurses to send patients home once the procedure was complete. I wound up have to be rather insistent, in my own gentle and understated way, in order to finally see a doctor and get some relief for my back pain.

The issue here is that the nursing staff, in following the "Proactive Office Visit" procedure, lost sight of the customer target. In this case, I was the customer and the target was relief of the back pain I was experiencing at that particular moment. The "nice to do" stuff got addressed easily but the "must do" item fell out of sight for a bit.

I think those of us in the enterprise applications world sometimes get caught up in the same type of problem. We see spiffy technology and immediately begin to think of all the "nice to do" value we can bring to the enterprise (social networking, slicker reports, flashier user interfaces, etc.). We sometimes forget that our customer has a list of "must do" items that, at least in his or her mind, take precedence over the "nice to do" stuff. Much of that "must do" stuff relates back to the categories of better, faster or cheaper (can I get better information to make better decisions, can I deliver a service faster, can I deliver a good or service cheaper...that sort of thing). I'll take it even further...in many enterprises, IT is loosing it's seat at the strategic decision-making table specifically due to failure in addressing that "must do" list. We're so dazzled with cool technology that we've lost sight of the target.

So my thinking here is, as you consider your incorporation of new technology to extend your current enterprise apps functionality, maybe you should make your decisions in light of customer "must do" lists? Ditto for enterprise application upgrades, whether they be EBS, PeopleSoft, JDE, Siebel, Fusion Apps, Retek, SAP, or whatever. Technology is an enabler, much in the same way that a hammer is an enabler for building a house...the trick here is to keep sight of the target. Are you building houses or just delivering a state-of-the-art hammer?

I think this may be a core idea that I'll want to explore and discuss further at Oracle-related conferences over the next year or so, preferably drilling from abstract stuff (like this post) down to the details of getting it done. Who would have thought I'd find a silver lining like this from a little pain in the rear? Find the comments and let me know what you think.

Notes From TFSOTW - Final Thoughts

Some final random thoughts on Oracle OpenWorld 2008...

• The absolutely coolest thing about OOW was the number of great compliments I received about ORCLville. I never ceased to be amazed by the number of people that read this blog on a regular basis and the positive response I get from those readers. Thanks to all of you who said the wonderful things you said during OOW08. That's what keeps me writing this stuff.
  

• My iPhone was absolutely irreplaceable this week: keeping in touch, managing my schedule, and providing directions around the city, all in one piece of hardware. The iPhone has exceeded all the hopes I had for it when I bought it.

• I did not act on my "halo effect" infection and buy a MacBook Pro at OOW, but only because I've decided to wait for the highly-anticipated new model release (rumored to be around Oct. 14).
  

• The most important news for Oracle customers from OOW08 was the announcement of My Oracle Support. It's the one tool each and every Oracle customer will use on a consistent basis, and it now offers the opportunity to really implement proactive support (addressing issues before they happen).

• The innovation through acquisition strategy seems to be working. It's just a gut feel on my part, but OOW08 left me with an impression that Oracle is about make some more acquisitions. Just a feeling or a hunch, nothing more. Time will tell if I'm right on this one.
  

• My participation in OAUG has provided a great professional and personal network, all full of very sharp minds. I'm glad they let me hang out with them, because I always learn so much when I do.

• Partnering with Amazon and leveraging the Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2) service is an interesting way for Oracle to enter the cloud computing space. It'll be even more interesting to see if and how Oracle becomes a significant player in providing cloud computing services. Ditto for Oracle's first foray into selling hardware: the partnership with HP to sell the HP Oracle Exdata Storage Server and the HP Oracle Database Machine is a creative way for Oracle to enter the hardware marketplace...it should be interesting to see how this development plays out, especially of Oracle opts to expand its role in this space at some time in the future.
  

• The attendee demographics and behavior were a little different this year from years past. More sales people and managers, fewer people with technical or functional "chops"; might be a sign of the economic times. Also, more people with single-day registrations, exhibit hall only passes, and "GuestPlus" passes (exhibit hall, keynotes, and one session)...not nearly so many folks with registration for the full week. The crowd also thinned out a bit after Monday (which was very crowded)...attendance seemed thinner than years past on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (the last day's attendance is usually pretty thin, but this year it seemed pretty thin from Tuesday and on).

• My big, bright-orange, glow-in-the-dark, blogger badge holder was really cool. The free passes to the front of the lines and the reserved seating were also really nice. Thanks to Justin at the Oracle Technology Network for setting up special credentials for Oracle ACEs who blog.

• Kudos to Dan Norris, who came up with the custom badge-holder ribbons that drew great comments all week. I'll happily contribute to a repeat at the next conference.
  

• Lots of EBS users are planning to upgrade from 11i to R12 sometime in 2009. Some of the swell in momentum has to do with the useability engineering in R12 (one example: try doing an AP three-way match in 11i and then repeating the process in R12...you quickly see the difference).

• Actually got to say hello to Tim Dexter face-to-face, if only for a moment or so. Maybe we'll actually get to hang out for a bit sometime soon...
  

• My biggest disappointment was my inability to get in a session with the Oracle Useability team. I was really interested in getting with them for a comparison of my experience with the team at Collaborate 08. I have to do a much better job of managing my schedule, because not getting with this crew at OOW08 was my loss.
  

• I wrote earlier about seeing some "nervous water" regarding the EBS R12.1 release. I still see that nervous water, but I'm more convinced than ever that it's a poor wager to bet on a release anytime in 2008. That being said, the 12.1 previews this week have me believing that 12.1 is a substantially enhanced product in comparison to the 12.0x versions.

• As always, I was honored to be a judge for the Oracle Excellence Awards this year. However, next year I hope to be a winner rather than a judge.
  

• The guys at OracleAppsLab are having a substantial influence on the development of Oracle products. Read the stuff on their blog for a bit and then check out those admittedly poor pictures of Fusion Apps I posted earlier this week. There are AppsLab fingerprints all over Fusion Apps.
  

• I come away from OOW08 convinced that all EBS users, 11i and R12 alike, should plan on upgrading to the 11g database as soon as possible. I'll write more on this in a later post.

• Nobody...and I mean nobody...talked about the big elephant in the room. That big elephant is the current economic downturn (exacerbated by the recent tailspin in the financial markets), which leads to consideration of how to leverage the software already owned to keep your enterprise moving forward in tough times.
  

• Presentations heavy on PowerPoint put me to sleep. The more engaging presentations involved some creativity or some "live drive" stuff.
  

• Really dug the OTN-sponsored Unconference this year. It's the one place you can hang with people who really know their stuff without feeling any sales pressure whatsoever. I suspect I'll be focusing a good deal of my energy on the Unconference, both as an attendee and a presenter, during OOW09.
  

• When I hang out with Oracle ACEs, I really have to stretch my brain to keep up and contribute to the conversation. Most of what I learn and discover, especially on technical subjects, at OOW comes up when I'm hanging with the ACEs. I feel very fortunate to be a part of this group.
  

So now OOW08 is over. It's with more than a little sadness that I say goodbye to dear friends, sharp minds, and the energy of the conference to return to, in the words of Jimmy Buffett, the routine of "jobs and chores and questions, and plates I need to twirl". Already looking forward to OOW09...

All Spruced Up

It's a sure sign that Oracle OpenWorld is at hand: the junk mail is pouring in, both email and snail mail. In the past, I really got some solid value out of the snail mail adds - I would save all that junk mail, wrap it up in really tight paper logs, and use them as firestarters in my fireplace over the winter. Now that I'm older and lazier, I just throw it all away...

I've put together my final schedule (well, final for the moment - things will certainly change as the conference progresses) and pretty much know where I'll be most of the time, although my Monday and Tuesday evening schedules are way overbooked. So now I'm pretty much all spruced up and ready for the Big Dance. I've got some sessions planned, some windows during each day for wandering around and talking to people (the best and most valuable part of any conference, IMHO), and some discussions to attend at the Unconference. In fact, the Unconference looks really strong this year; any time I find myself with a few open moments, I'll probably be at an Unconference session.

A few folks (like my boss) really like to know specifically which sessions I'll be attending at which particular time. Well, like I said, I have a plan. However, I'll very likely change it up quite a bit depending on how things go. If you really want to know where I'm at and what I'm doing, follow me on Twitter (my id is fteter). I'll be attempting to improve on my "Twitter slacker" challenge during OOW. I'll also be blogging from the conference at time permits, but my Twitter posts should be the closest thing to real time updates.

So, what you think we'll see and hear at OOW this year? I have four announcements/events/activities/presentations I speculate ("speculate", as in I don't know diddly and have aboslutely no reliable info - I'm just guessing) will take place during OOW:

1. An announced release or release date for E-Business 12.1
2. A basic message for apps customers about using Fusion Middleware to extend your current Oracle applications
3. An overview on how BEA and Hyperion components fit into and interact with the Oracle product family
4. An announced release or release date for some early Fusion Apps, probably in the CRM space but not part of an integrated suite.

I'd really like to hear your guesses as well, so hit me in the comments.

Six days left until I step off the plane in SFO on Sunday morning...looking forward to it! Hope to see you there.

Globalization at 5 a.m.

You know, it's pretty amazing where your mind will take you in the wee hours of the morning. As I write this, it's 5 a.m. and I'm waiting on a train platform to hop a commuter train to work. I'm killing the time by reviewing nominations for this year's Oracle Excellence Awards and the review has me thinking. I'm struck by the level of globalization in this year's nominees. There are lots of enterprises out there using Fusion Middleware in very creative ways to conduct international business.

Thomas L. Friedman, in "The World Is Flat", explains that globalization is driven to a great degree by the decomposition of business processes and the distribution of non-localized, decomposed activities to the low-cost provider (regardless of that provider's geographic location). For example, a dentist pull wisdom teeth is a localized service - not work that can be distributed to a provider other than that dentist. However, answering phones, scheduling appointments, developing and analyzing x-rays, and billing (all part of that dentist's work flow) are all components of the business process that can be distributed to the low cost provider.

Anyway, this has me thinking that maybe one of the big value propositions for enterprise apps should be the ability to support the decomposition and distribution of work at increasingly lower levels of granularity. This could be a very appealing business proposition to global enterprises (and, when it comes down to it, aren't we all global enterprises?). I see the potential for this type of thing with Fusion Middleware, especially BPEL and composite apps. Don't see it so much in the packaged apps world, although Fusion Apps may eventually represent an incremental move in that direction.

Related to this is the idea that maybe the big value propositon of social networking is to bring all those suppliers, partners and customers in this distributed, global value chain together...but I don't think this is a new idea. I just think it's still looking for real fruition.

So that's what my mind is running through at 5 a.m. Aren't you glad you don't ride my commuter train? In fact, aren't most of you glad that you're not up at this time of the day?

On The Horns Of A Dilemma

When the concept of Fusion Applications was initially announced, I was pretty excited about the applicability of those apps in my shop. The idea of industry-standard integration across organizations and technology stacks, coupled with a Web 2.0-like user interface, really hit home with some needs I saw looming on the horizon.

Almost three years later, I'm still excited about Fusion Applications. However, I do have a little problem: I'm now face-to-face with those needs that were looming on the horizon a few years ago. The need for integration is especially urgent right now in my shop. Unfortunately, those needs arrived more quickly than Fusion Applications.

The good news here is that I can address the integration issues immediately at hand by extending the E-Business Suite with Fusion Middleware. The bad news is that, if Fusion Middleware addresses the integration issues adequately, the Web 2.0-like UI alone may not be enough of a value-add to justify making the move to Fusion Applications. If I knew more about Fusion Applications, the "bad news" element could be mitigated by emphasizing additional value...but I don't know enough about Fusion Applications to make that argument anytime soon. So, due to a timing problem between the appearance of my integration issues and the release of information about Fusion Applications, I'm worried about losing the nifty UI flexibility that will provide noticeable benefit to my end-users (and create a truck-load of customer satisfaction to boot).

Now, don't take this post as a rant over Oracle's secrecy regarding Fusion Applications. Far from it: I understand the legal and strategic reasons driving the lack of information. I'm just pointing out that the lack of info has become a fairly significant (as in losing sleep over it) problem for at least one customer...me.

Anyone else stuck on the horns of a similar dilemma, or am I all alone on this one?

An Exciting Week

A couple of occurrences over the past two days have really made my week.

I took a call from an old friend at Oracle yesterday. I've accepted the opportunity to serve as a judge for the Oracle Excellence Awards again this year. The awards are given to Oracle customers and partners who are creatively using Oracle Fusion Middleware with Oracle Applications (E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards etc) to create innovative and standards-based technology solutions. I'm honored to be a judge and excited about the change to learn of the creative ways that apps customers and partners are leveraging Fusion Middleware. If you're doing something nifty along these lines in your own shop, tell us about it; you might win an award! Nominations are open until August 8th.

I'm also off to Seattle, presenting on the first day of Oracle Days, a conference hosted by the Puget Sound Oracle Users Group. I'm pretty excited about this event. I really enjoy the exchange of ideas that takes place at a good conference. In addition, I've never had the chance to hang with the PSOUG folks before. Wish I could stay longer than a day, but a day is better than nothing. Be sure to swing by and say hello if you happen to be attending the conference.

Yup, it's an exciting week...

Mile Markers On The Upgrade Path To R12

Even though my groovy "classic" iPhone has a great Google maps app, I have to admit that I still think in very old-school terms when I take a roadtrip...especially in the U.S. My father worked for the U.S. Geological Survey most of his working life, in the cartography division. As a result, I learned to read a map during my early elementary school years (my "final exam" including mapping out a route for a car trip from Minneapolis to South-Central Missouri when I was 8 years old - we actually took the trip based on my directions and arrived at the destination with time to spare). Whenever I travel by car, I still determine where I am by matching up reference points to the map: intersections, unique features, and especially highway mile markers.

As many Oracle E-Business customers are now seriously considering an upgrade to R12, I'm often asked about good references and resources available for planning an R12 upgrade. I have what I believe are a good set of mile markers for the trip to R12. I've been meaning to post something on the subject for some time now, and Steven Chan's recent post on a new best practices whitepaper for adopting R12 reignited this subject in my brain.

My list of basic reference materials and resources for an upgrade to R12 comes mostly from blog posts and discussion with Steven, John Stouffer, Brian Bent and many others. I've just consumed and consolidated some of the info developed by others. With that caveat, here are the references and resources I've found most valuable in planning upgrades from 11i to R12 (including where to find those references and resources for yourself):

• Best Practices for Adopting E-Business Suite Release 12 - Orace MetaLink Note 580299.1

• Oracle Applications Upgrade Guide: Release 11i to Release 12 - here

• Oracle E-Business Suite Upgrade Resources Roadmap - Metalink Note 461705.1

• Oracle Maintenance Wizard, which analyzes your 11i environment and produces a tailored 11i to R12 upgrade plan complete with detailed patching recommendations - Metalink Note 215527.1

• Security Best Practices for R12 - Metalink Note 403537.1

In the cases where information is contained in a MetaLink note, be aware that Oracle considers these notes to be "living documents" - you'll want to check them for changes on a regular basis.

So, that's my best shot on the subject. What about those of you who have recently upgrade or are building plans to do so? What reference docs and resources do you recommend?

ADDENDUM [6/16/08] : In my original post, I failed to point out that Steven Chan has also blogged on this subject. His post includes my mile markers plus a few extras. You can read Steven's thoughts on the matter here.