Collab 10 Is Right Around The Corner

So, I'm sitting on my deck enjoying the weather this fine Sunday morning in Southern California, just daydreaming about the next few weeks and months when it hits me…yow, Collaborate 2010 is right around the corner!

Important disclosure: I'm going. I don't need to persuade or be persuaded. The years I've attended have convinced me that it's a worthwhile investment, especially when Collaborate takes place so close to me (Las Vegas).

But I'm also betting that my case is different from yours. In another year of tight budgets and limited resources, you're probably wondering whether you should attend at all. And if you do want to attend, how do you justify it? For those of you in this position, I have three points for your consideration.

1. The real story in real time. What I mean here is that you'll get real stories from real customers on what they're doing in real time (the present) with the same challenges, products and tools that you're using in your own enterprise. Not much sugar coating or sales pitching here (although there will be plenty of both as well if you're into that sort of thing). Just the real story.

2. Networking opportunities. You'll have the chance to rub shoulders and talk shop with other customers with technical footprints and business situations similar to your own. Make a friend, swap business cards. Then the next time your company starting talking about the next upgrade, new product, or business process change, you can call up your new friend and do some informal benchmarking.

3. Learning and exploration. Lots of new products, tools and configurations first see the light of day at Collaborate, especially in the workshops. Need some advice on a specific challenge? Swing by the OAUG/ITConvergence both on the exhibition floor to "Get Expertise from the ACEs". Want to get a peek at the latest developments with Oracle Enterprise Search? Sign up for a an Oracle Usability Lab user session. Want some hands-on training with a specific tool? Check out IOUG's Deep Dive sessions and Bootcamps. How about some "let me drive" exploration of new products without someone hovering over your shoulder? Quest is sponsoring a Playday with "live drives" of JD Ewards, E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, BI Publisher, the User Productivity Kit, K-Rise Systems's EASYProcess and Hewlett-Packard's LoadRunner. Looking for information on Oracle Fusion? Come to the "Oracle Fusion Architecture: Soup to Nuts" workshop.

So there you have it. Who knows what nuggets you'll be able to take back to the office? But if you want those nuggets, you have to come to Las Vegas to get them. Three fine reasons to be in Las Vegas from April 18 through 22 for Collaborate 2010. See you there.

Pre-OOW - Drinking From A Firehose

So, while I'm sitting in my hotel room this Saturday afternoon (watching my beloved Cardinals get stomped into the ground by -gulp- the Dodgers), I feel like I've been drinking from a firehose for the past couple of days.

First, for those of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seat worrying about world security, rest easy. The TSA is still protecting us from chubby, bald, geeky threats...yes, they hand-checked my luggage again. The streak is still intact.

Thursday was an incredible day, spent entirely at Oracle HQ. There will be a blog post or two discussing Thursday in detail. I'm still contemplating on what to write and how to write it, because I think it will be a very important article. In the meantime, let me just say that Oracle's work in the area of user experience is a huge story. For those of you attending Oracle OpenWorld, come to the OAUG Fusion Council session on Sunday from 2-3 p.m. in Moscone West and you'll get a flavor for what I mean. Those of you who aren't able to make San Francisco this year, I'll get something up on the blog soon. And, trust me, this is big stuff.

I was part of the Oracle Ace Director briefing on Friday. Lots of good info on upcoming releases and improvements for the technology products. One recurring theme I was very happy to hear about: improving support for REST. For those of you considering a RESTful approach, you'll get news to be excited about very, very soon. The whole briefing was good - more about enabling developers and DBAs than some type of sales pitch. The presentation on APEX has really stuck with me. Although I do wish we had more news on applications-related technology; that piece was missing from the briefing. Nevertheless, the ACE Director briefings are always a highlight of OOW for me...we get more straight-up info here than anywhere else.

Today (Saturday) is like a brief respite before OOW kicks into gear on Sunday. However, my own brief respite has been just a little irritating. I changed hotels today, moving from San Marcos to downtown San Francisco. Checking into the hotel was a bit of an adventure, courtesy of some "help" from American Express, but all that got worked out (with a massive assist from my wife, who despite being loveable can really kick some butt when needed). Registration for OOW was no better: no speaker ribbon, no blogger ribbon (and you know how I love my ribbons) and no blogger credential. I had some friends work this last item on my behalf: Justin Kestelyn (Mr. OTN himself - I just refer to him as "The Man") got on the phone with the registration people, fellow ACE and blogger John Stouffer flirted with another registration specialist in an attempt to get some special consideration for me while his wife observed with more than a little amusement (which, understandably failed...poor John wound up sobbing on his wife's shoulder after the object of his flirtations broke out in uncontrollable laughter), and fellow ACE Director Steve Romeo offered to dance on a table for several of the registration specialists (an offer that was handily rejected - if you've ever seen Steve dance, you'd understand why). All those magnificent efforts when for naught. I understand that Oracle PR is working on the blogger thing, so that may still get worked out. Mr. Romeo was kind enough to buy me lunch today in an attempt to cheer me up and I'm having dinner with a group of old friends later tonight, but I hope this is not a harbinger of how OOW will go for me this year.

One last thing: I'm kicking off the previously-mentioned OAUG Fusion Council session tomorrow and speaking at the Unconference three times during OOW. I've decided to abstain from putting up any PowerPoint slides whatsoever at any of these sessions. I'm a little tired of watching the eyes in the audience drift away after I run through a few slides in a deck. I'm hoping that, by abstaining from PowerPoint, my sessions will have more give-and-take discussion rather than slipping into lecture mode.

So, batten down the hatches, here we go...

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...

Movin' On Up

Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

- From "Movin' On Up" (Theme From "The Jeffersons")

I just received some great news from Oracle. I'll be movin' on up from my status as an Oracle ACE to become an Oracle ACE Director. I'm pretty excited, as the Director designation provides more opportunities for evangelism - something I enjoy a great deal. It's also exciting because Oracle is just beginning to introduce the Oracle ACE Director program into the Oracle Applications user community. In fact, I'm one of the first (if not the first) people to have the Director designation in the apps domain.

It's my hope that the Oracle ACE Director program will grow the dialogue for Oracle apps users, much as the Oracle ACE program did (and continues to do) when it was introduced last year. The big value add for these programs is the basis for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, tips and tricks within the Oracle Applications user community, as well as providing a channel for the flow of information between apps users and Oracle Development. Personally, I'm just happy to be a part of it. Woot!

If you want to be a part of all this yourself, start with becoming an Oracle ACE. After a year as an Oracle ACE, you can work on becoming an Oracle ACE Director. You can learn more about the Oracle ACE program, including the nomination process, here.

What Goes Around Comes Around

My mother used to tell me that what goes around comes around. Yesterday was another example of how wise my mother was...

Yesterday was a pretty rough day in my house. I'll refrain for laying out all the details other than to say it seemed like I was drinking from a fire hose that was spewing bad news. Sometimes life is like that, but yesterday was a doozy!

Anyway, late in the afternoon, I came home to find a UPS package on my door filled with copies of the February 2008 edition of Oracle's "Profit" magazine. Lo and behold, there on page 19 is my chubby, ugly mug and an interview about the Oracle Applications ACE program. Great timing - what a nice silver lining around one whopper of a cloud. And I also must say how much I enjoyed working on this article with the folks putting out "Profit". It was a great experience and one I hope to repeat in the future.

Okay, setting aside the TMI stuff and getting to the bottom line: if you know of someone who has made significant contributions to the Oracle user community, please think about nominating that person as an Oracle ACE. The benefits (including recognition) that come from being a part of the ACE community are significant. In fact, I was not really aware of the full extent of the benefits until I was admitted into the group myself. Personally, it's a honor for me to be part of that select group as an Applications ACE. So take a little time to do something nice for someone you respect...your single act of recognition will brighten up their day again and again.

Oracle ACE

Oracle has recently expanded the Oracle ACE program to include members of the applications community. As a result of that expansion, lo and behold, I was recently named as an Oracle ACE...one of the first from the applications community. I guess it's true that the sun shines on every dog's rear end sooner or later.

As I understand it, the Oracle ACE award is given in recognition for enthusiasm and contributions in the Oracle user community. When I look at the list of Oracle ACEs, I see some very intelligent and well-known Oracle experts. I don't feel like I deserve to be in that group...I'm simultaneously humbled and proud to be included in it. I'm also grateful to the people who played a role in making this happen.

I'm honored to have received the Oracle ACE award and will try to measure up to the designation.