Posts Tagged ‘Fusion’


Fusion Applications Version 1 Discussed by Larry Ellison

October 14th, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

This afternoon, Larry Ellison lifted the curtain providing more information about the Fusion Applications.

For several years Oracle has mentioned its plans to introduce this completely new applications suite.  Today, Ellison said that Version 1 of Fusion Application will include the following functionality:

  • Financial Management
  • Human Capital Mgmt
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Project Portfolio Management
  • Procurement Management
  • Governance, Risk and Compliance

Version 1 of Fusion is now in the test phase with Oracle customers.  It is described as being SAAS ready, based on Service Oriented Architecture, using embedded Business Intelligence and based on industry-standard Java and Middleware.  One slide he showed indicated that the first version has over 6000 tables, 6500 objects, 18,000 views, 1215 services, and 2500 application modules.

Fusion is designed to support management by exception by providing:

  • What do you need to know using Business Status
  • What do you need to do with Action and Task Lists
  • How to do it with Task Flows
  • Who do you need to Contact will Collaboration

Final comments by Ellison indicated that Version 1 of Fusion Applications will be released in 2010.

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What Oracle is Doing Right

August 3rd, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

For a change of pace I thought it would be good to  mention a few of the things I think that Oracle is doing right.   Over the last several years I continue to be impressed with what I see coming out of Oracle related to their product directions and new products.  Here’s my take on the things I see Oracle doing right.

The first one I’ll note is that Oracle is doing a great job at maintaining a Leadership Role in software innovation.  It’s obvious if you look at various evaluations such as the “Magic Quadrant” by Gartner that Oracle’s products are consistently in the top right quadrant where market leaders are found.  Here are a few Oracle products that I’ve had the opportunity to work with.

  • E-Business Suite R12 – R12 is more evolutionary than revolutionary but it significantly improves on what was a solid release in 11i by expanding the international capabilities of this massive applications suite.  With over 224 separate modules, R12 is mind-boggling in it’s scope of capabilities.  Oracle gets some dings for the bugs that were found in the first year  but they’ve quickly addressed the core issues in the releases leading up to release 12.1.  While there is an improved user interface the real changes are beneath the surface and which improve the productivity of everyday users.
  • 11g Database – there are many people who are better qualified to speak on this product than I but as one who has been working with the Oracle database since the last legs of version 6 I’m amazed that  Oracle continues to add useful and valuable capabilities to this workhorse of a database system.  In the areas of performance, operating systems supported, scalability and reliability the Oracle database keeps most of the world’s business working smoothly.  Yes the management interfaces are not as slick as they could be but the newer versions of Oracle Enterprise Manager tend to overwhelm me with information.  The power of PL/SQL remains a constant in the middle of all of the changes we have seen over the years.  Each new release allows more parameters to be changed on the fly rather than requiring downtime.  Recently introduced capabilities that I think will change the future of data management include Real Applications Testing, Active Data Guard, Database Vault and Total Recall.  There’s much more and I’ll probably get dinged in my comments for leaving it out but enough said.
  • Fusion Middleware 11g – Just released and while most of us are still trying to digest it all let me summarize it as a significant statement of Oracle’s capabilities to innovate dozens of products and continually integrate them in ways that architects, developers and management can better deliver business solutions that evolve more and more quickly.  The introduction of better technologies from the BEA acquisition has positioned Oracle to be the dominant player in this market.
  • JDeveloper 11g – This IDE has to compete with dozens of other great Java IDE’s like Eclipse and Aptana but still is a stand out.  This product offers all the bells and whistles including the ability to interact with all areas of the database and middleware environments that Oracle offers.  Additionally the capabilities of the Application Development Framework simplify the development of very robust user interfaces incorporating the best Web 2.0 goodies.  Using JDeveloper I can do Use Case design, write code, test, develop a database design and still not delve all of its capabilities.
  • Fusion Applications – Though not yet  released this coming Applications Suite will introduce an innovative User Interface that is a mash-up of the best of Web 2.0 and what Oracle has learned from it’s product acquisitions (such as PeopleSoft).  Built on Oracle Fusion Middleware capabilities this application will bring Service Oriented Architecture and more industry-standards to the underlying technology stack.    The focus on improving user productivity already seen in the UI will be much appreciated by those who do the real daily work of running the details of a business.
  • Miscellaneous - Kudos to Oracle for supporting the Open Source community by releasing versions of products that they have developed (see here).

Ok, it’s time to take a rest from this area of adulation and move to the second item I think Oracle has done well.  I’ll cover that in the next post.

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Fusion Applications – A Perspective on the User Interface

May 7th, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

After seeing the initial demonstration of the planned Fusion Applications I wanted to provide my impressions.  Any user interface is critical to application users since it is what they actually work in each day.

Oracle has taken a strong stance on using Web 2.0 capabilities in the new User Interface (UI) as can be seen by the following shown in the demo:

  • Supports Links to Web Applications (they showed LinkedIn and FaceBook as examples)
  • Allows Tagging (an individual user to “tag” something to easily come back to it later)
  • Built-in search based on User role  (is prominently displayed at the top in the banner)
  • Desktop Widgets (similar to those available from Yahoo or on Windows Vista)
  • Contextual Help with Audio Visual capabilities
  • Collaboration (chat, click-to-email, presence, wiki’s, RSS feeds)

For those not familiar with RSS (Really Simple Syndication), it provides a notification of changes to a given website so that you are notified and don’t have to constantly check on that site.  You may not be aware of it but RSS is built-in to Outlook 2007 and when you set up a RSS “feed” it brings the information in like an email and makes it available for your reading.  Also a note about Wiki’s.  These  provide a collaborative workspace where groups can share documents and comments.

As noted in a previous post the speed of screen refreshes in the Web Browser (Firefox was shown) is excellent since they use the partial page refresh capabilities to minimize the amount of web traffic from the Application Server to the client.

Several of the applications features, in addition to the above, that will help business users are the use of customizable dashboards.  Existing dashboards are pre-defined for common application roles but users can heavily customize their “home page” to only view the key data they want to monitor for their job role.  Numerous types of graphs and charts are enabled in the dashboards including pie, bar and spider charts.  In the HR module the work is organized around an Organization Chart allowing drill down/up.  This was very impressive allowing resizing of the display area and drill down (based on role) to lots of information about an individual.  A less obvious but key feature in the embedded analytics was the ability to look at operational information, such as customers using an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) approach.  The application user could filter data displayed ont he screen by various criteria.  For example, review customers by sales total or geography or other criteria.

The UI is well-designed with the left side devoted to Navigation and center to your current task and the right side providing contextual information.  Oracle is using their Application Development Framework (ADF) in conjunction with JDeveloper to provide the look-and-feel across the applications.  While they didn’t specify I know they are using the new WebLogic Server as the Application Server rather than iAS the current application server used for 11i and R12 of the E-Business Suite.

The speaker said that many reports are built-in but with the use of BI Publisher, new reports can easily be added.

As I wrap up this post, here are some of the other “cool” features that caught my eye:

  • The use of slider bars to adjust parameters.
  • Links to external web sites like LinkedIn and Facebook (for more people information)
  • Role Based Access Control at all levels
  • Customizable screens for the end user
  • Ability to un-dock a portion of the screen for other use
  • Uncluttered look to the UI
  • Workflow capabilities for common processes using WorkLists and Activity Guides (with graphical representations)
  • Pop-ups with information about customers, vendors and people when their information is included in the data

To summarize, I’m very impressed with the User Interface and can see how it will greatly benefit application users by improving their productivity and knowledge of what is happening in their area.

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Your Private Line to OAUG Collaborate 2009

May 1st, 2009 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

This next week I’ll be attending OAUG Collaborate 2009 and blogging about the latest and greatest that I encounter.  If you are unable to attend I hope you’ll enjoy my posts as I explore the seamy underbelly of OAUG… ;-)

My presentation is on Tuesday or Wednesday (I need to check) but there will be lots of other sessions I’m planning on attending.

I’ve noticed that after a long drought, there are actually several sessions on “Fusion Applications”.  I’m looking forward to see what that’s about since it was not even mentioned at Open World last Fall.

Stay tuned, my flight leaves early Saturday morning so I’m getting there early and staying late next week!

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The Case of the Missing Fusion Applications

September 22nd, 2008 by Robert McMillen • 1 Comment »

After all of the buzz in the last year and a half about Fusion Applications it’s interesting that they have disappeared off of the radar at OpenWorld 2008.  The original schedule had the first versions of Fusion Apps appearing in 2008, focusing on Customer Relationship Management capabilities.

Well, that hasn’t happened and now we are seeing literally nothing said about Fusion Applications at this huge event.

What’s up, Oracle?  (no reply…)

My guess is that that the focus is back on pushing customers to R12 instead of giving them the option to wait for the Fusion Apps.  Why this change in focus?  Here’s some additional guesses.

1. Delay problems with the development process

2. Changes in the underlying technology stack of SOA with the BEA purchase which is introducing heavy change into the Fusion Middleware areas

3. Change of focus in the Fusion Apps effort

4. The ongoing confusion about the word Fusion (is it a bird, a plane, an application?)

Those are the facts for now, Fusion Apps is making a no-show at Open World 2008.

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Gauging the Impact of BEA on the Oracle E-Business Suite

July 1st, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

Today, Oracle provided a view into their plans for the integration of the BEA Aqualogic products into the Oracle product line. Oracle is very experienced at this effort and it showed in the presentation. They focused a lot on reassuring BEA and Oracle customers that there would be no drastic changes and no forced upgrades.

For E-Business Suite users, they mentioned specifically that there will be no forced migrations from the Oracle Application Server. This will only impact those who have upgraded to the 10g version of the Application Server, which would be customers on Release 12 or those who have added new Fusion Middleware components such as Identity Management to their existing Release 11i environments.

Here are the key points that I took away from the presentations which focused, as expected, on Fusion Middleware.

Oracle is extending support of several products for both companies to reduce the upgrade requirements. The integrations of BEA/Oracle products are expected to occur over 12 to 18 months. Oracle will provide a single integrated development toolset that incorporates both BEA/Oracle products. JDeveloper, ADF, and Oracle Forms/Reports will remain. A new Eclipse Pack will be released to help BEA development users migrate.

Oracle Data Integrator, TopLink, Coherence, AIA, Web Services Manager, Service Registry, BPA Designer, BAM, WebCenter, and Business Rules will remain. The Oracle Applications Server will eventually be replaced by BEA’s offering (JRockit, Weblogic) but the OAS will be maintained for some time. Inside the Fusion Middleware, the Oracle Enterprise Service Bus will be merged with BEA’s offering.

BEA’s Aqualogic BPM Designer will be kept and used as an agile process modeling counterpart to the Oracle BPA Designer. Both will be updated to share a common metadata model so that model information can be shared between them.

Oracle will revise their BPEL processing engine and introduce BEA’s Enterprise Repository (SOA governance). Pricing for the BEA products has been simplified and country-specific pricing has been replaced with a worldwide pricing model.

Several BEA products will be included in new Oracle Enterprise Manager Packs. In particular, a new Diagnostics Pack for Java Virtual Machine tuning based on JRockit Mission Control has been added.

Several topics were not discussed, but I want to note them. What about BEA Tuxedo? How will these changes impact the middleware stack for the Fusion Applications?

To summarize, Oracle is not making radical changes that will impact current E-Business Suite users or BEA users. Instead they will be cherry-picking the BEA product line to introduce some new products and bulk up existing products with better technologies from BEA. Existing products will continue to be supported, some up to 9 more years.

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Thoughts About Collaborate 2008

April 21st, 2008 by Robert McMillen • 1 Comment »

Here are some of my random thoughts about Collaborate 2008 event this year.

I found it interesting that Oracle significantly played down the Fusion Applications at this event. I was certainly expecting more focus on what it is and what it will do. The CRM versions have been announced but early versions of the other Fusion Application modules are being demonstrated privately. The use of embedded operational analytics within the applications has been discussed publicly and Oracle is delivering on that.

The winner of the OAUG trip to Las Vegas was an attendee from Japan. I wonder if they budgeted enough monies for her trip across the Pacific? They probably assumed it would be someone in the upper 48 states.

As noted in another post, AIA got a lot of sessions and attention by Oracle presenters. Someone in OAUG confirmed that this change in emphasis began in the last 60 days before OAUG. Based on my previous posts on this blog I’m feeling very aligned with Oracle this week.

The brief snow on Wednesday was nice. I was up on the 35th floor and got a nice view of the results as it settled in during the afternoon. It was gone quickly the next morning but the trees were beautiful on my drive in.

The OAUG sessions in the Wells Fargo Theatre were good, but it was painful to watch the speakers try to read the teleprompters which were located below the stage. I suggest they toss them for next year. The attempts at humor fell flat and every video shot showed the speakers looking down to determine what to do next. Kudos to Floyd Teter and Steve Romeo who managed to make it look the most natural.

I was pleasantly surprised with the attendance at my session. Since it was the last session period of the week and many attenders were already hoofing it to the airport I was expecting two or three in the audience. When over 30 people showed up I was re-energized. The session went well but I managed to leave my cellular USB stick in the room somewhere. I’m still depressed about that.

My tiny rental car for the week morphed into a dual-cab RAM pickup truck that required me to use a handle to get up into the vehicle. The wind had been blowing out of the north when we arrived in Denver. It carried the strong scent of manure which stayed with the interior of the vehicle all week. Maneuvering “the beast” around town was a challenge. I never realized how narrow the lanes are on most streets and for a real test of courage try getting down one of those spiral drives in a parking garage. Once I figured out I had a whole 6 inches of clearance in the garage I was much more confident but I’ve never felt so claustrophobic in a vehicle.

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AIA Technology Review

February 29th, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

It is important to note that Application Integration Architecture (AIA) is a product from Oracle and is available in Releases. The current release is 2.01. Release 2.1 is planned in the next several months.

Here’s a graphic looking at what AIA consists of and how it relates to the SOA Suite.

This shows all of the capabilities of the Oracle Fusion Middleware including SOA. Built on it are the AIA components of Enterprise Business Services, the AIA LifeCycle Management and Enterprise Business Objects provided by the Foundation Pack. There are actually other components but this diagram is just providing an overview.

At the top you can see the Process Integration Packs which rely on both the Foundation Pack and the underlying Fusion Middleware including SOA.

This next diagram shows more detail on how Application Integration Architecture enhances the underlying SOA layer.
AIA provides Industry Reference Models and the supporting Enterprise Objects that are built using BPEL and XML using the SOA Suite. Using JDeveloper, these models and objects can be customized and enhanced.

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AIA Sub-Components

February 29th, 2008 by Robert McMillen • No Comments »

The Application Integration Architecture (AIA) is a product from Oracle and is available in Releases. The current release is 2.01. Release 2.1 is planned in the next several months.

Here’s a graphic looking at what AIA consists of. I’m going to focus on the bottom of the diagram initially.


Starting at the bottom, we reiterate that the Fusion Middleware SOA Suite is the foundation. Then on top of it is the Foundation Pack. Above it are two possible layers. One is a custom integration written within an organization using the Foundation Pack.

The other layer is a set of Process Integration Packs (PIPs) which Oracle has already created using the Foundation Pack layer.

A PIP is a pre-built specific integration between two applications. Oracle has released and continues to release new PIPs each quarter. The reason for PIP’s is that Oracle now has a number of applications they own and they realize that customers are wanting better ways to integration the information between them. Many customers have PeopleSoft, Siebel and the E-Business Suite installed. They want ways to ensure that changing customer information in one application is reflected in the others.

To make things a bit more confusing there are two types of PIP’s.

The first helps share information between two specific applications. This type of PIP is industry-agnostic but requires two specific applications like Siebel and E-Business Suite.

The second type of PIP is designed for vertical industries like Telecommunications.

To see the current list of both types you can visit here.

What you see is several PIP’s for integrating Siebel CRM and the E-Business Suite.

These are only the beginning as Oracle works to provide seamless sharing of information among the many applications they now own.

Now let’s drill down into the AIA Foundation Pack to see what it offers. That’s going to be of great interest to organizations wanting to do their own custom integrations while leveraging the capabilities Oracle provides.

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