Overview on iSetup, CCG, CMP and ICM

What is iSetup:

• iSetup is a tool that supports initial implementations of the Oracle E-Business Suite.
• iSetup mainly supports the ongoing maintenance of setup data. This includes simplifying the migration of setup data – from one instance to another; aiding in cloning setup data; and keeping track of setup data among the different environments.
• The main focus of iSetup is to help migrate functional setups from one E-Business Suite instance to another. During migration, setups can be extracted selectively using filters on setup attributes. Extracted setup data can be optionally transformed before loading into target instance.
• Another capability of iSetup is setup comparison, whereby a report can be generated on the exact differences of setup information between two instances or from the same instance across different timelines.

The iSetup solution addresses all the CRP business needs. You can create first time setups based on requirements gathered. You can use the same configuration to populate multiple instances or make refinements before loading into subsequent instances.

Uses of iSetup:

• Initially EBS implementation involves a manual setup using either a ManuralEntry or Business Accelerators . iSetup can help start such implementation scenarios by loading a CRP instance from an industry best practice configuration.
• iSetup provides an enterprise wide repository to store business specific configuration snapshots. These Gold copies can be used to configure a new instance, thus avoiding re-configurations.
• iSetup expedites implementations by providing out-of-the-box migration templates tailored to suit various implemenation phases.
• iSetup can also help promote setups from CRP to multiple test, development and production environments.
• iSetup enforces business validations inherent in interfaces owned by Oracle product modules.
• iSetup can be used to copy all setups striped by an Operating Unit and move it to another EBS instance using Hierarchical selection set feature which cascades filter criteria to all related setups in the selection set template.
• In a roll-out scenario, iSetup can be used to replicate the setups tied to an existing Operating Unit to a new Operating Unit.
• iSetup can be used to migrate incremental setups selectively across instances using filters on setup attributes. Instead of cloning the entire EBS instance, iSetup can be used to move required setup data from a production instance to a testing instance. New setups can be added to the test instance and those specific setups can be selectively migrated to production instance while the instance is up and running. This minimizes the need to redo setups, and execute expensive clone activities.
• iSetup provides standard and comparison reporting features. Standard reports help in documenting the setups in regular PDF/RTF/Excel that serve as a standard reference for implementation teams.
• iSetup comparison reports can help in troubleshooting functional setups by enabling users to compare setups across instances or timelines.
  

Configuration Contorls Governor(CCG) (formerly Integra Apps):

CCG helps you reduce financial loss, compliance cost, and audit effort related to your business application setups. It does this by identifying setup changes, storing them in a central repository, and reporting them. CCG can operate both automatically and on demand. It provides role-based security to ensure the privacy of sensitive business data.

Why CCG need to be used:

CCG's Change Tracker is useful for customers who want their business users to be able to:

• Activate/deactivate Change Tracking for all business application setups without a technician's assistance Interpret setup change information without a technician's assistance.
• Receive alerts when setup changes occur .
• Use a single repository of all Change Tracking information for all business application setups.
• Implement controls without employing Table Audit

CCG to Create BR100

Create a BR100-like framework in Oracle GRC Manager.
Enter your business requirements into the framework, and import the setup data that's captured by CCG. Then, add your comments in the framework as desired, and take any needed compensating, remediating, or mitigating steps. If you're wondering why CCG doesn't let you annotate the setup data it captures, it's because that would be at odds with a key GRC best practice: providing a single point of interaction between GRC users and all the data they need to make good decisions. Only solutions like GRCM and GRCI permit that holistic view, and only solutions like GRCM permit the automation of policies and workflows that rely on data from multiple sources, CCG being just one.

iSetup Vs CCG (Configuration Controls Governor):

CCG and CMP:

Configuration Management Pack (CMP )is designed for IT adminstrators who need to troubleshoot failed applications. It detects changes to files and databases, much like CCG Change Tracking detects setup changes. But CMP requires a developer to specify what should be tracked, and reports only raw data that requires a developer's interpretation; therefore it's not useful to the GRC business audience.

CCG and Preventative Controls Governer (PCG):

CCG and PCG complement each other. Use CCG to detect configuration change

• Track changes to setups and compare snapshots
• Rapid start with shrink-wrap support for 1000's of setups

Use PCG to restrict user activity:

• Hide or mask EBS fields
• Require third-party approval of EBS data changes
• Require reason codes for EBS data changes
• They do not compete with each other - PCG tracks changes to EBS data, but must be configured manually.

Internal Control Manager(ICM):

Oracle Internal Controls Manager is a comprehensive tool for executives, controllers, internal audit departments, and public accounting firms to use to document and test internal controls and monitor ongoing compliance. It is based on Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) standards.

In many countries, governmental regulations apply to the testing and reporting of corporate internal controls. For example, in the United States, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 makes reporting on a company's internal control mandatory for both management and external auditors.

ICM Features :
Oracle Internal Controls Manager will:
•Expose internal audits to Sarbanes Oxley certifiers
•Make internal policies an integral part of your system
•Highlight application control points
•Compare internal policies to external guidelines
•Compare actual practices to internal policies
•Provide risk and issues library
•Validate financial values from the consolidated level to the transactional level at every subsidiary

ICM Setups:

• Setup Auditbale Units
• Define Business Proceses
• Define Risks and Associate with Processes
• Setup Contorls that mitigate process Risk
• Create Surveys and links to Assessments
• Define Audit Procedures to verify controls.

Auto Invoice in Accounts Receivables:

What is Autoinvoice?
Autoinvoice is a powerful and flexible tool, used to import and validate transaction data from external financial systems or other modules of Oracle Applications. Users can create Invoices, debit memos, credit memos, and on-account credits in Oracle Receivables using Autoinvoice.

Auto invoice Process:
Data for creating invoices comes in from various sources such as external systems, Order Management, Oracle Projects, Oracle Services and so on. The interface loading program is run to populate the interface tables. When the Autoinvoice Master Program and Import Program are run, the data passes through certain validation processes and finally populates the tables of the Oracle Receivables module.

The feeder program populates data into the Autoinvoice interface tables, namely

RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL,
RA_INTERFACE_DISTRIBUTIONS_ALL and
RA_INTERFACE_SALESCREDITS_ALL

Every line must use the RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL table. The other two tables are optional.
RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL Table:
This table contains information related to all transactions to be processed by AutoInvoice. Transactions include invoices, debit memos, credit memos, and on-account credits. This table holds the key data such as bill-to customer, ship-to customer, and transaction date.
• Each record contains line, tax, freight, or finance charges information.
• The Line Type field identifies the type of information contained in the record.
• A record can be a parent record: Line, Header Freight, or Charges; or a child record: Tax or line-level Freight.
• A child record is linked to the parent record using the Link-To Transaction flex field.

RA_INTERFACE_DISTRIBUTIONS_ALL Table:
Oracle Order Management does not use this table because Auto Accounting creates the distributions in Oracle Receivables.

This table contains accounting distributions to be used by the transactions defined in RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL.
• Accounts defined in this table override any accounts created using Auto Accounting.
• You can choose to pass some or all account information to AutoInvoice. Any accounts that are not passed will be derived using Auto Accounting.
• Records in this table are linked to records in the RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL table using the Transaction flex field.

RA_INTERFACE_SALESCREDITS_ALL Table:
This table contains all sales credit information for the transactions in the
RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL table.
• The two tables are linked using the Transaction flex field.
• This table is required to track sales credits.

When the Autoinvoice program is run, data is populated into the tables listed below
-RA_BATCHES_ALL
-RA_CUSTOMER_TRX_ALL
-RA_CUSTOMER_TRX_LINES_ALL
-RA_CUST_TRX_LINE-GL_DIST_ALL
-RA_CUST_TRX_LINE_SALESREPS_ALL
-AR_RECEIVABLE_APPLICATIONS_ALL
-AR_PAYMENT_SCHEDULES_ALL
-AR_PAYMENT_SCHEDULES_ALL
-RA_INTERFACE_ERRORS_ALL


Grouping Rules:
Autoinvoice uses grouping rules to group lines to create one transaction. Mandatory grouping attributes cannot be dropped. However, users can add optional grouping attributes.

The grouping rule ‘DEFAULT’ is a seeded value, which contains all the mandatory grouping attributes.

Grouping rules are mandatory and determine how transaction lines are grouped into transactions Optionally, you can use line ordering rules to determine the order in which lines are displayed on a transaction.

To uniquely identify imported transactions and link the tax, freight, commitments, and credit memos, define the Transaction flex fields.

AutoInvoice validates your data by ensuring that the columns in Receivables Interface Tables reference the appropriate values and columns in Receivables.

Autoinvoice uses the following hierarchy to determine the grouping rule that is to be used:
· Transaction batch source
· Customer site level
· Customer profile level
· System Options Window

If a grouping rule is not specified, either, at the Transaction Source or at the Customer Site level or in the Customer Profile Classes window, Autoinvoice uses the default grouping rule specified in the System Options.

Transaction Flex fields:

Transaction flex fields are descriptive flex fields that AutoInvoice uses to uniquely identify transaction lines.

Because they are unique for each transaction line, they can also be used to reference and link to other lines.

Receivables lets you determine how you want to build your transaction flex field structure and what information you want to capture.

Define a flex field for each import source. Specify which one to use during import.

Use the Reference Flex field to link a credit memo line to a transaction. This passes information like order number, project number, and shipping information.

There are four types of transaction flex fields are
· Line Transaction Flex field
· Reference Transaction Flex field
· Link-to Transaction Flex field
· Invoice Transaction Flex field

Line Transaction Flex Field: Use columns INTERFACE_LINE_ATTRIBUTE1-15 and INTERFACE_LINE_CONTEXT to define the Line Transaction Flex field. They are unique for each record in the interface tables and therefore can be used as record identifiers.

The INTERFACE_LINE_CONTEXT field in RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL indicates to Autoinvoice, the Line Transaction Flex field code that is to be used. The Context value corresponds to the code field. For example Order Entry, Intercompany etc.

The Line Transaction Flexfield must be defined mandatorily. Autoinvoice always uses the Line Transaction Flexfield structure for both, the Link-to and Reference information when importing invoices. You need to explicitly define the Link-to, Reference and Invoice Transaction Flexfield structures, only if this information is to be displayed on a custom window.

Source: ORDER MANAGEMENT the line transaction flex filed code is ORDER ENTRY.

Reference Transaction Flexfield:
Reference Transaction Flexfields have the same structure as the Line Transaction Flexfields. Reference Transaction Flexfields are used to refer to previously processed transactions.
For example, to import a credit memo and apply it to an invoice or associate an invoice to a specific commitment, use the Reference Transaction Flexfield.
To refer a credit memo to a specific invoice use the REFERENCE_LINE_ATTRIBUTE1-15 and REFERENCE_LINE_CONTEXT columns of the credit memo to enter the value of the Line Transaction Flexfield of the invoice. If the invoice being credited, is already in AR, populate the REFERENCE_LINE_ID column of the table RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL.

Link-to Transaction Flexfield:
Link-to transaction flexfields also have the same structure as the Line Transaction flexfield. Use Link-to transaction flexfields to link transaction lines, to each other. For example, to import a freight charge that is associated with a particular transaction line, use the LINK_TO_LINE_ATTRIBUTE1-15 and LINK_TO_LINE_CONTEXT columns of the freight line and populate the value of the Line Transaction Flexfield of the particular transaction line.

Invoice Transaction Flexfield:
Invoice Transaction Flexfield has a structure similar to that of the Line Transaction Flexfield, but includes only the header level segments. Segments included in the Invoice Transaction Flexfield should be included in the Autoinvoice grouping rules. To define the header level transaction flexfield, query Invoice Transaction Flexfield in the title field of the descriptive flexfield segments window and enter the context and segments associated with this transaction flexfield.
All segments in the Line Level transaction Flexfield that refer to the header information must also exist in the header level transaction flexfield.

Auto invoice Validation:
AutoInvoice Validation Validates lines for:
-Accounting Rules
-Accounting Periods.

AutoInvoice validates the data for compatibility with Receivables. It ensures that the columns in Receivables’ interface tables reference the appropriate values and columns in Recievables. It checks for:
Existence: Ensures that the values for some columns are already defined.
Batch Sources: Ensures consistent values for fields in the Transaction Sources window.
Uniqueness: Ensures that the invoice number you supply is unique within a given batch source.
Precision: Ensures that the amount and accounted amount have the correct precision.
Cross Validation: Ensures that column values agree with each other.

Autoinvoice Master Program:
Autoinvoice Master Program selects and marks records in the interface tables, for processing based on the parameters entered. Once the records are selected, the Autoinvoice Import Program is spawned. Autoinvoice Master Program does not provide any report or output. The Master program allows running of several instances of Autoinvoice to improve system performance and to facilitate importing of transactions quickly.

The AutoInvoice Master Program can be submitted from the Standard Report Submission (SRS) window. This process can be schedule to run on specific intervals using the SRS scheduling features. Process specific transactions or a range of transactions by entering report parameters as listed on the slide above.
Use different selection criteria to submit individual transactions or groups of transactions.
Submit a maximum of fifteen instances.

Autoinvoice Import Program:
Autoinvoice Import Program validates the selected records and creates transactions. Any record that fails validation is left in the interface table with an error code. Depending on the overall setup, related records may be rejected as well. An output files called Autoinvoice Execution Report and Validation Report, can be viewed by clicking the View Report button in the Requests Window.

Autoinvoice Purge Program:
Autoinvoice Purge Program deletes records from the interface tables. Only records that have been successfully processed by Autoinvoice are purged. If the Purge Interface Table option in the System Options window is set to No, Autoinvoice does not delete processed records from the interface tables after each run and the Autoinvoice Purge Program will have to be submitted independently.

Reports:
The Autoinvoice Master Program log file, gives details of the concurrent request initiated by the Autoinvoice Master Program and any errors encountered therein.

The Autoinvoice Import Program log file, gives details of the concurrent request carried out for the import of transaction and any errors encountered therein.

The Autoinvoice Execution Report lists the total number of transaction, sales credit and distribution, lines that was successfully imported as well as those that failed.

The Autoinvoice Validation Report is created if any records have failed different phases of validation. It displays all error messages associated with each transaction, sales credit or distribution line that failed validation.

Correcting Auto invoice Errors Overview:

The AutoInvoice Exception Handling Windows can be used to correct errors that are in the AutoInvoice Interface Table. Records that pass validation are transferred into Receivables transaction tables. Records that fail validation are called exceptions; these records remain in the AutoInvoice interface tables.
Once you have corrected the errors, you must resubmit AutoInvoice. Valid lines cannot be changed in the AutoInvoice Exception Handling windows. Only those lines with errors can be changed

Interface Exceptions Window:

Displays the interface ID, exception type, error message, and the invalid value associated with each error. Cannot edit data in this window, but you can view the error message and easily correct the error by clicking the Details button.

Note: The error message and column name with erroneous data is displayed in the Message column, and the value that needs to be corrected is displayed in the Invalid Value column.

Interface Lines Window:
Displays all records in the interface tables that failed validation, provides an error message, and can be used to correct invalid records.
Click the Details button, the window opens where the errors can be corrected. Buttons are provided to correct specific types of errors.
Correct errors in these windows.

Line Errors Window:
Displays all errors associated with a specific line and can only be opened from the Interface Lines window. View all errors associated with a single line by clicking the Errors button in the Interface Lines window. Cannot edit data in this window. Displays the interface ID, the error type, error message, and the invalid value.

Note: You might use this window when you access the Interface Lines window directly, which does not display the error messages. The type indicates which button to click in the Interface Lines window.

How is the Tax code derived in AutoInvoice:

AutoInvoice first looks at the transaction type setup (Menu: Setup>Transactions>Transaction Types) and the TAX_EXEMPT_FLAG column in RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL. If the 'Calculate Tax' box is checked on the transaction type OR the TAX_EXEMPT_FLAG column is 'R'(for Required), it tries to derive the Tax code.

To get the tax code, AutoInvoice looks at the following places in the following order, stopping at the first place where it finds a tax code.

-Ship to site; -Bill-to-site; -Customer; -item

Useful Queries:

==============================
select
*
from
AR_VAT_TAX_ALL_B (VAT Code id);
===============================

Select
*
from
AR_VAT_TAX_ALL_B
Where
set_of_books_id=1002;
==============================

select
set_of_books_id,
tax_code,
tax_rate,
tax_type,
start_date,
org_id
from
ar_vat_tax_all
where
vat_tax_id = 10007;
=================================

Correcting AR Interface Errors:

The errors in the interface tables can be corrected with the help of the AutoInvoice Validation Report and the AutoInvoice Errors window which displays records that failed AutoInvoice validation. Depending on the error you may need to make changes either in Receivables, or to your feeder program or to the imported records in the interface tables.

Menu: Interfaces>Control>AutoInvoice>Interface Lines
Interface Lines Window - This window lets you see all of the interface lines that have been processed but rejected by AutoInvoice. You can view and edit data in this window.
Menu: Interfaces>Control>AutoInvoice>Interface Exceptions
Interface Errors Window - This window lets you see all of the errors generated by AutoInvoice. This window is read-only, but you can drill down to view errors in more detail, and modify data in these windows

Within the table RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL, there is a column called INTERFACE_LINE_ID. When the Autoinvoice process runs, this column is populated with a unique sequence value. If the process errors, the INTERFACE_LINE_ID can be referenced in the RA_INTERFACE_ERRORS_ALL table. This table will also include the error message for the particular order line in the main interface table.

Error: The total amount of your credit memo cannot exceed the balance of the debit item it is crediting.

Option1:

In the interface table , keep the curose after sale order field and click show field to check for the reference_line_id and make that field as null and resubmit the autoinvoice.

Option2:

update ra_interface_lines_all
set reference_line_id = null
where sales_order = :errored_sales_order
and reference_line_id is not null;

Error: You cannot apply a transaction with a negative amount to another transaction with a negative balance and vice versa.

Option1:
In the interface table , keep the curose after sale order field and click show field to check for the reference_line_id and make that field as null and resubmit the autoinvoice.

Option2:
update ra_interface_lines_allset reference_line_id = nullwhere sales_order = :errored_sales_orderand reference_line_id is not null;

Error: You can supply at most one Receivables account for a transaction (an invoice, a debit memo or a credit memo)

This error is caused by violating the mandatory grouping rules as defined by seeded Oracle functionality. This can occur on any number of fields so the key would be to review the following fields to ensure they are match per sales order:

AGREEMENT_ID
COMMENTS
CONS_BILLING_NUMBER
CONVERSION_DATE
CONVERSION_RATE
CONVERSION_TYPE
CREDIT_METHOD_FOR_ACCT_RULE
CREDIT_METHOD_FOR_INSTALLMENTS
CURRENCY_CODE
CUSTOMER_BANK_ACCOUNT_ID
CUST_TRX_TYPE_ID
DOCUMENT_NUMBER
DOCUMENT_NUMBER_SEQUENCE_ID
GL_DATE
HEADER_ATTRIBUTE1-15
HEADER_ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY
HEADER_GDF_ATTRIBUTE1-15
INITIAL_CUSTOMER_TRX_ID
INTERNAL_NOTES
INVOICING_RULE_ID
ORIG_SYSTEM_BILL_ADDRESS_ID
ORIG_SYSTEM_BILL_CONTACT_ID
ORIG_SYSTEM_BILL_CUSTOMER_ID
ORIG_SYSTEM_SHIP_ADDRESS_ID
ORIG_SYSTEM_SHIP_CONTACT_ID
ORIG_SYSTEM_SHIP_CUSTOMER_ID
ORIG_SYSTEM_SOLD_CUSTOMER_ID
ORIG_SYSTEM_BATCH_NAME
PAYMENT_SERVER_ORDER_ID
PAYMENT_SET_ID
PREVIOUS_CUSTOMER_TRX_ID
PRIMARY_SALESREP_ID
PRINTING_OPTION
PURCHASE_ORDER
PURCHASE_ORDER_DATE
PURCHASE_ORDER_REVISION
REASON_CODE
RECEIPT_METHOD_ID
RELATED_CUSTOMER_TRX_ID
SET_OF_BOOKS_ID
TERM_ID
TERRITORY_ID
TRX_DATE
TRX_NUMBER
This is a difficult error to resolve, but involves reveiwing the interface line attributes.

Error: You can not apply more than the original line amount
Option1: Control > Autoinvoice > Interface Lines
Query for the Order which has the above error message, go to folder and query for Reference Line ID, Delete this reference id.

Option2: update ra_interface_lines_all
set reference_line_id = null
where sales_order = :errored_sales_order
and reference_line_id is not null

Error: Unable to locate a valid sales tax rate for transaction

This error occurs when the Oracle Tax engine or Tax Extension (for third party tax programs) fails to fetch a sales tax code or rate for the destination location, or fails to derive a tax code from the defaults defined through the system options.

The common causes of this error are listed below.

1. Missing or incorrect tax rate for the sales tax location combination.
2. Obsolete or unmaintained applications, tax engine or tax vendor code.
3. The invoice or order transaction date is not within the tax code effective dates.
4. When using third party tax vendors, may have overlapping zip code ranges when sales tax data was uploaded.
5. A tax code is assigned (customer, site or item) but system option tax defaults are not enabled.
6. Location based tax could not be found because transaction country <> home country.
7. Addresses are incorrect or not created properly due to invalid database triggers.
8. Sales tax location flexfield may be invalid

Error:Please correct revenue account or Receivables account or freight or tax account assignment

Change the revenue account assignment to a valid revenue account assignment.

Autoaccounting is used to determine the accounts when the distribution table is not populated. When AutoInvoice gives this error, it generally gives the account with the missing segment(s).

Review the setups:

Menu: Setup>Transactions>Autoaccounting Query the account mentioned in the above error and note the setup for that missing segment. If it is based on:

- Transaction Type : - Menu: Setup>Transaction>Transaction Types, and verify that all accounts are populated.

- Salesperson - Menu: Setup>Transactions>Salespersons, and verify that all accounts are populated.

- Standard Lines For an Inventory Item navigate to Menu: Setup>Transactions>Items>Inventory items, and verify that the 'Sales Account' is populated in the 'Invoicing' alternate region. For a Memo Line, navigate to Setup =>Transactions =>Memo Lines, and make sure that 'Revenue Account' is populated.

-Taxes Menu: Setup>Tax>Codes and verify that account is populated in 'Tax' column under the 'Accounting' alternate region.

Additionally the following can be checked: Setup of Cross Validation Rules. Run Cross validation Listing Report in GL to identify the cross validation rule stopping the import of this line.

Unable to Derive A GL Date for One Transaction.

Populate GL_DATE with a date or populate the date with the created date in the interface table that falls in an open period.

Useful Queries :

=========================
Select
distinct
interface_line_attribute1,
purchase_order
from ra_interface_lines_all
order by Purchase_order;
=========================
select count(1),
message_text
from ra_interface_errors_all
group by message_text;
========================

SELECT
*
FROM
RA_INTERFACE_ERRORS_ALL
WHERE
interface_line_id
IN
(
SELECT
interface_line_id
FROM
RA_INTERFACE_LINES
WHERE
interface_line_attribute1 = <> );
===================================

Select
interface_line_id,
message_text
from
ra_interface_errors_all
where
message_text
like '%Invalid Warehouse ID%';
===========================

Oracle iStores

Oracle iStore Overeview:

Oracle iStore is a Web-based application that lets businesses establish flexible, robust Internet storefronts. In the Site Administration Application, merchants create and maintain sites which, in the Customer Application, appear as stores, allowing customer users to make online purchases. Strong integration with a variety of other Oracle applications – including Oracle Inventory and Oracle Order Management -- provides an extensive range of e-merchandising capabilities.

Implementing Oracle iStore enables businesses to:

•Build, test, and launch sophisticated online stores in multiple languages and currencies
•Deploy sites in business partner, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) scenarios
•Target different customer segments and/or organizations
•Capture and track customer information and activities
•View reports about the activities in the online stores
•Provide a full range of online purchasing capabilities, including:
-Customer home page that can portal into other applications
-Flexible pricing, including qualifiers, modifiers, and customer-specific prices
-Credit card security features, including risk management and credit card number verification
-Sales assistance, including terms and conditions and published quotes
-Collaborative purchasing (shared carts and shared quotes)
-Regular or Express checkout
-Secure storage of customer addresses and credit card data
-Shopping lists and Direct Item Entry
-Address defaulting into carts
-Services (e.g., extended warranties)
-Promotional goods
-Telecommunications service ordering (TSO) item support
-User maintenance by administrative customer users (primary users)
-Order tracking, cancellation, returns, and access to customer installed base
In addition, organizations can build integrated sites which support users of Oracle iSupport and Oracle Partner Management applications.


Oracle iStore consists of two distinct, but integrated user interfaces:
The Site Administration Application and the Customer Application.

Introduction to the Site Administration Application
The Site Administration Application allows administrators to create and maintain multiple sites, catalogs, and related business rules.

Highlights include:
•Create and maintain unlimited number of sites, including those that support users of Oracle iSupport and Oracle Partner Management
•Set up site business rules, such as price lists, and payment and shipping methods
•Build product catalogs, leveraging the powerful Oracle Inventory application
•Change site look and feel, including adding content and picking section and product display templates
•View and configure Oracle Workflow e-mail notification messages

Introduction to the Customer Application

The Customer Application is a full, Web-based shopping application.

Highlights include:
•Online shopping with orders processed in the Oracle Order Management system
•Configure complex products, including telecommunications items
•Save carts, quotes, and lists
•Share and retrieve carts and quotes
•Track orders
•Cancel orders
•View installed base items
•Submit return orders
•Store and access user address and credit card data
Oracle iStore is an integrated part of the Oracle E-Business Suite.



Key Features Summary

Catalog Management
Oracle iStore provides a full catalog management application in the Site Administration Application, giving merchants a highly configurable, Internet catalog presentation tool. Leveraging the powerful Oracle Inventory on the back-end and Oracle iStore’s catalog building tool in the Site Administration Application, the Catalog is a flexible tool which supports multiple languages and currencies.

Highlights include:
•A section (catalog) hierarchy that can be as simple or complex as your business requirements necessitate. Sections are created in parent-child relationships. Products “hang” on nodes of the section hierarchy.
•Ability to control the browsing experience of the customer through section and subsection presentation.
•Cross-sell capabilities using the seeded Related items relationship, as well as support for a variety of other relationships between products, sections, and Inventory categories.
•A built-in search utility which allows you to locate a product by entering several criteria, including product name, number, category, description, as well as searching by sites that contain the product.
•Product search can support both Section Search and Category Search.
•Optional integration with Oracle interMedia allows you to set up a powerful product search in the specialty sites.
•A Display Template gallery which lets you quickly pick, in WYSIWYG fashion, the layout of individual or groups of sections and products.
•Configurable bins to which you can map your own JSPs and position along the sides, tops, and bottoms of catalog, shopping cart, and user registration pages. Several of the bins are pre-seeded with content.
•Ability to construct targeted catalogs accessible to segments of customers.
•Ability to exclude catalog portions from specific sites.
•Product autoplacement feature which allows the populating of sections with products through a single concurrent program.
•Support for several product types, including serviceable items, configured items, and model bundles.
•Flexible pricing support, including promotional goods modifiers and sites as pricing qualifiers.

Content Management
Oracle iStore’s Content Repository and reusable content components allow you to store, easily retrieve, and configure content to display in your sites.
Highlights include:
•Hundreds of configurable Display Templates present the Customer Application. This rich catalog display environment presents a multitude of possibilities for mapping content files to alter the look and feel of the specialty sites.
•Re-usable content components and media objects.
•Easy-to-use interface for mapping source files to the media objects.
•Components and objects that are organized by type of display they effect.
•Framework for reusing a single source file in any number of site catalog pages.
•Ability to map content to specific sites and languages combinations.
•Easily update files which display in the specialty sites.
•Optional integration with Oracle Content Manager to provide content item creation, versioning, and approvals.

Site Reporting
Oracle iStore supplies a variety of data that feeds the metrics in several e-commerce business intelligence and operational reports. The operational reports are presented in Oracle Discoverer Viewer and the e-commerce intelligence reports in Oracle Web Analytics Reporting module. Together, these reports provide a rich collection of valuable data about your sites, your customers, and their ordering activity.

Automated User Communications
Leveraging Oracle Workflow, Oracle iStore automatically delivers e-mail notification messages to the appropriate users for such events as:
•Orders placed or cancelled
•Contract negotiations
•Shared carts
•Forgotten passwords and login assistance
•Registration confirmation
•Pending user registrations
•Sales assistance requests

In addition, e-mail messages can be configured by organization, site, and user type, giving you immense flexibility in communicating with your customers.

Background Data Management
Several supplied concurrent programs in Oracle iStore automatically refresh data between business objects. For example:
•Lead import concurrent program pulls customer data from orders and expired carts into database tables for use in other Oracle applications
•Product search concurrent program automatically populates necessary tables with product updates for use in the Customer Application product search
•Reports refresh concurrent program supplies automatic updates of transactional and operational data about the sites.

User Management, Self-Service Registration, and Customer Information
Oracle iStore offers a full user registration and management framework in the Customer Application. For organizational users, seeded roles let you offer personalized features for different customer segments and business partners. Automatic user registration enables self-service access to the sites.
Highlights include:
•Supplied registration forms and processes for standard user registration, as well as for customers who have placed orders through other channels and customers who have only partial data registered.
•Business-to-Business (B2B) functionality allows management of complex relationships with corporate customers in a self-service environment, including the ability to restrict access by organization. The seeded Primary User role allows organizational users to set up and manage a community of business users.
•Support for customers integrated with Oracle iSupport and Oracle Partner Management.
•Business-to-Consumer (B2C) functionality allows you to quickly launch an online presence to the buying public.
•Supplied integration with Oracle’s customer data storage model, the Trading Community Architecture (TCA), provides the ability to maintain customer information and complex party relationships.
•Address Book and Payment Book functionality in the Customer Application allows users to maintain their own data.
•Ability to mandate the entry of B2B user contact information.
•Optional integration with Oracle Quoting allows interactive selling and online user assistance.

Globalization and Localization Support
Oracle iStore supports a global product catalog and infrastructure, allowing you to launch and maintain an international online presence.
Highlights include:
•Global accounting through Oracle General Ledger allows you to set up multiple sets of books and business calendars.
•Oracle Multiple Organization Architecture gives you the ability to create and manage multiple organizations, inventory units, and warehouses internationally.
•Multiple currency support allows you to deploy sites — with targeted products and prices — in any country.
•The globally-oriented Site Selection Page is the default landing page for the Customer Application. It displays all sites in your implementation, with separate links for each supported language.
•Seeded media objects for specific languages, allowing you to display country-specific images for each language.
•Templates which can show taxes, payment and shipping methods, and address formats which are particular to a country for which the site has been set up.
•E-mail notification messages leveraging Oracle Workflow can be provided in all languages, and configured by organization, user type, and site.

Interactive Selling and Ordering Options
Oracle iStore provides numerous options for interactive selling, user assistance, and ordering options for customers in the Customer Application application.

Highlights include:
•Sales assistance
•Online contract negotiation
•Support for unstructured contract terms
•Collaborative quoting
•Call-me-back functionality
•Sophisticated pricing
•Shared shopping carts
•Guided selling and product configuration online
•Product model bundles
•Opt in/opt out capabilities
•Real-time inventory checks and reservations
•Shopping lists
•Order cancellation
•Automatic e-mail notifications
•Express checkout
Note that some of these features require integration with other Oracle applications.

Order Management and Fulfillment
Supplied integration with the Oracle Order Management Suite’s powerful combination of order processing tools provide a complete range of order management and fulfillment functions.
Highlights include:
•Instant order transmission and fulfillment through Oracle Order Management
•Shipping and shipment tracking capabilities through Oracle Shipping
•Online automated payment processing through integration with Oracle Order Capture
•Order cancellation abilities
•Order returns
•Optional integration with Oracle Financial applications can provide accounting support
•Order tracking, including the ability to view invoice, shipping, and payment details
•Access to customer installed base
•Published quotes, sales assistance and Terms and Conditions fully integrated with Oracle Quoting

Marketing and Customer Tracking
Oracle iStore features a number of marketing and customer tracking options through its integration with other Oracle applications. These options include:
•Lead import functionality which allows the capture of valuable customer information from Oracle iStore shopping carts. Oracle Sales applications then can use the data in marketing efforts.
•Ability to post advertisements into Oracle iStore Customer Application bins, an option which leverages integration with Oracle Marketing.
•Ability to create deep link advertisements to the Customer Application in other Web pages.
Business Objects, Components, and Processes
Oracle iStore includes the following business objects, components and processes, which allow it to store data, process information, and communicate with the Oracle database and other Oracle applications:
•Business Objects — The schema for representing and storing customers, orders, product catalog and presentation elements. These entities are persistent, shared across all Oracle applications, and manipulated by Java Application Programming Interfaces (API) provided within Oracle iStore’s runtime services.
•Runtime Services and APIs — The coupling of certain common services available within all e-commerce applications (Oracle Foundation) and Java-based APIs (includes some PL/SQL APIs). This combination queries Oracle iStore’s persistent storage of objects and relationships and enables update operations.
•Configurable Customer Application templates — All Customer Application menus and pages are customizable using logical template names.
•Processing and routing templates — Working in combination with the Display Templates, the processing and routing templates contain the logic and appropriate business flows through the sites.
•Oracle BLAF — Both the Site Administration and Customer user interfaces offer the Oracle BLAF (browser look and feel) compliant user interfaces (UI). The Oracle BLAF UI provides consistent look and feel and similar task flows across the Oracle E-Business Suite applications. All section and item runtime templates are BLAF compliant.

Enterprise Asset Managment

eAM Overview:

Oracle Enterprise Asset Management is part of Oracle’s 11i E-Business Suite and addresses the comprehensive and routine asset maintenance requirements of asset intensive organizations.

Using eAM, organizations can efficiently maintain both assets, such as vehicles, cranes and HVAC systems, as well as rotable inventory items, such as motors and engines. To measure performance and optimize maintenance operations, all maintenance costs and work history are tracked at the asset level.

eAM helps companies track, depreciate, and maintain their fixed assets. eAM enables asset-intensive companies to adopt maintenance strategies that optimize capacity and increase utilization, while lowering unit production costs. It improves operation performance and enhances safety through preventive, scheduled maintenance.

Oracle eAM provides organizations with the tools to create and implement maintenance procedures for both assets and rebuildable inventory items. Maintenance procedures are an integral part of an organization’s complete asset lifecycle management strategy, enabling an organization to optimize asset utilization. eAM enables users to optimally plan and schedule maintenance activities with minimal disruption to an organization’s operations or production. Importantly, it improves resource efficiency, enhances maintenance quality, tracks work history, and records all maintenance costs.

Oracle eAM tracks the performance of assets (including rebuildable, inventory items) using meters, quality plans, and condition monitoring systems. By effectively monitoring an asset’s operating condition, effective preventive maintenance strategies can be implemented. In addition to creating preventive maintenance schedules, users can create alternative maintenance strategies for seasonal or production capacity changes.

eAM’s comprehensive maintenance functionality supports asset lifecycle strategies for asset intensive industries, including Metals/Mining, Manufacturing, Pulp/Paper, Petrochemicals, Facilities, and Education. eAM eliminates the need for spreadsheets and disparate data repositories, by enabling companies to manage reactive, planned, preventive maintenance, and adopt a centralized, proactive strategy for managing asset maintenance across an enterprise.


eAM enables an organization to do the following:
•Create a preventive maintenance strategy
•Maximize resource availability, including both equipment and labor
•Optimize scheduling and resource efficiency
•Integrate with Oracle’s E-Business Suite for enterprise-wide solutions.


Asset Maintenance Goals:

1. Increase Productivity : Create a Preventive Maintenance Strategy and Maximize Resource Availability.
2. Decrease Maintenance Costs :Optimize Scheduling and Resource Efficiency , Minimize Rework 3. Reduce Accidents and Penalties :Ensure Regulatory Compliance ,Increase Workplace Safety


Types of Maintenance:

Reactive :
Small organizations that do not have have Maintenance Planners practice reactive maintenance. As equipment fails, Work Orders are generated and crews are assigned. Materials when in short supply and ordered as needed cause delays in response time. There is little or no preventive maintenance.

Preventive :
Organizations that practice preventive maintenance place a high value on asset performance and availability. These organizations have Maintenance Planners that plan both long and short-term requirements for resources and materials. These organizations have robust preventive maintenance plans that ensure that the assets are maintained on a regular basis to decrease the risk of failure.

Predictive
Organizations that are driven by heavy production demands or regulatory compliance invest heavily in predictive maintenance practices. The behavior and performance of assets is observed based on capacity requirements, engineered capabilities, maintenance strategies, and failure rates. These organizations employ a group of people to create a Reliability Centered Maintenance practice. These groups monitor an asset’s performance and capture data such as Mean Time between Asset Failures and Mean Time to Repair. This data then helps the maintenance organization better strategize their PM programs.


eAM Functionality:
1. Asset Managment.
2. Work Managment.
3. Inventory Managment.
4. Asset Performance and Forecasting.
5. Maintenance Budgeting.
6. Predictive Maintenance.
7. Maintenance Intelligence.

Integration with Other Modules:

Oracle Enterprise Asset Management is part of the Oracle E-Business suite, and directly integrates with Oracle Manufacturing, Oracle Purchasing, Oracle Property Management, Oracle Quality, Oracle Inventory, Oracle Human Resources, Oracle Financials, Oracle Fixed Assets, and Oracle Projects.

This enables you to strategically monitor resource and cost planning throughout the enterprise. Improvement programs can be enforced and reviewed to ensure compliance with industry standards by tracking problems through to resolution.

A well-planned maintenance environment depends on the ability of key personnel to view available inventory items, equipment, and skilled personnel. Because eAM is an enterprise solution, you can view the resource availability for assets that are used by operations and coordinate maintenance work to minimize operation disruption. Most importantly, Oracle eAM is designed for the maintenance user who performs the work. Using Oracle’s Maintenance User, trades people and supervisors with minimum training can easily perform their work.

Required Products
To implement Enterprise Asset Management, you must have the following required products installed:
•Oracle Inventory
•Oracle Bills of Material
•Oracle Human Resources
•Oracle Cost Management
•Oracle Manufacturing Scheduling
•Oracle Quality
•Oracle Work In Process
Optional Products

To implement Enterprise Asset Management, the following products are not required; however, they are useful in the overall robust eAM solution:
•Oracle Master Scheduling/MRP
•Oracle Property Management
•Oracle Financials
•Oracle Fixed Assets
•Oracle iProcurement
•Oracle Projects
•Oracle Project Manufacturing
•Oracle Purchasing
•Oracle Order Management
•Oracle Time and Labor .


eAM Business Flow :

Work Requests Entry
•Location, Asset ID, Owner Action/Activity, Current Work Alert, Condition Based Alert

Work Order Generation
•Work Order Types, Owners, Locations, BOMs, Standards, Copies, Assets, Components, PMs, Preplans

Task Planning
•Task level planning, Dependent Steps

Material Request
•BOM by Location, Asset Category, Component, Procurement, Catalogs, PO Detail, Item Statuses/Location Directs, Services, Rentals, Receipts

Resource Planning
•Assigned Owner, Crew, Craft, Skill Search/Selection, Duration, Contractors

Forecasting
•Asset Schedule/Availability, Capacity Performance, Work Impact on Production, Future Work, Budget Impact

Work Scheduling
•Workbenches with User Defined Filters for Folders and Sorts, Forecasted PMs, Available Resources, WO Generation, Project Scheduling

Work Order Update and Close Out
•Time Entry, Meter Readings, Inspection Data, Notes, Component Meter Reading.

Asset Performance
•Cost History, Work History, RCM Analysis, Design Capacity/Actual Performance, Predictive Maintenance, KPIs, Trending Analysis, Inspection History, Event Tracking, Capacity Impact.

Non-maintenance personnel within an organization report problems as Work Requests. The Work Request is then routed for approval and a Maintenance Planner is alerted to the need for repair or services.

The planner conducts a walk through to estimate the materials and trades people needed to conduct the repair. Some repairs may require that an asset be shutdown or brought into the shop. In such cases, the planner meets with Operations to determine the most appropriate time to remove the asset from service with minimal impact on production.

When the planner has determined the resources, materials, equipment, and time needed to perform maintenance, the Work Order is assigned to the crew that executes the work. Crew Supervisors pull the schedules defined by planners and assign the Work Order to the tradesperson.

Materials are issued, requisitions are generated, and time is entered against the Work Order operation as tasks are progressing. When the task is completed the tradesperson may enter additional information about the work as well as meter and inspection reading conducted during the course of the work. The Work Order is then closed.

Roles:

Enterprise Asset Management Administration :
The Enterprise Asset Management Administration role contains people who are generally responsible for entering information, often for other maintenance employees.
Information entered may include Work Order resource transactions, Work Order completion details, and Time and Labor hours. This person might have limited maintenance knowledge and is generally responsible for supporting the maintenance department by handling information entry.

Enterprise Asset Management User:
The Enterprise Asset Management User is anyone in an organization who may access eAM. This might include an employee who uses Work Requests to report problems, a Plant Manager who accesses eAM to review high cost assets and their work history, as well as a Maintenance User, such as a technician who accesses the Maintenance User Workbench to review his/her daily work assignments.

Self-Service Work Requests User :
The Self-Service Work Requests User is a person in an organization, often an employee (not involved in the maintenance department), who uses Work Requests to report maintenance problems. This person also uses Work Requests to check the statuses of problems that he/she has reported.

Maintenance User :
The Maintenance User is a maintenance person who is generally responsible for completing tasks that are assigned on a Work Order. This person reports maintenance problems using Work Requests, troubleshoots on jobs, and works on a team with other maintenance workers.

Maintenance Super User
The Maintenance Super User is generally a Maintenance Planner or Supervisor and is often defined as a "super user". A Maintenance Planner plans and schedules maintenance jobs, manages and balances work loads over time, manages preventive maintenance strategy and scheduling, manages material requirements, monitors availability, and coordinates strategies with other departments, such as Operations, Purchasing, and Inventory. A Supervisor manages a crew of maintenance workers, assigns jobs based on workers’ abilities and availability, inspects and verifies work, communicates with other departments, knows the current status of all jobs and assets, and is responsible for environmental health and safety.

This person has extensive knowledge of the Enterprise Asset Management system and is responsible for creating and scheduling Work Orders, including Preventive Maintenance Work Orders. This person updates Work Orders, orders parts, and completes operations and Work Orders.


for more information go through the eAM Userguide.

Oracle Transportation Management:

What is OTM:

Oracle Transportation Management (OTM), enables organizations to meet their customer service and logistics objectives by managing all orders and shipments, both domestic and international, as a single, integrated global logistics business process across the multi-enterprise supply chain.

OTM is structured in such a way that three servers support the formatting, processing, and storing of data.

Webserver : Format - Formats the data from OTM.
Application ServerLogic:Logic - Process data in OTM.
Database :Data - Stores data in OTM.


OTM’s global, multi-domain data model enables multiple customers secure access to their individual information.
User access is granted through the use of a User Role. A User Role controls the data each user can access as well as functional security for that user within OTM. With the appropriate setup, a user can toggle between multiple roles without logging in and out of OTM.

Buy Vs Sell Shipment:

–Buy shipments : A shipper purchases the transportation from a carrier.
–Sell shipments : Used by third party logistics (3PL) providers, for example.
The 3PL plans their customer’s transportation, and then bills their customers for that service.


•Buy shipment: Client ' X ' Wholesalers tenders freight to Carrier 'A'. Carrier 'A' then bills 'X' Wholesalers for the service of moving the freight.
•Sell shipment: Client 'X' 3PL plans the transportation for Shipper 123 and then bills Shipper 123 for planning the movement of their freight.
Because of these two types of shipments, often you need to define whether a rate, for example, is a buy perspective or a sell perspective. Rates that are buy perspective are used for creating buy shipments, whereas rates that are a sell perspective are used for billing purposes.
It is only who is buying or selling transportation services that matter. E.g., As a shipper, you can sell goods on a buy shipment.


OTM Domains :
Within the database, OTM consists of one or more client defined domains. The domains share the database tables, but the domains own the rows. This defines each domain’s access.
Different users can see and use different data. For example,
•Service provider A can only see their rates and shipments.
•The supplier domain can only see their purchase orders.


Public Domain:
The public domain contains general information, such as currencies and country codes.
When installing OTM, certain information is always installed into the public domain, other information can optionally be installed, but you can also add your own specific information. This means that the public data you see in this class might not be available as public data in your installation of OTM.


What Domains to Create :
You set up domains to meet your business needs. For example, you may define domains by types of users.
•Service provider domain
•Sales domain
•Supplier domain


Child Domains :
You can define what access a subdomain has to the parent domain. By default, a parent domain can see all child data but not vice versa.
When domains are created, you can specify the amount of default data to be copied to the new domain. In a standalone domain, OTM copies all of the default data to that domain. In a reference domain, the default data is not copied; OTM points to an existing standalone domain to access the default data

What is OTM Status?

Throughout OTM, certain business objects have statuses associated with them.
Statuses consist of:
•Status type : -Represents a class of actions that can occur during the OTM process.
•Status value: -Associated with a status type and represents specific actions for the record.

Examples of business objects with statuses include location, order base, order release, shipment, and invoice.

•When an order release is created, OTM assigns certain status types and status values to it.
•As the order release is used for creating shipments and other OTM processes, OTM changes the status values accordingly.


Business Scenario
•You create multi-stop shipments for multiple orders of sporting goods, all originating in Chicago, and with a destination of either Atlanta or Boston.
•Shipments can be transported by the truckload carriers, ABC Trucking or XYZ Truck Lines.
•You tender the shipments to the selected carriers.
•Acting for the service provider, you will enter events against the shipments.
•You will match and approve the invoice and allocate the shipment costs back to the orders.

What is Shipment:
•Represents the movement of freight from one location to another.
•OTM creates shipments from order releases.

•An order release states the problem: what is the cheapest way to transport goods given these constraints?
•OTM presents the answer in the form of a shipment.


Once a shipment is created from an order release(s), you can monitor shipment activity, modify shipments, create shipments and shipment templates, and perform various shipment related tasks including:
•Tender shipments
•Change service provider
•Change equipment group
•Change arrival and departure times
•Add pickup and delivery appointment times


A planning parameter set contains planning parameters. Each planning parameter controls how OTM builds shipments and related actions.
Creating a new planning parameter set and assigning it to your domain ensures OTM uses the proper parameters to meet your business processes during planning and optimization.

What is Manual Modification?
To minimize manual changes to the shipment plan, it is important to keep your business rules and parameters up-to-date in OTM so that OTM makes the optimal decision for your business process.
•For example, if your distribution center changes its hours from a 24/7 operation to hours of Monday – Friday 7:00AM – 4:00PM, you need to update the calendar so OTM plans feasible shipments.
An alternative to modifying shipments is to modify you order constraints and re-plan your orders.


Shipment Actions :

Shipment actions allow you to add or change data on shipments,Some actions can be performed on several shipments at once, and other actions can be performed on only one shipment at a time.
Certain actions can only be performed at certain times based on the status; for example, you cannot choose the action Tender Shipment when the shipment is already tendered. But you can choose the action Re-Transmit Tender.


What is a Shipment Event?:
Service providers and other third parties can send information about shipments to OTM with a shipment event.

What is Tendering:
•When a shipment is tendered, OTM sends a notice to the service provider with an offer to move the cargo.
•There are different types of tendering in OTM:
–Tender to a specific service provider
–Spot bid tender
–Broadcast tender


Freight Payment
•The shipper buys the transportation services from the service provider.
•The service provider sends the shipper an invoice for the amount owed.

Customer Billing
Customer billing is used with sell shipments where the service provider sells shipments to customers.

Freight Payment Process :
As a shipper, you get many invoices from your service providers.
Before you pay them, you will want to:
•Bring the invoice information into OTM.
•Match the invoice to the shipment listing all the specifics for this invoice.
•Compare the requested amount on the invoice to the planned amount on the shipment and decide if you approve the invoice for payment.
•Send a voucher for the approved amount to the service provider via your accounts payable system.


What is Rate Manager?
Rates are comprised of four key components:
•Rate distance: Determines the distance from one location to another.
•Rate service: Determines the time required to transport goods from one location to another.
•Rate offering: Contains contract level data specific to a service provider.
•Rate record: Contains specific costing data from one location to another

Note: for more information go through the OTM userguide.