Oracle Fusion/Cloud Best Practices

Oracle Cloud Best Practice Framework:

Best Practice Tools:

Applications: Software as a service - SaaS: complete suites of business application in every category - CX suite,HCM Suite, ERP/EPM Suite , SCM Suite etc

Platform as a Service - PaaS: Complete suite of industry standards based platforms services. - SQL Database, Hadoop, NoSQL, Java Middleware, Node.js, Ruby, PHP etc.


Infrastructure as a Service - IaaS: Secure , reliable, low Cost, standards based infrastructure services - OpenStack, Linux OS, Xen VM, Docker.

Oracle Testing as a Service - TaaS:Secu is a cloud based platform for delivering automated application testing services on demand automated provisioning of complete test labs that includes ability to deploy complex multi tier applications, test tools and test scripts example oracle application testing suite (OATS)

SAAS Environment:

SaaS vs On Premise :
Cannot run SQL directly against a cloud environment (either use reporting tools to query the data or log a Service Request in My Oracle Support – there is 2 day lead time for Cloud Operations to perform this)
Descriptive Flexfields are loaded by Cloud Operations (log an SR – there is a 3 to 4 day lead time)
OIM – Single Sign On: Plan for 2 weeks to coordinate security integration
    2 instances vs. typical 5 instances (on premise)

SAAS means Shared:
-Shared Hardware
-Shared Software
-Shared Support

Note:
The manual tasks required to migrate setup and other configurations from Test to Production
Not an automatic process that can be requested
Tools used Functional Setup Manager, File Based Loader
Typically performed after User Acceptance Testing is completed and deploying to production

GOING LIVE – THINGS TO CONSIDER

Go-Lives
-Generally timed to 1 to 2 weeks after the Scheduled Update Bundle is applied to Production
-Schedule well in advance, especially for Cloud Operations activities such as P2T
-Assure latest fixes have been applied before Go-Live
-Assure Production and Test are in sync
-perform P2T after production cutover
-Other considerations before Going-Live
-Clean bill of health from final project review
-Coordination across other business
-Critical activities (period or year-end, statutory reporting or tax cycles)
-Communications and training completed for all users and stakeholders
-Solutions for critical SRs in place
-Onsite/on-call assistance available during critical cutover activities

Scheduled updated cycle:

-TEST environment(s) are updated on the 1st weekend of each month
-PRODUCTION environment is updated on the 3rd weekend of each month
-You can review information about the contents of each monthly update by referring to Oracle Fusion -Applications Known Issues and Update Documents
-This is revised with information for the latest monthly update on the first Friday of each month
-Environments are synchronized between 3rd weekend of a month and the 1st weekend of following
month
 a) Recommended Go-Live window
 b) P2T window for customers who are not on Concurrent

Updates

- Updates cannot be skipped or deferred
 - Quarterly infrastructure maintenance windows are advised in advance
- During UAT/Transition to production, your project plan should allow additional time to apply required updates.
- On average 2 per calendar year
- Mandatory for all customers – cannot be skipped
- During an upgrade cycle, customers are notified via email that a new release is available. Customers   can then select an upgrade slot that works in support of their business needs by completing the    Upgrade Survey. 

- Oracle offers a sizable 2-3 month window within which customers can select their upgrade slot. If customers do not respond to the upgrade survey, the upgrade will be scheduled by ERP Cloud Operations.

- Oracle ERP Cloud only supports current release and immediate previous release of the cloud service. Thus as the General Availability date for a new version of the cloud service nears, all customers will be encouraged to move to the latest release. 

- The rapid pace of innovation and release schedule for Oracle ERP Cloud drives the need for customers to upgrade within the afore-mentioned 3 month window. While customers have the flexibility to remain on their current release until their upgrade slot, customers cannot skip releases.
Occur for both implementing and in-production customers
- Unlike monthly updates, upgrades primarily deliver new functionality
- Implementing customers should include upgrade tasks in their project plan

Types of SR:

Cloud SR: I need an operations service (e.g. Production to Test copy, Enable Single Sign On, Language Pack application).

Software SR: How does the product work? , Product not working as expected, I need an enhancement.

Report Types Icons:

Oracle Cloud Applications (aka Oracle Fusion Applications) Overview

Over the past few years oracle has acquired numerous competitors in the appliactions and technology market which has resulted in a large product portfolio. All the acquired products represented best of breed in their respective areas,
Oracle decided to build a new application suite from scratch and fusion application is a result of it.

Fusion Applications were designed from the ground up based on open standards, making it possible for them to coexist with legacy Oracle products. Fusion Applications can also take full advantage of Fusion Middleware capabilities, providing for applications that can span complete business processes with a consistent user experience.
Oracle Fusion Applications were designed, from the ground, up using the latest technology advances and incorporating the best practices gathered from Oracle's thousands of customers. They are 100 percent open-standards-based business applications that set a new standard for the way we innovate, work, and adopt technology.

Fusion Applications have simpler, more user-friendly user interfaces. In addition, Oracle embedded social networking capabilities directly into business processes.
Fusion Applications also provide mobility capabilities that support both real-time and offline data access. Organizations can use Fusion's open standards to build custom mobile apps. Fusion Applications have business intelligence features for collecting data on individual application transactions built in.

- Oracle Customer Relationship Management
- Oracle Fusion Financials
- Oracle Fusion Governance, Risk and Compliance
- Oracle Human Capital Management
- Oracle Fusion Procurement
- Oracle Fusion Projects Portfolio Management
- Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management

Embedded Cloud:

Oracle Fusion Financials:

Oracle Fusion Procurement Management:

Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management:

Oracle Fusion Inventory Management:

Oracle Fusion applications is called now as Oracle Cloud Applications:

Oracle Fusion Applications:

Oracle ERP Cloud Integration Services:

1.Embedded intelligence within the context of business transactions to offer “actionable insight” for users. Embedded intelligence is displayed in the same window where users enter transactions so they do not have to drill down or invoke a separate popup.  The Projected Balances pane on the right provides that information as the journal is entered prior to posting

2.Spreadsheet Integration to reduce Errors & Manual work : Extensive spreadsheet integration across Financials, allowing Finance users to work in a familiar environment that is highly efficient. Spreadsheets are seamlessly integrated with the applications for high volume data entry and one-click uploads

3. Financial report designing made easy using Financial Reporting Center ; Produce snapshot reports with static data, or define live reports. Change users point of view or report parameters, end-users can instantly refresh results on-the-fly. Again, this is all live data that works off of pre-aggregated multi-dimensional balances,export results to MS Office, such as Word and PPT, and dynamically refresh results within those office products.

Oracle Enterprise repository (OER) Process:

The Oracle Enterprise Repository (OER) for Oracle Cloud provides visibility into service-oriented architecture assets to help you manage the lifecycle of your software from planning through implementation, testing, production, and change control. OER includes the spreadsheet templates and information to help you prepare external data for upload and import. Each template includes specific instructions, guidelines, formatted spreadsheets, and best practices for preparing the data file for upload. Use the templates to ensure that your data conforms to the structure and format of Oracle ERP Cloud Service interfaces.

SQL Query related to Receivables Transaction Class and Transaction Type

There is no provision to disable Invoice Class on AR Transaction window.
These value are hard coded for the list of values and are not derived from Look ups.
So, users will not be able to add or disable the existing values.

SQL Query related to R12  Receivables Transaction Class and Transaction Type:

---- AR Transaction Class------

select c.TRX_NUMBER, a.name,  b.MEANING "CLASS" 

from RA_CUST_TRX_TYPES_ALL a, FND_LOOKUP_VALUES_VL b, RA_CUSTOMER_TRX_ALL c

where

a.CUST_TRX_TYPE_ID=c.CUST_TRX_TYPE_ID

and b.LOOKUP_TYPE = 'INV/CM'

and a.type=b.lookup_code

--and c.TRX_NUMBER in (‘XXXXXXXX’)

order by c.TRX_NUMBER;

-------- Transaction Types-----------

SELECT hou.name operating_unit
      ,xep.name legal_entity
      ,rctt.name    
      ,rctt.description
      ,al.meaning class
      ,al2.meaning creation_sign
      ,al3.meaning transaction_status
      ,al4.meaning printing_option
      ,NULL invoice_type
      ,rctt2.name credit_memo_type
      ,aars.rule_set_name application_rule_set
      ,aat.payment_term_name terms
      ,rctt.start_date
      ,rctt.end_date    
      ,rctt.accounting_affect_flag open_receivable
      ,rctt.adj_post_to_gl allow_adjustment_posting
      ,rctt.post_to_gl post_to_gl
      ,rctt.allow_freight_flag allow_freight
      ,rctt.natural_application_only_flag natural_application_only
      ,rctt.tax_calculation_flag default_tax_classification
      ,rctt.exclude_from_late_charges exclude_from_late_charges_cal
      ,rctt.allow_overapplication_flag allow_over_application
      ,gcck.concatenated_segments receivable_account
      ,gcck3.concatenated_segments Freight_account
      ,gcck2.concatenated_segments Revenue_account
      ,gcck4.concatenated_segments Clearing_account
      ,gcck5.concatenated_segments Unbilled_receivable_account
      ,gcck6.concatenated_segments Unearned_revenue_account
      ,gcck7.concatenated_segments Tax_account
  FROM ra_cust_trx_types_all rctt
      ,hr_operating_units hou
      ,xle_entity_profiles xep
      ,ar_lookups al
      ,ar_lookups al2
      ,ar_lookups al3
      ,ar_lookups al4
      ,ra_cust_trx_types_all rctt2
      ,ar_app_rule_sets aars
      ,arfv_ar_terms aat
      ,gl_code_combinations_kfv gcck
      ,gl_code_combinations_kfv gcck2
      ,gl_code_combinations_kfv gcck3
      ,gl_code_combinations_kfv gcck4
      ,gl_code_combinations_kfv gcck5
      ,gl_code_combinations_kfv gcck6
      ,gl_code_combinations_kfv gcck7
 WHERE 1=1
   AND rctt.org_id= hou.organization_id
   AND rctt.name=nvl(:P_TYPE,rctt.name)
   AND hou.organization_id=nvl(:P_ORG_ID, hou.organization_id)
   AND xep.legal_entity_id(+)=rctt.legal_entity_id
   AND al.lookup_type='INV/CM'
   AND al.lookup_code=rctt.TYPE
   AND al2.lookup_type='SIGN'
   AND al2.lookup_code=rctt.creation_sign
   AND al3.lookup_type='INVOICE_TRX_STATUS'
   AND al3.lookup_code=rctt.default_status
   AND al4.lookup_type='INVOICE_PRINT_OPTIONS'
   AND al4.lookup_code=rctt.default_printing_option
   AND rctt.credit_memo_type_id=rctt2.cust_trx_type_id(+)
   AND rctt.org_id=rctt2.org_id(+)
   AND rctt.rule_set_id=aars.rule_set_id(+)
   AND rctt.default_term=aat.term_id(+)
   AND gcck.code_combination_id(+)=rctt.gl_id_rec
   AND gcck2.code_combination_id(+)=rctt.gl_id_rev
   AND gcck3.code_combination_id(+)=rctt.gl_id_freight
   AND gcck4.code_combination_id(+)=rctt.gl_id_clearing
   AND gcck5.code_combination_id(+)=rctt.gl_id_unbilled
   AND gcck6.code_combination_id(+)=rctt.gl_id_unearned
   AND gcck7.code_combination_id(+)=rctt.gl_id_tax;

R12 - Impact of SLA on Drilldown in General Ledger

Drill down functionality enables users to navigate from a Journal in General Ledger to the Sub ledger Journal Entry in SLA and from there to the transaction which has resulted into that journal.
To enable Journal drill down from General Ledger, the "Import Journal References" option should be enabled for the Source.
This can be checked under General Ledger Responsibility:

Setup -> Journal -> Sources -> Define.

Only when this is enabled, the reference data is populated by SLA engine.
The Drill down in Release 12 is different from the prior releases of the Application. R12 drill down is Web based and not in the Forms. The following screenshots show the Drill down functionality in Release 12:
Navigation to perform Drill down is the same as in Release 11i:

·         Journals -> Enter -> Review Journal

·         Select the journal line and click on “Lines Drill down”.

 Drill down can also be performed from:       Tools -> Drill down

 Drill down open the Web page instead of a Form.

The SLA Page for Drill down shows the following:

·         GL Journal Line information

·         Sub ledger Journal Line information

 There are two Options available on this SLA page:

·         View Transaction

·         View Journal Entry

 View Transaction’ will take us to the Sub ledger Transaction form. E.g for the current journal line, since the Source was Payable, it opens Invoice Workbench.

 ‘View Journal Entry’ will take to the Sub ledger Journal Entry details

View Journal Entry has three parts to it.

1.      Transaction Information

2.      Additional Information (this is hidden by default)

3.      Line Details

Apart from this there are some extra details shown at the top of the page, which is the header level information for the Sub ledger Transaction.

Some of the important fields in header part of the Sub ledger Transaction Journal are:

·         Ledger Name

·         Journal Entry Status

·         Balance Type

·         GL Date

 This is the 'Transaction Information' section of Subledger Journal Entry page.
The fields here will change based on the transaction and the subledger in which the transaction was entered.
Since the example transaction is entered in Payables, it is showing the details of the invoice and the supplier.

 

This is the 'Additional Information' section of Subledger Transaction Entry page.
This section shows the details of

·         Event

·         General Ledger

·         Sequences

·         Application Accounting Definition

Note that Event and Application Accounting Definition are important from SLA side. However, from GL perspective the relevant details are Period, Transfer to GL Date and Transfer to GL status.

 This is the last section, 'Lines' of the Sub ledger Journal Entry page.
  The important details in this section are:

·         Code Combination

·         Currency

·         Entered Debits and Credits

·         Accounted Debits and Credits

Select the link 'Show' for any of the lines to view additional details for the transaction line

This page gives various details for transaction line from the sub-ledgers side.
Thus the Drill down from General Ledger, takes us to the Sub ledger Journal Entry which shows the details of the Sub ledger journal. From here we can further drill down to the Sub ledger Transaction.
Profile Options related to Drill down:

·         SLA: Enable Sub ledger Transaction Security in GL
This profile option controls whether the drilldown to SLA will enforce the transaction security of the application owning the Transaction. For example, if one drills down to Payables, he will only be able to see Journals for transactions belonging to operating units to which he has access (based on your MO: Security Profile.) Thus drilldown can be restricted to the Operating Units to which the responsibility has access. In case the GL responsibility does not have access to a particular Operating Unit, the Drilldown will not show any data.

Source: Support.oracle.doc.