06/08/2009 by Simon Tomey.

If you get a chance to hear Croydon Council’s presentation on Re-Implementing R12, then take it. It left me thinking “this is how it should be done”.

Kathryn and Christian make a great double act as they share their experience with re-implementing R12 at Croydon Council. While I can’t vouch for the actual result, the presentation left me thinking that “this is how an implementation should be done”. Apart from some potentially disturbing images (of escalators and bricks through windows) here are some of the points I took away:

• Involve all stakeholders early. Get high level support, but also work from the bottom up
• Make a Vision instance widely available and encourage users to get to know R12.
• Ensure that the users own their processes, drive the requirements early on and take their responsibility seriously
• When requirements gathering, find the users who actually understand the process, not just those perform the segmented actions.
• Upgrading means you bring through all the legacy processes and customisations. Re-implementation allows you to take advantage of the R12 processes.
• Data migration and cleansing is a large and time consuming issue
• There is a problem with dunning letters, but Croydon have sorted it. (see http://blog.belife.co.uk/2009/07/15/staged-dunning-letters-and-upgrading-to-r12/)

Get a copy of the slides here http://www.ukoug.org/assets/uploads/library/intherealworldChristianAsante.ppt (slide 12 is a useful grid of lessons learnt/dos and don’ts)

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06/08/2009 by Simon Tomey.

Some upgrading to R12 have mentioned what a benefit the enhanced reporting is. Guess what? This enhanced reporting comes from BI Publisher and you can get all this from 11i. Moreover there are a couple of surprises with reporting when you upgrade to R12.

It’s wonderful to hear of R12 users sharing my enthusiasm about BI Publisher. Those who have heard me speak on it will know how and eager I am for others to experience the benefits. However, you should be aware that you can get pretty well all of the Financials reporting functionality in 11i just by installing the correct patch.

• See metalink note Note:422508.1 May-2007 for comprehensive information on Oracle XML Publisher Release 5.6.3 (which I think equates roughly to standalone 10.1.3.3!). This includes the patch path for 11i and the patches for XML publisher desktop add-in.

There are a couple of points to note if you are thinking about upgrading to R12:

1. Many “standard” reports in R12 are wholly replaced by BIP reports.
   Ironically this means that if you aren’t familiar with BIP and you experience problems, you won’t be able to revert to the old text based output. (A common problem is not enough processors and threads assigned to the OPP).
2. ADI client/desktop doesn’t work with R12.
   You’ll have to use Web ADI or Reports Manager (which doesn’t seem to be very well liked) or for FSG’s convert them to produce in BIP (but then you won’t get the spreadsheet tabs for each page).

My conclusions are:

• R12 is coming to us all eventually, so get up to speed on BIP now so you’re not wrong footed.
• If you’re not planning on upgrading soon, install the patch and get yourself some clean attractively formatted, impressive and versatile reporting functionality.
  (…but of course I would say that, especially since we’ve just starting running some great one day training courses).

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22/07/2009 by Simon Tomey.

See the link below for a useful 10 tips for a successful R12 Implementation (reproduced below). I’d add another – “get a demonstration (Vision) instance of R12 and encourage your users to get familiar with it and own the functionality”. The benefits of this were highlighted in the Croydon Council implementation

http://www.arshiyatech.com/10_things_to_consider_for_a_successfull_oracle_r12_financials_implementation.html

1. Create a realistic schedule for your R12 implementation or upgrade.
2. Conduct your implementation or upgrade on a parallel system.
3. Allow yourself sufficient time to implement and perform user acceptance testing (UAT). This will give you time to assure that your system has been designed and setup to meet your business needs.
4. Assure that as much data as possible is accounted and ALL accounting is transferred.
5. Clear up any data issues in 11i before upgrading (i.e., Run the Accounting Health Check).
6. Use the Maintenance Wizard for the upgrade.
7. Review the Oracle Financials Critical Patches Alert. Subledger Accounting, E-Business Tax, and other Financials applications. Apply the critical patches to prevent encountering issues that have already been addressed.
8. Apply the pre-upgrade patches BEFORE upgrading to R12.
9. Apply the post-upgrade patches ASAP after completing the upgrade.
10. Perform several month-end closes before considering a Go-Live date.

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