ORACLE APPLICATIONS ARCHIVES

Topicwise collection of
Postings on Mail Lists
ON
THIRD PARTY SOFTWARES / SERVICES



Travel Package

From: Batson, Mark [mailto:BATSONM@ORAU.GOV]
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 1999 7:22 AM
Subject: Financials integrate with 3rd Party Travel Package?

Can anyone recommend a 3rd party travel management system that integrates with Oracle Financials? I am looking for functionality ranging from travel reservations through travel reimbursement.

Mark


Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 09:26:43 -0600
From: Beth.Gonzalez@Level3.com
Subject: RE: Financials integrate with 3rd Party Travel Package?

Mark,

Oracle has a package currently that they utilize and sell as part of their self-service applications. The package is title E-Travel. At this point the package is not fully integrated with the other self-service applications.

Also, American Express has a travel management system. I believe the name is Ameritech.

Beth Gonzalez


Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 09:29:05 +0530
From: "Kalyansundaram" kalyan@wipsys.soft.net
Cc: "'Beth.Gonzalez@Level3.com'" Beth.Gonzalez@Level3.com,
Subject: RE: Financials integrate with 3rd Party Travel Package?

Dear Beth Gonzalez,

We are working for a travel company for implementation. We find it very difficult to suit the requirement of Oracle into that. I am interested in knowing more about the travel package you mentioned - E-Travel. Can you please send in some lead for me to take up the issue.

Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Kalyan
M. Kalyansundaram
Senior Consultant
Wipro Infotech
# 88, Mahatma Gandhi Road
Bangalore - 560 001, INDIA.
Phone W : +91-80-558 8613
Phone R : +91-80-528 3558
Email : kalyan@wipsys.soft.net


Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 13:51:12 -0600
From: "Gonzalez, Beth" Beth.Gonzalez@Level3.com
Subject: RE: Financials integrate with 3rd Party Travel Package?

Kalyan,

Chris Hughes, chughes@us.oracle.com, is the representative that our organization spoke with regarding E-Travel.

Beth



Oracle Service or any Other Service Products

Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 15:29:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: ashwin krishna ashcol@yahoo.comTo:
Subject: Oracle Service or any Other Service Products.

My client is under the process of evaluvating Service applications. The requirement is to manage service business. We have clients that would call about defective products and would requireservice. We use Oracle OE sell products. We track Warranty through our legacy system on IBM Mainframes. Once a Order is shipped we update information about shipping to the warranty database which Includes serial number, Sell date and Order number. We would like to have system which has warranty tracking ability, ability to raise Job Order for any service that is booked and ship the part back to customer after repairs are done. There might be Invoicing required for any services not covered by scope of warranty. My question is what are the products in the market that support this business? I have heard about Oracle Service - but haven't had a chance to look at it? Are there any users of Oracle Service in this group? I would appreciate if you could tell me how it works and wether its good. Also if you know of any other products...Thanks in Advance Ashwin


Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 08:38:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Murali Avanamuthu mavanamuthu@yahoo.com
Cc: ashcol@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Oracle Service or any Other Service Products.

Hi,

I don't have any experience with Oracle Service. But I know products like Vantive, Clarify and Scopus(who were acquired by Siebel) have Service modules in the market for a long time. And hence I would think they would be more stable and rich in functionality. I personally have worked with Vantive products and found to be good.

Regards, Murali


Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 09:08:41 +0200
From: vliefoog@cerplex.fr (Vincent Liefooghe)
Subject: Re: Oracle Service or any Other Service Products.

Ashwin,

we are currently implementing Oracle Service in France for a repair activity. The intent is to take customer requests on the phone, create a RMA, have the product returned and repaired and then back to the customer. The Oracle Service module allow you to do this. We are using it on 10.7 NCA. It is linked to OE, IC, AR and WIP. There is a direct interface from OE to CS (Customer Service) that populates the installed base when the product is shipped from OE. You can manage warranties and contracts thru CS also, and you can have a link to WIP for repair (even if you can use on CS to make the repair). Most of the ordering activity is based on OE. Invoicing is using AR. It takes into account the level of warranty applied to the product (part, manpower, ...)

You can find more informations on Metalink.

The interest of the Service module is the integration with the rest of Oracle Applications.

Hope this helps



Setup Documentation and Transfer Tool

Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 11:09:50 +0100
From: Peter Wolyniec pwolyniec@edenconsulting.co.uk
Subject: Setup Documentation and Transfer Tool

All,

Does anyone know of a product on the market that works with Oracle Apps with all/some of the following functionality:

(1) Looks at the database instance and documents AOL items such as apps set-ups, concurrent programs, flexfields etc. in a comprehensive format (e.g. AIM-style document). Also can document custom extensions.

(2) Has the ability to compare set-ups etc. between database instances.

(3) Has the ability to transfer set-ups etc. between instances.

I understand a product called 'Chainlink' can handle some of the above. Is there anything else?

Thanks,
Pete W.


Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 06:04:38 PDT
From: Mark Nelson mnelson_gs@hotmail.com
Cc: pwolyniec@edenconsulting.co.uk
Subject: re: Setup Documentation and Transfer Tool

Tickmark Solutions - Setup Reporter will automatically document the Applications Setups of Oracle Applications and also compare the setup between db instances. It does not migrate the setup.

Check out www.tickmark.com

Mark



Excel loader for 10SC Forms

From: Hoban, Colm Colm.Hoban@respironics.com
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 1999 5:54 PM
Subject: GEN: Excel loader for 10SC Forms

Can someone point me to the loader macro's?

TIA


Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 22:25:29 +0100
From: "Jonathan Stuart" jdstuart@globalnet.co.uk
Subject: Re: Excel loader for 10SC Forms

The macros for loading into 10SC and NCA and the standalone program for loading into either can be downloaded from:

http:/www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jdstuart/nca_load.htm

Jonathan.



Third party s/w for Purging Data within Oracle App

Also refer DBA Module

From: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca [mailto:oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca]On Behalf Of Gary Wright
Sent: Monday, June 28, 1999 3:27 AM
Subject: Purging Data within Oracle Apps ????????????

Does anyone know of any procedures/techniques/3rd party tools which can be used to purge data within an Oracle Applications database.

We have cloned our live database to create a new database. The new database is to have a new set of books for a new company. We really need to clear our customers/suppliers/old transactions etc for the new database as these transactions will simply not be used and will only clog up the system. We created the new database from the old so we could retain the original configuration.

Any Ideas anyone ???
Regards, Gary.


Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 08:43:31 -0500
From: "Marcia Michalik" marcia_michalik@edisonday.com
Subject: RE: Purging Data within Oracle Apps ????????????

As part of the leadership group for the Twin Cities Financial SIG, we have been looking into third party software for purge/archive in order to present alternatives to our members at our August meeting. The two companies we have lined up are Kernel Tweaks and Bitbybit. Both have web sites. I got these names off this server and both have received good reviews in the recent past.

Regards,
Marcia Michalik
Edison Day & Associates, Ltd.
612.943.3981
marcia_michalik@edisonday.com



Request Set from outside Apps

From: "Kelly.Newman" Kelly.Newman@plpit.fishersci.com
Subject: Request set submit
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 15:27:56 -0400

hi all,

Does anyone have any experience submitting a request set from outside of the application?

Here's the situation - we have a lot of interfaces from other systems. We kick off these interfaces from UNIX via concsub. After everything is done, we want our reports to run. We have them all built into a set, but cannot find a way to submit the set. The volume of the reports makes concsub'ing each one a cumbersome task. And, we don't have default printers on everything, so we also need to specify a printer from the concsub, which isn't allowed. We use the same report with parameters for monthly or weekly runs, so we just can't assign the printers in the program registration.

Any ideas/suggestions greatly appreciated. Right now someone gets a call in the middle of the night, and manually submits the set.


Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 18:08:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: bill billvenella@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Request set submit

Kelly,

I do not know if you put much thought into 3rd party tools, but take a look at appworx-
http:/www.appworx.com/

Not only can they submit these consubs but they can manage the workload, create dependencies between jobs, control the users submits, so as not to type up valuable server time. You can also create dependencies with values within the database. Very slick.

By the way they also have a means of interfacing with the concurrent manager. They are able to bring over all the input parameters associated with each job. So there is no manual migrate and no need to hardcode. Makes things alot easier when trying to upgrade to the newest release of apps.


Tools to monitor Oracle application and Oracle database

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 14:19:59 +0300
From: mohammed alshaarawi m_sharawy@tccbce.com
Subject: tools for Oracle application and orale database

hi

I would like to send me links for best tools to monitor and support most problems for DBA. thanx


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 08:50:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: bill billvenella@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: tools for Oracle application and orale database

Are you talking about monitor the database it see if it is up? Try BMC Patrol. Vista also has a monitoring tool. If you have a need to monitor concurrent manager processes along with other application needs than the best tool out is AppWorx:
http:/www.appworx.com/

AppWorx can supply dba users with output logs per job to see what happened in each process. Easy restart from point of failure( after fixing the problem of course) and dependencies, and workload management.


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 12:19:43 -0400
From: "Stephen J. Farley" sfarley@us.redwoodsw.com
Subject: Re: tools for Oracle application and Oracle database

There is another very tightly integrated solution from Redwood America (http:/www.redwoodsw.com/) called Redwood4 which provides load balancing across servers, output management of reports and automated job scheduling. Redwood4 can be used by both the Development and Operations departments.

Abbott Labs in Irving, Texas decided to choose Redwood because of the certified interface with the Oracle Applications Concurrent Manager. The most important function of the product for the organization is the overall management of an Oracle applications related processing environment. A spokesperson for Abbott Labs names the biggest advantage realized as "the better job control and abort visibility versus the Concurrent Manager".


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 10:28:40 -0700
From: McRaney Ronald-MCG32315 rmcraney@itexchsrv2.phx.mcd.mot.com
To: "'m_sharawy@tccbce.com'" m_sharawy@tccbce.com
Subject: FW: tools for Oracle application and oracle database

Mohammed,

I found the following tool pretty good for DBA duties in a small shop with Oracle Applications and price is excellent.

http:/www.geocities.com/~binhtpham/

Ron



Noetix vs Discoverer 3.1 for OraApps

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 12:17:03 -0400
From: "Michael Porter" MPorter@pgahq.com
Subject: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

Can somebody point me to a document or white paper, etc on implementing Oracle Discoverer with the Oracle Financial apps? I would like to know what the best way (or at least a good start) to set up reporting business units would be.

TIA, Mike


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 12:37:31 -0400
From: Patrick callahap@hestacorp.com
Subject: Re: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

There is a product out there that will make your process a lot easier - it is called "Noetix Views". It builds your views for you - and makes life a lot simpler. Other than that - it is the standard install as described in the product docs.

From past experience, I would recommend finding more about how your users tend to use it. Noetix has a sample install - and their questions which they will help answer. Let me know if you need more detail - and no I don't work for noetix!!

Patrick

One more thing - With setting up your Business Areas - go for high level (i.e. invoices, payments, etc.) then allow the users to drill down. Noetix will do this for you also.


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 12:50:09 -0400
From: "Kelly.Newman" Kelly.Newman@plpit.fishersci.com
Subject: RE: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

Noetix is cheap, too. However there is one caveat. What we found is that the standard views don't handle multi-org too well. It creates a separate view for each org, so it sort of disables across-org data-gathering.


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 09:52:59 -0700
From: Jason Scherer x139 JasonScherer@trm.com
Subject: RE: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

When you say cheap, what exactly is cheap?


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 12:58:06 -0400
From: "Kelly.Newman" Kelly.Newman@plpit.fishersci.com
Subject: RE: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

If I recall, it was around 5k for AR, GL, and AP.


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 13:19:29 -0400
From: "Annette Anost" aanost@goodegg.com
Subject: Re: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

In using Discoverer, you can create any type of report and cross all applications to gather information. Is Noetix Views as flexible?

For instance, I want to see all po's, account distribution information, invoice and check payments along with all flexfield information.

Are the Noetix Views already delivered reports with minimal or no modifications?

Thanks for the information.
Annette Anost
aanost@goodegg.com


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 13:29:28 -0400
From: "Reddy, Rajasekhar" Rajasekhar.Reddy@fmr.com
Subject: RE: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

We had the same requirement in Oracle Projects to view all the POs, Invoice details and Usage's for all the projects, so we created the custom views and added them to the Business Area and created the queries.

Thanks...Raj


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 12:05:47 -0500
From: "Whitefield, Margaret" Margaret.Whitefield@ps.net
Subject: RE: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

There is also one more MAJOR caveat. Noetix queries can not be released to the average joe user. We have found that many of the queries created by the users have had a major performance impact on the system. The queries can really dog they system if not well structured by the users. The key point is that views allow access by creating all of the necessary table joins, however, just because it is a correct query doesn't mean it is efficient!!!! In these cases we generally get it involved and have the users add a parameter that may force an index on a table. Good luck!


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 13:32:18 -0400
From: "Cotten, Jim" Jim.Cotten@respironics.com
Subject: RE: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

The Noetix are just views, not reports. However, they do put things into plain english and also order data by common business need. We find them very useful.


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 16:16:12 -0400
From: Carolyn DeSimone cdesimone@goaa.org
Subject: RE: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

I think this is true for Discoverer in general. To prevent performance issues, our reports are created by only a few people and depending on the draw on the system usually run overnight. In most cases the real time data is not required by the users so an overnight report is sufficient. If a user needs real time we encourage them to use the query/find option and export to Excel (depending on the criticality of the data). Since we are so new at Oracle, this may change as users realize what is available to them.

BTW - we went live May 17 with 10.7 SC, AR, AP, Inv, OE, PO, HR, PA, FA, and GL.

Carolyn DeSimone
Purchasing Oracle Implementation
Cdesimone@goaa.org
407-825-2028


Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 14:36:57 -0700
From: "Waldman, Dianne" dwaldman@dreamworks.com
Subject: RE: Discoverer 3.1 with Oracle Financials

We found the same thing. Noetix is a great idea, but not always a practical reality. Besides the queries that either take too long to run or just simply time out, we found that we couldn't always get the information we wanted within the pre-created views.



Oracle Link for XL New Version

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 05:31:57 +0500
From: "M. Armaghan Saqib" armaghan@yahoo.com
Subject: Oracle Link for XL New Version is Out. And it is free.

This might be of interest to those of you using Oracle Link for XL.

This tool is very useful to make adhoc reports in XL etc, type of thing APPS users routinely need. New version contains followings:

* Works as an Addin
* SQL Plus like & variables (enhanced)
* Query-by-Example
* INSERTs and UPDATEs with Commit/rollback
* Much better error trapping
* You can call ALL menu commands from your own macros.
* User manual
* ODBC support

http:/www.geocities.com/WallStreet/Floor/8484/

For those of you who are using this tool with APPS, please send me your experience.

Regards,
M. Armaghan Saqib


Uploading data into Rel. 11

From: Zaman Joan [SMTP:ZamanJ@mail.europcar.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 1999 9:00 PM
Subject: GL: Account Segment Values

All,

Can anyone point out a way to load account segment values into a fresh install (R11.0.2 ) out of an excell worksheet ?

Any help will be appreciated.
Best Regards, Joan Zaman.


Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 08:03:00 +0800
From: Bill Shand w.shand@cowan.edu.au
Subject: RE: Account Segment Values

Hi Joan

I have successfully used two products for uploading data into R11. One is a keystroke macro using excel and another is a standalone executable that uses a combination of keystrokes and cut & paste. The products can be downloaded from
http:/www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jdstuart/nca_load.htm
You will need to do some experimenting with each form that you want to load data into but I have used it for account segment values. We are currently experimenting with employee details and purchasing catalogue.

Good luck
Bill Shand
System Accountant
Edith Cowan University


Credit Card Authorization

Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 08:23:16 -0700
From: Jeff Maurer jeff.maurer@infocus.com
Subject: Credit Card Authorization

Any wisdom from the email list on what credit card authorization applications to look at? We're currently considering:

* ICVerify
* Sabrix
* Payment Server

Are there others we should consider? Any thoughts on implementation, support, level of integration, etc.?

We're currently on 10.7 character/v7 RDBMS and migrating to 10.7 NCA.

Thanks in advance!
Jeff Maurer
Mgr., Applications Development
InFocus


Vertex -shifting to from ST engine post prodn.

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 11:45:58 -0400
From: "Smith, Neil" NSmith@MICROS.COM
Subject: VERTEX For Release 11.02

Has anyone changed from Oracle's sales tax engine to VERTEX after already being in production? We've been in production using Oracle's sales tax engine for almost two years (Live on 10.6, upgraded to 10.7, upgraded to 11.02).

I'm looking for any information on issues that have been encountered during an upgrade similar to our situation (i.e. migrating onto VERTEX after being live in production).

Neil Smith MICROS Systems, Inc.


Source of postscript fonts to be used with Unix/Apps 10.7/Reports 2.5

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 13:32:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: "I. Gary Landis" garylandis@yahoo.com
Subject: source of postscript fonts to be used with Unix/Apps 10.7/Reports 2.5

Can anyone recommend a vendor for postscript fonts to be used with Unix/Apps 10.7/Reports 2.5. I selected one that I am not currently having much luck with. They currently mainly support the windows environment. Trying to confogure all the toolkit components; uifont.ali, uiprint.txt, AFM entries, etc.

Thank you,
Gary Landis


Reporting Strategy

Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 17:48:31 +0100
From: c073 c073.bbs@btinternet.com
To: to@btinternet.com, OraApps-L@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: GEN: Reporting Strategy

We are currently looking at our reporting strategy with regard to Oracle Financials. We are investigating how other organisation manage reporting using Financials.

This covers: Tools and distribution methods

Ian Gardner Britannia Building Society


Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 13:26:44 -0400
From: "Stephen J. Farley" sfarley@us.redwoodsw.com
Cc: c073.bbs@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: Reporting Strategy

One solution available is Redwood. We offer Information DeliveryWare such that our Information Explorer allows you to:

- Access, distribute and view newly created or archived information coming out of OraApps such as reports and output;
- View all output datastream formats from within one GUI;
- Define specific retention rules for all managed output;
- Support fully customizable destinations for delivery of all types of printed output (as well as WEB, Fax, email, pager etc.)
- Let end users selectively "Subscribe" to "Published" output per job basis
- Let end users organize the information into their own self-maintained InfoMarts

So your users can subscribe to the twelve reports they really need out of the hundreds available from Oracle Financials. Every time these jobs are run, fresh copies will be delivered to their self-maintained folder. If they are permitted, they may "double click" the report icon to cause all the background processes (predecessors/successors/etc.) to run to recreate the desired report.

Steve Farley
Redwood America
610.722.5185 p
610.722.5186 f
sfarley@us.redwoodsw.com
www.redwoodsw.com


Report output directly to file

Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 18:16:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mohan muthan mmuthan@yahoo.com
Subject: Sending a Report Directly to a File

I need the output of a Report in Oracle Applications to be Directly sent as a File into a respective Directory.

Any immediate would be appreciated.
Thanks Mohan


Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 18:40:49 -0400
From: "Stephen J. Farley" farleysj@bellatlantic.net
Subject: Re: Sending a Report Directly to a File

Redwood4 (www.redwoodsw.com ) offers Information DeliveryWare to deliver any OraApps, ERP or homegrown apps output to any defined local or remote destination: web, file; fax; printer; pager, email, etc. By directing the output to the web, you can support and manage your intranet portal.

Steve Farley, Redwood America, 610.722.5185 sfarley@us.redwoodsw.com


Reporting Systems

Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 12:11:57 -0400
From: Erik Ritters eritters@prg.com
Subject: Reporting Systems

Hello Everyone!

Are there any apps users out there who have either developed or are currently developing any enterprise reporting solutions that incorporate oracle apps data as well as other enterprise data that may be contained in other systems (oracle instances that are non-apps specific)?

We're currently investigating ACTUATE as a web-based enterprise reporting solution.

Conceptually speaking, we're thinking of creating a separate layer that would consist of an oracle instance that would contain views that are created from both our oracle apps instance(s) as well as oracle instances that contain data from our own in-house developed applications.

We're thinking of connecting this new, reporting layer (or instance) via dblinks to all the other instances and that it would be refreshed accordingly. The user would enter the ACTUATE environment and possibly run a report that would contain data across multiple applications (a data warehouse in effect).

We are in the initial stages of doing this but would appreciate any insight on this subject (architecture, etc). Basically, we want to create a web-based enterprise reporting system that can report on all sorts of data (oracle apps & in-house developed apps). We want to stay away from query tools such as Discoverer because the ACTUATE reporting system offers a very extensive and flexible development environment.

As always, thanks in advance!
Erik Ritters


Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 15:05:13 -0400
From: "Cotten, Jim" Jim.Cotten@respironics.com
Subject: RE: Reporting Systems

Haven't used ACTUATE but we use a mixture of Crystal Reports, Noetix Views, and the Optio Document server(web based presentation of disparate document types) to report from our division Oracle Applications as well as the corporate SAP erp system. I would be interested in exchanging ideas with you.

Jim Cotten
IS Manager, Respironics Georgia
770-423-2353