The Path to Fusion: A Long and Winding Road DoIT Fusion Council Review for Fusion Leads 16 Jan 2008

DoIT’s Fusion Council Who are we? What are we trying to do? Why? How?

DoIT’s Fusion Leads Who are we? Why us? What are we about? How? When? Where?

Agenda What Do We Know (Larry) Fusion Resources (Ozzyie) What Might be Ahead (Karen) How the Experts Suggest we Prepare (David) Additional questions and comments (All) Suggestions and next steps (All)

What Do We Know (The Basics) Fusion Timeline Why Fusion? Fusion and Legacy Migration Support and “Applications Unlimited”

Fusion Timeline February 1997, Oracle licenses Borland’s JBuilder (evolves into JDeveloper) June 2001, Oracle licenses Orion Application Server June 2004, Oracle buys Collaxa, makers of BPEL January 2005, Oracle buys Peoplesoft January 2005: Oracle announces “Project Fusion”, based on Java and open standards

Why Fusion? Oracle develops E-Business Suite 2003, Peoplesoft purchases J. D. Edwards (as poison pill against Oracle takeover) 2004, Oracle purchases Retek 2005, Oracle purchases Peoplesoft 2005, Oracle purchases Siebel

Fusion Project? - Legacy Migration Merge the legacy E-Business Suite, J.D. Edwards, Retek, Peoplesoft and Siebel systems into “Best of Breed” Migrate these applications to a modern, flexible technology (Java) Eliminate redundant functionality Create common data Create common interfaces

Legacy Migration - Wiki DARWIN: On the Incremental Migration of Legacy Systems DoD Legacy System Migration Guidelines

Legacy Migration - Resources

No Forced Migrations

Life-time Support Premier Support (5 years) from GA Extended Support (3 years), if available Sustaining Support (life-time)

Premier Support Major Product and Technology Releases Technical Support Updates, Fixes, Security Alerts, Critical Patches Tax, Legal and Regulatory Updates Update Scripts Certification with Oracle and 3rd Party

Extended Support Same as Premier except some certifications with 3rd Party products and versions may not be available

Sustaining Support Same as Premier with these limitations: Access patches, fixes, etc available during Premier Support Upgrade Scripts from Premier Support

Sustaining Support Not Include No New patches, fixes, updates No New Tax, Legal, Regulatory Updates No Certification with Oracle or 3rd Party Products

DoIT Oracle Applications Peoplesoft FMS/ESA/SCM Version 8.9 (SFS, “Program Release”) Peoplesoft Campus Solutions 8.9 (ISIS) Oracle E-Business Suite (CBS), Version 11i (11/10)

DoIT Applications Support

Questions? Comments? What Do We Know

Resources (Places to find more information…)

Fusion Council Wiki Look for “Fusion Council” in the list

Ideas/Changes for the Wiki

Resources Wikipedia

Resources Wikipedia Steve Chang’s Blog

Resources Wikipedia Steve Chang’s Blog Oracle’s official sites

Resources Wikipedia Steve Chang’s Blog Oracle’s official sites White papers, presentations, and more

Resources Questions? Comments? Send questions/suggestions to

What Might Be Ahead (What do we think is coming and why do we think that?) What we knew a year ago What have we learned this year? Latest Developments

Change is the Spice of Life What we knew a year ago What we know now We expect more spice in the next couple of years

What we knew a year ago Fusion was going to be a ‘Big Bang’ Fusion was coming very soon We were going to have to make very big changes in a very short time

What Happened During the Past 12 Months? Acquisitions and more acquisitions Customers had reason to look at competitors (Kuali, etc.) Merging disparate systems was more complicated than anticipated Oracle announced ‘Apps Unlimited’

Latest Developments HEUG released white paper, ‘A Deliberate Approach for Leveraging Applications Unlimited’ on December 10, 2007 The HEUG January, 2008 newsletter reiterated the major points of the white paper –Gradual move to Fusion –Longer life for existing applications/suites –Like-for-like exchange licensing –App Conversion tools are likely to be supplied

Whew! Our current applications will be supported for a longer time We may be able to take gradual steps to get to Fusion We have time to become familiar with Fusion features But, we still need to move forward

What FUSION-Like Functions are Available Now? BI Publisher (formerly XML Publisher) BPEL

What New Functions are Coming Soon? Merger of Oracle, PS and Seibel support, with more proactive tools More middleware Service Definitions – coming in PS 9.1 and E-Business Release 12 AIA (Application Integration Architecture)

What about the coming year? Continue to monitor Fusion Expect things to change

What Might Be Ahead Questions? Comments?

Getting Ready (What do the experts say we should be doing right now and in the future?) HEUG TAG Whitepapers Webinars – CIBER, Solution Beacon Open World Updates HEUG announcement What might these things mean for DoIT?

First HEUG TAG Whitepaper recommendations Stop working in SQR –Move to BI Publisher (if you can) Learn about and start to use PS Integration Tech –IB, CIs, XML, etc. Move to services (if you can) Move to Java (if you can) –Not clear what best way to do this is –At least, start developer training… Move to Oracle Middleware (if you can)

Most Recent TAG Whitepaper Move to Fusion will be gradual Still really need to move to services, prep for SOA

CIBER Recommendations Coming from PS side… Tech Platforms: –DB 11g, OAS 10g R3, Fusion Middleware –PS Enterprise 9.1, EBS 12 Just Say NO to SQRs Start using BI Publisher for Reports Budget Training, training, training

Solution Beacon Recommendations Coming from EBS side… Same general Tech pieces as CIBER First indication that Fusion will be delivered in small(er) pieces

Open World Updates EBS –V11 can be converted to Fusion, but better to go to v12; Forms will be phased out PS –Have PT 8.49, 8.5, App 9.1, 9.2 in the works –Even point releases are new functionality –Adding in Web 2.0 functionality (?!)

More Open World SOA: –New tool/product: AIA Application Integration Architecture –SOA functionality will fall under AIA –Not much focus on Higher Ed –Integration delivered as PIP (Prod Integ Pack) –Will sell for CS 9.1 Includes connects to Data Hubs and IdM

HEUG Announcement January 2008 Tom Scott, HEUG President: “…[I]f we stay up with the versions and upgrades Oracle is making available we’ll wake one morning to discover we’ve arrived at Fusion.” Oracle appears to be trying to deliver the opposite of a Big Bang…!

What does this boil down to? Stay current with Oracle tools/tech –Middleware is biggest muddle –Adopt new tools where it makes sense Learn the new technology

What might this mean for DoIT? Find replacements for existing tools –App Engine/PCode instead of SQR New Tools –BI Publisher (where appropriate) –Middleware Looking at IdM, Data Hubs Discussions of using BPEL, ESB? Rest is dependent on resources…

What might this mean for DoIT? New Skills: –General skills: Java, XML, XSLT XML is not rocket science, XSLT is a bit different… But shifting to Object Oriented Programming is NOT a simple thing! –Specific Tools: SOA - BPEL, ESB Dev Tools – JDeveloper (w/lots of plug ins!), ADF/Faces

Common Recommendations - Software Keep applications current Review customizations, drop if at all possible Limit customizations Find R&D projects for Fusion Middleware

Common Recommendations - Hardware Equipment, license upgrades –Server, infrastructure needs for SOA=?? Want Oracle DB running 10g (at least)

Where do we go from here? It looks we have an extended period of time –HEUG TAG suggests 10 year window –Options/priorities may change once Fusion apps arrive (q.v. discussions of PS Upgrades) Complete change in apps/tools when done –Lots of tech pieces are still in flux Many twists and turns in the road ahead…

Getting Ready Questions? Comments?

Summary What Do We Know Fusion Resources What Might be Ahead Getting Ready

Conclusion Questions and Comments? Suggestions for next steps? Topics? For Additional Info: –Contact us at –Feedback – team, Karen, or myself Thank you!!