A number of years ago Oracle trumpeted the global implementation of its eBusiness Suite internally. In my view, this was a very important event for all eBusiness Suite customers. Why? Oracle was not only eating its own dogfood, but also giving customers a number of signals:
- Oracle believes and relies on its own products.
- Gaps/shortcomings in its own products become highly visible internally.
- The readiness of major releases is signalled by Oracle's internal adoption of the release.
Release 12 has been generally available for over a year - since 1 Feb 2007, with key enhancements such as BI Publisher (XML Publisher), Integration Repository, Subledger Accounting and Multiple Organization Access (MOAC) being in the spotlight. Four Release Update Packs are available at the time of writing (to version 12.0.4). My understanding is that Oracle has upgraded its internal production instance and had a month or two to iron out the bugs, so to my mind Release 12 is ready for the primetime!
Now I can hear the echoes "but what about Fusion ... we can go directly from 11i10 (11.5.10.x) to Fusion?" ...
Well, I'm a fan of "big bang" implementations, but I also respect the path of least resistance and with what I know about Fusion my thinking is the path from Release 12 (which is based on Fusion Middleware) to Fusion will be smoother. I guess we'll see later this year when (hopefully) a number of Fusion Applications are released. I'm not fond of holding my breath for anticipated software releases!
In any case here are a few pointers to handy Release 12 Upgrade resources.
Note: for the presentations you may need Username: cboracle - Password: oraclec6
- Presentation: Upgrading to eBusiness Suite R12 - Best Practises
- Presentation: Upgrading to Oracle Fusion Applications: Planning Ahead
- Presentation: Upgrade with Oracle’s Maintenance Wizard
- Whitepaper: Best Practices for Upgrading Oracle E-Business Suite
- Metalink Note: Upgrading to Release 12
- Blog - Steven Chan: Apps Release 12.0.4 Release Update Pack Now Available
- Blog - Steven Chan: Top 5 Myths About Patching Apps Environments
- Forum: Oracle eBusiness Suite R12 Install/Upgrade
- Software: eDelivery
- Documentation: Oracle Financials Concepts Guide, Release 12
- Documentation: Oracle Financials and Oracle Procurement Functional Upgrade Guide: Release 11i to Release 12
With respect to technical considerations such as the desupport of mod_plsql, the impending demise of Oracle Reports and Workflow, if you'd like my view, leave me a comment or send an email!
Update: Added links to documents thanks to David (see comments)
5 comments:
Gareth,
The OracleStore (that used to be store.oracle.com but now that redirects) certainly has been upgraded to 12 and in about that time frame.
Before everyone rushes to upgrade, you should take a close look at what will happen to the features you know and love in 11i after you do the relatively simple job of applying the update.
You need to know how your set up will be upgraded and what functional decisions you need to make now and what things you can just do a straight upgrade on and worry about enabling R12 new functions later.
This is why for the first time in R12 we produced a FUNCTIONAL upgrade guide. A must read before embarking on an upgrade.
And for people new to Financials(old timers might enjoy this one too), the Financials R12 concepts guide is a great new document that explains what features address what business requirements.
They are my two picks in this guide here, where you'll find links and part numbers.
http://davidhaimes.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/useful-oracle-financials-resources/
Hi David,
Thanks for the comments, love the "simple job of applying the update."!
Have put your 2 links into the pointers - good stuff.
PS One of your links on your blog post is broken.
Gareth
Ya know, a few months ago I would have been one of those folks talking up the 11.5.10.x to Fusion upgrade path. However, after seeing the incremental Fusion rollout plan in Steve Miranda's presentation at OpenWorld 07, I'm walking right alongside you on the path of least resistance. R12 & Fusion Apps will both run on Fusion Middleware...not exactly true for 11i. Integrating 11i instances with Fusion Apps instances could be a bit dicey.
BTW, David is absolutely on point regarding the functional changes between 11i and R12, especially in Financials. Be sure to read the docs he recommended as a first step in planning the upgrade.
Hey Floyd,
Nice to have you in the picture and that you're thinking along the same lines.
Agreed on David's comments - the functional part is important - something I didn't focus on in my original post. "Readiness" of the entire package is key for me before considering upgrade though - be it functional or technical.
Keep us posted on Fusion - unfortunately I won' be at Collaborate 08 to get in on the Usability Testing - which I think is an absolutely fab idea.
Gareth
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