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HEUG Member Newsletter for September 2009

2009-09-21T00:28:23Z

HEUG Member Newsletter for September 2009

New Business Model

Last month we announced that the HEUG Board of Directors had endorsed a new
business model at its 2009 summer meeting. Details were presented in a
message to all members from HEUG President Stan Jakubik on August 20. As
HEUG is an international organization with member institutions in 28
countries, and as this new business model marks a fundamental organizational
change that affects all members, we have translated the announcement into
several languages. Click here for links
<http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=158> to documents in Chinese, Dutch,
English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish.

Executive Update

Save the date: the 2010 HEUG Executive Forum will be held on Monday March 1,
2010 at the San Antonio Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Please take a minute to update your institutional
<http://www.heug.org/p/gr/kc> profile to include your Overall Executive
Sponsor. This will help us communicate more effectively with our executive
community.

And note that Curtiss Barnes, Vice President of Industry Product Strategy
for the Education and Research industries at Oracle, is blogging
<http://blogs.oracle.com/CurtissBarnes/2009/09/continuous_delivery_model_for
.html> about the Continuous Delivery Model for Campus Solutions here.

Alliance Conferences

Alliance 2010

The Alliance 2010 Conference will take place February 28 - March 3, 2010 at
the San Antonio Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. For more
information visit the Alliance 2010 <http://www.heug.org/p/cm/ld/fid=153>
Conference site.

Alliance Down Under

The Alliance Down Under Conference will take place November 8 - 10, 2009 in
Brisbane, Australia. For more information visit the Alliance Down Under
http://www.alliancedownunder09.com Conference site.

New Ways of Sharing Conference Information

Virtual Alliance

New from HEUG -- Virtual Alliance will provide members with access to
webinars throughout the year. Webinar topics will include content from the
most recent Alliance Conferences, new content developed since that time, and
potential previews of upcoming conferences. For more information visit our
Executive Director <http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=152> 's blog.

Applications and Technology

PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Feature Pack 1

Last month, Oracle University held a free live virtual training event on
Campus Solutions Feature Pack 1. You can view the recorded session by
visiting the
<https://oracleuniversity.webex.com/oracleuniversity/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=TC&rID
=52961252&act=pb&rKey=40ce102f27b142d2> Oracle University site.

PeopleTools 8.50 General Availability

The PeopleSoft Technology Blog recently
<http://blogs.oracle.com/peopletools/2009/09/general_availability_ga_of_peop
letools_850.html> announced the General Availability (GA) of PeopleTools
8.50. This is a critical demonstration of Oracle's commitment to the
PeopleSoft product family.

Web Services Security Article

Kai Markowitz from the California State University has recently published an
article on Web Services Security on the Technical Advisory
<http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=153> Group blog.

PeopleSoft FMS and SCM 9.1

You can now see pre-release notes for PeopleSoft Financials 9.1. Read more
at our VP for Products <http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=149> blog.

Advisory Group News

Budget User Community

Members of the Budget Product Advisory Group encourage you to view the
budget user community <http://www.heug.org/p/co/in/gid=1972> page. It's a
great way to track issues of interest to "regular" budgeting users-- as well
as to others involved in Financials (Commitment Control), HRMS (Position
Budgeting), EPM (Planning and Budgeting), or Hyperion. The Budgeting PAG is
here to help on issues on all platforms. You can direct questions to the
Budget PAG co-chairs, Richard Trudel at rltrudel@brandeis.edu or Nancy
Sophia at nancy.sophia@uvm.edu.

Financial Aid User Community

The Financial Aid Product Advisory Group has been busy lately, publishing to
their blog <http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=156> , issuing a
<http://www.heug.org/p/fo/do/download=1&fid=28257> newsletter, and learning
a lot about moving to direct lending (see October 16 webinar below). Read
more about what is happening by visiting the financial aid user
<http://www.heug.org/p/co/in/gid=1976> community page.

Events

October 11, 2009: Higher Education User Group Forum at Oracle Open World
2009 <http://www.oracle.com/us/openworld/index.htm> . See the Focus
<http://www.oracle.com/ocom/groups/public/@ocompublic/documents/webcontent/0
33965.pdf> on Education and Research document for more details.

October 16, 2009: Webinar: Moving from
<http://www.heug.org/p/ca/vi/sid=1608> FFELP to Direct Lending

November 5, 2009: The Dutch Education User Group (DEUG) Conference will be
held November 5, 2009 in Hilversum in the Netherlands. The main program and
several sessions will be delivered in English. Click here for more
information <http://www.deug.nl/?q=node/6> .

November 18 - 20, 2009: Circuit:
<http://www.questdirect.org/QuestDirect/Events/Circuit/Circuit.htm>
Washington DC Regional Conference. The DC OAUG, Mid-Atlantic RUG and Quest
International Users Group are partnering together for a regional conference
that offers networking and education for several Oracle platforms: Oracle
E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards World, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne,
Hyperion, and business intelligence solutions. Visit the
<http://www.questdirect.org/QuestDirect/Events/Circuit/Higher+Education+Cont
ent.htm> conference site for details on higher education content.

News from our Vendor Partners

The following news items are provided by our vendor partners. Note: all
vendor news items are the views of the vendor partner and do not necessarily
reflect the views of HEUG. The HEUG Online site is supported by our vendor
partners. If you are interested in joining as a vendor partner, click here
to <http://www.heug.org/download.php?sid=5946> download sponsorship
information or email us at vendors@heug.org.

SmartERP Solutions provides unique pre-built solutions and services designed
expressly by former PeopleSoft/Oracle architects to meet critical business
needs and to accelerate PeopleSoft projects, while reducing costs and
timelines and avoiding costly customizations. Whether implementing,
upgrading, or in production, our PeopleSoft add-on solutions can be used to
significantly enhance user productivity and improve business processes to
meet your organization's unique needs.

Click here <http://www.smarterp.com/webinars> to learn how HEUG
institutions such as Northwestern, Emory, and Wesleyan Universities have
enhanced and streamlined standard PeopleSoft business processes using
innovative solutions by SmartERP.

Recent vendor news:

Grand Rapids <http://www.heug.org/p/ne/ar/sid=845&topic=140> Community
College Sees Green with ImageNow (Image Now)

HTS Announces OnLine <http://www.heug.org/p/ne/ar/sid=844&topic=786>
Workshops September Schedule (Higher Technology Solutions)

Southeastern Louisiana <http://www.heug.org/p/ne/ar/sid=843&topic=586>
University Selects The Cansler Group to implement PeopleSoft Grants Suite
(The Cansler Group)

OnBase remains a technology <http://www.heug.org/p/ne/ar/sid=840&topic=653>
priority for higher education (OnBaseR - A Hyland Software Solution)

Synch-Solutions Brings <http://www.heug.org/p/ne/ar/sid=839&topic=647>
Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) Admin System to State and Local
Govt (Synch-Solutions)

Recent vendor blogs

The Need for IT <http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=151> Strategy - Guest
Blog, Gregg Powers, Senior Management Consultant, CIBER, Inc.

Repurposing Your Project <http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=147>
Management Office

Is Twitter Practical for Business <http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=146>
Use... Guest Blogger - Tony Kelsey

Introducing Doris's Blog <http://www.heug.org/p/bl/ar/blogaid=138> -
SmartERP CEO Doris Wong

About HEUG Newsletters

This monthly newsletter is sent to all HEUG members. You can choose to opt
out of receiving it by removing your subscription from your
<http://www.heug.org/p/us/to> subscriptions page. If you have something to
add to a future newsletter or would like to provide feedback, email us at
newsletter@heug.org.

Oracle the Innovator (and Ecosystem Contender)

2009-09-04T17:39:49Z

I just spent two days having my brain annihilated by information overload at Oracle’s Applications Analyst Summit, and, with 21 pages of notes, it’s going to be hard to sort through everything and come up with a concise post on what we learned. But here goes. The first is that Oracle has been innovating more than [...]

UN Document Details $300 Million ERP Mega-Project

2009-09-03T04:00:00Z

An early-stage planning document for the United Nations' ongoing global ERP (enterprise resource planning) project calls for a budget north of US$300 million and provides a detailed look at the challenges the effort must overcome.

Optimizing ERP support staffing in smaller companies

2009-08-27T01:24:00Z

I had an interesting analyst request today. An IT manager for a midsize company recently purchased our Computer Economics ERP Support Staffing Ratios report and wonders how the ratios would apply to a smaller business.He writes: We purchased the study "ERP Support Staffing Ratios". It was very helpful. Question - We are implementing an new ERP system, and bringing it up a little at a time. We are

Open Group Announces Standards for SOA, Cloud Computing

2009-08-24T04:00:00Z

The Open Group, a consortium focused on standards and interoperability for enterprises, on Monday will announce the availability of what it describes as industry standards for the adoption of SOA and cloud computing.

IBM Hails ALM Standards Participation

2009-08-25T04:00:00Z

IBM will use the occasion of the 2009 Agile conference in Chicago on Tuesday to trumpet its ongoing support for an industry initiative intended to make it easier for different application lifecycle management products to interoperate.

The Good Enough revolution

2009-08-24T13:15:00Z

Wired magazine says “From Digital Music to Video Cameras to Military Aircraft, cheap and simple beats perfect almost every time. It is called the MP3 effect and it will change everything” Hmmm…3 years ago I blogged about Jetstar whose CIO...

Oracle gets US clearance for Sun acquisition

2009-08-21T01:46:32Z

Oracle won clearance from the US Department of Justice for its $7.4bn acquisition of Sun Microsystems, after an earlier delay in the approval process threatened to knock the deal off course

Enterprise Architecture Design

2009-07-26T23:30:00Z

User-centric Enterprise Architecture provides information to decision-makers using design thinking, so as to make the information easy to understand and apply to planning and investment decisions.
Some examples of how we do this:
Simplifying complex information by speaking the language of the business (and not all techie).
Unifying disparate information to give a holistic view that breaks the traditional vertical (or functional) views and instead looks horizontally across the organization to foster enterprise solutions where we build once and reuse multiple times.
Visualizing information to condense lots of information and tell a story—as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Segmenting end-users and tailoring EA information products to the different user groups which we do with profiles geared to executive decision makers, models for mid-level managers, and inventories for the analysts.
Interestingly enough, in the summer issue of MIT Sloan Management Review, there is an article called “How to Become a Better Manager…By thinking Like a Designer.”
Here are some design pointers from the experts that you can use to aid your enterprise architectures (they are written to parallel the principles from User-centric EA, as I have previously described above):
Embrace simplicity—“people often confuse simplicity…with simplistic….it takes courage to be simple…and the simplest solution is often the best.”
Look for patterns in the data—“good problem solvers become proficient at identifying patterns.” Further, designers seek “harmony to bring together hierarchy, balance, contrast, and clear space in a meaningful way.”
Apply visual thinking—often managers…rely heavily on data and information to tell the story and miss the opportunity to create context and meaning,” instead managers need to “think of themselves as designers, visual thinkers or storytellers.”
Presenting clearly to specific end-users—“good design is about seeing and communicating clearly.” Moreover, it’s about “seeing things from the clients point of view…designers learn pretty quickly that is not about Me, it’s about You.”

MIT Sloan states “we have come to realize over the past few years that design-focused organizations do better financially than their less design-conscious competitors…design is crafting communications to answer audience needs in the most effective way.”

This is a fundamental lesson: organizations that apply the User-centric Enterprise Architecture design approach will see superior results than legacy EA development efforts that built “artifacts” made up primarily of esoteric eye charts that users could not readily understand and apply.

Investing in Colleges

2009-07-21T17:45:29Z

A new report on how well state colleges use the resources they have available to them.

Oracle Users' Gripes About Support Portal Going Unheeded

2009-07-24T04:00:00Z

Despite complaints from many users, Oracle is showing no signs it will reverse course on plans to shut down the venerable MetaLink support portal, long used by thousands of IT professionals around the world.

Open Source for America: A resource for the Gov2.0 CTO

2009-07-22T20:24:20Z

With this post I’d like to tell you a bit more about the coalition Open Source for America and why I believe it is so important for our collective future. I would also like to encourage you to join this coalition yourself. Whether you represent industry, academia, non-profit organizations or are an individual technologist this coalition needs your help and support.

The coalition is designed to serve as a centralized resource for information on open source technologies, thereby helping serve the U.S. Federal Government’s mission. Just as community is at the heart of open source software, community is at the heart of the Open Source for America group. That spirit comes through loud and clear in the organization’s charter. If you support our stated principles, we need you as part of this coalition.

This charter is based on respect for the community, respect for the federal government, and respect for developers, and of course respect for the CIO, CTO and other enterprise technology decision-makers. The charter includes four principles that OSA and its members agree to and support. They are:

1. While respecting the right of every developer to choose the license that it believes best reflects its desires and needs, we support the four freedoms in the Free Software Definition.

- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0);
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this;
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2); and
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

2. We applaud the commitment of the Administration to make the U.S. Federal government more transparent, participatory, secure, and efficient, and urge the U.S. Federal government to pursue this goal by leveraging the advantages of free and open source software.

3. We believe that the community can drive collaborative innovation in the U.S. government space, resulting in greater efficiencies and national competitiveness.

4. We believe the decision to use software should be driven solely by the requirements of the user, and not by a mandate for a particular brand, vendor, or development model.

Why do I believe this is so important for our future? Enterprise quality Open Source Software, like Linux, Open Solaris, MySQL, Firefox, Alfresco, Pentaho, PostgreSQL, Collabnet and many others, provide the federal government with software that is more secure, more reliable, more economical and more supportive of accelerating innovation into the federal space. But the nature of the communities behind these capabilities is one that does not give them large multi-million dollar advertising budgets like some proprietary capabilities. This can lead some decision-makers under informed of what may frequently be the best choice. Community-based advocacy and collaborative self-education is called for and your time and assistance in this area can really help the nation out.

The time you spend reviewing this coalition’s website would be most appreciated. Find the coalition at http://opensourceforamerica.org

My hope is that after review of the site and the principles articulated there you will join us in this coalition. It is easy to do. Just review the principles and join us here.

How to Get 50% More Work Done This Week. 7 Tips for Busy Marketing Directors.

2009-07-20T10:30:38Z

If you’ve been hanging around the 60 Second Marketer for long, you know our entire premise is that we research the most current marketing trends and condense them down to 60-second snippets. That way, busy people (like you) can stay current on the latest marketing trends without getting bogged down with 25-page white papers. But if [...]

It's The Business Processes

2009-07-20T01:21:00Z

Last week, I had a chance to chat for a bit with Faun deHenry from FMT Systems. Faun and I have circulated in the same circles for a few years, spreading pretty similar messages, but have never directly crossed paths. After Twittering to each other a bit, it seemed like a good time to talk by phone. Great conversation…I’m really looking forward to the chance for a face-to-face meetup soon.

Any guesses as to what Faun and I talked about? Yup, the importance of business processes. More specifically, the importance of keeping the differentiation between business processes and tools straight.

When I worked for Oracle in the consulting organization, I had the opportunity to work for a very smart practice manager. He’s been in the business forever and knows the ropes very well. He told me on a regular basis that owning the best hammer in the world is worthless if you don’t have a clear plan of what you’re building. That’s how I see the relationship between business processes and tools.

In order to run a successful business, you need to have some idea of what the goals of the business are and how you plan to realize those goals. You can have a bomb-diggity (got that term from my daughter…who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks? W00T!) set of software tools, but they don’t help at all if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish and how you intend to accomplish it. The trick is to select the tools that will best help you implement and automate the business processes you have in mind – those business processes in turn are enable you to accomplish your business objectives. When you hear folks from Oracle talking about “using the products that drive value for your enterprise”, this is exactly they’re talking about.

It seems to me that Oracle is in the business of tools that help with implementing business processes. Databases to store transactional data, software to help manage those databases, applications built around best practices, tools to help develop and implement unique business processes, or business intelligence garnered from transactional data to provide a foundation measuring progress and making well-informed decisions; Oracle offers more tools than I can track.

I’m obviously a big fan of Oracle products, especially in situations requiring the ability to scale up. In fact, nothing makes me happier than sitting down at a keyboard and getting my geek on. Still, it all comes back to your business processes…how do you want or need to do business?

Oracle really can’t tell you how to best run your enterprise; that’s your responsibility. What Oracle can do is offer the right tools to help you realize the best implementation of those business processes. To get the highest value out of those tools, you need to first know what you’re building and how you plan to do it.

Comments are welcome…

How to make graphs that work

2009-07-17T09:39:00Z

1. Don't let popular spreadsheets be in charge of the way you look

92% of all the business presentations made in the United States are done with templates created by big companies in Excel or Powerpoint. This is a horrible tragedy.

First, programmers don't often have a lot of taste. The fonts are flaccid, the defaults are wan and uninspiring. There's no sophistication.

Second, and more important, when you show me something exactly like something I've seen a hundred times before, what do you expect me to do? Here's a hint: Zzzzzz.

2. Tell a story

There are only four reasons I can imagine you would want to show someone a graph (not a chart, or an infogram or a diagram, but a graph of numbers):

Things are going great, look!
Things are a disaster, help!
Nothing much is happening.
We need to work together to figure out what the data means.

I think if it's the third one, you can probably dispense with the graph altogether. And the fourth isn't really a presentation, it's a working session. Which means you're trying to light a fire, make a point, highlight a trend, cause action to be taken. Your graph should reflect that, or you're wasting my time.

3. Follow some simple rules

When you violate the fundamental rules of graphing, you confuse me, or cause me to pay attention to parts of your presentation that aren't related to the story you're trying to tell. Here are a few:

Time goes on the bottom, and goes from left to right
Good results should go up on the Y axis. This means that if you're charting weight loss, don't chart "how much I weigh" because good results would go down. Instead, chart "percentage of goal" or "how much I lost."
Don't connect unrelated events. For example, a graph of IQs of everyone in your kindergarten class should be a series of unrelated points, not a line graph. On the other hand, your weight loss is in fact a continuous function, so each piece of data should be attached.
Pie charts are spectacularly overrated. If you want to show me that four out of five dentists prefer Trident and that we need to target the fifth one, show me a picture of 5 dentists, but make one of them stand out. I'll remember that.

4. Break some other rules

Use color. Use thick lines. Use circles. Use big type faces. Don't use 3-D charts unless you have a license. You can animate, but only if you have a note from your doctor.

If you break too many rules, it'll backfire. If the graph is hard to grok, or appears tweaked too much, we cease to believe it. [and the Onion chimes in, ht to Tom]

Sun Shareholders Approve Oracle Acquisition

2009-07-16T04:00:00Z

Sun Microsystems' shareholders voted on Thursday to approve the company's acquisition by Oracle, but not by a wide margin.

Experts: Oracle Database Option Price Hikes No Accident

2009-07-17T04:00:00Z

Oracle's decision to hike the price of some add-ons for its flagship database by about 40 percent was far from a random act, since the modules are crucial to getting the database to perform at the highest level, a pair of experts said Friday.

Oracle cranks up some prices 40%

2009-07-17T11:05:42Z

I have this imaginary letter in my head from Oracle to customers that goes something like this:

Dear Customer

You don’t need me to tell you we’re in the teeth of the worst recession in living memory but as you know, we at Oracle are committed to providing you with the best value possible. Recently we rolled out Fusion Middleware and as I’m sure you all know, this will be the centerpiece around which the long awaited Fusion Apps will integrate. We believe that when taken together, these will provide you with an application landscape that delivers outstanding value and potential return on investment.

While putting this strategy together, we’ve discovered that some components were not appropriately priced and it is for that reason we are introducing new prices for the diagnostic and tuning packs, as well as the database configuration management pack.

Some might be surprised at the extent of the price rises but at Oracle, we believe in sharing in what I’m sure you’ll see as your long term good fortune.

Yours sincerely

Larry

The more serious side to this is that TechWorld is reporting that some components have been price hiked by 40%:

Processor licences for the company’s diagnostic and tuning packs, as well as a database configuration management pack, are now US$5,000(£3,040), up from $3,500(£2,130) listed on a 2008 price list.

The first two products are meant to help database administrators target and resolve performance problems. The latter tool is used for a range of tasks, such as tracking database configuration changes and ensuring policy compliance.

Meanwhile, a processor licence for the enterprise edition of Oracle’s database remains priced at $47,500, following a roughly 20 percent increase last year.

These may be small potatoes in the scheme of things but provide an excellent example of the kind of nickel and diming that customers regularly grumble over. However, as the Techworld article says, these are price negotiation starting points with nothing to stop Oracle offering extra discounts at no penalty and so making buyers look good. That would not be difficult in the current economy. I am hearing reports that customers are demanding and getting up to 90% discount in some deals.

Even so, price is a bit of a distraction. In the current economy, the name of the game must surely be about eeking as much as you can from existing, eliminating shelfware and optimizing apps usage without triggering yet more charges from your supplier.

All the same, I give Oracle credit for producing a price list that we can pick over. Others don’t.

HCM 9.1 Pre-release Notes Available

2009-07-17T13:35:50Z

Oracle has released the PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 Pre-release notes

App stores are not the future, says Google

2009-07-17T03:45:41Z

Apple customers may have downloaded 1.5bn applications from its AppStore in the past year for their iPhones and iPod touches, but the service does not represent the future for the mobile industry, according to Google.

Vic Gundotra, Google Engineering vice president and developer evangelist, (pictured centre) told the Mobilebeat conference in San Francisco on Thursday that the web had won and users of mobile phones would get their information and entertainment from browsers in future.

He claimed that even Google was not rich enough to support all of the different mobile platforms from Apple’s AppStore to those of the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Android and the many variations of the Nokia platform.

“What we clearly see happening is a move to incredibly powerful browsers,” he said.

“Many, many applications can be delivered through the browser and what that does for our costs is stunning.

“We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing.”

Mr Gundotra won some support from the rest of the panel. Michael Abbott (pictured right), head of application software for Palm, said advances in the browser being introduced through HTML5 standards meant that web applications could tap features of particular phones such as their accelerometers.

Mr Gundotra pointed out that the latest version of the Safari Webkit-based browser on the iPhone allowed positioning technology on the phone to be used - Google’s home page can now display where users are located.

Webkit, which Apple had turned into an open-source project, was also powering the browsers on the Android and Palm operating systems.

Tero Ojanpera, head of services at Nokia (pictured left), said Nokia was helping web developers with its Qt cross-platform application framework.

Mr Gundotra said even Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, had said “Build for the web,” when the iPhone was launched, but the idea had met with resistance from developers at the time.

The timing was not right, he suggested, but “the rate of innovation in the browser [over the past 12 months] is surprising.”

“I think Steve really did understand that, over the long term, it would be the web, and I think that’s how things will play out.”