What a day today was! The day started off with a keynote on again Exadata X3 and in memory pluggable databases. In addition to Larry's keynote, not only did we see screenshots, we actually saw a live demo and use cases. And this continued throughout the entire day. Every Oracle session had a demo on a live system. Oracle is not just selling a dream, but demoing actual (nearly) complete ship able products.
One off the greatest live use cases was what to do when your database is growing and you are running out of storage (flash that is). With database 12c the DBA can see a heatmap of the data. Data that is used frequently will be shown red and data being used sporadically is shown as yellow, etc.
The DBA can now compress and move the not so frequently used data to other parts of the storage.
Today I also attended a lot of PeopleSoft/PeopleTools Roadmap sessions and met the people behind and on top of PeopleSoft and PeopleTools and had a look into the future. Almost every session had the same message, continuous investment in PeopleSoft with the following key selling points using PeopleTools 8.53:
Global search being the main search engine to find your data faster and more efficient. And this data is not for viewing only, but using related actions in the search results your are able to take actions directly from the search result. Although this was already available in PeopleTools 8.52, in PeopleTools 8.53 this looks a lot cooler.
Activity Guides and train stops are there to streamline different transactions that a user had to complete prior to PeopleTools 8.53, using several components by selecting them through the menu.
Now you can create an activity guide with steps to all the different transactions and you can even make steps mandatory, so the user has to complete a step before proceeding to the next step. This will ensure the correct sequence of data entry, without using the menu and navigating to different components.
Pivot grids where introduced in PeopleTools 8.52, but in PeopleTools 8.53 it has become the corner stone of information. Besides the great Fusion Applications like look, more features have been added, like action links and drill downs. Making this yet another capability with a starting point of getting the correct analytic information and taking the necessary actions without using the menu.
The PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM) is a new capability for streamlining applying updates and patches.
Prior to the Update Manager you had to upload your environment to Oracle Support and after this you could download patches and bundles that applied to your environment. After downloading the patches you usually had to do this trick several more times to download the prerequisite patches and the prerequisite patches of the prerequisite patches etc. Soon your upgrade package would contain dozens of patches, just to install a few patches. Not to mention the frustration of the administrator!
With the Update Manager this is now totally changed. Oracle will deliver a Virtual Box VM with PeopleSoft with all the latest patches every 8 weeks. This VM will contain the full infrastructure of PeopleSoft with a PIA and Application Server. Now you can choose, from the delivered VM, the patches you want to install and the update manager will create a package for the Upgrade Assistant to be applied to your live environment.
Mobile is the buzz word at OOW this year (and Cloud). PeopleSoft is also going with this flow, with several Mobile solutions. The key topic here is that a mobile app should not be about heavy data entry, but for viewing only or minimal data entry. Read more on Mobile Company Directory & Expenses at https://blogs.oracle.com/peoplesoft/
See the mobile solutions in action (just been released today):
Mobile Expenses
Mobile Approval
Mobile Company Directory
And that is not all. Mobile Company Directory is available on HCM 9.1 with PeopleTools 8.52, so customers can start using this right now. See document PeopleSoft HCM 9.1: Mobile Company Directory [ID 1494986.1] on Oracle Support on how to install and setup Mobile Company Directory.
After this it was time for some relaxation with "the Aces" at the Oracle Music Event with Jimmy Cliff on stage. These guys work hard, party hard ...
Besides the sessions, today also the exhibition halls opened and you could meet with Oracle employees and partners and see their products live. As said in the beginning of my blog, Oracle has really committed in demoing everything live, to show the customers and partners that they have (nearly) complete solutions. All the features mentioned above concerning PeopleSoft, PeopleTools, Fusion Applications, etc are all demoed live by the experts who build these. It was really great talking to these guys and quickly you could see smiles on all of us, since we where sharing the same passion.
Some interesting links you might want to bookmark:
In the upcoming days FREE training on 9.2 and 8.52 will become available
Oracle Update Manager video on Oracle Support document 1464619.1. I was not able to find the video yet, hope I noted the document number correctly. I did receive a memory stick with this video demo and will share this internally.
Upgrade Advisor on MOS, the one stop shop for all information on your upgrade path.
The flood of information was so much, that I could keep on writing for hours and pages. It became clear that PeopleSoft is moving towards an application that is aimed at enhancing the user experience. Getting the information faster, getting the correct information to take the necessary actions, without having to remember any ID's nor using the menu to navigate to different components.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's recap.
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