Oracle Fusion and Oracle Fusion Application Overview

WHAT IS "ORACLE FUSION"?

People often get confuse with this term .To start with, it will be a good idea to know the difference between Fusion Applications and Middleware. Oracle Fusion is composed of two parts: Fusion middle ware and Fusion applications.

1.      Oracle Fusion Middle ware aka FMW : Comprises of the Oracle Application Server and other technology stack components that Oracle has acquired in past few years.

o    Fusion Middleware is a family of middleware products covering areas like BI, Identity Management, Content Management and SOA.

o    Each of these areas has it's own stack of products. Fusion Middleware was previously called Oracle Application Server.

2.      Oracle Fusion Applications ....you can called as ERP module for Fusion : Oracle Fusion Applications is Oracle's next generation suite of applications that eventually replace E-Business Suite. It will assimilate best of breed features from:

o    E-Business Suite

o    JD Edwards

o    PeopleSoft

o    Siebel.

Fusion Applications is build on top of the Oracle Fusion Middleware technology stack using Oracle's Fusion Architecture as blueprint.

Therefore Fusion you can be refer to any of three things Middleware, Application, Architecture.With this Oracle is not only moving to the next generation technology stack like SOA, BPEL, BAM, JSF, Ajax, ESB, etc, but will also bring together the best in class underpinnings, of each of the incumbent suites, like Business Structure, Security Model, Workflow Process, and Event Models which you will find in later part of discussion.Before let have a quick look on Oracle's Fusion Architecture .

ORACLE FUSION ARCHITECTURE

Oracle Fusion Architecture (OFA) is a standards-based technology reference architecture or blueprint for building applications. Note that Oracle Fusion Architecture is not a product, and can be used without licensing it from Oracle. Many organizations use it to write applications that can run on Oracle Fusion Middleware or that compliment Oracle Fusion Applications.[Adopted http://www.oracle.com]

Oracle Fusion Architecture is based on the following core principles:

·         Model Driven: For applications, business processes and business information

·         Service & Event- enabled: For extensible, modular, flexible applications and processes

·         Information Centric: For complete and consistent, actionable, real-time intelligence

·         Grid-Ready: Must be scalable, available, secure, manageable on low-cost hardware

·         Standards-based: Must be open, pluggable in a heterogeneous environment

The Oracle Fusion Architecture’s SOA and EDA(event-driven architecture) technology consists of

• An integrated service environment (ISE) to develop services
• A multi-protocol enterprise service bus (ESB) to integrate applications
• A services registry for discovering and managing the life cycle of services
• A BPEL-based orchestration engine to tie services into business processes
• A business rules engine to enable business policies to be captured and automated
• A Web services management and security solution to enforce authentication and authorization policies on services and to monitor services and processes for compliance to SLAs

Fusion Middleware Component for E-Business Suite

In the Fusion Middleware of E-Business Suite, here are the list of components :

·         Application Server

·         BPA Suite (Business Process Analysis)

·         Business Integration

·         Business Intelligence

·         Identity Management

·         SOA Suite (Service Oriented Architecture)

·         WebCenter Suite

On the technology front, Fusion Applications is completely developed using Fusion Middleware 11g on Oracle database 11g. Here is the list of technologies used in developing Fusion Applications:

·         SOA Suite (BPEL, BPM)

·         BI Publisher

·         Application Integration Architecture (AIA)

·         Applications Development Framework (ADF)

·         Applications Server

·         Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)

·         Content Management

·         Database 11g

·         Enterprise Manager

·         Fusion apps are metadata driven which is managed by the MDS
framework

·         

·         

·       WHAT IS IN FUSION V1.0 ORACLE FUSION APPLICATIONS

Oracle Fusion Applications offer a complete suite spanning seven critical business areas consist of 100+ Oracle Fusion Applications modules which is targeted for first release.These are distributed across the following product families: 34 - Sales & Marketing; 21 - Human Resources; 13 - Financials; 6 - Purchasing; 7 - Projects Portfolio Management; 10 - Supply Chain Management; and 10 - Governance, Risk and Compliance. Majors are:

• Financial management
• Supply chain management
• Procurement
• Human capital management
• Project portfolio management
• Sales
• Governance, risk, and compliance
• Enterprise performance management

Not is scope so far(v1.0) are CRM(Service, Call Centre, Order Capture), SCM(Core Manufacturing, Manufacturing Execution),Industry(Public Sector -encumbrance accounting, etc.)

When Fusion is coming out

Hoping Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle Fusion Applications in the sometime in first quarter of this year

Fusion V1 & Fusion V2 functionality

Fusion V2 will be more likly to be more focused for Manufacturing, Supply Chain gaps, more localizations,and public sector functionality

MIGRATION TO ORACLE FUSION APPLICATIONS

The Oracle Fusion Applications platform was built with flexibility in mind,so companies can selectively add modules if and when it makes business
sense.

With the initial release of Oracle Fusion Applications likely focused on point solutions, most users will be concerned with how to integrate Oracle Fusion Applications into their core applications. This will be a substantially easier effort than migrating the entire core functionality

There are options/proposed path which can observed in various Oracle papers.

Here’s a plan for IT side which may be consider to be crafted roadmap for the future of enterprise applications

1. Continue on Your Current Path .That mean you need to evaluate the latest Applications Unlimited releases Oracle Applications releases such as Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.3, PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.1, Siebel Customer Relationship Management 8.2, and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.1 for the additional value they bring to the businesse .In addition to gaining value today, you will be in a position to upgrade to Oracle Fusion Applications in the future, if and when you choose.

o    EBS -> Fusion Apps

o    PeopleSoft Financials to Fusion Apps

o    PeopleSoft HRMS to Fusion Apps

o    Siebel CRM to Fusion Apps

2. Move to Fusion Step by Step . You need to adopt standards-based technology first. Consider Oracle Fusion Middleware as inhouse new initative and developing skill sets in technologies such as Oracle Application Development Framework, Oracle content management products, Oracle SOA Suite, and Oracle WebCenter. These tools will help you integrate, extend, and manage your applications environment today and prepare you to add Oracle Fusion Applications if and when you choose by upgrading one environment and then reimplement rest what ever/when ever.
3. Upgrade to Fusion Applications . Decide(if and when appropriate.)
   If you use any functionality that is not part of V1 but still see business value in going to Fusion Apps, this may result in multiple Fusion Apps instances.
4. Adopt a coexistence strategy . Add Oracle Fusion Applications modules to your existing environment or implement “pillars” (human capital management, sales, financials, or supply chain management applications whatever suits) to extend the power of Oracle Fusion Applications into your applications portfolio.

Product Supported Release for Fusion Upgrade

·         E-Business Suite :Release 11.5.10, 12 or later

·         PeopleSoft: Release 8.8, 8.0, 9.0 or later

·         JD Edwards EnterpriseOne: Release 8.11, 8.12 or later 34

·         JD Edwards World Release: A7.3, A8.1, A9.1 or later Siebel Release 7.9, 8.0 or later

SKILL REQUIREMENT FOR FUSION SPACE

Inhouse IT as well as Consulting companies need skill such as BPM and process governance, to manage an Oracle Fusion Applications implementation.

The following technical skills are need to extend, maintain and support the various components of Oracle Fusion Applications:

• SQL, PL/SQL, JAVA & java script
• XML – Extended Markup Language
• CSS – Cascading Style Sheets
• XSL – Extensible Style sheet Language
• ADF – Application Development Framework
• JSF – Java Server Faces
• Web Services
• BPEL – Business Process Execution Language
• AIA – Application Integration Architecture
• Web Center
• BI Publisher
• OBIEE – Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
• Hyperion Essbase
• WebLogic Server Administration
• Oracle Identity Management

Oracle Fusion Applications are currently available under an early adopter program. That means Oracle is not pushing to existing clients to replace their applications with Oracle Fusion Applications, but will instead its trying to build a reference base through their early adopter program.This post is series of Q&A, that everyone wants to know.

1. When Fusion was announced by Oracle ?

Last year during Oracle OpenWorld in September 2010, Oracle made several product announcements. Importantly, one of these was the announcement of Oracle Fusion Applications, the new set of Oracle Applications.

2. What is Oracle Fusion Applications?

Oracle Fusion Applications is the next generation of applications from Oracle. The entire product is based on experiences acquired with previous Oracle Applications offerings such as: Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle's Siebel CRM, Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise, and others, this new product was developed from scratch and written using the Java . The design and functionality used input from Oracle customers that provide input via the Customer Council for this product.

3. When will Oracle Fusion Applications be available?

Earlier Oracle announced that Fusion Apps will be available in 4Q2010 (fourth quarter of calendar year 2010) for a limited set of customers. This would be part of the early adopter program for this offering. Oracle Fusion Applications are finally nearing GA (General Availability), but not confirmed yet.

4 .What are choices recommended as far as adopting Fusion Applications?

GA date is not available for Fusion yet, therefore Oracle recommends these three options to customer:

·         Augmentation: for those existing customers will implement modules from the Oracle Fusion Applications suite to augment their existing Oracle Applications Unlimited implementations. An example of augmentation is an existing Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) financials and HCM user implementing the talent management functionality from Oracle Fusion Applications alongside the existing EBS implementation.

·         Replacement: Customers will replace some or all of their Applications Unlimited implementation with one or more of the Oracle Fusion Applications "pillars" For example, an organization with EBS Financials and HCM might decide to replace HCM with Oracle Fusion Applications HCM in the short term and replace the financial modules later.

·         Complete Adoption.Customers looking to replace existing legacy systems can move to a complete Fusion Applications environment. Companies operating globally have to make sure product must have offering for local requirement in first place.

5. What are the major components of Oracle Fusion Applications?

Fusion V1.0 currently, the major components are Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Financial Management (FM), Human Capital Management (HCM), Procurement, Project Portfolio Management, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC).

6. How is Oracle Fusion Applications Architecture ?

Fusion application have three major components in there Architecture as fig below. you can check the details in previous post.

7. Are Oracle Fusion Applications a replacement for the existing Oracle Applications, such as Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle's JD Edwards Applications and Siebel CRM?

No, Not At all. Oracle Fusion Apps is a new set of applications. It uses many concepts from previous applications. For example, the ERP concepts are taken from Oracle E-Business Suite. The CRM concept is taken from Siebel. However, the architecture of Fusion Apps is different from previous offerings. By design, there is a great symbiosis between Fusion Apps and Oracle Fusion Middleware. Considering the challenges that customer may face in pursuing a migration to Fusion Apps, Oracle is well recommending a "coexistence" approach that helps existing customers of a specific Oracle application.

8. What is Oracle Fusion Middleware?

Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g provides the underlying infrastructure to run and manage all your software and hardware architectures. Middleware is the key to driving efficiencies and should be considered a business imperative. Fusion Middleware includes Development Tools; User Interaction; Enterprise Performance Management; Business Intelligence; Content Management; SOA & Process Management, Application Grid, Enterprise Management and Identity Management.

9.Are Oracle Fusion Applications Available for Purchase?

Yes. Oracle Fusion Applications are available. These fusion application came under seven product families are available for customers to purchase, or to upgrade to if they have a current maintenance agreement. However, Oracle has stated that organizations purchasing or upgrading to Oracle Fusion Applications can only do so under an early adopter program, and that all such purchases/migrations must be approved by Oracle's executive management. These executives have to review and approve contracts to make sure customers have business requirements that can be addressed by the product in its initial release.

10.Did any one Deployed Fusion, and how Exactly Are They Doing?

Till date very limited information. Few month back Oracle press released announced one successful announcement , this may be part of early adopter program.There is only one live customer that has implemented some Oracle Fusion Applications functionality in an augmentation scenario.

11. What are different avaiable deployment options are available for Fusion?

Oracle Fusion Applications is offered with the following deployment options:[Adopted www.oracle.com]

·         On premise, hosted by the enterprise

·         Public cloud (available to the general public), hosted over the Internet by Oracle, software as a service (SaaS), or Oracle business partners offering business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions

·         Private cloud (available internally behind a firewall), hosted as a SaaS or BPO offering

·         Hybrid, an implementation of both on premise and cloud

12. What is Early Adopter of Oracle Fusion Applications?

The Oracle Fusion Applications Early Adopter Customer Program (EAP) is by invitation only and enables strategic customers to get direct hands-on access to the next-generation Fusion Applications software before general availability.

Oracle Highlighted the following services as part of its early adopter program:

·         Oracle Product Development monitoring of service requests: Users service requests will be Monitored by development

·         Special training of system integrator and enterprise resources: Development will hosts a kickoff meeting for the project, and is directly involved in training customer and system integrator resources.

·         Oracle Product Development vetting of customer use cases: Oracle development resources will be directly involved in reviewing the customer's envisioned use of Oracle Fusion Applications to ensure that the customer's requirements can be met.

·         Customers have direct input to Oracle Product Development - as customers go through the implementation, they may find some functionality does not meet their specific requirements, and they are able to have direct input back to product development to address these issues. However, this is more suited to detailed functional issues, not major functional areas.

·         Oracle Product Development monitors customer system both before and after go-live.

13. What Are the Licensing Requirement of Oracle Fusion Applications?

Recently Oracle has published pricing information for its long-awaited Fusion Applications.The official pricing is available at Oracle website.

The list gives pricing information major Fusion Applications modules like financials, procurement, PPM (project portfolio management), HCM (human capital management), SCM (supply chain management), CRM, PRM (partner relationship management) and GRC (governance, risk and compliance).

If you are aware existing pricing for EBS then you cann't not find any major difference in pricing for example, Fusion Financials and E-Business Suite Financials are priced the same, at US$4,595 per application user license.

14. How is security for Oracle Fusion Application?

Oracle Fusion Applications is highly secured, is of tightly coordinating the following security concerns and Features

·         Role-based access control (RBAC)

·         Function security

·         Data security

·         Privacy

·         Access provisioning and identity management :The Oracle Fusion Applications installation process creates an initial user and provisions that user with the administration roles necessary for initial setup. Oracle IM is available in Oracle Fusion Applications through integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware. Identity management in Oracle Fusion Applications involves creating and managing user identities, creating and linking user accounts, managing user access control through user role assignment, managing enterprise roles, and managing OIM workflow approvals and delegated administration.

·         Segregation of duties policies:Segregation of duties (SOD) separates activities such as approving, recording, processing, and reconciling results so an enterprise can more easily prevent or detect unintentional errors and willful fraud

·         Enforcement across tools, technologies, data transformations, and access methods

·         Enforcement across the information life cycle

15. How about the Data Model for fusion?

Oracle Fusion Applications uses a unified data model, which is a superset of E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel entities and attributes. You can extend this data model while maintaining consistent semantics.

·         Logical data striping offers flexible enterprise structures for global organizations.

·         Reference data sets enable business units to share reference data. Reference data is managed by sets.

·         Transactional data is managed or striped by business units.

You can assign sets of codes to each business unit.

Oracle Fusion Applications uses Trees, a hierarchy model that offers flexible hierarchies for cross line of business processes.

16. Does FusionApplication have flexfleld feature?

Yes, similar to EBS, fusion application have flex feild concept. Fusion is supporting mainly three types of flexfields

·         Descriptive flexfields

·         Extensible flexfields

·         Key flexfields

These flexfield enables enable implementers to configure application features without programming and fully supported within Oracle Fusion Applications.

17. What is so special for Fusion User interface?

Comparing to other Oracle application, Fusion user interface is consider to be best of breed. It is customer-driven have intuitive design of the applications which results in large productivity gains.

The user interface design of Oracle Fusion Applications is:

·         Role-based, which enables pervasive delivery in multiple modes, devices, and channels

·         Configurable and extensible supported enhancing the Productivity for individual users and groups of users

·         Composite and contextual, providing integrated information in the context of process

·         Built-in user communities and workspace, Web 2.0 information distribution, and embedded social computing to improve collaborative work

Some of good feature for Fusion UI are

·         Role-based dashboards that you can configure to your business needs

·         Unified worklist

·         Guided Business Processes, which are organized sets of tasks that help you get your work done more efficiently

·         Embedded analytics that provides the necessary information for completing a task

·         Contextual help that provides conceptual and procedural reference information

·         Oracle Fusion Applications Search, which provides a seamless search experience for easily locating and taking action on relevant data

·         Tagging, which enables you to associate keywords with objects so they can be easily located

·         Instant collaboration that provides the contact information for persons related to your tasks

18. Is this avaiable for download?

Yes, Beta version is avaiable for download from Oracle E-Delivery . Check it out the details at fteter blog(see blogroll).

19. What about the Business Process Design for Fusion?

Oracle Fusion Applications uses a declarative business process design that leverages Oracle SOA Suite.

That means all SOA related features include approval management flows, human workflows, Oracle Business Process Management Worklist (Oracle BPM Worklist), business rules, activity guides, and process configuration customization tools (Oracle SOA Composer).

Business Process design is done bt heavy usage of two languages 1) Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and 2) Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN).

20. How about the Approval Management in Fusion Application?

In Fusion, AMX serves as a sophisticated assignment manager within human workflow allowing you to model complex approval patterns based on business rules.

21. How about audit feature in Fusion application?

Fusion Application implement Oracle Fusion Middleware Audit Framework to handle all .In other word as typical audit feature like providing a measure of accountability and answers the "who has done what and when" types of questions.

This framework cover several key audit features driven by compliance, monitoring, and analytics requirements.

22. What are the other replacement feature in fusion that makes a differnce to EBS user?

Yes there are couple of them , here are few:

• Identity Manager in Fusion apps replaces FND User
• Business Units is replaced Operating Units
• Access Control Governor replaces OICM
• Date Effectivity replaces DateTrack

23. What is Replacement of processing like Concurrent program or concurrent manager similar to EBS in Fusion?

Oracle Enterprise Scheduler provides the ability to define, schedule, and run different types of jobs. You can run jobs on demand, or schedule them to run in the future.

24. What are major footprints in Fusion Financial Management ?

Fusion Financial Management component of the Oracle Fusion Applications suite, itsrevolutionizes productivity and information access with native, real-time intelligence.Current offering is with these foo- prints.

• General Ledger
• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Asset Management
• Payments and Collections
• Cash and Expense Management

25. What are major benifits for EBS Financials Users

• They can see Graphical hierarchies (trees)
• Shared reference data (SetId)
• Open item reconciliation processing
• Rules-based engine for AP matching
• Comprehensive budgetary controls
• Centralized inter-unit setup and processing
• Multi-level, flexible cash positioning
• Travel authorizations and cash advances

26. What are major benifits for PSFT Financials Users?

• Subledger Accounting
• BI Publisher (including eText)
• Cash basis accounting
• Bill Presentment Architecture
• Credit Management
• Advanced Collections
• credit card processor integrations