Cloud Transformation - Image Translation for Client !

Recent past I had discussions with our key clients and I was getting an image in my mind which I decided to depict for my friends to share their comments about, Clients point of view on "Cloud Transformation"

White Papers for Oracle Fusion Applications HCM (Doc ID 1504483.1)

HCM Cloud Service

Document 2070043.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Release 10 Impact Assessment
Document 2046184.1 - Oracle Human Capital Management Cloud: Get Started with Your Implementation
Document 1589571.1 - Getting Started with Oracle HCM Cloud Service PDF and Video
Document 1534683.1 - Cloud Service Requests and Fulfillment for Oracle HCM Cloud Service
Document 2016981.1 - Oracle Applications Cloud – Release 10 Upgrade Planning
Document 1928157.1 - Oracle Fusion Applications Release 9 Upgrade Process for Oracle HCM Cloud Service
Document 2024539.1 - HCM Cloud Release 9 Impact Assessment
Document 1510580.1 - Guidance for Managing Customizations in Oracle Cloud Application Services: HCM Extract Definition Migration
Document 1510577.1 - Guidance for Managing Customizations in Oracle Cloud Application Services: Business Intelligence Migration
Document 1537461.1 - Managing Fusion HCM Cloud Service Environments
Document 1934619.1 - Guidance for Oracle HCM Cloud Service Cloud Patch Testing
Document 1646394.1 - Oracle Fusion Applications Cloud Concurrent Patching Option

Fusion HCM General

Document 1595283.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management File-Based Loader
Document 1915774.1 - Oracle HCM Cloud File-based Loader Desktop Integrator (FBLdi) User Guide Release 8
Document 1955064.1 - Automating Oracle Fusion HCM File-Based Loader Using FBLdi
Document 1929519.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Data Conversion - Key Notes
Document 1526848.1 - Oracle Fusion HRMS Person Employment Lookups
Document 1554816.1 - Managing Workflow Notifications in Oracle Fusion Applications
Document 1987850.1 - Frequently Asked Questions About Approvals
Document 1600717.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: Business Units
Document 1608114.1 - Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management: Legal Entities
Document 1930419.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud: Predictive Analytics
Document 1964959.1 - Oracle Fusion HRMS: Data Validation Report
Document 2006603.1 - Oracle Fusion Position Statement: Employer Shared Responsibility Payments Provision
Document 2043581.1 - Oracle HCM Cloud: Data Loading and Data Extraction Best Practices
Document 2068535.1 - Using the Person Synchronization ESS Job

Fusion Benefits

Document 1585975.1 - Managing Open Enrollment Using Oracle Fusion Benefits
Document 1456985.1 - Benefits Fast Formula Reference Guide for Oracle Fusion Benefits
Document 1554835.1 - Benefits and Oracle Fusion HRMS (US) Position Statement: Health Care
Document 2015531.1 - Oracle Fusion Benefits Global Transfer
Document 2017049.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Benefits Cloud Extracts User Guide
Document 2017578.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Benefits Cloud: Collapsing Events
Document 2076392.1 - Affordable Care Act (ACA) – Minimum Required Setup in Oracle Fusion Benefits
Document 2085295.1 - Processing of Action Items and Suspensions in Oracle Fusion Benefits
Document 2100688.1 - Oracle Fusion Benefits Cloud Customization Guide

Fusion Compensation

Document 1589502.1 - Configuring Payroll Elements for Use in Oracle Fusion Compensation
Document 1585971.1 - Workforce Compensation: Delegating Workers to Other Reviewers
Document 1556468.1 - Fusion Security and Workforce Compensation
Document 1518935.1 - Workforce Compensation Configuring the Statement Template
Document 1450891.1 - Workforce Compensation Worksheet Configuration Definition
Document 1566590.1 - Loading Salary and Salary Basis Using File-Based Loaders
Document 1630798.1 - Managing Salary Using the HCM Spreadsheet Loader
Document 1950856.1 - Oracle Fusion Compensation: Changes to Compensation Security for Release 9
Document 1968170.1 - Oracle Fusion Compensation Security Troubleshooting
Document 2006603.1 - Oracle Fusion Position Statement: Employer Shared Responsibility Payments Provision
 
Extracts

Document 1559127.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Extracts Guide
Document 1565118.1 - Database Items for Extracts and Formulas in Oracle Fusion HCM
Document 1573099.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Extracts: Delivery Options
Document 1677090.1 - Fusion HCM Extract Step-by-Step Approach and Troubleshooting Guide
Document 1964920.1 - Oracle HCM Extracts: Running a Changes-Only Extract
Document 1429892.1 - Defining a Simple HR Outbound Interface Using HCM Extracts
Document 2017049.1 - Oracle Fusion HCM Benefits Cloud Extracts User Guide
Document 2062561.1 - Oracle HCM Extracts: Work Structure and Worker Predefined Extracts
 
HCM Data Loader

Document 1664133.1 - Oracle HCM Data Loader: User Guide
Document 2020600.1 - Oracle HCM Data Loader: Business Object Documentation
Document 2022617.1 - Data File Validator Tool for HCM Data Loader
Document 2022628.1 - Migrating from File-Based Loader to HCM Data Loader
Document 2022630.1 - HCM Data Loader Frequently Asked Questions

You need Oracle Support Portal login credentials to access these documents.

9 Things Great Leaders Do Differently

Good leaders do things well. Great leaders teach and inspire others to do things well. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime, right? The same concept applies to leadership: Successful leadership must contain equal amounts doing and holding others accountable.

The best-performing companies have leaders that do and teach, who instill confidence in their team and share their vision with others. These CEOs and executives manage at a macro-level, holding their teams and employees accountable while providing guidance and coaching to help them solve problems on their own.

So what characteristics do great leaders all possess? They…

1. Face the facts, no matter how brutal they may be.

Bad news is part of business. Great leaders don’t just wait for it, they seek it out. Rather than waiting until a task or project is completed, they look for red flags and identify when it’s off-track to reach the stated objective. And they don’t kill the messenger—when an employee points out underperforming or failing projects, these leaders appreciate the fact that it was brought to their attention. Identifying the problems earlier gives them extra time to find solutions and solve problems faster than their competition.

2. Take accountability seriously.

Executives want to get regular updates on all projects, whether it’s during weekly meetings or through software that facilitates strategy execution. They hold people accountable to do what they should be doing and completing the tasks on their plate. If goals aren’t being met, great leaders take the opportunity to discuss, gather insight, and make the adjustments necessary for the individual employees and the company to win.

3. Look for bright spots.

Great leaders actively look for not just good news, but victories that can be replicated across other departments and teams. It’s their job to observe and identify how these victories happened so the same strategies can be implemented elsewhere in the company for even greater success.

4. Develop and prioritize winning moves.

Not every single good idea can be a great idea, one that will provide the best chance of achieving success. Implementing too many strategies can spread a team too thin and result in things falling through the cracks. Instead, great leaders focus on several key strategies, which they discuss and debate with their executive teams before deciding on which ones will bring the company closer to reaching its goals. Powerful winning moves will come from strategic thinking and decision-making, considering all the options and determining which ones will bring the biggest return—year over year, quarter over quarter.

5. Scrap what’s not working.

When you have conceptualized a project, product or service from the beginning, nurtured it and worked hard to, well, make it work, it’s hard to pull the plug if it’s not working. Great leaders must be able to realize when something isn’t working, no matter how hard they’ve worked to make it succeed. If a new product is eating into the revenue stream, these leaders are able to take a step back and scrap it. If not, the competition will swoop in with a bigger and better product.

6. Focus on the best and brightest.

It’s easy to get distracted by new ideas and strategies. But if a goal is big and bold enough, everyone will feel excited to work toward it. Rather than working on a bunch of smaller, less exciting ideas, a great leader will recognize the strategies that will motivate and inspire their teams to push toward success.

7. Plan successful quarters.

Focusing on annual goals is great, but quarterly goals are the ones that get you there, and great leaders know that each week in a quarter is crucial. The best companies focus on having successful weeks so they can achieve the right results at the end of the quarter. Business is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Each leg of the race (or quarter) supports the end goal—helping you reach the finish line in first place.

8. Encourage consistency but not complacency.

Getting into a rhythm can help business processes become as regular as breathing, but this doesn’t mean you should rest once you get there. When your business is predictable, growth stagnates and success can reach a limit. However, when a business is consistent, great leaders take that opportunity to focus on what’s needed to take it to the next level. This discipline of consistency helps executives think outside the box and evaluate what new strategies and calculated risks can help grow the business and achieve greater success.

9. Lead adjustment meetings.

Knowing the status of where projects stand is something all leaders must do in order to keep their business moving forward. But “status meetings” lack any means of providing solutions for problems that might have only just started to arise. Instead, great executives focus on leading adjustment meetings where the team can discuss plans that are already or about to get off-track and provide solutions and ideas for improvement.

Companies that are performing well and in the top tier of their industries all have one thing in common—great leadership. CEOs and executives who not only do things right but also inspire those around them to perform at their best can achieve consistent and remarkable growth, quarter after quarter, year after year.

Edited and Posted from : Success.com

Thanks & Regards,

S.Grace Paul Regan

" Determination + Goal-setting + Concentration = Success”

Certainly one of the things that distinguish high-achieving operators from the pack is their ability to set and achieve goals.

While goals may exist in most organizations, there is a real art to setting them well — an art not enough business people practice. Many set the marker unreasonably high, which quickly leads to disappointment. Others set it too low and are rewarded with sloppy standards.

If you want to be sure the goals you set — both for yourself and your employees — fire up motivation, increase determination and, most important of all, drive things forward in your company, there are 10 key things to keep in mind to keep us motivated. 

1.Keep it Clear

Nothing is more certain to demotivate you than being handed a vague, immeasurable objective. Giving either yourself or your team an indefinite aim is a great way to get an indefinite outcome. Consider what exactly it is you wish to accomplish.

Ask yourself what the ultimate successful result of this initiative is. Ensure it is clear in the minds of all relevant parties — this is where we are, this is where we want to be and, when we get there, we have achieved this goal.

When you have a concrete destination, you are more focused in your journey and less likely to be discouraged should things get rocky on the way.

2. Keep it Quantifiable

How will you know when your goal has been reached or surpassed? If all you have to measure against is a statement like “Be more productive,” then you will not.

Rather, you need to make your goal something measurable and quantifiable beyond any interpretation or argument, such as a number of products sold, a number of clients signed up or a number of employees hired.

3. Think “We Will” Not “We Should”

It is important to keep all inconclusiveness out of your goal setting. These are not things that you should be doing or should try to do. These are things you will do.

Similarly, don’t let shame be the motivator. i.e. “We haven’t been doing enough of this in the past.”


Always look optimistically to what you will achieve in the future. This kind of positive language and positive thinking means you set off in pursuit of your objective with confidence and clarity.

4. Make it Known

Do not hide your or your team’s goals in order to save blushes should they not be achieved. This will only lead to a less enthusiastic and confident frame of mind in their pursuit.

Rather, proudly proclaim that these are the things you will be achieving from the get-go.

5. Put a Deadline On It

Some business people will give their company a solid, clear, quantifiable goal but decide not to pressurize things by adding a deadline. You can guess what happens next.


The goal loses all urgency, becomes just another thing that the business will probably do “someday,” and, soon enough, is completely forgotten.

6. Reflect the Company’s Vision

If you are setting multiple goals, be sure they all serve your overall vision for your business. It’s easy to get bogged down in achievement for achievement’s sake.

Celebrating because you managed to pass a goal might give you a warm feeling, but if that goal did not service the overall objectives of your business, time and money have likely both been wasted.

7. Remember Readiness and Ability

When you are setting goals for employees, it is always tempting to push the marker sky high. As any good boss knows, workers tend to think they are only capable of so much. But when they’re motivated correctly, employees will deliver far, far above their assumed capacity.

However, giving your workers a target that they are not ready or able to reach will decrease your credibility. Keep things optimistic but realistic.

8. Break Big Goals Down

If you have a large goal with a deadline long into the future — say “Raise product sales by 15 percent by the end of the year” — it can quickly begin to feel unrelated to the work you do on a day-to-day basis.

In order to keep focus on your ultimate goal, break it down into things that can be achieved in a month, a week or even a day. As long as these mini-goals are being ticked off regularly, you are on track for the big one.

9. Review as You Go

Occasionally, what seemed a reasonable goal at the time it was set becomes less and less tangible as time goes by.

Don’t be too proud to admit you miscalculated and adjust if necessary. It doesn’t make you a bad leader, just a practical one.



10. Remember the Reward


When a goal has been reached by either yourself or your company, remember to mark the occasion. Whether it’s bonuses, promotions or just positive feedback, ensuring people get the recognition for achieving the tasks you set for them helps to keep them motivated for the goals you will set in the future.

Trip from Chennai to Coimbatore and Back on my Yamaha-FZ all alone!

Dear Friends, 

After a long time I had a chance to quench my long distance driving hunger with my Yamaha FZ Motor Bike. I enjoyed the ride all alone; most of the distance is covered with good road except some detour as I missed the route. 

I stared from Chennai by 11:30 AM Friday Morning (25-07-2014) and reached Coimbatore by 08:15 PM, I missed my route by going to Trichy which made me travel extra 40 KM and the route from Trichy to Coimbatore was just 2-way and was flooded with Sand-Dump Trucks moving at 40 KM Per Hour speed which was really irritating after 07:00PM as I had to Navigate through Hi-beam Head Lights from opposite side which made over taking riskier and irritating because the hi-beam lights from opposite vehicle made me partially blind. 

I returned from Coimbatore on Wednesday (30-07-2014) , Started at 07:30 AM and reached Chennai by 03:15 PM. While I returned, I took extra care not to miss the route and came through Salem. The route was near to complete four ways and I enjoyed the comfortable drive as I have rectified most of the issues, I faced, when I drove from Chennai.

Caution: 

1. For any riders in India, Never allow any of your bare skin exposed to sun for more than 20 mins continuously as for sure you will get Sun Burn and its takes weeks of time to recover from sun burn, as I have experienced the same. 

I was wearing just a round neck cotton T-Shirt, Denim Jeans and a Canvas Walker shoe. My hands got completely burned as I did not feel any irritation or pain when I was driving, you only feel only the wind at the speed of 100 KM Per Hour. But your skin gets burnt. 

2. Your bum will start to ache when you sit in the same position for hours to gather. It depends on your seating position. Yamaha-FZ seating position is'nt favourable for long distance ride. 

3. You will start to feel the pain in your knees and back vertebral after 3-hours. 

4. Your head will start to irritate because of wearing the helmet for hours.  

5. If your Back Pack is heavy you will find it difficult to balance in your shoulders as most of the time the wind will push the backpack to one side depending upon the wind direction and will strain one side of your shoulder and will minimize the blood circulation in your hands after three hours. 

Advise: 

To avoid all these you can just follow simple tips. When I was on the return, I have corrected most of the issues and made my journey comfortable. 

1. To avoid sun burn I brought a light cotton denim full hand shirt which was comfortable to wear and cover till your wrist. ( also have a glove to cover your fingers too, but I did not and got black fingers)

2. To avoid bum and back vertebral pain I had a cotton turkey towel on my seat folded, I changed the folding width and position of the towel at regular intervals at least after every 100 KM which gives you some comfort and less strain on your bum and vertebral. 

3. To avoid knee pain, I used to stretch both of my legs while driving after every 15 minutes, Stretch your legs till your toe. Did some stretch and bend exercise whenever, I stopped for a break.

4. To avoid head irritation, I used to remove my helmet when ever sun goes down a bit and will were again when sun comes back. This helped me to keep my hair and head dry from sweat, which helped a lot in reducing head scalp irritation.

5. To reduce the back pack issue, I - ½ emptied my back pack while I was returning, hence the weight of the pack did not hurt my blood circulation in the arms much. But still I felt minor numbness after 7-hours. I think is better to tie your back pack in the back seat or hang in the hooks or don’t have it. 

6. Make sure your Horn is sound enough to warn haphazard road crossers at every village through your highway drive, at times heard of cattle cross the road taking their own sweet time, No other go you will have to wait. Its one of the greatest risk when you drive across any Indian road.

Great Risk

7. Make sure your head lights are positioned proper before you start your drive. 

8. Fill your Tank whenever possible at least after every 200 KM. 

9. Check your tire pressure at least twice in between your travel; minor puncture will lose air very slowly. If your air checking intervals has at least 5PSI difference. Make sure you go to the nearest a puncture shop to check for any minor puncture. 

10. If you know when you have to change your engine oil its fine if not just change it, do not give it a try.

11. Check your brake pads and brake lights. 

12. Have your Rear View mirrors in proper strength as it will turn constantly in high winds and its riskier to drive without a rear view mirror as you will not have time to check for vehicles overtaking you at 150 KM Per Hour speed. A slightest miscalculation will be a catastrophe. 

13. Make sure you are not racing, enjoy the driving. Take as many breaks as you like stretch and bend. 

14. If you like coffee, you will find lots of Kumbakonam Degree Coffee shops through the route. It will keep you awake and active. 

15. Have proper sleep before the day you start, if you feel drowsy please stop at the nearest town and book a room rest and then drive. Nothing is important than your life. 

Cursing Speed:

At an average I was driving most of the time between 90 to 100 KM Per-Hour, which I and my bike felt comfortable.  

Top Speed:

I reached 122 KM per hour as Top Speed; my bike did not go any further even with full accelerator.

Kilometer Driven:

In total: 990 KM (Up and Down)

Chennai to Coimbatore : 511 KM (Through Trichy - Karur )

Coimbatore to Chennai : 479 KM (Through Erode-Salem)

Loved & Enjoyed: 

1. My Bike! Cursing at the speed of 100 KM per hour, the little beast showed no resistance or harshness. He was smooth and stable even after pushing him to his top performance hours to gather. I was happy to own him and tame him. 

2. The Crushing and Guzzling wind when I was driving along the Kavery River bed (Trichy to Karur)  

3. The Welcome Chill wind that I felt before entering Karamadai through – (Trichy-Karur). 

4. The evening drive between Karur to Coimbatore. 

5. Morning Drive from Coimbatore till Erode.

6. I challenged a Volvo Multi Axial (Kallada Travels from Perindurai to Erode). I over took him multiple times by honking him with my musical horn and he over too me the same way. He will overtake me in 120 KM Per Hour also he will honk while he over take but poor guy he has to slow down in between every village crossing where I get a chance to tease him. I took a short break at Erode then I missed him. 

7.Kumbakonam Degree coffee at regular intervals.

8.Enjoyed my passion. 

Waiting for another memorable drive ! Guys if you need any last minute advise you are welcome reach me @ +91-9790111080 or mail me @ regan.gpr@gmail.com. 

Thanks & Regards,

S.Grace Paul Regan

Shuttle Badminton Clubs In Chennai !

Dear Friends and Shuttle Badminton Enthusiasts, 

This week end I was searching to find a Shuttle Badminton Court near (Pallavaram, Thambaram - Chennai area) and I came across this b-log which has lot of badminton club details in and around Chennai. I fortunately found a non-maintained wooden court inside MEPZ premises only allowed for employees within MEPZ . Hence I thought to share and help badminton enthusiasts like me. 

http://badmintoncourtsinchennai.blogspot.in/2012/10/list-of-badminton-courts-in-chennai.html

Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Seven Signs You're Wasting Your Talent !

Today I was going through a post in linkedin : Seven Signs You're Wasting Your Talent. I recommend any one working in the IT industry to go through this post when you get some time. You will find it worth. 

Some of the key points which intruded me: 

1. There is no sense in fear-based management. The Godzilla system in place in most large companies and institutions isn't run on common sense but on a bizarre and self-referential Business Logic instead. 
2. We would not insult salaried employees with an attendance policy
3. When you aren't moving forward you are sliding back, because time moves on.
4. it's reasonable to want some recognition for your contribution!
5. Living well is the best revenge!
6. Get yourself into a place where you can find your voice and speak your truth, a little more every day.
7. No employer is worth damaging your resume for!

Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

ERP Project Failures - Key Reasons !

ERP Project Failures:

Most of the highlighted points posted here are gathered from various sources, through web, Project Discussions, White Papers, my personnel experience and research magazine, I will keep adding the Key Reasons as I get through. Keep a tab on this post if you want to know more…

It’s complicated:

Expect it to be hard than your present legacy system.  The KISS rule – Keep it Simple Stupid – just cannot apply when it comes to many public sector projects and the validation rules that get in are too high for any ERP software to handle.

Take your time:

Don’t wait until your software is about to pack (or Freeze as outdated) it in then scramble about madly for a replacement. This was the first step on the road to ruin for the Queensland Health project worth 1.2 B$ AUD, says IBRS research analyst Sue Johnston.

“People know the old system has an expiry date and they wait until it’s getting critical,” they are left with very minimal time to implement and test the new system and are forced to jump to the new boat without proper testing.


Put someone in charge who knows what they’re doing:

Having someone competent in charge lessens the chance of things going horribly wrong as the person with knowledge can identify a problem by seeing the tip of the ice berg.




Find the right partner:

It pays to test the waters before you tie the knot. Running a small pilot project before going full steam may help ERP implementing company to know for what they are going to opt and pay will help them out in solving their present and future ERP related issues.

Share the bad news early:

When you’ve got bad news, get it on the table as soon as possible, don’t sit on the issue until the last minute before it erupts, this causes irrecoverable damages.

Big Bannered Armatures:

Misrepresented IT skills and experience during the RFP processes and after contract signing failed to resource the project with staff that had the necessary skills to complete the work successfully (the so called “bait and switch” maneuver). This is done my most of the Big Bannered Companies where you go them by their name and brand value in the market without actually testing their present capability to address your issues. They may be a trillion dollar company, it’s not necessary they should have all the solutions for your issues.

Withheld Risk:

Withheld critical project risk information translates to hiding a hurricane forecast to a sailor who is about to sail. Weather he sails or not depends upon the calculated risk taken by the sailor but at least he is well informed about the near future disaster that may threaten his survival.

Influencing Might Be Ideas:

Committed conflict of interest by influencing client’s Project Manager into accepting incomplete work and concealing project risks from senior management so that the software releases could go live or you may create an illusion that you are progressing.

Not Doing your Job:

Being the Project Manager from the client side, the failure to oversee the work of the Implementation Project Manager and establish an appropriate robust acceptance processes appear to have been direct causes of the failure.

Being the client side project manager you will have to keep an tab over project progress and make sure you get everything delivered up to the moment as per approved and agreed upon plan, no backlogged delivery should be accepted.

Baseline Existing Practices:

Failure to baseline existing practices and to establish effective measures for the desired outcomes, Taking some quality time to prepare the existing operating procedures and analysing with the standard of Sigma 4-6 and rate the efficieancy of the process. If major changs are demanded to enhance the existing operating procedures take the time to implement the required major changes and get comfortable with the new process then think about achieving the same through ERP. 

Specific ERP for Specific Project:

Military Organization Implementation, The structure of a military organization and its focus on operational capabilities rather than financial performance meant that using a COTS system that was designed for a profit making organization was a poor fit; hence the right ERP software should be selected for the right project requirement.

Decision Making Authority:

The hierarchical decision making structures in the military were poorly aligned with the governance structure in use by the project (functional sponsors were at times lower in rank than the people whose groups were impacted by the changes). Companies who go for ERP implementation should look their approval hierarchy and make sure the right and relevant personnel approves the request that he should.

Resistance for Change:

It’s common for resistance in any system change in an organization but when something like an ERP is introduced, management should educate the employees and make them understand what change can bring for them and for the organization.  Unwillingness to adapt operating processes to match the capabilities of the software, Focus only on schedule and budget will result lack of focus on actual project performance resulting in quality related issues being swept under the carpet.

ERP Implementation is an Organizational Transformation Project:

Seeing the project as an IT project rather than an organizational transformation project. The importance and involvement given by higher management differs according to this classification of Project.

Shallow Vision:

Lack of experience in large scale, complex integrated systems development and deployment. Organizational silos. Failure to effectively engage all affected stakeholders. Lack of collaboration and a lack of understanding of “change management”. Failure to establish process ownership will lead to straight forward project failure.


Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Seven Brilliant Quotes From Famous people Can Brighten Your Day

• Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time.” – Shakespeare

• “The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of good people.” – Napoleon

• “I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I did it myself.” – Einstein

• “If friendship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.” – Abraham Lincoln

• “We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.” – Martin Luther King

• “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi

• “It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone.” – Dr Abdul Kalaam

Hadoop Invasion !

There's a new database technology called Hadoop that looks like it could topple traditional database players like Oracle, IBM, Microsoft.
But one of the smartest guys in the field -- the one that invented Hadoop -- says Oracle doesn't need to worry.
Hadoop allows companies to store and analyze mind-boggling amounts of information in all sorts of formats (documents, tweets, photos, etc.). A regular database can't deal with lots of formats (called "unstructured data"). And it does it with free open source software and super cheap hardware, so can be a lot less expensive than Oracle, too.
Because of that, big data is quickly becoming a new multi-billion market.



As companies adopt Hadoop, what happens to regular databases from companies like Oracle, IBM, Microsoft -- known as "relational databases." Do companies stop using them?
Nope. Hadoop is a whole new thing. It won't hurt them because it doesn't do what they do, said Hadoop's creator Doug Cutting.
Cutting is a database genius that invented this technology when he was at Yahoo. He's now working for a startup, Cloudera.

Hadoop is "augmenting and not replacing," regular databases, Cutting said. "There are a lot of things I don't think Hadoop is ever going to replace, things like doing payroll, the real nuts-and-bolts things that people have been using relational databases for forever. It's not really a sweet spot for Hadoop."
But he still couldn't resist a small swipe at Microsoft and Oracle who are working on Hadoop offerings of their own. "Right now these things from Oracle and Microsoft are experiments," he said.
Oracle has partnered with Cutting's current company, Cloudera, for Hadoop. Microsoft has partnered with Cutting's competitor, Hortonworks.

Where did Hadoop come from?

Mike Olson: The underlying technology was invented by Google back in their earlier days so they could usefully index all the rich textural and structural information they were collecting, and then present meaningful and actionable results to users. There was nothing on the market that would let them do that, so they built their own platform. Google's innovations were incorporated into Nutch, an open source project, and Hadoop was later spun-off from that. Yahoo has played a key role developing Hadoop for enterprise applications.

What problems can Hadoop solve?

Mike Olson: The Hadoop platform was designed to solve problems where you have a lot of data — perhaps a mixture of complex and structured data — and it doesn't fit nicely into tables. It's for situations where you want to run analytics that are deep and computationally extensive, like clustering and targeting. That's exactly what Google was doing when it was indexing the web and examining user behavior to improve performance algorithms.

Hadoop applies to a bunch of markets. In finance, if you want to do accurate portfolio evaluation and risk analysis, you can build sophisticated models that are hard to jam into a database engine. But Hadoop can handle it. In online retail, if you want to deliver better search answers to your customers so they're more likely to buy the thing you show them, that sort of problem is well addressed by the platform Google built. Those are just a few examples.

How is Hadoop architected?

Hadoop is designed to run on a large number of machines that don't share any memory or disks. That means you can buy a whole bunch of commodity servers, slap them in a rack, and run the Hadoop software on each one. When you want to load all of your organization's data into Hadoop, what the software does is bust that data into pieces that it then spreads across your different servers. There's no one place where you go to talk to all of your data; Hadoop keeps track of where the data resides. And because there are multiple copy stores, data stored on a server that goes offline or dies can be automatically replicated from a known good copy.
In a centralized database system, you've got one big disk connected to four or eight or 16 big processors. But that is as much horsepower as you can bring to bear. In a Hadoop cluster, every one of those servers has two or four or eight CPUs. You can run your indexing job by sending your code to each of the dozens of servers in your cluster, and each server operates on its own little piece of the data. Results are then delivered back to you in a unified whole. That's MapReduce: you map the operation out to all of those servers and then you reduce the results back into a single result set.
Architecturally, the reason you're able to deal with lots of data is because Hadoop spreads it out. And the reason you're able to ask complicated computational questions is because you've got all of these processors, working in parallel, harnessed together.

At this point, do companies need to develop their own Hadoop applications?

It's fair to say that a current Hadoop adopter must be more sophisticated than a relational database adopter. There are not that many "shrink wrapped" applications today that you can get right out of the box and run on your Hadoop processor. It's similar to the early '80s when Ingres and IBM were selling their database engines and people often had to write applications locally to operate on the data.
That said, you can develop applications in a lot of different languages that run on the Hadoop framework. The developer tools and interfaces are pretty simple. Some of our partners — Informatica is a good example — have ported their tools so that they're able to talk to data stored in a Hadoop cluster using Hadoop APIs. There are specialist vendors that are up and coming, and there are also a couple of general process query tools: a version of SQL that lets you interact with data stored on a Hadoop cluster, and Pig, a language developed by Yahoo that allows for data flow and data transformation operations on a Hadoop cluster.
Hadoop's deployment is a bit tricky at this stage, but the vendors are moving quickly to create applications that solve these problems. I expect to see more of the shrink-wrapped apps appearing over the next couple of years.

Handoop for sure is going to create a mega tsumami in the Application side of the business.

Its better for consultants to keep an watchful eye on this technology for this time may be in two years from now you will start to feel the heat of this new database tool.

Contents collected from various websources: radar.oreilly.com, WiKi, hadoop.apache.org
Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

UPK - Oracle User Productivity Kit

Oracle User Productivity Kit is an easy-to-use and comprehensive content development, deployment, and maintenance platform for increasing project, program, and user productivity. Its a very simple tool to prepare user manuals or Standard Operating Procedures guide that will play an vital role in Oracle Training.

You can install the UPK  as a standalone package or you can install the server & Client software to have your libriary files within your instance and it will be helpful in linking the UPK training guides in to the Help menu.

You can download the UPK soft ware as a Patch or from Oracle Cloud delivery.

Metalink Patch #5244866 or http://edelivery.oracle.com/

I foud some really very use ful training videos that was posted by the user "larry sherrod". Its a real good video which gives the precise knowledge thats required by any consultant to use UPK -Tool.

Once again I thank "Larry Sherrod" for his wonderful work.

1. http://vimeo.com/27173574 - Downloading UPK
2. http://vimeo.com/27174350 - Installing UPK (Unzipping)
3. http://vimeo.com/27174555 - Installing UPK & Setup
4. http://vimeo.com/27174761 - Running UPK for the first time
5. http://vimeo.com/27174801 - Capturing Content Using (UPK)
6. http://vimeo.com/27174947 - Frame Editing in UPK
7. http://vimeo.com/27175106 - Previewing your content in UPK
8. http://vimeo.com/27175573 - Importing ODARC files in to UPK

Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Finally got the driving license in Kuwait !

Dear Friends,

After a long wait, hardships, confusion, abandonees, frustration and lot more, I got a driving license in Kuwait. I am sharing this information of getting a driving license in Kuwait because it not as easy.

There is some designation in Kuwait which has the grace of getting license with less pain as declared by govt still not aware on which basis, but these designations are assigned to you by your employer as he wishes.

The normal procedures of getting a license are as follows

1.Be a resident of Kuwait for a period of 2 years prior to the application.
2. Hold a university degree.
3. Earn a minimum salary of KD 500.

There are special designations which has got exceptions from the above creiteria.

If you are smart - you should fight for a designation which has got a privilege of getting license with less cumbersome process. If not you will have to wait for 2-Years some times more and if you have your family here or plan to have your family here it will be very difficult for you to survive without a car for local commutation

Some of the designations which I knew are as follows…

o Housewives (Only with Children)(Husbands cannot)
o Doctors
o Professors (Not lecturers, Readers, Principal, Dean, HOD)
o Teachers
o Nursing Staff
o Translators and interpreters
o Accountants (Not Chartered Accountants or any other accountants)
o Managers
o Counselors
o Journalists
o Company Heads
o University Students
o Teaching Staff
o Engineers (Not Assist Engineer)
o All diplomatic staff

The beauty of the above designations are like if you get your designation exactly as the designation as above only then you will get a license with the exception permitted by the govt for example if your designation is a “Asst Engineer” you will not get a driving license or Software engineer you cannot get a license. Your designation should have only the exact character that govt has mentioned. Some companies will lie to you at the time when they take residence that the designation mentioned by them has exception from the govt. Do not believe any one. Once if the residence is made for you in one designation it’s very difficult to change it back to any other designation that your company will not do.

What happens if you do not get any of the above mentioned designations?
You will have to wait for 2-long years before you can prepare your papers for esthimara “Learners License” or it’s the eligibility certificate from the government to permit you to get driving license.

For most of the private companies the esthimera and license has to be applied by the approved company mandhoop only, that’s a big problem.
Most of the company mandhoup are very busy with their day to day work hence to get their appointment to help you to get the license will be a night mare you may have to wait for months or sometimes years or some of the them purposely will ignore you as they think they are one step above humans and helping humans is a sin. Still to the mess if your company HR is not employee friendly really you are in a deep shit.

In spite of this confusions there are lot more procedures to be fulfilled before attempting to submit your esthimera papers to the traffic dept
The normal procedures of getting a license are as follows

1. Be a resident of Kuwait for a period of 2 years prior to the application.
2. Hold a university degree.
3. Earn a minimum salary of KD 500
4. Get the attestation of your degree certificate from Indian embassy as well as foreign affairs
5. Translate the degree certificate to Arabic and will have to get the attestation from foreign affairs
6. Passport Copy with residence stamp
7. 4- Lisence Photograph ( Special I don’t know the measurement any photo studio will know it)
8. Original and copies of Civil Id
9. Get a NOC (No Objection Certificate) from your company that, they don’t have any issues on you to get a driving license.
10. Your company Chamber Of Commerce Paper (Thima-Thokia) for the current year
11. Blood test certificate from any of the clinic
12. Then type the application attach all the above papers (Copies only to be attached with the license application) and on the application your visa sponsors, if it will be your company some authorized personnel who has signed in the chamber of commerce paper will have to sign on the application paper.
13. Paste 10 KD stamp then request your company mandhoop to submit the application whenever he gets the time and you should be with him.
14. On the day you submit your application you will have to take a eye test and attach the supporting documents with the esthimera application
15. Finally when the modhir signs in your application you can collect your esthimera card.
16. You will have to get a trial date in the esthimera card for you to come for driving test
17. After you get the date for your driving and signal test approach any of the private or government driving institute to learn Kuwait way of driving they normally cost 5-KD Per/Hour.
18. You can take as many hours of driving class as you wish until you are comfortable with Kuwait driving , do not take it lightly Kuwait driving is very serious.
19. On your test date take your esthimera and first go for a signal Test where they will ask basic questions about signals, road signs mostly you can pass it easily its better if you get the details from the driving institute from where you learned driving, They will have some simple training materials to teach you about the signal Test
20. Once you pass the signal test you will have to Paste 10 KD stamp for the first time driving test then you will have to take a traffic department authorized car for the driving test by paying 10 KD
21. Mostly there will be a box parking as your driving test. Once after you complete the driving test you will have to come back to the waiting room where you will get your esthimera with the result of pass or fail.
22. If you pass the driving test you will get a white license authorization paper to intimate the other license providing dept to give you a driving license, If you fail they will return back your esthimera with a re-test date on it and you will have to repeat the driving test process as above.
23. Even after you pass the driving Test for most of the private companies their company mandhoup has to collect the license from the traffic department. Hence it depends upon your mandhoop again. You will have to hang behind him or beg him until he collects the license for you.

Kindly take a guy who knows Arabic when you go to any of the government office. If you don’t know Arabic at least even Hindi you are ditched.

I took my lisence the hard way as my company has a dont care attitude towards the employee concern. My designation is "Asst-Engineer" even tough I am a post graduate (MBA). I waited for 2-Years & 6 Months, all the very best for the other company people.

Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Oracle Global Customer Support Contacts Directory

Dear All,

Very recently I got this update from one of the Oracle Support Duty Manager, for any of your urgent escalation of Service Request or If you like to speak with oracle support guy; you can call Oracle Global Customer Support and brief your concern to get an immediate response.

You can us this facility only if you have a authorised CSI number.

http://www.oracle.com/us/support/contact-068555.html

Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

Supplier Training Program

Dear All,

We had a recent supplier training program organised within our company. It was an excellent start we had, as a consultant really this was an amazing experience to know the concern of external people outside our company, How do they feel when they are asked to enter their Quotation in our new Oracle highly sophisticated system. How possible is that we can convince them?
For sure we had a real good experience, this live training helped to clear most of our supplier doubts and they got a real good clarity of the system. Also we explained the ways they are getting benefited out of our system.
This is to advise every consultant who implements Oracle i-Sourcing. To succeed with your implementation you will have to convince your client’s supplier. So at first you should make them feel comfortable with your product to complete a successful implementation. Prepare a strategy plan make your client understand it’s highly required to make your supplier feel comfortable about our new system and if possible arrange for some live training secessions to close the gap. Live training program helps really to fill the gap between suppliers and your implemented system. If suppliers complain about our product we fail in what we have done. So its important for the suppliers to accept our system.


Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan

End To End Sourcing RFQ Cycle !

Dear Friends,

I have planned to post End to End RFQ sourcing transaction cycle as a video training document in my i-Sourcing b-log page.

Oracle i-Sourcing and i-Supplier b-log page

Kindly let me know your review.

Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan.

Joyous Moment !

Dear All,

With my family, I am extremely happy to share the joyous moment of our life.. "With the blessings of our almighty, a beautiful little prince has stepped into our life" on 29-03-2010.

Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan.

Every Workholic Should Read !!!

30 second Speech by Bryan Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola)


"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you're keeping all of these in the Air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four Balls - Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it."

WORK EFFICIENTLY DUR ING OFFICE HOURS AND LEAVE ON TIME. GIVE THE REQUIRED TIME TO YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS & HAVE PROPER REST.

Christmas & New Year Wishes

Change your future!

Just take few minutes to go through this posting for sure it will be useful for everyone!

I am a guy who hates to read books, that too books with more than 10 pages. Very recently one of my friend and well wisher Mr. Ganesh one of the Oracle super users in KOTC asked me to read a book called “You Can Win”. Initially when he told me this I showed off some resistance toward reading this book because I don’t like to read big books that too this book was 175 pages. But he was insisting me in particular and advised reading this book would really help me grow in my habitual life.

Then One day I decided ok I will give a try what is that I am going to lose if I read that book, I thought to myself and asked him where I can find the book. The next day he gave his book to me and said that for me to own. Some people enjoy giving and he did so.

From the next day I started to read that book, I really thanked god for having that book. It was such a wonderful book. Even though I have my own strong physiology of my living that book really brought some fresh light in to the gray areas of my life. Before I read that book I never thought there were gray areas in my life and behavior. But then I realized so far I never gave a detailed look on my living or never tried to change the way I behave.

I was living the way “Just Like That”, but reading this book “You Can Win” really brought a great transformation and realization over my life.

My dear friends as I felt happy and benefited by reading this book, kindly I request all of you who ever read this b-log to read the book “You Can Win” at least once. After reading that book and if you find some time please leave your comments in this b-log to motivate others to share your happiness.

When I met my loving brother Mr. Andrew in Chennai, I was discussing about this book “You Can Win” He told me there is a DVD “The Secret” that will also enrich your life and thought. He gave me that DVD through my friend, That DVD is transforming; it will give you a new way of thinking and dreaming. My dear friends get some peaceful time, try to read “You Can Win" and watch “The Secret” video you will really feel the difference.

Also my friend Mr. GANESH gave me one more book “Who Moved My Cheese” which will you help you prepare for this ever changing and transforming world.

Dear friends wish you a great time ahead for your future. Share your experience as comments in this blog.


Written & Posted by : S.Grace Paul Regan