OracleContractors

Hi All

Just letting you know we will be exhibiting at the UKOUG Conference in Birmingham 30th November until the 2nd of December 2009.

Please come and visit us at stand 54 & 59

Drop by and register your details with us to win a ROVIO

We look forward to seeing you there

Rebecca

Our End Client is seeking an Oracle SOA Suite Implementer (With Current UK Security Clearence) for a project in Glasgow or Gosforth.

You will be working on a Oracle SOA Suite Implementation.

Your Desired Skills:

Current UK SC Level
Oracle SOA Suite (SOA, BPEL, ESB)
Oracle JDeveloper for building Web Services Interfaces and User interfaces
Implementation experience of the Oracle SOA Suite & Database components.
Develop Documentation

This project will be 3-9 months. 

If you would be interested please send your CV to email rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com

Our End Client Requires a Siebel Technical Designer for a Contractor role in the UK.

You will need to be Working/ Familiar with Siebel Public Sector Application,  the Siebel Technical Designer will be responsible for the Technical Design, and configuration of the Siebel application.

Key Responsibilities:

• Interact with functional teams and customer user groups to understand the functional requirements and design/configure solution
• Prepare Technical Design Specification
• Development and configuration for the Siebel 8.1 application, particularly for Siebel Public Sector
• Recommend appropriate technical solutions, Identifies and documents data schema, user interface and base Siebel software changes
• Provide technical design by configuring Applets, Screens, Views, BO, BC’s, Automation, Assignments, EAI, TBUI, Business Rules OPA.
• Coordinate with multiple teams for ensuring the solution implementation.
• Coordinate with Offshore developers to get the build done and provide any technical design clarifications
• Coordinate with Testing team to provide fixes with the help from Offshore team.

Key Skills:

• Experience in customizing Siebel 8.1 using Tools, experience in configuration and scripting, workflows, EAI, Assignment Manager.  Must be confident in the configuration of Siebel Views / Applets / Business Components / workflows, EAI, Assignment Manager, and the avoidance of using scripting is essential.
• Experience of OPA, Webservices advantageous
• Exposure to Smart scripts, Correspondence
• Experience in translating functional specs into Technical specs/design, Code Review, sound knowledge of coding standards & best practices is a must.
• Strong experience in Siebel data model, basic DBA knowledge, strong SQL knowledge, troubleshooting along with experience in Technical specs/design, Code Review
• * Experience in Siebel Public Sector and Siebel Financial Services.

You will need to have Negotiating, client facing, communication, assertive, team leading/team member skills, supportive skills.

This role will be 3-6 Months based in Leeds.

Please email daniel.warren@oraclecontractors.com if you would be interested.

Contractors Network is pleased to announce the latest free of charge release into our extensive Oracle Apps related White Paper Library of:

White Paper Mentor Series: Burned Out
Authored by Khalil Rehman

About Khalil;

Khalil has over 20 year’s functional experience with Oracle Applications having started out in the late 1980s with Oracle General Ledger and Accounts Payables. His in depth knowledge of the Oracle Applications makes him an expert in every sense. He has implemented over 18 different applications in over 54 projects across 14 different countries worldwide. Khalil has spearheaded some of the largest Shared Service Centre projects in the last 7 years.

Heres a snipit:

One of the common reasons for project failure is the burn out of senior project team members during an ERP implementation. It’s not surprising given the increasing demands placed upon them.

We are asked to achieve more results with fewer resources and keep everyone happy.

If you would like request a copy please email myself on rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com or register via the White Paper library today.

Our End Client is currently seeking the below Oracle SOA Consultants

*** Oracle SOA Architects ***

The Oracle SOA Designer is responsible for understanding high level specifications and producing / maintaining low level designs. The Designer should have excellent communication skills and be capable of guiding developers during implementation and deployment phases.
The Designer must have hands-on experience of Oracle’s SOA Suite and be capable of producing complex artefacts to standard.

Responsibilities will include:

• Production of detailed design specifications for SOA Services and Composite Applications using common Design Patterns
• Mentoring teams of developers in an agile environment
• Production of XML artifacts using Oracle AIA standards
• Critical review of design and high level specifications. Quality review of code, documentation, reports and other deliverables produced by other team members.
• Production of quality code where project timescales demand
• Ability to create and maintain quality standards
• Support during the deployment of software artefacts

Essential Skills will include the following

Oracle SOA Suite (10.1.3.*)
Enterprise Service Bus
BPEL
SCA
Web Services
Java
XML (xsd, xslt, etc)
Oracle 8i, 9i,10g and/or 11g
PL/SQL

*** Oracle SOA Developers ***

The developer is responsible for the production and ongoing support of software that meets the needs of the customer and is developed to agreed quality standards and timescales within a structured development framework.

Responsibilities will include:

• Development and unit testing of SOA-enabled applications and business processes using Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle SOA Suite
• Production of XML artefacts and XSD’s.
• Production of program specifications from low level designs
• Critical review of design and specifications. Quality review of code, documentation, reports and other deliverables produced by other team members.
• Liaising with other teams, business areas and third parties where assistance to or from Applications Support is required in incident resolution.

Essential Skills will include the following:

Oracle SOA Suite (10g)
Enterprise Service Bus
Web Services
Java
XML
Oracle 8i, 9i and/or 10g

We have an opening for an *** Oracle Lead SOA Developer also. If you would be interested please email on rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com

11g release 1 introduced the RMAN active database duplication feature, where you can duplicate a database without having to take a backup of the source database.

A new feature in 11g release 2 is the ability to use RMAN to duplicate a database without having to connect to the source database. At the time of writing, most of the RMAN documentation tends to refer you back to 10gR2 documents for backup-based restores, whilst 11gR2 documents tend to focus on active database duplication, so I thought that a blog on this topic could be of use.

This functionality would be useful if you have thought about using the 11g active database duplication feature, but are concerned about possible network performance issues during the process.

Another situation where this procedure could be used, is where you have been asked to create a copy of a database on an isolated test server, where connection to the source database is not possible.

As in previous Oracle versions, it is still possible to create a clone of the source database by just extracting the database files from the RMAN backuppieces using DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE. (See my previous blog “Extracting database files from RMAN backuppieces using DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE” for an example of this).  11gR2 introduces a much more straightforward method of cloning the database without a connection to the source database.

An example of this process is shown below.  In this scenario we’ll assume that the server that you’re duplicating the database to, has the same directory structure as the source server and that you want the cloned database to have the same name as the original source database.  The source database is using an SPFILE.  We’ll also assume that you’re not using a recovery catalog on the source or target servers, as this would probably be the situation if restoring to a remote test server.  The SID of the database is ORCL, so replace with your own SID where appropriate.

The cloned database needs to be on the same platform as the source database and also have 11gR2 installed.
WARNING/DISCLAIMER: Before running any of these commands, you should ensure that you have current backups of any databases on the server.  Refer to the more comprehensive Oracle support site notes and Oracle documentation before carrying out any work in a formal environment.  The author accepts no responsibility for any damage to your data, server or database, by carrying out the commands below.
 

1) Take a full backup of the source database. 
  ——————————————-
Our example database is running in archivelog mode, so we can take a hot backup.

a) create a directory to store the output from the backup.  (For this example, I created the directory /u02/oradata/backup_orcl ).
b) Set your environment to the required database. (e.g. by running . oraenv)
c) Run RMAN commands to take the backup.  We’ll specify an alternate location for the backups, otherwise they’ll just default to the flash recovery area (FRA).  Whilst you could use the contents of the FRA for the clone, there may be files from other database in the same shared area and there could also be files here from previous backups, which you don’t need for this clone.  Sending the backup to a separate location makes it easier to identify the files that you need.

rman

connect target
spool log to ‘/u02/oradata/backup_orcl/full_database_orcl.log’;
configure channel device type disk format ‘/u02/oradata/backup_orcl/orcl_%U’;
backup database plus archivelog;
exit

(You can run    tail -f /u02/oradata/backup_orcl/full_database_orcl.log   as the backup runs, if you wish to monitor progress).
2) Configure the environment on the destination server
   —————————————————
a) Create a password file in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs using the orapwd utility.
b) Configure the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora file.  The only entries used for this work were:
SID_LIST_LISTENER =
  (SID_LIST =
    (SID_DESC =
      (SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)
      (ORACLE_HOME = /u01/opt/oracle/product/11gR2/db_1)
      (PROGRAM = extproc)
    )
  )

LISTENER =
  (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1))
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
    )
  )
c) Configure the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora file.  The only entry added for this work was:
 

ORCL =
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = orcl)
    )
  )

d) Create directories on the target server that are present on the source server. (e.g. archive destination, scripts, application directories, utl_file/dba_directories, flash recovery area, external table locations, database/redo log/controlfile/admin/diag directories, backup locations etc.)

e)  Create the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initSID.ora file for the duplicate database.  The only entry needed is:

db_name=’orcl’
No other information is required, as we’ll extract the source database SPFILE from the backup.
 

f)  Add an entry to /etc/oratab for the database.

g) Set your environment to the new database and then startup the clone instance.

sqlplus / as sysdba
startup nomount
exit

h) Run RMAN command to clone the database. (We don’t need to specify the database name or DBID, as these are obtained from the backups).

rman auxiliary /

DUPLICATE DATABASE TO orcl
  SPFILE
  BACKUP LOCATION ‘/u02/oradata/backup_orcl’
NOFILENAMECHECK;

exit

Note: Be careful when running any duplicates on the same host as the source database when specifying the NOFILENAMECHECK option. This option could mean that you over-write your source database files.
i) Finally, you will need to re-create a tempfile for your temporary tablespace.  From 10gR2, this would normally be created for you in a standard RMAN clone, but it is not re-created at present when using this method.

A tempfile is created, but it is not recognised as being part of the database - i.e. select file_name from dba_temp_files; returns the errors: “ORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file X“   From the trace files it looks like there are some issues with the tempfile creation process. Sample errors are  “Cannot re-create tempfile dbf, the same name file exists“  and “ORA-03214: File Size specified is smaller than minimum required“. It seems that the file creation works, but the file created is too small to be usable at 8MB - the original tempfile was 29MB in this test database. 

This may be due to a bug, or due to the current design of this feature, or it could be due to the configuration of the test database used for this scenario. Fixing the issue is pretty straightforward - just drop and re-create the tempfile:

alter database tempfile ‘/u01/opt/oracle/oradata/orcl/temp01.dbf’ drop;
alter tablespace temp add tempfile ‘/u01/opt/oracle/oradata/orcl/temp01.dbf’ size 100M reuse autoextend on maxsize 5120M;
Other useful features of the duplicate process are that you can choose to exclude selected tablespaces and you can also choose to carry out a point-in-time duplicate of the source database.
References used: Oracle Support notes 228257.1, 259694.1, 452868.1, 452868.1, 568034.1, 374934.1,
Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User’s Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) - ch 23: Duplicating a Database

Our End Client is Seeking a Permanent Hyperion Planning Developer located in London. 50-55k

You will be responsible for:

Build business relationships with internal clients, Provide business analysis. Technical and system design for new applications or enhancements to existing applications. Develop and Implement new Applications. Provide support for existing applications on a day to day basis. Develop Reports, load rules, calc scripts, forms, task lists, menu items, business rules and look after the Production of all forms of technical documentation, including architecture, technical design, support documents and end user manuals.

Key Requirements:

Extensive Planning V9 experience

Extensive Essbase knowledge

Skilled in Microsoft applications software (Word, Excel, Outlook etc)

Understanding of Wholesale Financial Services would be helpful

Ability to develop new skills and understand new technology as required

Ability to design and build databases

Ability to Optimise Databases

Ability to build Rules, Load Rules and develop calc scripts

Understanding of Security

Please note you must have a Work permit in place for the UK for this role. This role is due to start ASAP If interested please email me your current availability and an up to date CV to rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com

Our End Client in the UK requires a Oracle HR Discoverer Developer. You must be very strong in your Discoverer experience.

Working as a member of the HR Systems Team, this role will play a key part in moving the HR systems strategy forward using Oracle E-business suite. The position will provide essential technical development skills to the team and help us to deliver scalable management information via Discoverer reporting to the business.

Role & Responsibilities:

Working with the HR Systems Team on requirements, priorities & technical guidance.
Ownership, design, development and maintenance of required Discoverer EUL structures.
Working with existing strategic suppliers and playing a role in selection and procurement of new technologies and solutions.
Create relationships with both key stakeholders and users of the HR systems ensuring support is delivered in an effective and efficient way.
Deliver support and maintenance of all HR Systems with the Group IS change management processes and contribute to the ongoing streamlining of HR processes.
Support ad hoc project work, contributing to the production of project documentation including business case, project plans and solution designs.

Essential Skills & Experience:

Oracle Discoverer 10g development (Reports, Forms & Customisations).
Solid experience of Oracle E-business Suite - to include Fast formula, HR, CWB, Payroll and learning and development modules.
Discoverer 10g Development & Administration (including EUL Design).
SQL and PL/SQL.
TOAD.
Knowledge of HR processes and HR systems.
Confident and self motivated.
Experience of problem solving and user support.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Please note you must have a UK working permit to apply for this position.

If you would be interested in this position please email your current CV and availability to rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com.

Contractors Network is pleased to announce the latest free of charge release into our extensive Oracle Apps related White Paper Library of:

Fundamentals of Change Management in an Oracle ERP Transformation Programme
Authored by Khalil Rehman

About Khalil;

Khalil has over 20 year’s functional experience with Oracle Applications having started out in the late 1980s with Oracle General Ledger and Accounts Payables. His in depth knowledge of the Oracle Applications makes him an expert in every sense. He has implemented over 18 different applications in over 54 projects across 14 different countries worldwide. Khalil has spearheaded some of the largest Shared Service Centre projects in the last 7 years.

He is an accomplished author and has written articles on accountancy and Oracle Applications since the early 1980s Khalil is a member of the UKOUG White Paper panel and regularly reviews the latest trends on behalf of Oracle.

This paper is split in 4 key areas

Content
The process of Change
Obstacles of Change
How to Manage Change

If you would like request a copy please email myself on rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com or register via the White Paper library today.

Recently I blogged about how people drive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to success.  The tools that leverage superior people performance in turn can enhance the business performance of ERP systems in an organisation. The social phenomenon known as social media marketing can play an important part in ERP performance in the future. Let’s see it from the customer / user perspective.

The social media marketing ‘Big 4’ of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and You Tube together with blogs, websites and intranet pages offer the following possible benefits for ERP customers / users:

•    Promoting your site or business
•    Improved marketing, PR and customer service
•    Powerful strategy to gain connections & knowledge
•    Conversations with vendors and ERP experts directly
•    Conversations with other ERP customers/ users   
•    Easy searching of ERP vendors and  experts
•    Easy searching of other ERP customers/users
•    Groups sharing best practises and knowledge
•    Personalisation - find people you know, like & trust
•    Cost effective marketing solutions
•    Obtaining recommendations & references
•    Online business meetings
•    Intranet pages for ERP user communities
•    Ask questions and ask for help

The key objectives for all ERP systems should be:

•    Automating processes - achieving cost savings
•    Informing stakeholders (reporting) - effective information    for competitive advantage
•    Educating users and managers - to utilise the full potential of ERP systems
•    Transforming the way business is done - use ERP systems to change for the better

Organisations which fail to maximise the potential of ERP systems display similar problems such as heavy customizations, a lack of planning and management, disgruntled users, ad hoc ancillary systems in MS Excel and MS Access, an array of reporting tools, problematic interfaces and are often IT driven. There is a big hole between the users and the applications team in IT. Much disappears down it….

Could it be that just like people, ERP systems need behaviours and attributes to drive them to success? I believe even in successful ERP implementations the Go Live is the half way mark at best.

So what are the drivers for ERP performance success?

In my experience I would suggest the following:

•    Actually Managing Oracle Applications 
•    Successful Change Management
•    Leading a Support Team
•    Measuring Success and Value for Money
•    Data and Information Management
•    Customers and Collaboration
•    Reporting and Business Intelligence
•    Empowerment and Super Users
•    Change Control and Value for Money
•    Project Management Kept Simple
•    Process Improvement

So how can the features, tools and strategies of social media marketing support these drivers? Well a little brainstorming suggests the following.

The search and selection of ERP vendors can be supported by finding and conversing with the vendors’ existing customers about the suitability of their solution. The recruitment of ERP staff and contractors follows the same line.

There should be greater visibility of both ERP strategy and business ownership of ERP systems in the organisation. Greater personalisation and visibility will enable companies to become demand-driven ERP users rather than supply-driven.

Successful change management can be supported by more informal and rapid communications of visions, strategies, online training, online presentations, conversations, and the publication of short term wins. The team can be fired up by a leadership alliance and team of change agents both visible and consistent in their messages.

An effective support team can be enhanced by joining online communities on social media sites around their ERP system. They can listen to their users daily about their pain points. Support updates, training tips and system downtimes can be communicated by text or video. They should use Intranet forms for support service requests ensuring requests reach support analysts almost immediately.

Both technical and business performance can be measured, published, discussed, and improved using online communities. Such communities can undertake their own benchmarking initiatives covering ROI, service requests, customer analysis, efficiency analysis, change requests and the efficiency and effectiveness of ongoing training provision including online delivery.

Business process, data and information management best practises can also be published and discussed in social media groups and intranet pages. 

It is so important to clearly define your customers and users. Then collaborate with these colleagues in organisations using engagement models and custodianship models. These define clearly and consistently engagements, roles, responsibilities, duties etc. Using social media tools can enhance communications and teamwork especially between the business and IT.

ERP Reporting and Business Intelligence are minefields which again need the collaboration of the business and IT. The healthier and more personalised this relationship it will surely improve the chances of clearly defining requirements and jointly seeking optimal solutions from vendors.

ERP Super Users can enhance their teamwork, training and education using social media tools. This should help fill the hole between IT and the business. There are many resources available out there to be consumed, discussed and shared in their communities. Their customers including users, managers, auditors and other stakeholders can join in these conversations. 

Organisations can improve change request control and securing value for money processes by increasing visibility and inviting rapid feedback from all functional analysts and business colleagues too. 

Project management can be kept simple and more effective by building relationships between all stakeholders; and using online meetings and social media tools to enhance communications, project reporting, asking for help, mitigating risks and fixing issues. 

Social media marketing is about personalisation - people talking to each other and nurturing relationships. People working and doing business with those they know, like and trust too. There is greater participation, openness and willingness to help. There are many tools which can be utilised such as forums, groups, fan pages, profile searches, recommendations etc.

Organisations need to have a social media strategy which leverages the benefits and mitigates the security and PR risks; and manages changing relationships with vendors. The costs of social media marketing are a fraction of the potential rewards.

There are real cost savings out there to be gained from improved ERP selection, recruitment of resources, and fiercer and fairer competition between ERP vendors. A highly motivated IT and business alliance can leverage the drivers of ERP performance and drive greater value from ERP systems.

http://www.Drive-Social-Media.com

http://www.DriveERP.com

http://twitter.com/John_McGrann

ENFORCEMENT TAB

The Enforcement tab is used to record details of actions taken through a court. It allows the DCO to enter court and claim references, significant dates and costs and interest charges added to the claim.  If costs and interest charges are added the claim amount and current balance are automatically changed. Lewisham uses Money Claim Online, the on-line court case entry system, and the screen is tailored to fit with this. Case details produced by Money Claim Online are entered into the Enforcement tab. When a claim is first registered with the court a Claim Number is allocated by the court; the the DCO may set the Claim Reference to this number if required. There is no interface between Money Claim Online and Financials so the DCO has to enter the information into Financials manually.

The Recovery Stage is used to keep track of the status of the claim, possible values are:

Distress Warrant                                  Court bailiffs to pursue claim
Judgement by Default                           Customer did not contest claim in court
Payment Order                                     Court enforced payment plan
Third Party Debt Order                          Claim to be paid from customers account with bank or building society
Stat. Demand                                       Statutory Demand
Bankruptcy Petition                               Customer to be declared bankrupt
Order for Sale                                       Court order for sale of customers property
Order for Questioning                            Customer ordered to attend court
In Preparation                                       Not yet active

The Stage Date tells when the claim entered its current Recovery Stage.

The Enforcement tab is changed only by the DCO’s. The system never makes any changes to the information in this tab. The DCO’s may produce reports of claims using the information shown in the tab but the system does not take any action based on this information.

DEBT COLLECTOR TAB

The Debt Collector tab is used to store details of the debt collection agency that a claim has been referred to. No automatic actions are taken based on this information but it may be used in reports. The debt collector is selected from a picklist maintained as a quickcode.

BAILIFF TAB

The Bailiff tab is used to store details of the bailiff that a claim has been referred to. No automatic actions are taken based on this information but it may be used in reports. The bailiff is selected from a picklist maintained as a quickcode.

Please see part 5 for the Payment Plan Tab. Also this series is available on the White Paper library.

Contractors Network is pleased to announce the latest free of charge release into our extensive Oracle Apps related White Paper Library of:

OBIA for Dummies
Authored by David Farrell

About David;

David Farrell graduated in Computer Science at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia. He has over 30 years IT experience and had spent most of the last 15 years working on Oracle Applications projects in Functional, Technical and Project Management roles. He has an interest in Business Intelligence and has implemented BI solutions for Government, Business and Higher Education.

Purpose of David’s Paper;

The purpose of this whitepaper is to provide the reader with a high level overview of the Oracle Business Intelligence for Applications product set.

If you would like request a copy please email myself on rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com or register via the White Paper library today.

If you’re planning a migration to 11g, then one of the many items on your “to do” list, will be to check whether or not any database management scripts that you currently use will need to be re-written.

If you’re using Oracle 9i Release 2 or earlier, then you’ll be using scripts for the export and import utilities.  Whilst many of the parameters used by these tools have equivalent parameters when using datapump, a useful feature in 11g Release 2 is the legacy mode feature.

With this new feature, you can simply use your existing export/import scripts with the datapump impdp/expdp utilities.  Datapump won’t re-write the scripts for you, but it will transform the parameters as the script runs, so that datapump completes successfully.  At a later stage, you can then re-write your export/import scripts, without having to manually check what changes should be made.

To demonstrate this functionality, we can take a quick norows export of an 11g Release 2 database.  We’ll use the parameters “file”,”log”,”buffer” and “rows” which are export parameters, but aren’t listed as being parameter for use with expdp.

export ORACLE_SID=orcl
export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/opt/oracle/product/11gR2/db_1
expdp system/password file=test_full.dmp log=test_full.log buffer=1048576 rows=n

An extract from the logfile contains the following lines:-

Export: Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production on Fri Oct 23 22:26:42 2009
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
Legacy Mode Active due to the following parameters:
Legacy Mode Parameter: “buffer=1048576″ Location: Command Line, ignored.
Legacy Mode Parameter: “file=test_full.dmp” Location: Command Line, Replaced with: “dumpfile=test_full.dmp”
Legacy Mode Parameter: “log=test_full.log” Location: Command Line, Replaced with: “logfile=test_full.log”
Legacy Mode Parameter: “rows=FALSE” Location: Command Line, Replaced with: “content=metadata_only”
Legacy Mode has set reuse_dumpfiles=true parameter.
Starting “SYSTEM”.”SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01″:  system/******** dumpfile=test_full.dmp logfile=test_full.log content=metadata_only reuse_dumpfiles=true
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/USER
…
Master table “SYSTEM”.”SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01″ successfully loaded/unloaded
******************************************************************************
Dump file set for SYSTEM.SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01 is:
  /u01/opt/oracle/admin/orcl/dpdump/test_full.dmp
Job “SYSTEM”.”SYS_EXPORT_SCHEMA_01″ successfully completed at 22:27:59

You’ll notice that datapump converts the export-specific parameters to their datapump equivalents on the fly and then completes the export as normal. The other point to notice about the export, is that the dumpfile and logfile will have been created in the default datapump directory, rather than in the location that you ran the commands from - as would have been the case with the export utility.   (select directory_path from dba_directories where directory_name=’DATA_PUMP_DIR’; - to confirm where this location is in your environment).

The same legacy mode has also been implemented for the impdp datapump utility. Below is an extract from the logfile for a quick table import, which was run with the parameters “file”,”log”,”buffer”,”ignore” and “commit” from the import utility.
impdp system/password file=table_export.dmp log=table_import.log buffer=1048576 ignore=y commit=y

Import: Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production on Fri Oct 23 22:44:48 2009

Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
Legacy Mode Active due to the following parameters:
Legacy Mode Parameter: “buffer=1048576″ Location: Command Line, ignored.
Legacy Mode Parameter: “commit=TRUE” Location: Command Line, ignored.
Legacy Mode Parameter: “file=table_export.dmp” Location: Command Line, Replaced with: “dumpfile=table_export.dmp”
Legacy Mode Parameter: “ignore=TRUE” Location: Command Line, Replaced with: “table_exists_action=append”
Legacy Mode Parameter: “log=table_import.log” Location: Command Line, Replaced with: “logfile=table_import.log”
Master table “SYSTEM”.”SYS_IMPORT_FULL_01″ successfully loaded/unloaded
Starting “SYSTEM”.”SYS_IMPORT_FULL_01″:  system/******** dumpfile=table_export.dmp logfile=table_import.log table_exists_action=append
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/USER
…
. . imported “TEST”.”T1″                                5.156 KB      17 rows
Job “SYSTEM”.”SYS_IMPORT_FULL_01″ completed …

References:

1) Oracle 9i Database Utilities Release 2 (9.2)
2) Oracle Database Utilities 10g Release 2 (10.2)
3) Oracle Database Utilities 11g Release 2 (11.2)

IMPLEMENTATION

Custom Form

Claims are entered and maintained using a custom form which may be entered from a menu or, more usually at LBL, from the Oracle Collections screen. A custom tab was enabled and its label changed to Claims by a personalisation. If the DCO clicks on the claims tabs the personalisation zooms to the claims form. When the Collections screen is entered for a customer with an active claim a pop-up message appears giving details of the claim; again this is achieved through personalisation.

If the Claims screen is entered from the Collections screen the customer name and number are filled in automatically and the claims for this customer queried.

If the screen is entered from the menu the DCO must select the customer name or number from picklists.

Claims are added by pressing the ‘Add Claim’ button. The system adds a record to the claims table and populates a custom table with links to all the overdue invoices for the customer.

When claims are created they have a default claim reference which may be changed by the DCO. The claim has a status of ‘In Preparation’ which flags the claim as not yet being active. Possible values are:

The Enforcement Stage tells the DCO’s what action  is being taken to pursue the claim. Its default value is Visiting Officer. Possible values are:

The claim amount is the sum of the amounts due for the overdue invoices plus costs and interest; this value is saved in the claims record.

The Current Balance is the amount currently outstanding for the claim; it is calculated each time the claim record is queried. A customer may have more than one claim active but in practice they would normally have only one active claim at a time.

Contractors Network is pleased to announce the latest free of charge release into our extensive Oracle Apps related White Paper Library of:

Using 11g Change Data Capture for Database Auditing
Authored by Matt Canning

About Matt;

Matt is an Oracle Certified Professional DBA and has worked with Oracle databases from versions 7.3.4 to 11g R1, running on Windows and UNIX platforms. He has worked with clients across Vehicle Management, Banking, Insurance, Security, Government, Telecoms and Technology sectors. Matt’s experience spans across every stage of the project lifecycle from initial development to go-live, then on to live support and eventual decommissioning.

Who Should Read Matt’s Paper;

Database Administrators, Security Administrators, Developers and anyone else who is interested in the auditing capabilities of Oracle Change Data Capture.

If you would like request a copy please email myself on rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com or register via the White Paper library today.

Khalil Rehman wrote in October about ‘doing more with less’ that over the last 18 months we have all had to tighten our belts and try to achieve more with less. I’ve seen this trend too in a very competitive job market, but employers wanting more from the people they hire. Depth and breadth on your cv seems to be more attractive than ever, and almost imperative too.

Oracle seem to have finally ‘committed’ to Release 12, after the wait and see attitude towards Fusion seems to have had an impact on projects and we’ve all seen the project market shrink. There was a time when we could gain experience of new releases on the job, but those roles are not really around and new projects, all seemingly Release 12, demand release 12 experience.

Where can you gain Release 12 skills without spending thousands on Oracle Education? Over the years, the on the job route of gaining experience, became the norm, in so much that consultants were trained on the job and, let’s face it, no amount of training can ever replace experience. Can this be viewed as a failure of the training market? Shouldn’t those people responsible for ‘on the job’ training be those standing at the front of a classroom?
The Training Concept

Too many times are training classes provided with a generic trainer reading from a prepared set of slides, rather than an expert imparting their knowledge and experience. This experience is what is required to be delivered, and attempt to teach the skills an understanding to implement solutions, rather than teach topics that will fill a predetermined length of time. Don’t look at the quality, feel the width!

To deliver training to people and organisations that are ‘time poor’ clientele requires the understanding of what is important and how to deliver an overall understanding of the entire problem area. The kind of gaps in the skills market are very often version dependant, with vendors ever improving their products, leaving the consultant base concerned about their skill sets leaving them behind. This also has the effect of leaving large and small organisations with an expensive re-skilling exercise for their personnel.

Version based skills and the need to re-skill.

In the Oracle applications market, there are specific niche areas with high demand of skills. This not only keeps existing contractors in the contract market, but also attracts others to it. We want to offer help by enabling consultants to gain confidence in the new releases of Oracle Applications, or introduce consultants to new applications.

Our training ethos is to use consultant-based courseware – learn what you need to do the job taught by experts in their field, not trainers.

Training the independent

Consultant focussed training provides condensed intensive implementation training, based around the entire life cycle with tips and lessons learnt from the experts. The training itself shouldn’t be the end though. On the job you have your mentor to ‘fall back on’ in the form. When you’ve spent a small fortune on traditional training, in the end you’re on your own. Wouldn’t it nice if your trainer could be your mentor after your course too. Our forum based post-course help line allows you contact with the very consultants who trained you, offering guidance and interpretation of your new skills.
This type of consultant training is just as applicable to corporate clients wishing to retrain entire departments over a weekend period, as it is to individuals not wishing to give up an entire week of work in order to gain new skills.

It is our intention to capitalise on the unique and in-depth experience, of applications implementation, of the best consultants out there, by using them to provide specific training opportunities to the market, visit our training offerings at www.theITskillsnetwork.com. Any questions please email ian.carline@oraclecontractors.com

Mission de Consultant Fonctionnel Finance Oracle E-Business Suite R12 en France

Nous sommes actuellement à la recherche d’un consultant Fonctionnel Finance Oracle E-Business Suite R12 pour une mission de 12 mois basée en France. Le client recherche les compétences suivantes :
Expérience de la version 12 d’Oracle EBS
Forte compétence sur les modules Finance
Bilingue Français et Anglais
Idéalement, expérience de travail avec des sociétés françaises et américaines (déploiement d’un core model US vers la France)

Démarrage : mi Novembre
Durée : 12 mois

Mission de Consultant Fonctionnel Manufacturing Oracle E-Business Suite R12 en France (x2)

Nous sommes actuellement à la recherche de 2 Consultants Fonctionnels Manufacturing Oracle E-Business Suite R12 pour une mission de 12 mois basée en France. Le client recherche les compétences suivantes :
Expérience de la version 12 d’Oracle EBS
Forte compétence sur les modules Manufacturing
Bilingue Français et Anglais
Idéalement, expérience de travail avec des sociétés françaises et américaines (déploiement d’un core model US vers la France)

Démarrage : mi Novembre
Durée : 12 mois

Mission de Consultant Fonctionnel Oracle Projects Suite R12 en France

Nous sommes actuellement à la recherche d’un consultant Fonctionnel Oracle Projects Suite R12 pour une mission de 12 mois basée en France. Le client recherche les compétences suivantes :
Expérience de la version 12 d’Oracle EBS
Forte compétence sur la suite Projects
Bilingue Français et Anglais
Idéalement, expérience de travail avec des sociétés françaises et américaines (déploiement d’un core model US vers la France)

Démarrage : mi Novembre
Durée : 4 à 6 mois

Mission de Chef de Projet Oracle E-Business Suite R12 en France

Nous sommes actuellement à la recherche d’un Chef de Projet Oracle E-Business Suite R12 pour une mission de 12 mois basée en France. Le client recherche les compétences suivantes :
Expérience de la version 12 d’Oracle EBS
Bilingue Français et Anglais
Idéalement, expérience de travail avec des sociétés françaises et américaines (déploiement d’un core model US vers la France)

Démarrage : mi Novembre
Durée : 12 mois

Merci de me contacter au +33 6 12 08 90 10 ou sur renaud.boisson@oraclecontractors.com pour plus d’infos sur cette opportunité. 

Contractors Network is pleased to announce the latest free of charge release into our extensive Oracle Apps related White Paper Library of:

Scheduler FE (Updated Version)
Authored by Colin Greenwood

About Colin;

Colin Greenwood has worked in IT since 1983 and with Oracle databases for the past fourteen years. He is an Oracle Certified DBA on Oracle 8, 8i, and 9i.

Who Should Read this Paper;

This document is written with an audience of the Scheduling Manager, who is expected to be an Oracle DBA, in mind. The functionality of the Scheduling FE that is described within the document will also be of interest to management within Customer Support.

If you would like request a copy please email myself on rebecca.bragg@oraclecontractors.com or register via the White Paper library.

In this SQL, enter the RUNID from the prior SQL statement.  Oracle will place several lines of ‘’ in the UNIT_OWNER column.  This information is the overhead that Oracle incurred executing the code, not the code itself.  Since I am not interested in this clutter, I coded the SQL to just show me the profiler information of interest to me.

select runid, unit_number, unit_type, unit_owner, unit_name, unit_timestamp
from plsql_profiler_units
where unit_owner <> ‘’
and runid = &rpt_runid;

select pu.unit_name, pd.line#, pd.total_occur passes, round(pd.total_time / 1000000000,5) total_time, us.text text
from plsql_profiler_data pd, plsql_profiler_units pu, user_source us
where pd.runid = &rpt_runid
and pd.unit_number = &rpt_unitid
and pd.runid = pu.runid
and pd.unit_number = pu.unit_number
and us.name = pu.unit_name
and us.line = pd.line#
and us.type in (’PACKAGE BODY’,'PROCEDURE’,'FUNCTION’);

This code cleans up the profiler tables.

delete from plsql_profiler_data;
delete from plsql_profiler_units;
delete from plsql_profiler_runs;

TOAD Users

Quest Software has implemented the PL/SQL Profiler into the TOAD tool.  This option has been available for quite a while.  It too is easy to use and the whole process is easily handled from the TOAD environment. 

Starting and stopping the profiler is easily accomplished by clicking on the Toggle PL/SQL Profiler button       .  If this button is grayed out, then the TOAD Server Side objects need to be executed (Database  Administrate  TOAD Server Side Objects Wizard).

When the PL/SQL code is executed, a dialog box will popup for the start comment.

 
Click the Toggle PL/SQL Profiler button again to stop profiling. 

The same profile tables are populated but TOAD also formats this same outout using a nice interactive wizard.  Use  Database  Optimize  Profiler Analysis menu item to access the Profiler Analysis.

The output is easily visible.  Select your executed code from the list and click on the arrow button in the circle.

Summary

The PL/SQL Profiler is an essential tool when tuning PL/SQL and the SQL coded into these same routines.  Without something like this profiler process, it is impossible to tell where the time is spend when tuning PL/SQL code.

Dan Hotka - Author/Instructor/Expert

I had to laugh when I read extracts from Adrian Maile’s book: Secret Habits of Successful B%^&*%^£.  It’s a self help book for those wishing to be successful but who are too nice. Adrian has many tips on how to be an SB on his LinkedIn group including some of my favourites:

• Make mountains out of molehills
• Be confrontational
• Expect the unachievable
• Put people down
• Change the rules to suit you

No doubt many of you recognise these characteristics from people you have worked with or worked for in the past. To get to the top it seems you have to trample over everyone in your way, act in a nauseating manner and slide knives in many backs.  The choice appears to be either adopt these behaviours and succeed in your chosen career; or stay a nice guy or girl, and never hit the dizzy heights.

In reality, we have all worked for successful people who were to also nice people.  I can think of at least six bosses I admired, respected and liked from my past. However, it is the SBs who stand out especially if they have had a detrimental effect on our careers or even our lives. 

So what are the deep rooted issues with these SBs that cause these behaviours? In my humble opinion, many SBs share the following afflictions:

• Incompetence - usually struggling academically and professionally
• Boring and Friendless - all they can talk about is themselves and work
• Bullies - abusing the power of their position and ruling by fear
• Spineless bosses - incapable or unwilling to bring these SBs into line

A man once said to me: ‘Never underestimate anyone …..and never overestimate anyone either.’  The latter stuck with me and over the years I have realised that SBs like all bullies are selfish and cowardly - so hit them hard when you can…even little acts of rebellion can upset them. A few strategies to keep them awake at night:

• Find their past  screw-ups and inefficiencies - let them know you know
• Use FACTS not EMOTIONS - easier to gain support with facts
• Take out grievances for poor  management style
• Argue the toss forever about the SB’s appraisal of yourself
• Socialise often with colleagues causing the SB to get paranoid
• Refer to the ‘autocratic culture’ often of your department
• Send up great reports and ideas to the boss of the SB’s boss
• Join staff associations, trade unions etc.
• Use company communications to promote work / life balance, anti stress, progressive policies etc.

Winning is distressing these SBs by exposing them as sad, limited, lonely individuals who despite the wonderful challenges and opportunities in life struggle to be ‘successful’ employing 100% of their energy on an activity which should consume less than 30% of your entire life. Work to live and widen the scope of ‘success’ to embrace family, friends, interests, travel and great personal challenges. 
 
Don’t expect to change or beat the SBs at their sad game. Don’t worry about it either. Find a job with a nice boss or nice colleagues and leave them in the mire as much as (legally) possible before you depart their workplace.

This is the Kiss My A**e strategy.

How do you fare on the B#@£$%^ometer?