Demantra 12.2.6 Release Features

Oracle Demantra 12.2.6 release has couple of sought after features besides few more useful functionality enhancements. For all Demantra users who had been complaining about the java applet dependency tagged with web browser limitation issues, now you have ability to use a desktop based local application which eliminates web browser from the mix. Here is a quick summary of what becomes available to customers with 12.2.6 Demantra.

• Local Application - Removes applet dependency: Users can download a local application(one time activity) supported on Windows & Mac OS. Version are automatically updated. This tool allows for offline work, as well as can be single sign on enabled. Local application provides same functionality as earlier web based tool.

• Enhanced Demantra Anywhere & BLE: Users have more regular worksheet like features now available with Demantra Anywhere. One can do a SAVE AS on an existing worksheet, but still can not create a new worksheet from scratch. User can login to Demantra Anywhere and Local application concurrently.  BLE enhancements provided for CDP module earlier are now available for all modules of Demantra. Users can kick off BLE to update data using a user method or simple save of worksheet data. BLE can now run multi-threaded, multi-process mode, using BLE clusters. Distributed BLE run requires and can only improve performance with supporting hardware though. Potential improvement in performance to data loading, proport and rolling data profile runs can be expected with BLE clusters. 

• Daily Data View in Weekly/Monthly System: New enhancement to provide capability to review some of the data at daily view in a Demantra weekly or monthly data model. The feature is enabled using General level concept which can be now defined to carry a daily level data.

VCP Cloud - Planning Central

Oracle Supply Chain Planning Cloud - "Planning Central" surely seems impressive with the new simpler GUI, in-memory planning engine and pre-integrated cloud. Release 11 is first release for Fusion Planning Central. 

Planning Central provides demand planning, inventory planning and supply planning capabilities all in one application with linkage to execution systems. 

• Demand Management: Forecast based of shipment/booking history with sales orders consuming forecast. Stat engine supporting causal factors with NPI capabilities inbuild
• Inventory Planning: Stat safety stock derivation based of demand volatility & stocking goals. 
• Supply Planning:  Material and Resource requirement calculation based of SS and customer demand with lead times, calendars, availability etc. in consideration.

Planning Central key features:

• Unified Data model with common set of dimensions for supply & demand plans
• 200+ Seeded measures
• End to End business process flow support (CollectData>PlanDemand>PlanInventory>PlanSupplies>Execute)
• Integrated with OrderMgmt, MaterialsMgmt, InventoryMgmt, Mfg & Purchasing Cloud Services
• Integrated with Fusion ERP for collections & planning output releases
• OOTB Plan Summary dashboard
• Planner Workbench (Configurable)
• Seeded Data views (Configurable)
• Seeded Analytics (Configurable)
• Embedded Analytics (Configurable)
• Excel Export/Import option

Here is a demo from Oracle on Planning Central's first release. 

Remember all the configurations/setups for Planning Central very much like other Cloud applications is required to be done using Functional Setup Manager(FSM). Offering is Value Chain Planning and functional area is Planning Central. FSM should be used for setting up source systems definition, profiles, loading data and configuring planning analytics. 

Prep for a Cloudy time ahead - Adopting Cloud

Moving Development & Testing to Cloud:

• Development and test environments soon will be all on Cloud, as strategy to move from on-premise infrastructure and application installation into cloud for temporary needs seems surely beneficial to businesses
• Even for doing POCs and evaluations before taking up journey to implement a software can be better handled by using a Cloud for the time needed

Deploying Business Process to Cloud:

• Review OOTB Cloud service offering
• Map & align current business process to OOTB offering
• Configure the service offered
• Integrate the service to rest of the ecosystem (other clouds/non-cloud systems)
• Migrate data, Test & Adopt

Hybrid & Mix: 

• Many businesses are gong with Hybrid approach by carrying combination of on-premises, private cloud & public clouds
• Even going to multiple vendors for different cloud services is seen often as per recent market research on customers using Cloud

IT Department:

• Need for new learning and skills 
• Prepping for right partnership for journey to Cloud
• First Cloud experience & Maintenance to upgrade/enhance/support Cloud services afterwards

Demantra 12.2.5.1 New Features

Oracle released Demantra 12.2.5.1 some time back and there is already a patch on top of the first release which is mandatory for 12.2.5.x customers. With this release though Oracle has brought in couple of interesting enhancements to Demantra and OOTB integration. Here is a summary of what's new per in Demand Management module, no other modules have any additional features in this release.

• Site level integration with EBS enhanced: EBS-DM integration enhanced to allow clients collect historical sales into Demantra from EBS Order Management at account or customer level of Site hierarchy. This used to be a typical customization at client locations and with this option surely customers with EBS integration implementing Demantra or looking for upgrades will be able to leverage this OOTB feature now. Implementing this option will also take care of concerns in later upgrades/patches to EBS side as this becomes a supported option.
• Improved Security: Earlier releases used HTTP calls to communicate between modeler/engine/application server mainly, also allowed a user within firewall to launch engine or other calls if they had the right URL. Calling methodology now uses database layer & oracle wallet to improve security. 
• Enhanced Workflow Tool: Few small but handy changes like SAVE AS option to copy a workflow definition & ability to view(no changes allowed if not an owner) workflow definition owned by other users. Additionally an importance enhancement to allow indicating in workflow step, from which step workflow should restart in case of failures. This surely adds to recovery ability of workflows.
• Global instance enhanced timezone support: User's timezone will be considered in worksheets or any other user actions like simulation launch. E.g. history and first forecast bucket will transition based of user's timezone and not based of instance system timezone.
• Intermittent flag to IO: Inventory Optimization module now gets an intermittency indicator along with Forecast and forecast accuracy which it leverages to improve Safety stock & Service level. 
• Mobility Support enhanced: Demantra Anywhere now supports most regular worksheet functionality, additionally users can launch methods, run simulations, and introduce new products. 
• GUI: Improved GUI for better user experience. New release also allows selecting a pre 7.3.1.4 UI or revised 7.3.1.4 UI or latest 12.2.5.1 interface. 
• 
  

ASCP 12.2.5.X Release Key Features

ASCP 12.2.5 Release Features

Oracle has provided handful of enhancements in ASCP module with the latest release. Here is a summary of some key features which are now available.

• Collection filtered by Category Sets
• Ability to setup category sets and then use as filter to collect/refresh only subset of product data into ASCP
• Improves performance of collection process
• Demand Schedule Specific Forecast processing:
• Forecast processing options/consumption criteria definition can be done at demand schedule level with this enhancement. This allows one to submit for different region/Product LOBs separate schedules. 
• Following options can be enabled at demand schedule level now
• Backward days
• Forwards days
• Spread forecast
• Consume by Forecast bucket
• Explode Forecast
• Plan level options are used if no demand schedule level values are set
• Improved plan accuracy and allows more flexibility 
• Plan Options> organization tab has these additional options.

• Maximize Resource Utilization
• Works with Constrained plan without detailed scheduling plan type only 
• Allows better use by front loading production and minimize resource downtime
• ASCP will also use alternate sources of supplies (e.g. alternate resources, substitute components etc.) too if needed for maximizing resource utilization 
• There though are some fine prints on what all ASCP can do with this feature enabled, e.g. plan can violate the sourcing split % if needed for maximizing resources. 
• Use only if key need is to front load and maximize resource utilization 
• Extended Support for Reservation (for plan type : Constrained without detailed scheduling)
• Support so far:
• Reservation b/w on hand supplies & sales order demands
• Reservation b/w on hand, internal requisitions and maintenance work order supply types to maintenance work order demands 
• Extended support for:
• Reservation b/w discrete jobs, process batches, purchase orders & requisitions with sales orders/process batch demands
• Allows companies with Make To Order environment to reserve certain work order supplies to sales order demand
• Supply - Demand reservation could be 1-1, 1-Many, Many-1 or Many-Many 
• Enhanced Project Netting for Project Mfg environment 
• Enhanced User experience with Alta GUI



• Improved user interface provides ADF based Alta GUI, which is where future GUI is going towards for Oracle.
• New supply planning work area:
• Allows personalizing content and page layouts 
• User can define how he wishes to review and analyze the plan output
• Plan definition can be done with new GUI
• Enhanced Supply/Demand workbench using new GUI
• Favorites option
• Taxonomy of  most used/critical elements (E.g. items, resources, suppliers, orders etc.) 
• Planners can define their own set and use for filtering in Supply Demand work area
• Exception Management using new GUI

Demantra on Cloud

Demantra is now available on Cloud with Oracles' Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS) allowing customers to setup a Demantra instance on Cloud or to clone an existing instance into Cloud. There are currently though some limitations on usability, and this platform is supported for setting up instance for development, demo & QA purposes mainly. This surely allows customers to setup a cost optimal way of doing development, POCs and testing using Demantra instances setup on Cloud rather than setting up servers and supporting in house.

Current support is limited to release 12.2 and 12.1.3-based environments on Oracle Linux, and currently excludes configurations with Oracle RAC, DMZ, and external integrations.

VCP on Cloud benefits:

• Infrastructure cost savings
• Allocate temporary infra for Project POCs, testing, training and development
• Monitoring and automated patching abilities using Oracle Application Management Suite(AMS) for on-premises & cloud environments simultaneously

You need subscription of Oracle Compute Cloud services (like any other SaaS).With IaaS though you are supposed to purchase license for VCP suite and will be responsible for maintaining your VCP instance hosted on Cloud. Oracle does offer through Oracle managed Cloud Services option of Oracle managed VCP instance. 

Read on for more details @ https://blogs.oracle.com/demantra/entry/demantra_in_the_cloud_you

APCC 12.2.5.1 Release Features

APCC's latest release 12.2.5.1 is available and comes with following enhancements to the features: 

• Org Specific Manufacturing Calendar
• Earlier only one calendar setup by MSC:APCC Calendar Code, now you can setup multiple
• All mfg calendars for all planned orgs in ASCP plan will be available in APCC now
• Single global plans can be better analyzed and reviewed using org specific calendar which respects corresponding work days and start of weeks etc

• Material plan enhancement
• Ability to drill down from horizontal plan into details using Category & Org context embedded

• New reports in SCA dashboard & Project driven Supply Chain Dashboard
• Additional OOTB reports now available in various tabs for Supply Chain Analyst dashboard
• Additional OOTB dashboard content for Project environment

OBIEE 12C now available for download

Oracle recently announced availability of OBIEE 12c version which comes with some nice features like Data mashups which allows OBIEE users to use their own excel data in OBIEE along with rest of data available in analytic.

Get started with download from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud.

https://blogs.oracle.com/proactivesupportEPM/entry/obiee_122100

OBIA 11.1.8.1 Release Features

The latest Oracle Business Intelligence Application(OBIA) 11g release comes with prebuilt connectors to JDE for Procurement & Spend analytics along with significant addition to content of existing OBIA modules. This release also has enhanced tools to improve productivity with new data lineage tool, expansion to Configuration Management system & performance improvement innovations.

Reference: Oracle

Read on for more details @ https://blogs.oracle.com/proactivesupportEPM/entry/biapps_111181_whatsnew

Demantra Engine Log - Understanding Node

Demantra's Engine2K log has lot of details and one can configure to generate log at various level to debug/analyze engine's forecast generation process. Here is a quick visual of what various numbers mean when log line says Forecasting[x,y,z].

Demantra: Logs to look for while debugging

Demantra application has various logs which can help during root cause analysis of a problem encountered in application. Some of these logs are configurable to a large degree giving flexibility to capture detailed log for analysis. Here is a summary list of some of these key logs:

• Demantra installation log: Installer's first screen has option to enable logging at various level to capture installation activity. 
• Collaborator.log: This log captures any error during server start, shutdown, restart, etc. The log is available under the web server directory. 
• Systemlog: Captures various issues around logs encountered by end user on worksheets,  while running methods, etc. LoggerManager utility available through URL can be used to configure logging level and setup. 
• IntegrationLog:  Captures various logs around data integration runs done via Demantra's inbuild integration interface tool. 
• DBExecptionLog: DB_EXCEPTION_LOG table captures logs generated by some of the Demantra's procedures. (ep_load_xxx, chaining etc.)
• EngineLog: EngineManagerLog & Engine2Klog files carry details of engine run activity, logging level can be controlled for engine logs too. 
• WFProcessLog: Captures workflow run related logs and is accessible through URL too. 

More details around all the logs which come handy during troubleshooting Demantra issues can be found in Metalink Note ID 741464.1. 

Demantra @ Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente went live with Demantra, ready more about their supply chain journey @

http://onforb.es/1rWDWDZ

Demantra 12.2.4 is Available now !!

Oracle VCP 12.2.4 is now available which includes Demantra 12.2.4 version. Here is a list of few key features which made the cut into this release:

• User Access Control: Allowing better control in user's access to application, enables admin to disable access to users/groups for certain time, etc. 
• Improved New product launch management in DM and PTP module
• Custom hierarchies in APCC: Allowing integrating additional custom hierarchies for Customer/Organization dimensions into APCC from Demantra
• Worksheet Performance improvements

Additionally this release also comes with support for In-Memory Performance Driven Planning(PDP) & In-Memory Consumption Driven Planning(CDP). 

Demantra 12.2.3 released !!

12.2.3 release comes with both platform and application upgrade options, select correct option while upgrading based on your current version and features being used. You should use only platform upgrade option if already at 12.2.1. or 12.2.2 level. 

Also note that Demantra CDP clients should not upgrade to 12.2.3 as CDP isn't supported in 12.2.3 version. 

Refer to Oracle's Doc ID 160844.1 for more details around this release.

OBIA Procurement & Spend Analytic Module version 7.9.6.4

Procurement module of OBIA 7964 provides wide level of content for reporting on purchasing process related data. Procurement and Spend analytic module provides reporting capabilities on most of the required data for procure to pay cycle. This module allows users to analyse spend(direct/indirect), identify saving potentials, recognize supplier performance and assist in decision making to improve procurement performance.

This Oracle OBIA module has 4 dashboards under Procurement & Spend Analytics:

1. Spend Analyzer
2. Procurement Performance
3. Supplier Performance
4. Employee Expenses

Each of above dashboards contain various pages with overview and detailed reporting. These pages provide key metrics reporting around these areas for various level of business users like Procurement Manager, Purchasing Leads, Buyers, Sourcing Managers and AP Analysts. 

Spend Analyzer: 

Provides access to overall spend overview along with providing insight into spend by product category, by supplier, by Organization and Item level spend details. One can review direct and indirect spend by selecting specific product categories to segment the data. Oracle also supports reporting Spend using UNSPSC commodity category hierarchy. You can slice and dice to review Spend data at various levels using organization dimensions and their attributes like organization, business unit, cost center, buyer. Spend Analyzer dashboard also provides reporting on key metrics like Payable leakages, Invoice Price Variance, Avg invoice price, Saving Potentials, Off contract spend etc. 

Procurement Performance: 

Provides overview of how well procurement function in organization is performing along with detailed analysis on Purchase Order, Off contract purchase rates, Rejected amounts, On time received amount, Outstanding PO Amount, Metrics around Requisitions and various other key metrics. Content in this dashboard also enables users to analyse time trends, aging of requisitions and PO leakage.

Supplier Performance:

This dashboard allows buyers and purchasing managers to engage better with Suppliers by tracking their performance. The content under this dashboard allows users to do trending analysis, review exceptions, monitor quality, price and delivery performance, and understand payment performances. Buyers can quickly review top 20 performing suppliers using configurable supplier scorecard considering quality, delivery and pricing performance. One can also quickly identify which supplier's rejection amount is in Top 10 or which suppliers are delivering early or late. 

While Oracle provides lot of metrics in reports and presentation layer for each of it's functional modules, any requirements to build additional metrics can be easily achieved by using or extending the logical and physical layer content. 

As part of release 11.1.1.7.1 Oracle has additionally build content around "Sourcing Analytics" which allows users to analyze the negotiations with suppliers, supplier's responses and eventual contract award decisions. The intend is to allow insight into saving potentials by leveraging information available around this process. 

Oracle's Demantra 12.2.1 released !

Oracle last month released 12.2.1 version of Demantra. This version was long over due for release and it finally is available for all customers. One can download the new version from Oracle's E-Delivery.

Though be careful, as this version can either be installed as stand alone or it can be installed along with VCP 12.2.1 version only. For using the VCP/EBS - Demantra standard integration, one has to be a 12.2.1 version of VCP.

One of the key feature of this release is having the ability to utilize both weekly and Gregorian calendars in one data model itself.

Oracle Mfg Analytic Module 7.9.6.4 - Pegging Data pull query issue

7.9.6.4 version is the first release of Manufacturing Analytic module as part of Oracle's Business Intelligence Applications offering. We ran into an issue in a recent project where the out of the box query which is supposed to pull "ASCP Pegging" data from ASCP instance wasnt fetching any records.

Further analysis resulted in a possible bug with the SQL extract query for this task. Current query was trying to join Full Pegging table(MFP: MSC_FULL_PEGGING) and Plan Name table(MP: MSC_PLANS) using Organization_Id. In a typical ASCP environment plan definition is owned by a certain organization and you wunt have an ASCP plan for each inventory organization. After removing this not-needed join, the query started fetching data as expected.

Demand Analytics within Oracle, What are my options ??

The need to have access to demand data to capture insights, analyse and respond quickly and appropriately has been around for long in CPG market. The economic turmoil across the globe has added to complexity of projecting demand for CPG goods. Consumers today are spending less and wanting more and better return on their spend dollars. Social media has gone to a new high of usage and is playing a bigger role in consumer's decision making for selecting products. Amount of data present in various forms in various systems is absolutely humongous in size and scale.

Imagine a world where any data which can convey a story about market demand is available for analysis. Though getting every data out there into a system may not be do-able for every business, but atleast having access to key data streams which are classified as indicator for demand can itself be a big step forward. Some of the well known demand indicative elements are POS, Store inventory, Syndicated data, Consumer sentiment captured from big data, etc.

A business intelligence(BI) initiative to capture all such data to gain valuable insight of market/consumers has become critical for CPG companies. Like any BI initiative, few things to keep in mind while embarking a BI project journey are:

• Never forget that business goal is to gain insights by implementing BI 
• Thus ensure that these "insights" are identified upfront

We are seeing quite few companies are using Demantra as backbone for forecasting and S&OP process. These companies wish to use data lying in Demantra and S&OP in Oracle BI application for achieving a common reporting center, calling it often Demand Analytics. Building a Demand Analytics layer in your enterprise can help planners, managers and Chief's of company in various ways. Demand Analytics can quickly provide answer to questions like:

• Which are my most profitable brands?
• Which customers are giving me most business?
• How is my newly launched product doing in stores?
• Where am I running into Out of Stocks and for which products?
• etc..

Oracle BI apps are already being offered in various areas of business like Mfg Analytics, EAM Analytics, SCOM Analytics etc. For Advanced planning business users community(demand planners, supply planners, demand manager, supply managers, operations manager, S&OP planners and managers, COO, CIO, CFOs etc), Oracle has provided Advanced Planning Command Center and Oracle Demand Signal Repository as two key solutions for planning analytics space.

Oracle DSR: Oracle DSR is more focused towards capturing various demand signals/data from external and internal sources, cleansing and harmonizing it all to report in a BI presentation layer for easy reporting for business. Demand signal repository thus acts as a central warehouse for all demand related information providing business value gained from the insight of demand data in DSR. Also with data elements from DSR integrated to downstream applications like Demantra Demand Management, Demantra Consumer Driven Planning(future release), Demantra PTP, Agile PLM etc, there is richer value which downstream applications and users can realize.

(Read more @ http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/ebusiness/planning/053299.html)

Oracle APCC: Advanced Planning Command Center module provides a robust BI analytic layer over Oracle's Value Chain Planning modules, specially ASCP and Demantra. Latest version of APCC allows supply planners to almost do all their day to day ASCP work using simple and better APCC user interface. Additionally APCC allows publishing Demantra DM data as demand plan with option to publish 15 custom forecast&history measures and custom hierarchy into APCC. APCC also support S&OP and IBP processes using demand, supply and financial information from Demantra, SNO and ASCP modules. This module though is more manufacturer's internal operations and planning process centered.

(Read more @ http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/ebusiness/planning/053296.html)

A third option which we see clients considering is building a custom VCP Analytic solution using Oracle BI as platform with feeds coming from ASCP, Demantra and other planning applications. This option though is found more common among clients who find Gaps in std APCC offering due of variety of custom sources they may have. If there is lot of ETL work required for feeding APCC with required data from 3rd party sources then considering this 3rd option may become a better choice. Also for clients who already have a strong BI solution footprint are seen to prefer building additional metrics and subject areas on existing analytic solution.

(Read more about OBIEE offering @ http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/ent-performance-bi/enterprise-edition-066546.html)

VCP 12.2 release and EBS11i source?

Key points to remember:

• VCP 12.2.X release will not be supported with EBS11i source, for customers who wish to upgrade to VCP12.2.X release in future will need to upgrade their EBS platform to either 12.1 or 12.2. 
• Customers wishing to stay put on EBS 11i will have to stay on VCP12.1.X version and on Demantra 7.3.1.X version.
• Latest released supported version for EBS11i source is VCP 12.1.3.8 and Demantra 7.3.1.4

Note: Demantra 7.3.1.5 is in making and should be released soon. Also Demantra 12.2.1 release is expected to be released sometime this year. New Demantra CDP module announcement though makes release of Demantra 12.2 during this FY improbable. 

Consumer Driven Planning Module announced @ VCP Summit

Oracle announced two new Exa system offerings which will be released towards end of FY 2013. The intend is to provide customers with Exa enterprise systems with packaged solution with faster planning capabilities.

• Consumer Driven Planning(CDP) on Exa
• Performance Driven Planning(PDP) on Exa

Consumer Driven Planning module will use Demantra system capabilities on top of Exa systems to empower customers with a system which will be significantly faster(10hours to 10 mins kindda) and will be capable to handle huge volume of consumer level POS data. Oracle indicated that CDP will be a new module(the name may change though) under Demantra Suite offering and should be released along with VCP 12.1.3.9. Later R12.2 release will embed this new module along with PDP module offering. 

Initial release of Demantra's CDP module will mainly support:

 - POS based forecasting at multiple levels within a single Demantra instance. 

 - Store level data storage and forecasting

 - Bottoms up forecasting using Sell Thru data

 - Sell-in forecast derivation based on Sell Thru forecast

 - Store life cycle management (new store launch, store closures etc) 

 - Multi Channel Sell-in calculation based of consumption data

 - Replenishment planning 

 - Configurable Safety Stock calculations(simple rule based to statistical based)

Later releases are planned to support packaged PTP and DSR Exa systems. 

Oracle understands that some Demantra customers like Electronic Arts have already implemented similar processes using Custom configurations and integration. This new module is supposed to provide such functionality out of the gate in a packaged Exa Enterprise system for customers ease. We will wait to see more information and details about the new modules from Oracle soon.