Sunday, June 14, 2015

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


Sunday, January 18, 2015

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].


Saturday, November 8, 2014

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. 


Saturday, October 25, 2014

Demantra @ Kaiser Permanente

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

http://onforb.es/1rWDWDZ

Sunday, September 14, 2014

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). 




Monday, December 30, 2013

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.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

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. 



Tuesday, July 30, 2013

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.


Perspectives on Managing through Difficult Times