Fusion Apps delayed, what to do next….

About a year ago I raised the question how to prepare for Oracle Fusion Applications. Within Logica we had chosen to focus on creating awareness for the changes Fusion Apps would bring. In this so called Tour de Fusion programme we focused on several topics like SOA, BPEL and BPM. Topics which not only existed in theory, but already were supported with tools by Oracle. For instance the Oracle SOA suite or Oracle BPA suite. This allowed our consultants to work (‘to stand with their feet in the mud’) with these products in our skill centre environment. Examples are interfaces between PeopleSoft and eBusiness Suite based on BPEL. A rudimentary way of application integration.

At Openworld 2008 Oracle delayed the launch of Fusion Apps until end 2009 / beginning 2010. What is the impact on our competence development in general and the Tour de Fusion programme in particular?

Our competence focus in 2009 consists of:

1. The current and new releases of PeopleSoft and eBusiness Suite. As a result of the delay of Fusion Apps more and more customers will look into the possibility for upgrading to Psoft release 9 or eBS release 12. Also the economic climate will force the Apps users to generate more return from their existing implementation. They will implement new processes like Employee and Manager Self Service, eRecruitment and Talentmanagement or extended their current Psoft and eBS applications with new features like Benefit Shop or HR Helpdesk.
      
2. Another part of our focus is on components more in the periphery of Oracle Apps. For instance Identity Management (compliancy) and Business Intelligence (insight). It’s by far not our intention to become experts with our Apps consultants on IDM or BI. But what we do want to know is how these products work in combination with PeopleSoft or eBusiness Suite. If a customer uses IDM how will this affect the security in Psoft or eBS. Does they work together or perhaps not.
          
3. The last and by far not the least focus is more a bridge to our Tour de Fusion programme and Fusion Apps. Oracle recently released the Application Integration Architecture (AIA). This framework combines a number of Oracle developments from the recent years. Within AIA you will experience SOA and BPEL but also BPA suite (ARIS) / processes. The skill centre activities we did on integrating Psoft and eBS with BPEL is now out of the box available withe Oracle AIA.
          
   AIA will become our stepping stone towards Fusion Apps. It creates a platform to combine our skill centre efforts on ARIS, BPA suite, SOA, BPEL etc. Where consultants in the past were active on a specific subject, they now have the change to combine their efforts both technical and functional. 
       
   During the Logica Oracle Update Day (LOUD) we presented a first glimpse of AIA. In the coming internal meetings we will go into more detail. We also will launch several skill centre activities and use the experience from our French colleagues who already have a proof of concept available on AIA. 

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Posted by: Domien Bolmers (6 post(s)).

After my education (HTS - Informatica) I started my IT career in 1983 with Van Ommeren. After working for Shell and Management Share I joined CMG in 1993. I have held various positions in our Financial Services division. Currently I'm the Oracle Applications manager within Logica Netherlands. My team consists of both functional en technical consultants. We focus on PeopleSoft HCM, eBusiness Suite and Siebel CRM.