ERP and Oracle E-Business Suite Concepts

ERP Definition• ERP stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning”• ERP is a comprehensive software package• ERP systems typically include the following

characteristics:– An integrated system that operates in real time (or

next to real time), without relying on periodic updates.– A common database, which supports all applications. – A consistent look and feel throughout each module. – Installation of the system without elaborate

application/data integration by the Information Technology (IT) department

ERP Functional/Technical Components

• Finance/Accounting• Human Resources• Manufacturing• Supply Chain Management (SCM)• Project Management• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)• Data Services• Access Control (User and Role Management)

Generic ERP Tools• User Interface (Forms)• Reports• Database• Web Server/ Applications Server (for Web

Enabled/based ERP’s)

ERP Features• Independent of Operating System• Independent of Database System• Process End-to-End business Information• Modularity• Integration between modules• Interfacing capabilities with external file and business

applications• Integration with Online Analytical process systems (OLAP)• Web based• Support Multi-Currency transactions• Open to Customization and Localization (Native country

implementation

Commercial Full Fledged ERP’s • Oracle E-Business Suite (from Oracle Corp)• Peoplesoft (from Oracle Corp)• JD Edwards (from Oracle Corp)• SAP (from SAP Labs)• Ramco Marshall (from Ramco Systems)

Industry/Vertical ERP’s

• Siebel CRM• Reatek • Hyperion • Flex-Cube • Tally Accounting Package• Sage Accounting Package

Benefits of Oracle E-Business Suite• Available in 30 languages• Supports multiple currencies• Supports flexible management of business processes• Has single database model for entire business data• Supports statutory and customary local

requirements• Is built on open standards• Collaborates with trading partners (customer,

suppliers, dealers, wholesalers etc..)

Oracle E-business Suite Product Families

Important Modules in Product Families• Financials

• General Ledger• Receivables • Cash Management• Fixed Assets• Payables• Sub Ledger Accounting

• HRMS• HR• Payroll• Time and Labor• Oracle Learning Management• Advanced Benefits

• Manufacturing– Process Manufacturing

• OPM Costing• Process Execution• Product Development• E-Records• OPM Quality

– Discrete Manufacturing• Bills of Material• Costing• Quality• Work in process• Engineering

Important Modules in Product Families• Projects

• Project Costing• Project Billing• Project Manufacturing• Project Resource Management• Project Management

• CRM• iStore• Service Requests• Contracts• Teleservice• Depot repair• Field Service

• Administration• System Administration• Application Object Library• Alerts• Workflow

Important Modules in Product Families• Sales and Marketing

• Order Management • Pricing• Shipping• Release management

• Procurement• Purchasing• iProcurement• Sourcing• iSupplier

Oracle E-business Architecture

Oracle E-Business Architecture• Desktop/Client tier: This tier provides the user interface. This

tier could consist of a desktop computer, laptop or mobile devices like PDAs, and so on. This tier is mainlyinvolved in capturing and displaying information to the user.

• Application tier: This tier is responsible for holding all the application logic. It supports and manages various Applications components, and is sometimes known as the middle tier.

• Database tier: This tier is responsible for storing and retrieving the application data. It supports and manages the Oracle database.

Shared Entities

• Shared entities in R12 E-Business Suite enable one time definition of an object, and the use of that object across several modules/products/applications.

• Shared entities are owned by one module from the definition standpoint, but can be referenced where ever needed.

E-business Suite Shared Entities

AOL Shared Entities

Shared Entities Ownership

• Set of Books - General ledger• Units of Measure - Inventory• Items - Inventory• Suppliers - TCA • Customers - TCA• Organizations - HR• Locations - HR• Sales Force - Sales and Marketing• Employees- HR

Major Business Processes

Procure to Pay (P2P)

Procure to Pay (P2P)

• Procure to PayThis business flow outlines how a company raises purchase orders for procurement of goods or service and then processes associated invoices for payment, transfer to GL and reconciliation with bank statements.

Order to Cash (O2C)

Order to Cash (O2C)

• Order to CashThis business flow encompasses activities starting from order entry, checking/booking of the items in the inventory, shipping of goods, raising invoices, reconciling bank statements and transferring accounting entries to General Ledger.

People to Paycheck

People to Paycheck

• People to PaycheckThis business process encompasses activities related to calculation and generation of payroll payments to employees. This flow enables users to set up necessary payroll elements and methods for particular employees, perform payroll processing (standard periodic, supplementary, and “one-offs” for a single employee), pay employees by check or direct deposit, request various related reports, and perform costing and transfer of completed payroll data to the general ledger.

Multi-OrgWhat Is Multi-Org?

Multi-Org is a server-side (applications and database) enhancement that enables multiple business units in an enterprise to use a single installation of Oracle Applications products while keeping transaction data separate and secure. The Multi-Org enhancement uses native database views to build a security layer on top of a single installation of Oracle Applications. In Oracle Applications Release 12, the following products support Multi-Org capabilities:

• Cash Management• Order Management, Shipping Execution and Release Management• Payables• Property Manager• Projects• Purchasing• Receivables• Sales Compensation• Sales and Marketing• Service

E-business Suite Multi-org Structure

Business Group

Legal Entity1

Operating Unit1

Operating Unit2

Legal Entity2

Operating Unit3

E-business Suite Multi-org Structure

Legal Entity1

Operating Unit1

Inventory Org1 WIP Org1

Operating Unit2

Inventory Org2

E-Business Suite Modules Implementation by Modules

Multi-org Data Security Model

HR Organization Types

• Business Group• Legal Entity• Operating Unit• Inventory organization• WIP organization

Organization Naming Conventions• Organization Naming ConsiderationsMulti-Org naming conventions should be used to identify the Oracle OrganizationsClassification (for example, Set of Books, Operating Unit, Inventory Organization) and it’s unique

characteristics like country or currency, location name, and usage.The following are general guidelines for creating Organization Names:Sets of Books where:

• SOB_; is an operational book that obtains journal entries directly from a subledgersystem (for example, accounts payable, inventory).• COB_; is a consolidation set of books.• ROB_; is a reporting set of books when using the Multiple Reporting Currency (MRC)feature.• Business Group: BG_• Human Resources Organization: HR_• Legal Entity: LE_• Operating Unit: OU_

Fundamentals of System Administration

Define New Application Login User

Assigning Responsibilities to Users

Tables for User and Responsibility Assignment

• User– FND_USER

• Responsibility Assignments to User– FND_USER_RESP_GROUPS

Where FND stands for foundation. All the database tables of System Administration, Application object library, Alerts and Workflow modules start with “FND_” prefix…

Importance of Responsibilities

Components of Responsibility

Components of Responsibility (Defined)

• Datagroup : Data group: A data group specifies the Oracle Application

• Menu : A menu specifies the forms that a responsibility can display and the functions it

can access.• Request Group : Collection of reports and

programs that can be submitted thru a responsibility.

Define a New Responsibility

Function and Menu security

Function and Menu securityUse exclusion rules to configure a responsibility. You can exclude functions at any level.

• When you exclude a menu item from a responsibility, all menus and functions that arenested in that menu are also excluded.• When you exclude a function from a responsibility, all occurrences of that functionthroughout the responsibility’s menu structure are excluded.

A “full access” responsibility with a menu that includes all the functions in an application is predefined for each Oracle Applications product. Some applications may provide additionalpredefined responsibilities that include a smaller set of functions (that is, fewer forms andsubfunctions).

As a System Administrator, you can restrict the functionality a responsibility provides bydefining rules to exclude specific functions or menus of functions. In fact, we recommend thatyou use exclusion rules to customize a responsibility in preference to constructing a new menuhierarchy for that responsibility.

For example, suppose you want to customize a responsibility to restrict the functionality of aform included in that responsibility.

Profile Options

• Profile options control the behavior/access levels for the different features and functionalities available from the Oracle E-business suite.

Profile option setting levels

• Site• Application• Responsibility• User

Profile Option Execution Hierarchy

Profile Option Tables• Profile option definitions : FND_PROFILE_OPTIONS

• Profile Option values :FND_PROFILE_OPTION_VALUES

Request processing in Oracle E-business Suite

• Tasks in Oracle E-business suite are broadly categorized as online/immediate and offline/background processing tasks.

• For all the Report and program requests submitted thru the “Standard Request Submission”, the execution is handled by the background processing engine called “Concurrent Manager”

• Concurrent manager handles/executes multiple report/program processing requests by default in a first come-first serve basis.

R12 Oracle Database Model• Every Product/Module/Application uses a different schema. (GL for

General ledger, AR for Receivables, AP for Payables)• Tables, Views and Sequences in the product specific schema.• All code objects (triggers, packages, procedures, functions) owned by

Apps Schema.• Public synonyms of tables, views and sequences of all the products owned

by Apps schema• All the Front end responsibilities access the R12 database thru Apps

schema.• Applsys schema holds the tables of Sysadmin, AOL, Alerts and Workflow

modules.• Applsyspub schema tracks the Application user sessions from the login

time to the logout time.• Every module/product has a two corresponding tablespaces one user

tablespace and another index tablespace.• The password of Applsys and Apps schema must always be same, else the

important services/processes like Concurrent Managers etc will not function.

Flexfields• A flexfield is a “Flexible Field” which can

capture varying length of information depending on the Organizations requirement.

• Types of Flexfields– Key Flexfield– Descriptive Flexfield– Range Flexfield

Descriptive Flexfield• Appears as short, unnamed text item in

majority of forms in Oracle EBS responsibilities.• By default, all the DFF items/fields would be

disabled.• DFF is used to capture additional business

information that is unique to a business.• All DFF’s are enabled in the AOL

Module/Application developer responsibility.• All DFF’s are owned by AOL module.• DFF are accessed as Pop-up windows.

Descriptive Flexfield• DFF information is captured in ATTRIBUTE Prefixed

columns.• Oracle EBS provides from a minimum of 7 to a max of

45 attribute columns in majority of tables.• DFF Implementation is optional.• DFF data is not reported on the Standard reports of

Oracle EBS reports. Reports must be customized to publish the output of DFF information.

• New/Additional DFF’s can be registered with AOL module.

• DFF information cannot be shared across forms or modules.

Type of DFF Data• Global Data Elements • Context Sensitive Data

Enabling DFF• Identify DFF to be enabled from any of the

functional responsibilities.• Switch responsibility to Application developer

responsibility.• Navigate to the Descriptive Segments form.• Configure the required attributes.• Freeze and compile the DFF• Access the DFF from functional

responsibilities.

Tables for DFF

• FND_DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXS• FND_DESCR_FLEX_COLUMN_USAGES• FND_DESCR_FLEX_CONTEXTS

Registration of New DFF• Create table “XX_<Table_name>” in any

application schema with Attribute category and Attribute 1-n columns.

• Create public synonym for the “XX_<Table_name>” table in APPS schema.

• Register the table with AOL using AD_DD package and its procedures from the APPS schema.

• Verify whether the table has been successfully registered in AOL module.

• Register the DFF in AOL module.

Key Flexfields• Key Flexfield appear as normal text items with

Labels/boilerplates in Oracle EBS forms. • KFF implementation is mandatory. If a KFF is not

implemented, certain processes, features, functionalities or set of integrations will not function properly.

• KFF’s are also accessed as pop-up windows in the Oracle EBS forms.

• KFF’s information is stored in SEGMENT prefixed columns.• All standard reports by default supports the reporting of

KFF data.• New/Additional KFF’s can be registered with the AOL

module.• KFF information is shared across Forms/Modules and thru

reports.

Important Key Flexfields by Module• General Ledger - Accounting , Reporting

Attributes , GL Ledger• Receivables – Sales tax , Territory etc ..• Inventory – System Item, Item Catalog, Item

Category, Service Item, Stock Locators etc…• HR – Job , Position, Grade, Competency etc…• Assets – Category , Location , Asset Key• In total 35 KFF’s are provided by the Oracle

EBS in R12.

Steps for KFF configuration

• Define value sets• Define flexfield structure– Define segments– Assign value sets – Freeze flexfield structure– Compile the flexfield structure

• Define values for the value sets.

Tables for the KFF processing

• KFF def : FND_ID_FLEXS• KFF Structure : fnd_id_flex_structures• KFF segments : fnd_id_flex_segments

Registration of New KFF• Create table “XX_<Table_name>” in any

application schema with structure_id and segment 1-n columns.

• Create public synonym for the “XX_<Table_name>” table in APPS schema.

• Register the table with AOL using AD_DD package and its procedures from the APPS schema.

• Verify whether the table has been successfully registered in AOL module.

• Register the KFF in AOL module.

Range Flexfield• Range Flexfield is automatically implemented

once the corresponding KFF is implemented.• Range based operations can be performed in

the reports and forms using the Range flexfield, with the validation that higher range values must be equal to or greater than lower range of values.

Value Set• Value set is “set of values”.• A value set can be associated with DFF

attribute, KFF segment or a concurrent program parameter.

• Components of a value set:– Value set name– Length/ Maximum Size– Format/Data type– Validation type– Values

Value Set – Format/Data Types• Char• Date• Number• Date Time• Time• Standard Date time• Standard Date

Supported Values for the Data/Format types

• CHAR - Numeric, Alphabetic, Alpha Numeric values

• NUMBER - Numeric• DATE/TIME - Date and Time values

Value Set Validation Types• Independent• Dependent• Table• Special• Pair• None• Translatable Independent• Translatable Dependent

Tables for Value sets

• FND_FLEX_VALUE_SETS (for value set definitions)

• FND_FLEX_VALUES (stores the values for the value sets)

Form Registration Process• Design or Copy a .fmx file and rename it to 8

character filename.• Register form executable with Application

Developer responsibility.• Create/define form function based on the

form executable in Application developer responsibility.

• Assign form function to a menu.• Assign menu to a responsibility.• Assign responsibility to a user.

Type of Functions• Form Function

The complete form with all its items.

• Sub-Function

Every item in the form (button, field, check box, radio options) can be separately registered as

Sub functions. Subfunctions can be secured thru the function security feature in Oracle EBS.

Tables for the Forms Registration Process

• FORM Executable Registration– FND_FORM

• FORM Function– FND_FORM_FUNCTIONS

• MENU– FND_MENUS– FND_MENU_ENTRIES

Forms Access in Oracle EBS

• USER Responsibility Menu Form Function Form Form Executable (.fmx FILE)

Oracle EBS Table Registration Process• Create table “XX_<Table_name>” in any

application schema• Create public synonym for the

“XX_<Table_name>” table in APPS schema.• Register the table with AOL using AD_DD

package and its procedures from the APPS schema.

• Verify whether the table has been successfully registered in AOL module.

Using AD_DD package• Following tasks can be performed using AD_DD

package:- Register table- Register column

- Register primary key - Delete column - Delete table - Update Primary key

- Delete primary key

• Only Tables and columns can be registered using AD_DD package.

Database Objects to registered with AOL

• Tables• Views• Sequences• Indexes