Life after upgrading to R12 at Origin

Presentation to:InSyncDate: August 2010

Origin in 2008

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Origin in 2008

• Oracle eBusiness version 11.5.10

• Relatively low number of production issues

• Stable Production environment.

• Well known and understood processes

• No Performance issues

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Why did Origin go to R12 ?

• Origin had multiple requirements for an Asset Management system

• Decided to go for an enterprise-wide solution rather than multiple business unit specific solutions

• Oracle Asset Management Solution (eAMS) selected as the enterprise solution

• The functionality Origin required in their eAMS solution had R12 as a pre-requisite

• Project set up to– Upgrade to R12– Rollout eAMS– Migrate our upstream business from JD Edwards to Oracle

eBusiness– Introduce a new operating unit for APLNG – Joint Venture

• In hindsight, any one of these components would have been a project with sufficient challenges to tackle on their own

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Origin’s R12 project

• Origin’s R12 project was run during 2008

• Originally scheduled for go – live in November 2008

• Rescheduled to January 2009

• Key lessons learnt from the project Post Implementation Review– The R12 Upgrade should be a project in it’s own right if possible– Allocate time and resources to understanding the mandatory new

modules and functionality– Upgrading customisations will take more effort than you expect– Test early, test thoroughly– Defect management and resolution will take more effort than you

expect– Training is important, but communications are critical

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R12 go live

• Go live went from 8th Jan – 11th Jan 2009

• Implementations for the remainder of the project (upstream rollout, eAMS rollout ) occurred over the next 1-2 weeks

• Went live with version 12.0.5

• Upgraded 2 existing operating units from R11 to R12

• Implemented 2 new operating units in R12

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26-Dec-08 9-J an-09 23-J an-09 6-Feb-09 20-Feb-09

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Support

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What happened in the 1st month after R12 go live …

Some of the key R12 issues we experienced were …

• Performance– After go-live performance issues occurred

– Delays logging on– Java forms slow– Disconnections– Workflow mailer backlog

– Required some fine tuning– Ensure technical software versions and configurations are

correct– Web Cache software improved performance at remote sites– Reverted to forms Socket Mode (from Servlet Mode)– JVM sizing wrong for 11i and required resizing in R12– Tuned concurrent manager sizing

– Points to note– This was not unexpected due to limited R12 implementations

in Australia– Ensure time scheduled for load testing– Ensure Oracle and hardware vendor reviews and signs off on

versions and configurationsPage 8

Some of the key R12 issues we experienced were …

• Invoice Validation Performance– What we saw

– Invoice validation was not completing overnight– Operating units conflicting with each other– If a run was terminated -> records locked– Particularly an issue at month end -> couldn’t close payables

until finished– What we did

– Baby-sit invoice validation overnight– Hot-fix supplied by Oracle to ensure indexes used– Patch supplied to limit the number of records processed

– Points to note– Ensure hot-fix and patch applied– Ensure invoice validation in your regression test suite

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Some of the key R12 issues we experienced were …

• Payables table structures changed– What we saw

– Could not process R11 invoices in R12– What we did

– Data fixes to process some records– Cancel R11 invoices and create R12 invoices

– Points to note– Ensure all invoices processed before upgrade– Develop in-flight process for those that can’t– Ensure processes for how to handle R11 well communicated

• Reports– What we saw

– Origin planned to move back to standard reports as much as possible

– What we did– Many custom reports upgrade / developed after go live

– Points to note– Commit to using Standard reports or plan (schedule / budget to

do a lot of report upgrade / development)Page 10

Some of the key R12 issues we experienced were …

• New / Reworked modules (Payments, eBusiness tax, SLA)– What we saw

– These modules gave us the most issues– What we did

– Steep learning curve– Obtain outside assistance

– Points to note– Plan (schedule / budget) to understand these modules before

go-live

• Withholding Tax– What we saw

– Withholding Tax did not work in R12– What we did

– Implement workarounds– Long engagement with Oracle to resolve this SR

– Points to note– Ensure the version you go live with contains the required

patchesPage 11

Which modules were impacted by R12

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101

1

229

80 2 30

Heightened Support calls by module - go live + 2 months

GL, PA, FA, OTL, OM, AR, CE, INV

Manufacturing

Iexp, Iproc, proc , Payables

sysadmin

eams

Technical

What happened then … Transition to Support

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39864 2-Mar--09 39888 39904 39920

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Support take new calls

Project focus on HS backlog

Approx new calls in this period = 1600Approx calls closed in this period = 1740

The picture after 4 months …

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276

7

234

126 5

Helpdesk calls by module - go live + 4 months

GL, PA, FA, OTL, OM, AR, CE, INVManufacturingIexp, Iproc, Proc , PayablesSys AdmineAMSTechnical

Remediation Project

• Situation did not materially change as a result of transition to support

• Not sustainable for our business

• Remediation Project set up to address

• Objectives– Return outstanding calls to Business as Usual level (target 275)– Return outstanding SRs with Oracle to Business as Usual level

(target 30)– Reduce the number of new calls per day by 20%– New calls to be actioned within our SLA– Recommendation made on a patch release – Technical review undertaken

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… And then …

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Remediation Project – Target vs Actual

Target

Actual

Heightened Support calls logged

Remediation Project

• 4-6 additional functional resources required for 4 months– Availability– Cost– Travel and Accom

• Lot of work required with Oracle to progress critical SRs

• Focus required to ensure support process were appropriate

• Outside of difficult SRs, no real problems encountered

• Technical review performed by Oracle – tactical hardware upgrade recommended

• Review of potential next patch release– No official patch release would address our critical SRs– Testing confirmed that a combination of several mega-patches

(400-600 fixes in each patch), July CPC and a range of smaller patches would address our critical SRs

• Project Targets achieved

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Service desk calls by module – after remediation

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107

1135

23 114

Helpdesk calls by module -> go live + 8 months

GL, PA, FA, OTL, OM, AR, CE, INVManufacturingIexp, Iproc, Proc , PayablesSys AdmineAMSTechnical

Tactical Hardware Upgrade

• Goals– Address month end performance issues– Create headroom to re-introduce end-user reporting capacity– Ensure capacity available for coming 12 months

• Tasks– Transform from 1-tier to 2-tier architecture– New server plus additional memory required– Proof of concept, Regression Test, Performance Test

• Timeframes– Very tight timeframes to meet project deadlines and half year-end

reporting– Approval thru to implement in 2 months

• Results– Very successful– Performance issues gone– Project deadlines not impacted– Half Year end not impacted

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Patch Release

• Goals– Implement solutions to critical SRs– Retain performance of Invoice validation

• Tasks– Scope and build test cases– Use of structured test cases and defect management – Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing– 5 -6 FTEs

• Timeframes– Originally 3 months, Grew to 4 months– Significant effort to resolve Tax config issues for upgraded

operating units

• Results– Very Successful– Improved stability of P2P particularly Invoice Workbench– Identified some tax config issues resulting from the R12 upgrade– 1 minor issue post go-live– Now have formal set of P2P test cases which are used for

regression testingPage 20

… Finally…

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Helpdesk calls post patch release

Target

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Heightened Support calls logged

Service desk calls by module – after patch release

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95

1

104

29 29

Helpdesk calls by module -> go live + 12 months

GL, PA, FA, OTL, OM, AR, CE, INV

Manufacturing

Iexp, Iproc, Proc , Payables

Sys Admin

eAMS

Technical

In Summary

• In the 12 months since go live Origin has had– 4 months of Project Heightened Support– 4 months of Remediation project– Rolled out a new operating unit for our NZ business– Hardware upgrade– Re - implemented APLNG operating unit– Rolled out eAMS to multiple sites across the business– Major patch release

• This has been achieved by– Significant hard work by my support team and our project team in

Brisbane– Significant hard work, patience and support from our business

stakeholders– Important assistance from Oracle at the crunch times

• Last 12 months was probably the 12 months we had to have as we were early adopters of R12 (thanks Paul Keating)

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Final Thoughts

• Consider carefully before including any other scope in your R12 project

• Make sure your technical environment and hardware is set up to perform to R12 requirements early on in your project

• Consider carefully whether you want to upgrade to R12 or re-implement R12.

• Plan for expert assistance from Oracle to assist with – New Payments engine – E-Business Tax– Sub Ledger Accounting

• Don’t plan on a short Heightened Support period – minimum 3 month ends

• Plan for a period of Remediation and/or stabilization for some months after that

• Plan for a hardware health check post stabilization

• Regression Testing is all-important in an R12 environment

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