Oracle A.I.M. Methodology – template list

Oracle A.I.M. Methodology encompasses a project management methodology with documentation templates that support the life cycle of an implementation. The life cycle methodology and documentation templates allows A.I.M. to be a very useful tool for managing implementation projects successfully. This is a depiction of the A.I.M. methodology life cycle:

Application Implementation Method is a proven approach for all the activities required to implement oracle applications. there are eleven processes of implementation.

1. Business Process Architecture [BP] – This phase outlines:

• Existing Business Practices
• Catalog change practices
• Leading practices
• Future practices

BP.010 Define Business and Process StrategyBP.020 Catalog and Analyze Potential Changes

BP.030 Determine Data Gathering Requirements

BP.040 Develop Current Process Model

BP.050 Review Leading Practices

BP.060 Develop High-Level Process Vision

BP.070 Develop High-Level Process Design

BP.080 Develop Future Process Model

BP.090 Document Business Procedure

2. Business Requirement Definition [RD] - This phase explains about the initial baseline questionnaire and gathering of requirements.

RD.010 Identify Current Financial and Operating Structure RD.020 Conduct Current Business Baseline RD.030 Establish Process and Mapping Summary RD.040 Gather Business Volumes and Metrics RD.050 Gather Business Requirements RD.060 Determine Audit and Control Requirements RD.070 Identify Business Availability Requirements RD.080 Identify Reporting and Information Access Requirements

3. Business Requirement Mapping [BR] – In this phase the requirements of business are matched with the standard functionality of the oracle applications.

BR.010 Analyze High-Level GapsBR.020 Prepare mapping environment

BR.030 Map Business requirements

BR.040 Map Business Data

BR.050 Conduct Integration Fit Analysis

BR.060 Create Information Model

BR.070 Create Reporting Fit Analysis

BR.080 Test Business Solutions

BR.090 Confirm Integrated Business Solutions

BR.100 Define Applications Setup

BR.110 Define security Profiles

4. Application and Technical Architecture [TA] – This outlines the infrastructure requirements to implement oracle applications.

TA.010 Define Architecture Requirements and StrategyTA.020 Identify Current Technical Architecture

TA.030 Develop Preliminary Conceptual Architecture

TA.040 Define Application Architecture

TA.050 Define System Availability Strategy

TA.060 Define Reporting and Information Access Strategy

TA.070 Revise Conceptual Architecture

TA.080 Define Application Security Architecture

TA.090 Define Application and Database Server Architecture

TA.100 Define and Propose Architecture Subsystems

TA.110 Define System Capacity Plan

TA.120 Define Platform and Network Architecture

TA.130 Define Application Deployment Plan

TA.140 Assess Performance Risks

TA.150 Define System Management Procedures

5. Build and Module Design [MD] – This phase emphasizes the development of new functionality (customization) required by the client. It mainly details how to design the required forms, database and reports.

MD.010 Define Application Extension StrategyMD.020 Define and estimate application extensions

MD.030 Define design standards

MD.040 Define Build Standards

MD.050 Create Application extensions functional design

MD.060 Design Database extensions

MD.070 Create Application extensions technical design

MD.080 Review functional and Technical designs

MD.090 Prepare Development environment

MD.100 Create Database extensions

MD.110 Create Application extension modules

MD.120 Create Installation routines

6. Data Conversion [CV] – Data Conversion is the process of converting or transferring the data from legacy system to oracle applications. Ex. Transferring customer records from the legacy to the Customer Master.

CV.010 Define data conversion requirements and strategyCV.020 Define Conversion standards

CV.030 Prepare conversion environment

CV.040 Perform conversion data mapping

CV.050 Define manual conversion procedures

CV.060 Design conversion programs

CV.070 Prepare conversion test plans

CV.080 Develop conversion programs

CV.090 Perform conversion unit tests

CV.100 Perform conversion business objects

CV.110 Perform conversion validation tests

CV.120 Install conversion programs

CV.130 Convert and verify data

7. Documentation [DO] – Documentation prepared per module that includes user guides and implementation manuals.

DO.010 Define documentation requirements and strategyDO.020 Define Documentation standards and procedures

DO.030 Prepare glossary

DO.040 Prepare documentation environment

DO.050 Produce documentation prototypes and templates

DO.060 Publish user reference manual

DO.070 Publish user guide

DO.080 Publish technical reference manual

DO.090 Publish system management guide

8. Business System Testing [TE] – A process of validating the setup’s and functionality by QA(functional consultant) to certify status.

TE.010 Define testing requirements and strategyTE.020 Develop unit test script

TE.030 Develop link test script

TE.040 Develop system test script

TE.050 Develop systems integration test script

TE.060 Prepare testing environments

TE.070 Perform unit test

TE.080 Perform link test

TE.090 perform installation test

TE.100 Prepare key users for testing

TE.110 Perform system test

TE.120 Perform systems integration test

TE.130 Perform Acceptance test

9. Performance Testing [PT] - Performance testing is the evaluation of transactions saving time, transaction retrieval times, workflow background process, database performance, etc

PT.010 – Define Performance Testing StrategyPT.020 – Identify Performance Test Scenarios

PT.030 – Identify Performance Test Transaction

PT.040 – Create Performance Test Scripts

PT.050 – Design Performance Test Transaction Programs

PT.060 – Design Performance Test Data

PT.070 – Design Test Database Load Programs

PT.080 – Create Performance Test TransactionPrograms

PT.090 – Create Test Database Load Programs

PT.100 – Construct Performance Test Database

PT.110 – Prepare Performance Test Environment

PT.120 – Execute Performance Test

10. Adoption and Learning [AP] – This phase explains the removal of the legacy system and oracle application roll out enterprise wide.

AP.010 – Define Executive Project StrategyAP.020 – Conduct Initial Project Team Orientation

AP.030 – Develop Project Team Learning Plan

AP.040 – Prepare Project Team Learning Environment

AP.050 – Conduct Project Team Learning Events

AP.060 – Develop Business Unit Managers’Readiness Plan

AP.070 – Develop Project Readiness Roadmap

AP.080 – Develop and Execute CommunicationCampaign

AP.090 – Develop Managers’ Readiness Plan

AP.100 – Identify Business Process Impact onOrganization

AP.110 – Align Human Performance SupportSystems

AP.120 – Align Information Technology Groups

AP.130 – Conduct User Learning Needs Analysis

AP.140 – Develop User Learning Plan

AP.150 – Develop User Learningware

AP.160 – Prepare User Learning Environment

AP.170 – Conduct User Learning Events

AP.180 – Conduct Effectiveness Assessment

11. Production Migration [PM] – The process of “decommissioning” of legacy system and the usage(adoption) of oracle application system.

PM.010 – Define Transition Strategy

PM.020 – Design Production Support Infrastructure

PM.030 – Develop Transition and Contingency Plan

PM.040 – Prepare Production Environment

PM.050 – Set Up Applications

PM.060 – Implement Production Support Infrastructure

PM.070 – Verify Production Readiness

PM.080 – Begin Production

PM.090 – Measure System Performance

PM.100 – Maintain System

PM.110 – Refine Production System

PM.120 – Decommission Former Systems

PM.130 – Propose Future Business Direction

PM.140 – Propose Future Technical Direction

thanks – Shivmohan Purohit

Account Recievables – Conversion – Invoices

Whenever we are going in for implementation of Receivables module, we have to consider the necessity of bringing in customer open balances from the old system to Oracle Receivables.

Some of the key questions that needs to be addressed before we take up a conversion activity. This is just a sample list and not an exhaustive one:

1. What are the different types of invoices in existing system Provide invoice samples? (invoices, credit/ debit memos, commitments, chargebacks)

2. Do we need to migrate only open invoices?

3. Do we migrate closed invoices also, if yes, then for what time period?

4. Please explain the invoice numbering mechanism? Is it automatic?

5. What are the interfaces from/to your existing receivables system?

6. Will the old system still be in place for querying and reporting purpose?

One can adopt one of the following three strategies for conversion:

1. Consolidate all the open balances customer-wise and create a single open invoice for each customer in the new Oracle system. The advantage of this system is that it is quite easy and not data intensive and makes good business sense in case of small businesses with very few customers. The major demerit of this approach is that later on one cannot track the individual invoices which the customer had sent and can become an audit issue also. In case of dispute over payment, this invoice will remain open till the dispute is resolved. Also, aging of invoices and dunning history will be lost.

2. Bring in all the open and partially paid invoices, credit/debit memos into the new system. Migrate all the unapplied and partially applied receipts to the new system. The advantage of this process of conversion is that you can track all open invoices individually and apply the correct receipt to correct invoice. Also, the conversion effort will be moderately low compared to case if you migrate all open and closed invoices. The disadvantage of this approach is that you cannot have a track of closed invoices in the new system. Also, it would be tough to handle scenarios where there is a dispute regarding incorrect receipt application, etc. This is the most common approach taken for receivables invoice, credit/debit memo and receipt migration.

3. Migrate all open and closed invoices to the new system. Reapply the migrated receipts to invoices in the new system. This approach makes sense if your receivables data is quite small else the effort involved in migrating all closed invoices and credit memos to the new system does not make much business sense.

The next question that arises is how we should migrate the invoices, credit/debit memos and receipts to the new system. Oracle provides standard interfaces to load the same. We can also use tools like Dataloader or manually key in the data into Oracle.

In this article i will talk of invoice, credit/debit memo conversion only. Prior to invoice migration, customer migration should be over apart from other pre-requisites. Following is the list of pre-requisites that should be completed prior to invoice, credit/debit memo conversion:

•Set-up of Customer Payment Terms should be complete

•Set-up of Currencies should be complete (this is necessary in case you have foreign currency invoices also)

•Set-up of Transaction Types should be complete

•Set-up of Accounting Rules should be complete

•Set-up of Tax rates and Tax codes should be complete

•Set up for sales representative should be complete

•Set up for debtor area should be complete

•Set up for income category should be complete

•Automatic customer invoice numbering should be set to ‘No’

•Customer and Customer address should be migrated in the system

•Disable the Invoice interface purge program so that the data successfully imported should not get purged in the interface table.

•Set up for invoice batch source name should be complete

In the next step extract Invoice data from the legacy files and using SQL loader populate the interface tables RA_INTERFACE_LINES_ALL and RA_INTERFACE_DISTRIBUTIONS_ALL. Submit the Auto Invoice open interface program. Data from the two interface tables will be uploaded to the following base tables using the Invoice open interface program:

•RA_CUSTOMER_TRX_ALL

•RA_CUSTOMER_TRX_LINES_ALL

•RA_CUST_TRX_LINE_GL_DIST_ALL

•RA_BATCHES_ALL

•RA_CUST_TRX_LINE_SALESREPS_ALL

•AR_RECEIVABLE_APPLICATIONS_ALL

•AR_PAYMENT_SCHEDULES_ALL

•RA_INTERFACE_ERRORS_ALL

Ensure that the Purge Interface check box is not checked when you submit the Autoinvoice program. In the Autoinvoice errors form you can see the error corresponding to failed records. Correct the errors in the interface table and rerun the Autoinvoice program. Submit the Autoinvoice Purge Program separately. Only records that have been successfully processed by Autoinvoice are purged.

Using autoinvoice you can migrate invoices, credit/debit memos and on-account credits into Oracle. However, you have to set grouping rules (Navigation > Setup > Transactions > Autoinvoice > Grouping Rule) to group lines to create one transaction and ordering rules (Navigation > Setup > Transactions > Autoinvoice > Line Ordering Rules) to determine the order of the transaction lines on a particular invoice.

Back-to-Back Order – How to

Back-to-Back Order is very useful functionality in Oracle Applications.

Key Business Drivers

• Data integration

• Lower inventory cycle time

• Lower inventory cost

• Link supply to specific demand

• Can offer a variety of product to customer

• Used heavily in contract manufacturing environment where the product is standardized and the company plans to focus more on product design rather than manufacturing

Many times business suffers a loss when data is transferred between quotations, orders, purchase orders or invoices?

Damage to any business due to data loss or corruption is always very high. This can be due to a simple user error or data corruption. During the manual transfer of data, the input of incorrect information or staff errors are very real risks. This can have a profound impact as your business grows and staff are under more pressure to process orders in a market where the client expectation is no longer to have their order processed in days or hours but in real-time.

Back to Back order process allows you to process information and orders in very logical manner ensuring a simplistic and efficient process. The integration between quotations, order processing and stock management means that all orders can be processed in real time and you are no longer dependant on a manual process to be run.

e.g. When the PO is received, reservation gets applied automatically against the Sales Order. This prevents allocating material to some other demand.

The key behind the integration of a system is the ability to seamlessly integrate different pieces of information, this leads us to back-to-back order processing.

The key areas that are focused on as part of the back to back process are:-

• Quotations

• Orders

• Requisition

• Invoices (in ‘Oracle Accounts Payable’ and ‘Oracle Accounts Receivable’)

• Purchase Orders

Back to back order processing provides an integrated seamless link from the quotation stage, through to the purchasing of stock (or services), to dispatching, delivering and invoicing your client and the receipt and payment of invoices. It is also extended to invoicing (against PO/receipt) and payment to your supplier. All this process is done using Oracle Work-Flow, standard work flow is given by Oracle but if you want you can modify the same to fulfill business needs. Approval processes are also taken care by Work-Flow.

The entire process can be performed in the minimal amount of time without any redundancy. Each document has reference of some other document so it doesn’t get lost in between. Below are the steps in Back to Back order.

• Quotations are created and sent to the client.

• The client places the order and all required acknowledgements are sent.

• Requisitions / Purchase Orders are automatically created for the required stock.

• Management of awaiting stock from suppliers.

• Tracking and managing supplier and customer communication.

• Receiving of stock and handling of part deliveries.

• Dispatching the order to your customer with management of delivery locations and methods.

• Customer Invoicing.

• Supplier payment.

Some of the important documents that gets created automatically through the different stages in this cycle include (automatic creation of document/s depends on setup).

Quotations, Order Acknowledgements and confirmations, Invoices and Proforma Invoices, Purchase Orders, Stock Receipt Slips, Stock Transfer Slips, Dispatch Notes, Packing to name a few.

For demo please visit two links given below:

• Back-to-Back Order Cycle http://functionalguy.blogspot.com/2009/02/back-to-back-order-cycle.html

• Requisition to Pay Cycle (Procure to Pay) in Oracle http://functionalguy.blogspot.com/2009/02/requisition-to-pay-cycle.html