Showing posts with label kovaion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kovaion. Show all posts

Monday 18 December 2017

My Experience with #Sangam17

Please check http://www.kovaion.com/my-experience-with-sangam17/

#Sangam17 is the largest independent Oracle user’s group conference in India, featuring key speakers from Oracle and its users. I got an opportunity to attend the #Sangam17 conference this year that was held in HICC, Hyderabad on 8th & 9th Dec 2017. There were many sessions on oracle products and vibes surrounding cloud and chatbot all around. My specialization being in #Peoplesoft, I attended all the sessions related to that domain. The Key topics covered included New UI features, Cloud Manager and PTF.
The general session was on Oracle Cloud and the next wave of cloud computing. The PeopleSoft session that followed dealt with Peoplesoft Road map presented by Srilakshmi Ramachandra (@sri_ramachandra) from Oracle. This concentrated mainly on the latest UI enhancements in the recent HCM and FSCM releases. Srilakshmi covered the following topics.
  1. Innovations in HR Self-Service, Recruiting (Fluid Candidate Gateway) and Onboarding using Fluid UI and configurable activity guides(HCM).
  2. Innovations in Expense Reporting, Supplier Relations (FSCM).
  3. Classic Plus feature.
  4. Ongoing Investments and Strategy for Applications Technology, Peoplesoft HCM and Peoplesoft FSCM.
The next session explained Why Peoplesoft runs better on #Oracle_Cloud and the speaker Nagendra Krishnappa (@nagedra11180) pointed out some of the advantages of running PeopleSoft on oracle cloud when compared to other cloud providers. The main advantages of using Oracle cloud being
  • Automated lift and shift.
  • Automated people tools patch and upgrade
  • Automated setup of Selective adoption environment.
  • Deployment Time
This was more an informative session for customers who are considering moving PeopleSoft to cloud.
In the post-lunch sessions, Customer success stories and use cases got covered. It started with the session Digital Transformations by Extending PeopleSoft Fluid UI. This was an informative session on using Peoplesoft fluid UI as a part of Native App and Chatbots. The customer has a one-stop shop for all applications (including PeopleSoft) used in their organization using Native App and SSO. This eliminated the need for mobile PeopleSoft users from typing or bookmarking the URL to access their information. The session also covered how Chatbots are used to raise and approve a PS request. Personally, this was one of the interesting sessions of the conference and made me explore this area further.
The following session Case Study on usage of Peoplesoft PTF by HAYS helped in understanding their success on selective adoption and how they have efficiently used PTF for testing their agile delivery model. PTF has helped in reducing the amount of testing time required by their business users. A comparative data on the efficiency and effectiveness of using PTF vs manual testing was presented for the modules AP, AR, Billing and PayBill.
Key Takeaways on PTF
1. Developing a good, robust, reusable and consistent design for PTF.
2. Test scenarios - A complex few OR the simple many.
3. Good Design Vs. Bad Design.
4. Pilot Vs. Full rollout
The following session was on Fluid Sub Menu Creation in PS 9.2 .
Another Customer use case on PS HCM-CS Split utility. This session provides a detailed process flow on how to decommission PeopleSoft HCM from PeopleSoft CS using a custom developed automation tool.
The PeopleSoft sessions ended with one other informative session Shaping the Future of Business- Convergence of Oracle Cloud and Peoplesoft. The session covered three major areas
1. Oracle Cloud offerings.
2. PeopleSoft Cloud Manager.
3. Migration strategy.

I wrapped the conference by attending one more interesting session women in IT. The session explored ways of expanding women’s role in upper management and what women, men and organizations can do to achieve the same. There was a fun filled and healthy discussion at the end of the session.

Thanks & Regards,
Mathumitha Kulandaivelu
Kovaion Consulting
e: mathumitha.kulandaivelu@kovaion.com

Monday 11 December 2017

PeopleSoft at UKOUG Applications Conference & Exhibition 2017 #ukoug_apps17 #PeopleSoft

Dear All,


This year UKOUG Apps17 was interesting with 14 PeopleSoft related sessions including strategic overview, practical demonstration and Q&A with oracle.  

The UK Oracle User Group conference, Apps17, is the largest independent gathering of Applications professionals in the UK. The committee members well organized the sessions with a mix of customer use cases, PeopleSoft roadmap and expert discussion. Key focus was on User Interface, Selective Adoption and PeopleSoft on the cloud.
IMG_7906.JPG


PeopleSoft stream at UKOUG was kick started on 06th Dec by Graham Smith.


David Bain continued the session with ‘PeopleSoft Strategy – Application & Tools‘. He detailed the journey of PeopleSoft.
C:\Users\Nanda Kumar\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\IMG_7901.jpg


‘The Future is Now’ of PeopleSoft includes,
  • Intuitive Mobile User Experience
  • Actionable Embedded Link
  • Global Search, Alerts, Notifications
  • Flexible and Personalizable (Fluid)
  • Selective Adoption of New Features
  • No Application upgrades needed
  • Deployment of Oracle cloud


Kovaion was delighted to see their customers on Oracle's selective adoption list. #ukoug_apps17 @kovaion  --Source twitter


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David’s session was followed multiple PeopleSoft focused sessions in parallel, I attend few sessions and shared my experience of those sessions.


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Why PeopleSoft Test Framework is Part of the Hays Selective Adoption Strategy” was customer success story for both PTF and Selective Adoption.


Hays demonstrated the importance of testing on the agile delivery model. They use the method called as Pillar, managed by Model Office.
The Model Office allows the Functional Analysts and Developers to configure new PeopleSoft features and functionality in a Hays like environment so that they can work with the business Subject Matter Experts to determine how that functionality could be utilised to address business priorities and issues


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This session was followed by “PeopleSoft Test Framework – A Practical Demonstration” by Ken de Landro. He detailed the PTF implementation at Hays.
Key for delivery success is to identify the right use case for test automation. Hays selected AP, AR, Billing and Paybill modules for test automation.


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Next Session from David provided the insight of the PeopleTools features such as
  • PeopleSoft Journey
  • Fluid UI including Classic Plus
  • Selective Adoption
  • PeopleSoft Cloud Manager


He gave the insight of being the Fluid UI designer to practical user to use Fluid UI to pay the daughter’s university fee.


PeopleSoft Innovation is a great forum for customers to share innovative idea and requirements.
Quest International User group is again a good forum to collaborate ad share customer success.


I recommend PeopleSoft community to contribute towards innovation.


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Graham demonstrated the practical usage of PeopleSoft Cloud Manager. He shared his experience of drilling a hole in garden, bakeries generating/using electricity to PeopleSoft cloud manager. He was able to spin a new PeopleSoft instance within 30 mins. The Fluid features were interesting.


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Then it was my turn to share our experience on “Enhance User Experience by Adopting the Latest UI Features”. I shared my knowledge on
  • Importance of User Experience and intelligent ways to measure its ROI.
  • Benefits Accomplished by our customers.
  • Why the Leading Automobile organization adopted Fluid UI and Mobile.
  • Practical demonstration of Fluid UI, Navigation Collection, Related Content/Action
D:\Kovaion\Google Drive\Kovaion\Marketing Events\2017-18\UKOUGApps17\Photos\IMG_7913.JPG


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Finally David Bain summarized the event with more information about Page Composer (Fluid Approvals), Elastic Search, PeopleSoft Cloud Manager v5 features. PeopleSoft customers should be delighted with Oracle’s continued investment.


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Last but not least, it was a great speech by @krissakabusi to DREAM BIG.


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I heard other sessions were equally good. I am waiting for the documents to the uploaded on UKOUG for member view. http://apps17.ukoug.org/default.asp?p=17862
We all are looking forward for ‘UKOUG PeopleSoft Roadshow 2018’ and #ukoug_apps18.


Thank you all.


Feel free to reach us for more info about PeopleSoft.


Author,
Nanda Kumar
Founder and Director - Kovaion Consulting

nanda.kumar@kovaion.com

Monday 25 September 2017

PeopleSoft Event Mapping Framework

What is Event Mapping Framework?
If any delivered page has to be customized, user can simply modify and add the business logic to the necessary events. However, in the selective adoption model, user will be forced to retrofit customisations every time on a new image, fix etc.

The Related content event mapping frame work, a part of related content framework (RCF), enables users to inject custom code to component/component field events without modifying the actual objects. It is essentially a driver to create built on solutions for applications. This still involves customizations but is easier to maintain and retrofit.


How to implement Event Mapping?


Step 1: Application class with business logic
  • Identify the target event, have good understanding on the context and component buffer.
  • The app package should extend PT_RCT:ServiceInterface
  • The business logic should be present in the Execute method


Step 2: Create a related content service definition

  •  Create a new related content service definition in the below navigation.



  •          Provide the application package name and class which contains the business logic.



Step 3: Map the related content service to the event
  • ·         The mapping is done in the following navigation



  •          Navigate to event mapping tab and select the component to inject the business logic.


  •          Select the event to inject the business logic and the sequence in which it should be executed.

  •         Component events/Component record events can be selected.

Migration of Event Mapping Framework

  Include the following object into project
o   Related content definitions – ensures the migration of related content definition and application package.
o   Related content services (Related content configurations & related content layouts) – ensured the migration of event mapping configuration.

Pros

  • Allows customizing delivered functionality without modifying any delivered objects. This makes maintenance and retrofitting customization much easier.
  • Users can include all modifications for a module in a single application package with sub packages for each component and each customization should be its own class.
  • A single app package would be the entire module which makes migration, documentation and knowledge transfer much easier.
  •  Map generic application class to multiple components. If the same business logic is needed in many components the event mapping is sufficient.

Cons

 Users can insert code before or after the event code. If the business logic requires the customization in between the existing code this feature does not support it.

Author: Eileen Franklin
Kovaion Consulting- PeopleSoft Practice








Monday 18 September 2017

PeopleSoft- Fluid Dashboards

Introduction:
Dashboards can be accessed through content reference link and are primarily used for decision making. Dashboards give higher management decision support with high level views of team activities, key metrics and real time analysis.

Fluid Dashboards are counterpart to Classic Dashboard and has the ability to extend them to FLUID tiles allowing access to key information from mobile devices and are introduced with PT8.55.
They are highly role based and provide the summary of visual information and performance. They are easy to configure and appear anywhere in menu structure. Users can personalize dashboards according to their needs and will have the information at their fingertips.

Business Benefits:
  • Fluid dashboards are simple and intuitive to use.
  •  Provide an easy way for the user to access key information and gives seamless user experience across multiple platforms.
  •  They can be optimized across multiple form factors. 
  • Provides end user personalization where users can personalize based on their day to day activities.


Similarities with Classis Dashboard:
  • Both the fluid and classic dashboards offers similar functionality e.g., both can be configurable and provides the summary of visual information and are role based.
  •   Definitions are stored in the portal registry accessed through the Structure and Content component


Differences with Classis Dashboard:
Pagelets are used to modify the objects in Classic dashboard whereas Tiles are used in Fluid dashboard.

Steps in Developing Fluid Dashboard:

Step 1: Dashboards are managed under Manage Dashboard Pages component and please find the navigation below.


Navigation: MainMenu > PeopleTools > Portal > Dashboard > Manage Dashboard Pages


Step 2: Provide the required details as shown below and save the page.



Step 3: New dashboard has been created in Fluid Dashboards section. Access the tiles property and select the necessary tiles to publish the content on the dashboard.

Note: By default, tile property is set to optional which makes the tile hidden from the user. In order to make the tile visible change the property to required and save the page as shown below.


Step 4: Access the dashboard from the parent folder where it was created. Below is the screenshot of newly created dashboard.



Step 5: To access the dashboard from homepage directly, click on actions list button and select add to homepage and select the homepage from which the dashboard needs to be accessed as shown below.





Limitations:
  • Unlike classic dashboards, due to some performance reasons, certain types of tiles are restricted for use on FLUID Dashboards only, and cannot be displayed on FLUID Homepages.


      Author: Lakshmi Deepak P
      Kovaion Consulting -PeopleSoft Practice
      Email: lakshmi.deepak@kovaion.com

Monday 11 September 2017

PeopleTools 8.56- Classic Plus

Introduction:
With the new release of PeopleTools 8.56, Oracle has introduced many features which take the User Experience to whole new level and Classic Plus is one amongst them.

Not all the components/pages can be  converted to fluid and Oracle has come up with a new feature in PT 8.56 called Classic Plus (Classic+) which converts classic pages to Fluid ones and thus brings unified look and feel within PeopleSoft.       

Business Benefits:
  •  Improves end user experience exceptionally when the user switching between classic and fluid pages.

 Development Benefits:
  • Reduces amount of rework drastically as the page layout will adjust automatically in Classic Plus compared to changing the component property to fluid mode.

 Best Practices:
The following steps are recommended to make use of Classic+ feature for the application.
  •  Enable global Classic Plus setting in Branding System Options.
  • Enable “Apply Fluid like theme for Classic” in Style tab at component level.
  • Test the page layout and adjust whereever necessary.

 Development of Classis Plus:

Step 1: Enable global Classic Plus setting in Branding System Options.


Navigate through Navigator -> PeopleTools -> Portal -> Branding -> Branding System Options and select Theme Style Type as Fluid like theme for Classic under Classic Components sections and click on save as shown in the screenshot below.

Let us take an example of Personal Data page of converting from classic to fluid using Classic+ feature.

Personal Data page before enabling Classic plus:


Step 2: Open the component in application designer and enable Fluid like theme for Classic option under style tab and save the component as show below.



Personal Data page after enabling Classic plus:


Limitations:
  •  The feature is limited to look and feel only and the classic plus pages are not as responsive as Fluid pages.
  • Rework on some page layout adjustment may be required for complex pages as this feature changes the size of objects.
  •  Though it is a small and simple change, users will not be able to enable as it requires a customization at component level.
      Author: Lakshmi Deepak P
      Kovaion Consulting -PeopleSoft Practice
      Email: lakshmi.deepak@kovaion.com

Tuesday 20 December 2016

PeopleSoft-Smart HR Templates

What is Smart HR Template?

  • Smart HR templates is an  approach to simplify the various transaction process done by HRs, such as hiring, updating a person’s personal or job data, or managing a person’s profile data
  • Templates can be personalized to meet departmental needs through automated population. Users can view and test templates dynamically. So the only thing HR enters is the new hire’s personal information.
  • HR can configure personal,job and profile transactions to simplify the user experience.



New feature of Smart HR template in PS-9.2

  •  Enables administrators to use the Manage Transactions component to view transactions that are in draft status, require HR review, or encountered errors.
  •  Provides integration with Profile Management profiles and Smart HR to help the end users enter/update a person’s profile using Smart HR transaction templates and pages.
  • Introduces new component Transaction Type to identify a template's use, indicate what sections are permitted in template, define which components will be updated during the Smart HR process, and to determine which users have appropriate security access.

      Business benefits: 


  •     HR can do all the transactions at one place, resulting in increase of efficiency.
  •     Streamlines repetitive data entry.
     Process of Smart HR Template:


       
        User Types in Smart HR:
  •     Template Administrator
  •     HR Administrator
  •     Users


        



     Let’s have a case study on Smart HR with a simple example step by step.

    Step1:  Create template record/field
    Navigation: Set Up HCM->Product Related-> Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template-> Template Record/Field
   Create a new record or use any delivered record by giving record alias and select the necessary field names in that record. Here, the delivered record alias “JOB” has been taken for illustration where all the fields are chosen from “JOB” record

Step2: Create/Use Template Section
         Navigation:  Set Up HCM->Product Related-> Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template > Template Section.
     Template Section page is used to identify and configure sections, and list and configure the fields contained in a section. The fields available for templates are grouped into sections, like group boxes. User can determine which sections and the order in which the sections should be presented to the end user when creating a Smart HR template.  Sections and their fields are delivered as system data. These delivered sections can be modified within the templates based on the organisation's needs for hiring.
     These delivered sections can be grouped and categorised:
  1.      Personal Data sections (includes section like Name, Birth Information, Gender, Education, etc.)
  2.      Job Data sections (like Work Location – Job Indicator, Job Information, Job – Salary  Plan, etc.)
  3.      Federal sections (Like Data Control Dates & Action, Tracking Data, Name, etc.)
  4.        Manage Profile sections (like JPM Competencies, JPM Memberships, JPM Tests, etc.)

           Here, the delivered Section” JOB_EARNS_DIST_01” has been taken for illustration.





         Step3: Template transaction type
        Navigation: Set Up HCM->Product Related-> Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template-> Template Transaction Type.
    This is used to define the transaction types for the smart HR templates created. It is a new feature released in 9.2. Here, since we are updating the Job data, transaction type JOB is selected. The newly created section is added to this transaction type in Sections tab as shown below.



Step4: Template Creation 
    Navigation: Set Up HCM->Product Related-> Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template->Template Creation.
    Template Creation page is used to create and modify the templates. Here, a new template “KOV_UPDT_JOB_DTS” is created to do transactions.

Template Creation tab change the status to Active and fill the mandatory information.


Then in Configuration tab, choose transaction type as Change Job Data. Choose the override or hide options as per the business requirements. Provide the page title for your template.



Include our section in the Sections tab by clicking on Add Section as shown above. After completing the creation of templates and template sections, we can do the Smart HR transaction and test. 

Step5: Smart HR transactions
      Navigation: Workforce Administration->Smart HR Template->Smart HR transactions.
    Choose the template created and click on Create Transaction. Then, enter the required fields and click on Continue.



     Then, enter the new information which needs to be updated and click on Save and Submit as shown below.
    The required information thus gets updated in Personal data table using Smart template. Similarly, we can do all HR transactions in one page using these smart HR templates easily.

    Limitations:

  •      Smart HR templates cannot be used for mass updates.
  •      This can be used only with employees having Employee record “0”.

Neelufar Mohammed Esack
Kovaion Consulting-PeopleSoft Practice