Using Tickmark to Reduce 11i Upgrade Risk

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Using Tickmark to Reduce 11i Upgrade Risk

• Mark Nelson
• President
• Dominic Di Vincenzo
• Account Manager, Central Region

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What is Tickmark Setup Reporter?

• Reporting of Applications Setups
• Compare
• Across DB Instances
• Sets of Books
• Operating Units
• Across Versions
• Change Tracking

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Agenda

• The Upgrade Scenario
• Overview of Tickmark Setup Reporter
• The Upgrade Process
• Planning
• Executing
• Post-upgrade
• ROI
• Product Demo
• Questions Discussion

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The Upgrade Scenario

• 11i Upgrade Patches have been applied. You start
  testing only to find out
• You cant enter receipts in AR
• Cross-Validation Rules are missing

Where do you begin Researching the problem?
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Where to Look?
Define Cross Validation Rules
Define Receipt Sources
Oracle Support
Define Receipt Classes
Set Up Bank Information Form
Define Receivables Activities
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What is Setup?
Setup Options Business Requirements __________
_________________ Application Behavior
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Setup Challenges

• Functionality works in Dev but not in QA ?
• Functionality works in version 10.7 but not in
  11i ?
• How do you ensure your instances or organizations
  are all setup the same ?
• How do you identify what changed when errors
  occur ?
• How do you consolidate multiple DB instances ?
• How do you document your Application Setups ?

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How Do You Document Application Setups?
Screen Prints
Too Slow
Spreadsheets
Prone to Errors
AIM Documents
Out of Date Quickly
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Who is responsiblefor Setup?

• System Administrators
• Implementation Consultants
• Super Users

Maintenance across all applications and overall
environment
Initial applications setup
Maintenance of specific business applications
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Still, problems occur

• Consultants leave the project
• Knowledge transfer is limited due to time
  constraints and scarce resources
• Experienced employees move-on
• Complexity gets in the way of our best intentions
• Decentralization can add confusion

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Tickmark Setup Reporter

• Reporting of Applications Setups
• Compare
• Across DB Instances
• Sets of Books
• Operating Units
• Across Versions
• Change Tracking

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Snapshot

• Point-in-time picture
• On demand / or scheduled

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Snapshot Report
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Sample Comparison Report
Differences
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Change Tracking
Who
Automatically captures a complete historical
audit trail. Details of EVERY change.
What
When
Where
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Change Tracking Report
What?
Who?
Where?
When?
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Tickmark Setup Objects
Oracle Application Forms
Define Set of Books
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Tickmark Setup Objects
Oracle Application Forms
Oracle Application Tables
Define Set of Books
GL_Set_of_Books
GL_Suspense_Accounts
GL_Intercompany_Accounts
GL_Net_Income_Accounts
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Tickmark Setup Objects
Tickmark Setup Object
Oracle Application Forms
Oracle Application Tables
Define Set of Books
GL_Set_of_Books
GL_Suspense_Accounts
GL_Intercompany_Accounts
GL_Net_Income_Accounts
Set of Books
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The Upgrade
Plan
Patch
Test
Live
Post

• Snapshots
• Create a baseline of current setup
• Evaluate current setups
• Template for data migration planning
• Export to Excel makes migration easy
• Comparisons
• Synchronize setups across Operating Units and Set
  of Books

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The Upgrade
Plan
Patch
Test
Live
Post

• Copy Production to Test and Apply the Upgrade
  Patches.

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The Upgrade
Plan
Patch
Test
Live
Post

• Snapshots
• Document the post upgrade environment
• An effective tool for working with Oracle Support
  to resolve upgrade issues or bugs
• Comparisons
• Ensure nothing changed after patches applied
• Quickly identify table changes (new setup fields)
• Synchronize setups across Operating Units and Set
  of Books
• Troubleshoot problems between instances or
  versions

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The Upgrade
Plan
Patch
Test
Live
Post

• Change Tracking
• Automatically track changes made by upgrade team
• Promotes quick troubleshooting and saves valuable
  time
• Simple reporting lets you implement these changes
  in other database instances

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The Upgrade
Plan
Patch
Test
Live
Post

• Change Tracking
• Use change tracking reports to assist in final
  setup of production database
• Comparisons
• Perform QA testing from Test to Production before
  you go-live

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The Upgrade
Plan
Patch
Test
Live
Post

• Snapshots
• Document setups in the new production database
• Change Tracking
• Continue to monitor changes to your production
  environment for maintenance purposes

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The Upgrade Scenario Revisited

• 11i Upgrade Patches have been applied. You start
  testing only to find out
• You cant enter receipts in AR
• Action Compare Receipts Setup between versions
• Cross-Validation Rules Are Missing
• Action Review pre-upgrade snapshots
• Action Compare Cross-Validation Rules between
  versions

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Conclusion

• Tickmark Setup Reporter Provides
• Improved operational efficiency for an easier 11i
  upgrade
• Dynamic and accurate reporting of your setup
• Ability to analyze and resolve upgrade problems
  quickly
• Integrity assurance
• Fast ROI

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ROI

• What kind of savings can you expect from
  Tickmark?
• Tickmark paid for itself in less than two weeks
  from the Setup Reporter installation. We
  experienced a 500 reduction in setup management
  time and a 100 ROI.
• Gary Phipps
• Lucent OFS

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Tickmark 4.0 New Features Enhancements

• Available November 1st
• Email alerts for change tracking
• Snapshot templates - customized views
• More comprehensive cross version comparisons
• Comparison sets - ability to compare all setup in
  one instance to another
• And more!!!

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Tickmark Demo
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Architecture
Test (11i)
Dev (10.7)
Prod 1 (11)
Prod 2 (10.7)
Tickmark Home
Snapshots Comparisons
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Architecture
Test (11i)
Dev (10.7)
Prod 1 (11)
Prod 2 (10.7)
Tickmark
Tickmark
Tickmark
Tickmark
Tickmark Home
Setup Changes
Snapshots Comparisons