Challenges of Point Release Upgrade

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Challenges of Point Release Upgrade
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Agenda

• Introduction to Point release upgrade - AM
• Why and When an Oraganization need to do a point
  release upgrade AM
• Considerations while doing a point release
  upgrade AM,JW
• Challenges of changing technology stack - JW
• How to make down time less pain full - JW
• Challenges in combining database upgrade or other
  enhancements along with point release upgrade
  JW,AM
• Incorporating new products / functionalities
  along with a point release upgrade AM
• Handling the function changes associated with a
  point release upgrade -JW
• Sharing experience among audience

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Introduction to Point Release Upgrade

• Point release upgrade means upgrading the entire
  application within the 11i (11.5.x) e-business
  suite as Oracle introduces new releases
• Updates the Point number in 11i. Examples
• 11.5.7 to 11.5.9
• 11.5.9 to 11.5.10
• 11.5.4 to 11.5.8

This discussion will focus upon the techniques,
technology, and experiences of upgrading Oracle
E-Business Suite 11i. We will cover both
functional and technical challenges experienced
in recent E-Business Suite point release upgrades
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Why and when an organization need to do PRU

• Why
• To keep up with the technology and being current
• To resolve TAR issues Faster
• To get fixes for lot of known bugs
• To use new functionalities and new products
• To get performance improvement

• When
• Its recommended to do at least 1 point release
  upgrade per year. Ideally upgrade after every 2
  point releases
• Its recommended to upgrade to the latest point
  release that has been in the market for at least
  3 to 6 months

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Considerations while doing PRU

• Clear understanding of architectural changes and
  technology stack changes during point release
  upgrade
• Impact to 3rd party systems
• Impact to customizations
• Full fledged System Integration testing
• Unit testing of all the existing functionalities
• Impact analysis on changes to common modules like
  FND, AD, Workflow etc to the entire e-business
  suite

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Clubbing DB upgrade or other enhancementsalong
with PRU

• With Oracle adding more and more object in each
  of their point releases, it takes more number of
  hours to just upgrade the application itself
• If a Database upgrade also need to be done, then
  it increases the total down time that may not be
  acceptable to business
• Its true that upgrading the application and
  database to the latest release, may reduce the
  number of issues during upgrade ( 11.5.9 and 9i
  upgrade)
• Combing other enhancements / projects with a
  point release upgrade might complicate the
  testing process and needs more co-ordination

It is recommended not to combine a Point release
upgrade Along with other enhancements or database
upgrade
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Incorporating new functionalities during PRU

• Oracle comes out with lot of new functionalities
  during each point release upgrade
• Oracle also introduces few new modules in each of
  their point releases
• Organization can maximize ROI on point release
  upgrade by identifying and start using the new
  functionalities that has either business benefit
  or system benefit
• The only work to start using new functionalities
  is to do proper communication and training
• Eliminate some of the customizations by
  incorporating new functionalities

If you just do a plain point release upgrade
without incorporating any new functionalities,
you will end up in not using those
functionalities for a long period time
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Making Downtime Less Painful

• No Substitute for Careful Planning
• Limit Scope
• Spread downtime over several periods
• Database Upgrade
• Technology Stack Upgrade
• Applications Upgrade
• Use multiple DBAs and built-in features
• Compile objects at end of all patches
• Rehearse
• Plan downtime during non-peak seasons

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Contact Us

• Arul Murugan
• Principal Consultant, enrich IT
• Ph 404-723-1405
• Email Arul_at_enrichIT.com
• Jeffrey Walsh
• Senior Consultant, CSC Consulting
• Ph 770-677-3262
• Email cwalsh7_at_csc.com