Sunday 27 September 2015

UKOUG - Everything between the database and the applications


important note: This event has been cancelled, I am very disappointed but we do listen and will do its all at conference.

We listen to the user community and the feedback we’ve received about the agenda has highlighted to us that the topics being covered are too broad and that the majority of people are finding more benefit from similar topics being covered at the forthcoming Apps15 & Tech15 conferences in December. We therefore feel the decision to cancel is the right one.

I'm not technical, or rather I don't actually do technical, but I understand it and more importantly in my role, I know its business value.

IT moves quickly, and in this area of development, apps server, middleware and technology for Cloud, the rate of change has been phenomenal. We need to keep up with this change and understand what it means.

We have a fantastic event for you on 6th October in the Oracle Offices in London, this is a combined SIG, and we hope it appeals to those who are part of the Development, Apps DBA and SIGS and a wider audience from our membership.

We have had two Apps Innovation Days, one for HCM and the last one for Financials was almost too technical, so I hope our Apps Tech Innovation day hits the mark.

We are looking at what Cloud means in all our worlds, Java, Development, Mobile, and where it makes sense and what it really means.

We will have a discussion facilitated by Jason Lester, Chair of the Apps DBA SIG and kicked off with my thoughts on how the Digital Disruption we hear about affects our world, your world, your job, and any outstanding questions we will put to experts for answering at UKOUG in December.

So what should you do now? Register for this great event in October, and for our conferences in December.



OOW2015 - Back By Popular Demand - More Than Another 12 on Oracle Database 12c


Every year usergroups get a number of sessions they are responsible for on User Group Sunday, EOUC which represents around a third of Oracle's customers gets just 12 sessions.

To try and include as many amazing EMEA speakers as possible last year we had 12 short talks on 12c and it was a great success, so we are doing it again this year, and yes we will start with Jonathan Lewis again, he sets the bar high.


Bob Rhubart again gave me the opportunity to do a two minute tech tip video and I am pleased to say Oracle agreed to our request to combine the two sessions so we don't have to traipse outside halfway through and be rescanned. This also gives us another 15 minutes so we have a few extra speakers lined up as reserves and we will just keep going till we run out of time.

Session is now called More Than Another 12 on Oracle Database 12c [UGF3190]
Moscone South Room 306  time 13:30 - 15:15

This will be the BEST session of the day (except of course my kick off session at 8am), so make sure you have it in your schedule, and register for it, it will be full!

Confirmed speakers and topics are:

Jonathan Lewis                    Less well-known enhancements of the 12c Optimizer
Julian Dontcheff                   Oracle Database 12c In-Memory Advisor
Gurcan Orhan                      Adapting DB 12C In-Memory to ODI 12c
Osama Mustafa                    How to plugin a non-CDB database to a Container Database (CDB)
Bjoern Rost                          How ASM has reached maturity in 12c
Alex Nuijten                          Security Enhancements in PL/SQL or "JSON in the database”
Brendan Tierney                   Running R in the Database using Oracle R Enterprise
Douwe Pieter van den Bos   Maximum security architecture
Christian Antognini                Real-time Monitoring of Composite Database Operations
Martin Widlake                      12C - Clustered Data aware TABLE_CACHED_BLOCKS          
Heli Helskyaho                      Design your 12c Databases using Oracle SQL Dev Data  Modeler
Oded Raz                              Oracle 12c Privileges Analysis
Tim Hall                                 12 Oracle 12c Data Pump Enhancements
Alex Zaballa                           Oracle Data Redaction
Maria Colgan                         Oracle Database In-Memory 6 quick tips
Lucas Jemella                        Time Dimension in the Database – Flashback and Flashforward

Sunday 20 September 2015

Kicking Off Oracle Open World 2015 - Not to be missed


People moan about having the last session of an event, or first thing the morning after the party, I've had both many times, but this year at #OOW2015 I have the first session on the Sunday!

Forming Your Future: Upgrade/Migration to Oracle Fusion Applications/Oracle Applications Cloud [UGF3179]

Learn how Oracle Fusion Applications/Oracle Applications Cloud can influence your future plans for ERP and inform you how to prioritize and decide upgrade and migration activities. Should Oracle E-Business Suite users go to the cloud or just stay current with their Oracle E-Business Suite release? Learn what methods are available for migrating to Oracle Cloud for any organization, and how to plan a roadmap for the latest release of Oracle Applications Cloud. This session shares details of the experience. You will learn from the upgrade/migration experience and strategy, cutover plan, testing, and training.


October 25, 8:00 am - 8:45 am | Moscone South—307


Yes, it's a challenge but then every presentation is, but if you are coming to Oracle Open World to seriously explore Cloud Applications then there is no better place to start, help to understand the questions you need to answer as you go through the week.

I'm going to try and put together a list of sessions I think important for people to go see afterwards, so if you are speaking on the Road to Cloud Apps, specifically HCM or ERP, drop me a lie, comment on this blog, tweet me at debralilley and I'll add you.

If you have made the journey, also come along, there is no better person to guide someone than someone who has made their journey already.

This means I miss the OTN bridge run which is a real pity, but I can do that any time (she wishes), and speaking at OOW is a privilege which I love.



Monday 7 September 2015

Thank you Certus for a Great Year


Last week I celebrated a year at Certus. They gave me a lovely press release to welcome me in 2014 and this is a good time to see what we, Certus have achieved.

I did this at the six month point, and the last paragraph said "Certus is the leading HCM Cloud implementer in the UK and wants to move towards that in ERP. I want to be part of that journey and after 6 months can defiantly say I made the right choice"

My first anniversary coincides with the end of Oracle's Q1, and we managed two wins, one an exciting HCM implementation for yet another big brand name and a combined ERP / HCM implementation. In fact today we held the project kick off for this project which means I get to have my hands really dirty for a while.



Part of the success is how we work with Oracle, and on Saturday we hosted some of their team at our annual corporate hospitality at the rugby. Sales isn't my main area but one of the team was unable to attend so I was eventually persuaded to take his place. 

Oh the irony, I love rugby, and was so excited to be asked, although to be honest I wanted a different result. I have lived in N Ireland so long I am a big supporter, rugby unites everyone in Ireland, North & South and has no religious divide. But England deserved their win and everyone had a wonderful day.

It is also just a few weeks since we moved up to Platinum Level as a partner. When I first talked to Certus I said I thought this was important and the whole team has stepped up with taking exams. For a small company that means almost everyone was involved, not just a few people from a large company who can be given this as a project. 

The company is also growing with 5 new starts over as many weeks as we ramp up with more customers. We also recently announced we are looking at expanding into AsiaPac.

We are also planning our Open World participation. Four of the Certus team are attending plus one of our customers. Many partners talk about their customers, ours wants to talk about it themselves and as well as presenting will also be talking to analysts and development about their experiences. More about that in a later post.

As I recently said, how lucky can one girl be? Well it isn't luck, Certus have a plan, they take measured steps to achieve what they want and if you haven't yet please vote for them in the UKOUG Partner Awards.

Oh, and I still love my job!