Quest International Users Group – Your PeopleSoft and JD Edwards home Blog Posts

Editor's Blog - April Critical Patch Updates, Including PeopleSoft

Rebekah Sellers — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:16:09 GMT

A total of 128 vulnerabilities have been addressed by Oracle with the release of the company’s April 2013 Critical Patch Update (CPU).

The list of affected products includes Oracle Database, Fusion Middleware, E-Business Suite, Supply Chain, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Health Sciences, Retail, Oracle FLEXCUBE, Primavera, Oracle and Sun Systems Product Suite, Oracle MySQL Product Suite, and Oracle Support Tools.

The Oracle Java SE CPU for April 2013 contains 42 security fixes, 39 of which can be exploited without authentication.

Editor's Blog - PeopleSoft 9.2 Strategic Investments

Rebekah Sellers — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:01:22 GMT

Monday afternoon in Denver brought the PeopleSoft General Session presented by Oracle's John Webb. Although it was no secret that version 9.2 became available about 10 days ago, the room was packed with folks eager to hear news, updates and information about the new release.

Although 9.2 includes more than 1,000 new features, Webb gave an overview of the primary strategic investments in PeopleSoft release 9.2:

Global Search for easy navigation
Activity Guides and Train Stops for easy self-service and business process flows
Pivot Grids for easy access to actionable information
WorkCenters for increased user job efficiency
PeopleSoft Update Manager to help users stay current for less cost
Mobile Solutions that allow for a mobile workforce

Webb then treated the audience to live demos of portions of both the HCM and Financials modules. HCM, Financials, and FMS/SCM were all released on the same day, Webb noted, a first for a PeopleSoft release. Upgrade scripts were also available upon general availability, and the release was also fully translated at GA, Webb said. PeopleSoft CRM 9.2 is coming soon.

Attendees also heard about the new PeopleSoft Update Manager, which "fundamentally changes the way you receive updates from Oracle," Webb said. Every 8 weeks, new updates and patches will become available. In the past, users had to accept all changes, even if they only needed a small fraction of them. With Update Manager, users can now accept only the updates/fixes they need - and see any prerequisites required - without having to implement unnecessary changes.

A new release doesn't mean the PeopleSoft team is resting on its laurels. Feature Packs for 9.2 are in the works, but the team is also thinking longer term. "We're already working on 9.3," Webb said, and informed the audience of future focuses:

Browser-based
Platform-independent
Multiple devices

Webb also talked about Oracle In Memory Applications, which are being developed for all Applications Unlimited products and increase the speed of business critical applications. In Memory Applications will be available for PeopleSoft within the next 12 months, Webb said.

More to come!

Editor's Blog - PeopleSoft 9.2 Information Portal

Rebekah Sellers — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:25:55 GMT

Posted By John Webb on Mar 20, 2013, in the PeopleSoft Apps Strategy Blog

With the GA announcement of PeopleSoft 9.2, we've created the URL below for customers and partners to easily locate the information they need for implementation and upgrades. Whether you are looking for documentation, release content, training and more - it's all here:

PeopleSoft 9.2 Portal >

Editor's Blog - PeopleSoft 9.2 Demos!

Rebekah Sellers — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:59:11 GMT

Posted By John Webb on Mar 19, 2013, on the PeopleSoft Apps Strategy Blog

Want a first look at a few of the innovations in PeopleSoft 9.2? VFO's (Video Feature Overviews) of PeopleSoft 9.2 are now posted:

Take the tour >

Editor's Blog - PeopleSoft Release 9.2 Video

Rebekah Sellers — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:36:15 GMT

Interested in PeopleSoft 9.2, which will be available this Friday? Check out this video!

Editor's Blog - Oracle Releases PeopleSoft 9.2

Rebekah Sellers — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:32:42 GMT

News Facts

Enabling customers to maximize their investment in Oracle’s PeopleSoft applications, Oracle today announced that PeopleSoft Human Capital Management 9.2, PeopleSoft Financials 9.2and Supply Chain Management 9.2 will be generally available Friday, March 22.

Oracle demonstrates its commitment to continue to invest in PeopleSoft by including more than 1,000 new features, functions, and enhancements in PeopleSoft 9.2.

PeopleSoft 9.2 delivers an innovative new user experience, expanded product functionality, while helping to reduce total cost of ownership.

As with PeopleSoft 9.1, Oracle plans to continue to deliver new capabilities on top of PeopleSoft 9.2 via Feature Packs.

PeopleSoft 9.2 leverages important new technology capabilities delivered in PeopleTools 8.53.

With the delivery of PeopleSoft 9.2, Oracle will simultaneously provide upgrade scripts as well as the multi-language version of this release, a first for PeopleSoft applications. This enables PeopleSoft customers around the world to immediately begin implementing PeopleSoft 9.2 and reap its benefits sooner.

A number of customers and partners have been working with Oracle as early adopters of PeopleSoft 9.2 and have already started their implementation and upgrade projects. Some of these customers include: AARP, Caterpillar Inc., Daimler, Franklin Templeton Investments, Washington University in St. Louis, Westfield, and Verizon. Partners working with Oracle include: Accenture LLC, BTR Group, Cardinal Point Solutions, Cognizant, CSC, Deloitte Consulting, Ellire, GreyHeller, Huron Consulting Group, Infosys, KPMG, MIPRO, Newbury Consulting Group, PwC, Regents Consulting LLC, SmartERP Solutions, Succeed Consultancy LLC, Wipro, and Zanett.

Editor's Blog - PeopleSoft Payroll for North America

Rebekah Sellers — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:28:35 GMT

From the PeopleSoft Apps Strategy Blog:

By Kristen Emery

PeopleSoft Payroll for North America software is known for being the best in class in Payroll Software. Throughout the years our customers have described our product as accurate, efficient, stable and simply an application that gets the job done and does it well. Coincidentally, these are the same qualities we see in our customers. It doesn’t matter which company/organization you work for, you will find Payroll Department working hard to ensure each employee is paid accurately and on time. This can be a stressful job with never ending deadlines, compliance changes and at times late/delayed information from third party sources. Regardless of the challenges the Payroll Department is faced with, they rise above them and get the job done. Payroll for North America is designed to help alleviate these challenges.

PeopleSoft 9.2 Planned Functionality

Jesse Howard — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:47:52 GMT

PeopleSoft 9.2 has been one of the most anticipated releases from the PeopleSoft community. To spare you the boring details and normal jibber jabber, let's cut to the chase. In a recent presentation during the International Oracle User Community annual meeting in Redwood Shores, Marc Weintrab and Tracy Martin shared tons of planned functionality slated for release in Oracle's FY13 Q3 (January-March 2013). If you are interesting in learning more about the new functionality along with PeopleTools 8.53 availability announcement, COLLABORATE 13 will be the place to get everything right off the press. So, onto the planned functionality (warning, this is a long list).

A key ingredient in PeopleSoft 9.2 is the alignment of investment to customers’ needs. Some of these items include:

Global Search > Effortless Navigation & Information Retrieval

Free Text Search
Search Across Multiple Instances
Search on Multiple Objects
Faceted Filtering of Results
Category Searching
Advanced Search Option
Persisted Search Results
Related Information and Actions

Activity Guides / Train Stops > Intuitive Self-Service & Business Process Flows

Pivot Grids > Access to Actionable Information
Specific pivot grids in PeopleSoft Human Capital Management 9.2 includes:

Attendance Violations
Absence Types
Processing Monitor
Gross Pay by Department
Net Pay by Department
Headcount Movement
Current Headcount
Learning Compliance
Survey Results
Job Openings Trend
Job Openings Aging Analysis
In Process ApplicantsTime to Fill
Salary Analysis
Compensation Distribution
Compensation by Performance
Salary Increase by Performance
Cycle Tracking
Cycle Guideline Alert

Specific pivot grids in overall ERP 9.2 release include:

Voucher Status
Liability Exposure by Supplier
Bills by Status
Recent Customer Invoices
Invoice Analysis by Month
Incomplete Invoice Process
Contracts Billing Analysis
Billing Events StatusContract Metrics
Revenue Events Status
Transactions Priced Not Billed
Account Balance Status
Account Rollup Balances
Near Term Branch Agenda
Overdue Branch Agenda

WorkCenters > Increased User Job Effectiveness

Performance Management
Time and Labor
General Ledger
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Billing
Contracts
Staffing
Grants
Project Costing
Buyer
Supplier Administration
Supply/Demand Management

PeopleSoft Update Manager > Cost Effective Means of Staying Current

Mobile Solutions > Enablement of a Mobile Workforce

PeopleSoft HCM 9.2 has additional planned capabilities which include:

Performance Management WorkCenter
Mid-Period Performance Evaluations
Life Events Using Activity Guides
Paycheck Modeling
Learning Dashboard with Social Capabilities
Revamped Recruiting Application Process
Recruiting Dashboard
Global Payroll Monitoring
Desktop Integration with Absence Management
Reconfigured Time Reporting
Bi-Directional Integration with Taleo
Mobile Applications (Company Directory)

PeopleSoft Financials and Supply Chain Management 9.2 planned capabilities include:

Multiple WorkCenters (Billing, AP, Contracts, Staffing, Buyer, Supply/Demand)
Visualization of Customer, Supplier, Work Order, and More...
Streamlined Expense Reporting
Operational Reporting Dashboards
Improved Reconciliation Controls
Cash Position with Transaction Pipeline
New Search Centric eProcurement
Supplier Self Service Onboarding
Advanced Project Pricing and Rates
Staffing Industry Productivity Pack
Mobile Applications (Approvals, Expenses, Requisitions)

Mobile and HTML5 capabilities with PeopleSoft are expanding to include:

Delivered HTML5 Solutions

Mobile Company Directory
Mobile Approvals
Mobile Expense

Planned HTML5 Solutions

Mobile eProcurement
Time and Labor
Absence Management
Cash Position Management
HR Self-Service

Looking out over the PeopleSoft product roadmap, over the next 0-12 months the following functionality is slated to be released:

Human Capital Management
Performance Management WorkCenter
Life Events Using Activity Guides
Paycheck Modeling
Learning Dashboard with Social Capabilities
Revamped Recruiting Application Process
Bi-Directional Integration with Taleo
Mobile Applications (Company Directory)

Enterprise Wide

Multiple WorkCenters
Visualization of Customer, Supplier, Asset...
Streamlined Expense Reporting
Supplier Self Service Onboardinge
Procurement Usability Enhancements
Mobile Applications (Approvals, Expenses)

Common ERP

Global Search using SES
PeopleSoft Update Manager
Actionable Operational Analytics-Pivot Grids
Data Migration Workbench

Looking out over the PeopleSoft product roadmap, the post 12 month planning cycle includes:

Human Capital Management

Onboarding Using Activity Guides
Payroll WorkCenter
Streamlined Program Enrollment
Mobile Applications (Self Service, Time and Labor)

Enterprise Wide

In-Memory Financial Modeling
Multiple Additional WorkCenters
Business Process Visualization
Treasury Portfolio Analysis
Consortium Contracts for Public Sector
PAR Manager WorkCenter for Healthcare
Mobile Applications (Cash Spot, Time Entry, Projects)

Common ERP

Fluid User interface Using HTML5 and CSS
New Self Service Framework
Extend/Enhance Approval Workflow Framework

What a list, right? Don't forget, all of these will be highlighted and featured during sessions and at the Orace demo grounds on the COLLABORATE showfloor. To review complete education and registration information, visit www.questdirect.org/collaborate.

Editor's Blog - PeopleTools 8.53 Now Available

Rebekah Sellers — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:03:23 GMT

This latest release of PeopleSoft PeopleTools provides a new level of usability and productivity within PeopleSoft applications and enables PeopleSoft customers to manage their total cost of ownership for PeopleSoft applications. While PeopleTools 8.53 is the enablement platform for the next planned release of PeopleSoft applications (release 9.2) it also delivers value to customers with existing PeopleSoft deployments. This release fundamentally improves our applications at many levels. The user experience is on par with or better than other applications on the market today. We've also introduced important improvements in how customers deploy, scale, and update our applications with features like virtualization and the PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM).

Editor's Blog - PeopleSoft Named Best In KLAS

Rebekah Sellers — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:07:31 GMT

Oracle's PeopleSoft Named Best in KLAS for Financials/ERP Software in Healthcare for the Second Year in a Row

For the second year in a row, KLAS has named Oracle's PeopleSoft Financials best Financials/ERP software in its "2012 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services" report(i). The annual report, now in its 15th year, ranks the best-performing healthcare IT vendors in nearly 100 market segments based on ratings from nearly 20,000 interviews with healthcare providers.
To obtain objective findings, KLAS developed 25 questions that enable healthcare providers to rate products and vendors in the areas of product quality, sales and contracting, implementation and training, functionality and upgrades, service and support and general, and calculated the overall performance ratings based on individual scores.

Editor's Blog - PeopleSoft HCM End-of-year Analysis

Rebekah Sellers — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:28:06 GMT

By the end of the year, people usually look back to make an analysis of the year that went by and look forward to establish new goals and objectives for the coming year. Check out this analysis from the PeopleSoft HCM team of the last two years for PeopleSoft HCM.

Read the full blog post here.

Editor's Blog - DMUG News

Rebekah Sellers — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:42:57 GMT

New documents have been posted to My Oracle Support with information around FSCM 9.2.

9.2 FSCM Release Value Proposition (RVP)

To search MOS by Document ID, use: 1474260.1

9.2 FSCM Pre-Release Notes

To search MOS by Document ID, use: 1495347.1

Video Feature Overviews

Click here for Video Feature Overviews (VFO’s). These short recorded snippets highlight some of our newer Application and PeopleTools functionality.

Fact or Fiction: Hybrid ERP Deployments

Brett Beaubouef — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 02:39:21 GMT

With cloud computing and cloud ERP gaining additional attention in the marketplace, ERP vendors, resellers, and solution providers are quickly positioning their products and services as “cloud-enabled”. However, in my humble opinion, to simply put ERP software on a hosted server and provide subscription-based pricing does not a cloud solution make. A key value proposition for cloud ERP is the ability to support a truly hybrid ERP deployment. In the next section we will discuss what is an ERP hybrid deployment including the opportunities and challenges this type of deployment presents.

http://gbeaubouef.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/hybrid-erp/

For additional information, feel free to contact the author:

Brett Beaubouef, PMP, CISA | Practice Manager

Cardinal Point Solutions

Phone: c: 303.562.4896

Email: BBeaubouef@CardinalPointSolutions.com

Is Cloud Ringing the Death Toll for ERP?

Brett Beaubouef — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 02:35:43 GMT

Cloud computing is here to stay, but what does that mean for those who sell and implement ERP solutions today?

First, it means that there is a new way in which business software solutions are being purchased and consumed, and that means resellers need to pay close attention to the way they run their business. Secondly, it means that if ERP companies wish to remain in the game, they need to make some significant changes

http://gbeaubouef.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/is-cloud-death-for-erp/

Editor's Blog - PeopleSoft News

Rebekah Sellers — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:42:27 GMT

To ensure Oracle’s PeopleSoft applications customers continue to receive world class support from Oracle and have ample opportunity to upgrade to PeopleSoft Release 9.2, Oracle recently announced the following changes to Oracle’s Lifetime Support:

Extended Support for PeopleSoft Release 9.0 until June 2015
Waiver of Extended Support Fees on PeopleSoft Release 9.0
Waiver of Extended Support Fees on PeopleSoft Release 9.1

The extension of Oracle Extended Support for PeopleSoft Release 9.0 applications from various months in 2014 to June 2015 is documented in the “Oracle Lifetime Support Policy” for Oracle Applications found here: http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-support-applications-069216.pdf

The waiver of Oracle Extended Support uplift fees on PeopleSoft Release 9.0 and PeopleSoft Release 9.1 applications is documented in the “Oracle Software Technical Support Policies” found here:

http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/057419.pdf

Furthermore, Oracle also recently announced Oracle Advanced Customer Support (ACS) service offerings for PeopleSoft Payroll for North America and PeopleSoft Global Payroll Release 8.9* to provide tax, legal, and regulatory updates. For more information on the Oracle Advance Customer Support (ACS) service offerings contact acsdirect_us@oracle.com.

*select country extensions only including: France, Spain, Mexico, United Kingdom, India, Australia, and New Zealand.

Editor's Blog - Points on PeopleSoft

Rebekah Sellers — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:58:39 GMT

There may not be a major PeopleSoft release to announce from Oracle OpenWorld, but there's plenty of PeopleSoft news coming out of San Francisco.

First, release 9.2 will not be coming later this year. PeopleSoft strategy lead Paco Aubrejuan announced in the PeopleSoft roadmap session that although a specific date is not available, 9.2 is scheduled for general availability in the early part of 2013. Clearly lots of folks are interested though, as he spoke to a packed room that put a smile on his face prompted the comment, "Whoever said PeopleSoft is dead?" Applause followed. "This is our eighth year as part of Oracle, and I think our best yet," Aubrejuan said.

Additionally, three new PeopleSoft Mobile applications are available now and will work with 9.1, announced Dave Bain in the Mobile session. Expense management, approvals and company directory are now ready to go mobile on both tablets and smartphones, and do not require additional licensing fees, he said.

Other noteworthy news includes the PeopleSoft extended support window: 9.0 will be supported through June of 2015, and extended support fees are waived for both versions 9.0 and 9.1.

News from PeopleTools followed the roadmap session with Jeff Robbins taking the stage to another packed house. PeopleTools releases are now scheduled for every 12-18 months, but customers can realistically expect a 15-18 month window, he said. Among improvements in 8.53 are improved pivot grids, available site-wide branding, dashboards and workcenters optimized for tablets and a simpler design in the interaction model, similar to web browsing.

Be sure to check out the PeopleSoft Update manager as well. This features allows customers to easily install any and all (pick and choose) available updates and bug fixes in one easy step. "PeopleSoft update manager knows what's new and what's been fixed," Robbins said, making it easy for customers to always have access to the latest and greatest fully functioning version of PeopleSoft.

While 9.2 may not be out yet, lots of demos and information has come out of OOW. Moving forward, the PeopleSoft team is looking to make applications that are simpler and more intuitive, require little or no customization, and that make staying current easy and affordable. "Every investment we make is measured against those," Aubrejuan said.

He treated the audience to a demo of the new Life Events feature in PeopleSoft HCM 9.2, taking on the persona of Roseanna Channing to the amusement of the crowd. "I know it doesn't look it, but I just had a baby," he quipped, before taking the audience through employee self service features of adding new withholdings and applying for promotions.

The HCM demo also showed the audience new search functions, paycheck modeling, the recruiting dashboard and pagelets which will now be transactional, not just view-only.

More to come from this jam-packed week in sunny San Francisco (no fog yet!), so stay tuned!

Open World Attendees, Win Apple TV, iPods, and Gift Bags with PeopleSoft

Greg Parikh — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:09:28 GMT

Here's how the PeopleSoft @ Oracle OpenWorld “Fact of the Day” giveaway works:

1. Be sure to follow PeopleSoft on Twitter to learn the PeopleSoft “Fact of the Day”. https://twitter.com/peoplesoft_info
2. We will repeat the fact several times that day.
3. At random PeopleSoft Sessions, you may be picked at random and asked if you know the "Fact of the Day". If you have the correct answer, you WIN!
4. We will give you the prize right there! No waiting for a prize to be mailed to you.
5. Contest Participants must be allowed to accept the prize per their company/vendor guidelines.

Editor's Blog - PeopleTools at Oracle OpenWorld

Rebekah Sellers — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:56:09 GMT

Just in from Oracle's PeopleSoft Technology Blog - sessions to pay attention to if you're interested in PeopleTools.

Check it out here, and see you in San Francisco!

Editor's Blog - New Paper on the PeopleSoft Interaction Hub-PeopleTools Relationship

Rebekah Sellers — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:00:04 GMT

A new paper has just been published that explains the relationships and dependencies between the PeopleSoft Interaction Hub (formerly the PeopleSoft Applications Portal), and PeopleTools. This paper will help you understand which versions of the Hub work with which versions of Tools.

Read the full post here.

Oracle Works with Infosys and Wipro to Extend Flexibility and Choice for Oracle Fusion Applications

Madeline Vied — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:46:57 GMT

Oracle is working with Infosys and Wipro, Diamond level members of Oracle PartnerNetwork, to develop Oracle Fusion Co-existence and Migration Solutions.

Oracle Fusion Migration Solutions are part of a strategic co-development project and will provide a robust set of co-existence and migration tools to support customers of Oracle’s PeopleSoft Applications that are interested in migrating to Oracle Fusion Applications.

As Oracle reported, work is being conducted across Human Capital Management, Financials and Procurement.