MD50 and MD70

I keep hearing these questions from many of the junior consultants:

What is the difference between MD50 and MD70 documents? Do I have to prepare both the documents even for minor extensions/interfaces?

Well, as you are probably aware, MD50 is AIM document that is used for the documentation of functional design for extensions and Interfaces (& other RICE objects). MD70 comes next where the Technical parts of the requirements are documented. Sometimes, it will be too cumbersome to prepare MD50s and MD70 for certain minor objects. Many organizations combine MD50 and MD70 into a single document with a seperate name like MDZIP or MDSHORT etc.

The adavantage of this consolidation is that the same document can be used for the functional part and later for the technical part. This is known to reduce the time for handling multiple versions of the document, approval cycles etc.

ENWISEN - Oracle Integration

One of the recent integrations between Oracle and external vendors includes ENWISEN. There has been some recent additions to this and I share a bit of my Exploration. This is yet a work in Progress, but I hope it should get you started.

Enwisen (http://www.enwisen.com) is a third party solutions vendor that operates on a hosted, on-demand SaaS model; has tie-ups with Oracle, PeopleSoft provides solutions for onboarding, HR Portal, Shared Service Center and Total Rewards Statement through its hosted solution called as AnswerSource. I picked up these pictures from their website, which summarizes their offerings:

The main thrust and USP seems to be addressing the needs of the employees on their first day at work, when the new hire has to fill out various documents and do paper-work etc. Enwisen appears to ‘lighten this load’ by getting the employee to log on to their website through the company’s portal and perform these tasks. Apparently, Enwisen can build (adapt) their portal look-and-feel to match the client’s website so that the new-hire would not realize that they are actually going to another vendor’s site. Also first day induction information like a brief video (guided tour) of the company’s facility / recorded talks from the company CEOs etc. can be recorded and made available through Enwisen’s website.
Enwisen is enabled to leverage Single Sign-on capability of the clients application. A new hire can access to Enwisen’s site through Oracle Apps login or even the company’s portal login.
It provides the employee with a single-point access to all the enrollment forms, company policies and other help manuals.

While many of the functionalities the product offers already exists in products like Oracle Employee Self-Service modules, there are some cool features like, an online dialog box where the employee can post any question that they may have. This feature is called as “Ask a Question”

Other features include participation in acknowledgment of having read & understood the company policies, harassment policies etc.
Another interesting feature in Benefits side is that Enwisen helps the new hires to compare various benefits options that are provided by the company and choose from among the ones that are best suited. One thing which needs to be confirmed is that if this functionality is usable only when the company uses Benefits modules of Oracle / PeopleSoft. If the company has outsourced the Benefits administration to a third party then this may call for further integration with the Benefits vendors and may in turn reflect on the cost.

AnswerSource also has a Manager and Administrator modules. Managers and administrators have a graphical display on the progress made by the new hires’ onboarding activities.
AnswerSource seems to straddle across the span of employee life in an organization, including assisting the employees when they are transferred/relocated to a new department or place, help them plan their benefits elections and even assist them in offboarding process when they are terminated / retired. Apparently, even retirees can continue to get access to the portal so that they can stay connected if they are still eligible for benefits.

You can also get the following information from Metalink on Configuring Links Between HRMS Products and Enwisen
1. Set the HR: Extension Agent profile option to enable the Info Online functionality.
2. Set the HR: Enwisen Login URL profile option.
3. Enable the Info Online content container and Topics region by setting the HR: KI Topics Enabled profile option.
4. Use the Personalization Framework function to display the Info Online content container on the product pages that support Enwisen integration.
5. Enter the login and authentication details that you receive from Enwisen for Ewisen:Provider integration on the Integration Options page.
6. After you implement the basic steps, you can carry define user specific additional security to access Enwisen by creating a Java class that implements Oracle's predefined Java interface: oracle.apps.per.ki.kiserver.KIDataFetcher. Provide the Java class value in the HR: Class Name to Fetch KI Data profile option to enable users to launch Enwisen from Oracle HRMS product pages that support Enwisen integration.

HR: Enwisen Login URL: This profile defines the URL of Enwisen web site, a third-party information provider that end users can access from Oracle iRecruitment, Oracle Performance Management, Oracle SSHR, and Oracle Time and Labor pages.

HR: Class Name to Fetch KI Data: This profile option has to be set to implement additional security when accessing Enwisen, a third-party information provider. The value for this profile option must be a fully qualified name of a Java class that implements Oracle's predefined Java interface: oracle.apps.per.ki.kiserver.KIDataFetcher. The Java class contains the method to retrieve login values when end users access Enwisen from Oracle HRMS product pages.

Hope this summary helps you in your discussion. Please share your experiences with this product integration with Oracle SSHR

CORE HR: Valueset with No Validation

A friend of mine had a query on whether a valueset without any validation in a Key Flexfield. I hope the below note helps.

There is a ton of material available in the metalink and it takes time to read and digest it. Here is a synopsis on valuesets and specifically for validation type = None.

A value set is primarily a container in which we can store any business-specific. Valuesets can be defined so that you define your value set such that it can also validate and check the of values that may be entered by a user. It can prevent any undesirable type of data from entering into the flexfield segments.

There are several types of validation that you can build, such as:
• Number,

• Character,

• Time,

• Standard Date,

• Standard DateTime.

You can also define controls such as
• Length of the values that can be entered,

• Precision (for decimal value entries),

• Numbers (Restrict the entries to only Numbers),

• Uppercase (you can specify whether the value set should be restricted to revieve only uppercase characters),

• Right-Justify and Zero-Fill Numbers: If the allowable size is set to 5 and if a user enters a value 320, then you can have the value to be stored as 00320,

• Minimum Value (You can specify the minimum value that can be stored in the valueset),

• Maximum Value (You can specify the maximum value that can be stored in the valueset)

When you specify Minimum & Maximum values. the user will not be able to enter a value outside that specified range. For example, you can build a value set of Number format type and if you specify the Miminimum as 0 and Maximum as 100, the user can enter only the values between 0 and 100.

As most consultants are aware, a Valueset Validation types include:

• Independent• Dependent• None• Table• Special• Pair• Translatable Independent• Translatable Dependent

Impact of not choosing a valueset for a flexfield Segment:

If you do not choose a value set, the flexfield segment assumes as if it were using a value setwith validation type None, with format type of Char and allows the user to enter values (width) as long as the underlying flexfield segment column, with mixed-case alphabetic characters and will not provide any right justification or zero padding

For example, if the value set does is restricted to allowing only numbers, then the users could enter numbers and not alphabetic characters. The values of the segment using this value set are not otherwise validated, and they will not have descriptions.Note: Because a 'None' type value set is not validated, a segment that uses this value set does not show any list of values for your users. Any flexfield segment that uses this type of value set (a non-validated segment) cannot use flexfield value security rules to restrict the values which a user can enter.

CORE HR: Inserting records into EIT

Another intersting business case that was discussed recently:

Question: Is it possible to insert a row of data in between a set of records in EIT?

Analyst Description: Client has populated five rows for a particular employee in an EIT, one record for each year. After the records were stored, it was then realized that one row was missed out for the third row. Client wants to insert the record in between rows three and four in the existing set. Is it possible to do that?

Answer: It is not possible to ‘insert’ a row in between a set of records. Though it appears that Oracle allows to enter the record in the right spot, once you save the record, you will find that the record is saved at the bottom.

Oracle generates an internal sequence for each row. And as you know the sequence is a running serial number something like 6001, 6002, 6003, 6004 etc. So when you insert a record, the new record will always get the next sequence number and hence will be displayed at the bottom of the heap.

Here’s an example:
Client has a couple of records already inserted ( for Academic for performance and succession) and saved and then realizes that a record which was to be inserted in between.

The client tries to insert a record between the 2000 and 2003 records. Click on the blank field and the DFF will open up. Enter appropriate values and save the record. Select the record and enter the values in the DFF.

Once the values are entered, submit the record.

Save the record and return to the application. You can see the record displayed at the bottom of the set, rather than the place where you inserted it.

CORE HR: People Group KFF or Bargaining Unit?

Recently saw a debate on whether to use People Group KFF for storing Union Information?

Well, here's my learnings:

To store data inside a Bargaining Unit, you can navigate to the Assignment window and thereafter, select the values as shown below:

1. Choose the Bargaining Unit tabbed region.
2. Enter a bargaining unit code for your employee's assignment. This is usually the legally recognized collective negotiating organization.
Note: You set up your different bargaining units as values for the Lookup type BARGAINING_UNIT_CODE
3. Select whether the employee associated with the assignment is a member of a union.
Note: This tab is not available when you are hiring a Contingent Worker.

Oracle provides People Group KFF for several purposes. If an enterprise wants to group certain set of people based on certain parameters like work type, or location type or benefit eligible types etc, then you can use People Group KFF. These groupings could be based on parameters like ‘Supervisory staff’ or all people belonging to Florida etc. Also you can store Union Information, though Oracle provides a separate placeholder to store Union Information