Tech Specs and Requirements

Yes. eprentise and FlexField can be used for these E-Business Suite releases: 10.7, 11.x, 11i, and R12 (all current versions).

eprentise runs on the same platforms as the Oracle E-Business Suite. eprentise is browser-based. You will run the install script on the same server as the E-Business Suite, and then use any browser to access the software.

The eprentise architecture is built on a multi-tiered, distributed computing model. The architecture comprises:

• A client tier that supplies the user interface
• An application tier responsible for servicing requests and providing responses to the client tier
• A database tier, which hosts and manages the eprentise schema

 

Click image to enlarge.

Client tier

The client interface is provided as HTML pages which can be accessed via a URL on a standard web browser. Users log into the application through a Login link provided on the eprentise Index page. You can use a standard web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Mozilla Firefox 2.0+) on any type of networked work station.

Application tier

The application tier provides for client side validation and manages the communication between the client tier and the database tier. The Application tier also hosts the eprentise reports engine. The current version of the eprentise software is supported on any Linux or UNIX platform that is also capable of supporting Oracle database versions 9i and above. Apache Tomcat server provides the technology component services and acts as the web server, processing the client requests by way of Web Listener and Java Servlet Engine (JSP).

Database tier

Click image to enlarge.

The eprentise database schema houses the eprentise knowledge repository and the core rules engine. The eprentise schema is created with its own dedicated data, index, temporary table space, and all the database objects required to operate when you install the software.

Both application and database tiers may reside on the same physical server that hosts your Oracle E-Business Suite test or production instances. It must at least reside on a server that has a DBlink connection to these instances.

You cannot use eprentise to consolidate an 11i and an R12 instance. In this situation, we suggest you upgrade the 11i instance to R12, without full testing and production cutover, and then consolidate the two R12 instances. We will work with you to see if there are reasonable upgrade shortcuts.

eprentise software products are mature with zero errors in production.  We will be glad to provide references if you are interested in a particular product.

FlexField is now the industry standard for changing charts of accounts, having been used in hundreds of successful runs.

The eprentise solution is software. However, the eprentise team will be needed to help the customer use the software, at least during the initial runs. The eprentise team’s role is product usage guidance and product technical support, based on over 20 years’ experience with the E-Business Suite and having developed eprentise software. eprentise software includes the fundamental functions of metadata discovery, comparison, and analysis, plus data copy, filter, change, and merge. The eprentise team understands how to interpret the metadata analysis and instance comparison reports, and then, based on the analysis results, plans which of the software operations the customer needs to execute.

Business and technical people who have seen brief eprentise demonstrations have told us the user interface is clear, uncluttered, and easily understood. You will not need specialist IT resources or consultants to run the software or to write extensions.

The eprentise team works with your team to determine the best approach to get the desired results.

Yes. eprentise follows the BR100 Oracle Validated Configuration guidelines, a part of the Oracle Application Implementation Method (AIM) for E-Business Suite, for comparison reports. Central to most of the methodologies is a comparison of the current “as is” situation and the desired “to be” or target environment. After defining the target environment, eprentise software is what you use to change the E-Business Suite data from the “as is” state to the “to be” state. A project manager will have no difficulty integrating eprentise software into a standard methodology.

The eprentise software contains its own framework for project administration and use of eprentise. It connects to and works with multiple E-Business Suite instances through a web browser. As with many E-Business Suite projects, you will set up clone instances of your production environment and these will be the test environments. You may also set up a target environment and temporary work areas. We will work with you during project planning on the specifics.

All projects will include custom training according to the customer and project requirements. The customer team, which may include third party consultants, is expected to have adequate knowledge and skills related to E-Business Suite. The training is about how to run the individual eprentise operations such as: create project, administer project, analyze metadata, analyze configuration, use rule templates, create rule, and execute rule. The eprentise team is available to help your team run your eprentise project and to help you go into production. Product usage training and transformation support is included in your eprentise license support fee.

Since the customer runs the E-Business Suite in production, they understand what needs to be changed and they have the skill to design the target. We usually review and comment informally on the customer’s design during their planning and decision making. The eprentise role is to guide the customer on how to use eprentise software operations (which operations, which sequence, etc.) to complete the transformation.

A DBA installs eprentise software and supervises the technical operations. The primary eprentise user is a senior business system analyst who runs the software.

A DBA with system privileges makes a clone of the database and installs eprentise software. No special skills or new techniques are needed. The install can be completed in about a half day. The DBA may also create eprentise users and projects so that the correct privileges are assigned. A DBA may also be required to monitor performance, and adjust tablespaces or rollback segments as the data is manipulated. After running Metadata Analysis and analyzing the results, it usually takes a few days from start to finish for each transformation run.