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Wizard aides you in the setup and implementation of the Oracle Applications. It walks you through the setup tasks and forms you need in order to complete your implementation. To make your implementation job easier, Wizard groups related setup tasks logically.

The Wizard does not replace a product's User's Guide. However, since it knows which products you are planning to implement, it helps you sort through cross-application interdependencies you face when implementing multiple applications modules. After the Wizard determines the subset of setup steps you need to perform, it helps you find the corresponding documentation for those steps.

We harnessed Oracle Workflow, an excellent tool for modelling complex business process, to model the setup process itself. The Workflow Engine steers you towards application setup windows, and provides a graphical monitor to help you visualize of the number of setup steps, the order in which the steps are executed, and a view of the priority and dependency between setup steps.

The processes guide you through the specific implementation process required for your installation. The sequence of steps are contingent on which application modules you install. This structure reduces complexities created when having to implement multiple application modules which have same setup steps.

As you proceed through the implementation processes, you are able to document both your completion of setup step and append notes for later recall.

After you complete the common processes, your implementation team can work completely in parallel on the modular workflow without having to worry about dependencies.

Benefits of the using the Wizard

• Increased Productivity: the Wizard offers you a step-by-step guidance from the first to the last setup step, and helps you manage members of an implementation team to allow them to work in parallel.

• Reduced effort and time: by reorganizing setup into several process segments, you can eliminate redundant steps that occur from multiple applications being implemented together.

• Self-documented Implementation: the Wizard records your responses to each setup step notification, as well as recording detail comments for later review.

• Increased Situational Awareness: at any time, a team member or manager can see how the implementation process is proceeding, review previously recorded responses, and preview future steps and decision points-- all using a graphical implementation process monitor.

The Basic Notification/Response Cycle

Each notification corresponds to a particular setup step or task. Once a notification is sent to a particular team member, that member becomes the task owner; the task owner reads the notification. Generally, the notification informs the user that a setup step must be completed, such as identifying and entering Hold Codes into Payables. The task owner uses the Wizard to automatically launch the appropriate setup window, enters the appropriate data, then sends a "Response" to indicate that the task is completed.

Of course, the task owner can also take other actions, each with its own response mechanism, such as skipping the task or reassigning it to a different team member.

Once a response is sent, the Wizard uses the Workflow Engine to decide which step must be completed next, and sends an appropriate notification, thus continuing the Notification/Response cycle.

Implementation Classification and Grouping

Primary Implementation Processes

• Wizard Installation

• Common Applications (including System Administration)

• Common Distribution

• Common Financial

• Common Manufacturing

• Inventory, Purchasing, Order Entry, Product Configurator, and Supplier Scheduling

• General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Asset, Cash Management, and Projects

• Bill of Material, Cost Management, Engineering, Forecasting, Quality, Supply Chain Processing, and Work in Process

• Sales and Marketing, Sales Compensation, and Service

• Human Resources and Payroll

Similarly, the Common Financials group contains setup steps which are common to more than one module across the Financials products. The final processes contain product-specific tasks that can be completed in parallel with each other, without cross-process interdependencies; you can assign a different team member to each final process and let them proceed without waiting for one another to complete any steps.

By the time you reach the final implementation processes, you can have a very large team working on many independent implementation processes in parallel.

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