As expected, there’s just not a lot of new information about Fusion Applications coming out of the conference this year.   But here’s what I’ve found so far:

What is Fusion?

Fusion is a strategy for a new enterprise software line called Oracle Fusion Applications based on Oracle Fusion Architecture.

There are basically 8 points that define an Oracle Fusion application.

1)    It is written and runs on an open modern middleware.
2)    It provides a new modern user interface so that the user experience is more productive, interesting and easier to navigate.
3)    It exposes business intelligence to end users
4)    (okay, I didn’t actually attend this session, I’ll have to look the other points up and get back to you)

EPM 11g was delivered this summer and meets the qualifications for a Fusion application.  As do the CRM applications that were announced at the last OOW and delivered earlier in the year.

Moving forward, Oracle will go through their complete stack of products and bring them into the Fusion fold.  Oracle has ordered these based on customer feedback.

Fusion Applications Progress so far:

1. 400 customers have been involved in the Fusion Validation Program over the last 12 months.
2. 8000 people have done usability testing to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of fusion applications.
3. The following apps will be part of Fusion 1.0: CRM, Procurement, HRMS, Talent Management, Payroll.
4. The following apps will not be in fusion: Public Sector, Manufacturing, Distributed order orchestration.
5. Fusion Applications will be released to early adopters some time in 2009.

What infrastructure will Fusion Applications 1.0 run on?

• Oracle (BEA) Weblogic
• Oracle 11g database
• Other Oracle Fusion Middleware components.

What’s different/new in Fusion?

• HR uses a worker-centric approach.
• Processes are served up to a role.
• Navigation is very different, built around a fusion hierarchy.
• Multi-channel functionality (groups, discussion forums) are baked in.
• You can construct your own business processes without customizing.

If you’re interesting in upgrading to Fusion at some point in the future, Oracle recommends that you start thinking about it now. Oracle has made several "Path to Fusion" Recommendations (these are Oracle’s recommendations, not necessarily mine):

• Get as current as possible on your existing release. The more current you are the fewer problems you’ll have in the upgrade process.
• Minimize customizations
• Catalog your customizations, and keep it up to date.
• Do an Oracle Middleware project to get exposed to Oracle Fusion Middleware products.
• When you do customize, use SOA to create loosely-coupled processes and leave your base application vanilla.
• Consolidate your master data. Oracle Master Data Management delivers a single view of central business objects across applications. It centralizes, cleanses, de-dups and synchronizes to extend and enrich data.
• Talk to other customers. Users Groups are great for this (OAUG, IAUG, Quest)
• Extend your Business Intelligence Portfolio. Oracle Analytic applications can be used in PS today and can plug in fusion tomorrow.
• Adopt Enterprise Reporting & Publishing – Convert reports to Oracle BI Publisher
• Secure your global enterprise – Implement Oracle Identity Management to enforce the security model outside the application and gain SSO and identity provisioning. "One less thing to do for Fusion".

 There are many great resources to get you ready on Oracle’s web site. One place to start is http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/fmw4apps/peoplesoft/index.html. Oracle also made a tool available to help you assess your readiness. They call it the “Oracle Fusion Readiness Driver”. Unfortunately I can’t find the link, but when I do I’ll be sure to share it with you.

During an upgrade you have a rare opportunity to really dig in and "do things right" in preparation for your Fusion upgrade. Since PeopleSoft is SOA enabled today, you can use the following approaches in terms of your customizations: Customizing the user interface:

• Use Application Development Framework (ADF)
• ADF / Java / AJAX / Web 2.0.
• Stop using PeopleSoft App Designer to develop forms.
• Use Oracle Web Center Suite, an integrated, standards based, user interaction suite

• Build processes that communicate with each other via web services.
• Oracle foundation pack provides building blocks to enable SOA.

• If you’re running EBS, Oracle’s BPEL + Integration B2B can bridge the gap. Unfortunately this session was EBS-centric so I'm not exactly sure of the equivalent technology within PeopleSoft. 

Now if you are a manager and you’re concerned that your support team’s PeopleSoft skills will be obsolete in a Fusion world, that’s ok because you should be. That’s why Oracle recommends implementing and using Fusion components now – it’s not just to “fusion-proof” your app, but your team as well. I talked to BEA professional at the Ask the Experts session about this issue, and he thought PeopleSoft folks should cultivate the following skills to survive in a post-Fusion-Applications world.

I hope this helps. I tried not to read too many tea leaves to pull this info together, but of course I could have misunderstood something so feel free to follow up with your account rep if something doesn't seem right.

Comments (6)

Oracle Fusion Applications Sighted : Brent Martin ORCLville has a nice article about an Oracle Fusion Applications sighting. Check it out: http://orclville.blogspot.com/2008/08/fusion-applications-seen-up-close.html September 24, 2008 Excellent Fusion Analysis! : Ted Simpson Thank you for this post. I was at OOW and was not able to collect and process anywhere near as much Fusion information as you have here. I'll echo Brent's reference to ORCLville; Floyd has had some great posts on Fusion Apps and OOW thoughts. I'll also add the higher education user group (HEUG: www.heug.org) to your list of user groups. Our membership is PeopleSoft-heavy and many of us are pushing latest releases and plunging into Fusion Middleware. Thanks again for the great post! -Ted September 27, 2008 No public sector in Fusion Apps v1? : stuart bensley : http://www.logica.com Hi Brent, great article. Such a pity all of this information has not been published by Oracle. Would you mind substantiating what won't be in Fusion apps v1 : Public Sector, Manufacturing, Distributed order orchestration. Any other modules/families areas such as SCM/Warehouse Management excluded ? Will "v2" be an incremental functionality release then? e.g. more of a v1.1 or will v2 be more of a separate app suite that you "plug-in" alongside v1 ? To add credence, would you also mind identifying who said this (& in what OOW sessions) as we have a lot of customers interested in these statements. Any more insight or media footage to clarify v1 apps content would also really help. Thanks in antipication. Stuart - Oracle apps architect/eDBA October 06, 2008 RE: No public sector in Fusion Apps v1 : Brent Martin The vast majority of this article came from the Sunday session on 9/21/08 called "OAUG Fusion Council Panel: Fusion Applications". Floyd Teter, the Chair of the OAUG Fusion Council, assembled a panel of Fusion experts to field questions about Fusion. On the panel were (I apologize in advance for any name misspellings) Paul Kirk, Cara Brownfield, Kushir ???, Chris Leone, and John Stauffer. The information about what'll be in v1 and what won't came from Chris Leone, and unfortunately I don't have any other information about it in my notes. I really think the best Fusion information right now is coming out of the user groups like OAUG and IOUG, and I'd highly recommend joining one of them if your organization would like to be an early Fusion Apps adopter affect the direction of the Fusion Application evolution. I recorded some of the session on my blackberry, and I'll make it available when I figure out if the audio is discernible and how to convert the GP3 video format to something usable. October 06, 2008 OAUG Fusion Council Panel: Fusion Applications Video : Brent Martin Here's the video of the Sunday session: /component/option,com_seyret/Itemid,35/task,videodirectlink/id,3/. The audio and video quality is poor (hence it won't make the front page or RSS Feed), but if you're desperate for Fusion Application info you might find it useful. October 07, 2008 Fusion Scope : Brent Martin After reviewing the audio, here's what I believe Chris Leone actually said about what's in and what's out scope for the initial release of the Fusion applications: So we made some significant progress. From a scope perspective we're still supporting pretty robust ERP, CRM Suite, all the Core Financials - or the majority of core Financials will be there: Procurement, Project Costing and Billing [...] Back Office [...] HR, core HR Talent Management will be there. Payroll will be there, CRM mostly around sales and sales force automation will be there, horizontal not vertical. Kind of what's not there are Public Sector apart from v1 manufacturing kind of targeted for v1 so we'll have the manufacturing components[...] We will have some capabilities like Distributed Order Orchestration, or managing ordering around a custom or Siebel [...] Order Capture perspective then through multiple fulfillment systems [...] We've got lots of abilities for customers who want to take a modular approach[...] October 07, 2008

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