What is ‘Oracle ERP Reporting’?

In any company there are 2 clear aspects to reporting – namely the definition and the technology.

The definition of reports required for internal and external customers is entirely a matter for the business managers. For example, Finance teams define what reporting is required to meet statutory and regulatory requirements. They define what information is included, who receives the report and when the report is delivered to the customer.

The IT team is responsible for advising on, developing and supporting the technology used to meet the needs of business reporting. The IT role is to focus on how reports are delivered effectively and efficiently using the most appropriate reporting tools.

A partnership is required to meet the reporting needs of the business. Too often those roles are blurred and confused with the result being inefficient delivery.

The IT team should have a clear strategy for delivering reporting including:

* Align with the company Reporting Strategy
* Top down…bottom up approach
* Utilise best practice
* Deploy appropriate Oracle tools
* Baseline current reporting
* Customers define requirements - the WHAT
* Change request raised and fully scrutinised for value for money
* Service provider - the HOW
* Detailed analysis
* Agreed solution - effective and efficient
* Controlled development
* Fully tested
* Deployed in production
* Maintained and supported

Oracle ERP Reporting tools

There are a number of Oracle reporting tools deployed in the ERP arena. Often companies have no clear strategy for reporting then it is easy to conclude that their deployment has been supply rather than demand driven.

The reporting tools include:

* Standard reports – out of the box and reliable
* FSG - user defined in Oracle Financials but needs control
* Customised reports - costly and high maintenance
* SQL ad hoc queries - risky but quick
* Oracle Discoverer - good ad hoc tool needs control
* Business Intelligence.- needs a full strategic analysis

These tools may have been deployed without aligning: it to any business reporting strategy; or analysing demand; or by structuring appropriate support and expertise in the business side or IT teams.

As one senior business manager told the author recently: “I asked 3 Oracle tools the same question and got 3 different answers.“

Security

The ownership of Oracle reporting necessitates access to live production systems and sensitive HR, Contracts, Projects and Payroll data.

A great deal of work is needed in restricting and managing access to these areas with customers' consent. The IT team should be the custodian of Oracle ERP applications on behalf of the company. They should manage access for users, databases, and applications' security, menus, responsibilities and functions

Skills

The business side rarely has the skills long term to develop reports at the correct standards, although Super Users should be encouraged to be actively involved in design, development, testing, deployment and support.

Cost

The IT team need to prioritise development working with the business. Their aim should be to meet all current and future support, development and reporting needs of customers with the current established numbers of analysts and absorbing new requirements by eliminating wasted efforts.

They need to be flexible in working across projects and support areas; seek to manage a robust change control for reporting including value for money; and have a mix of permanent staff supplemented

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