ioug
Join AST and other leaders in Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics, and Big Data this week in Redwood Shores, CA for the Independent Oracle Users Group’s BIWA Summit 2016!
The 3-day event, beginning today, January 26th, includes keynotes by industry experts, educational sessions by practitioners, hands-on labs, and networking events.
AST’s VP of BI and EPM, Patrick Callahan, is among these esteemed leaders, and will be presenting “Defining a Roadmap for Migration to Oracle BI Applications on ODI” on Thursday, January 28th at 10:55AM.
BIWA summits are organized and managed by the Oracle BI, DW, and Analytics user community. This year, the BIWA Summit includes the 11th annual Oracle Spatial Summit. This event attracts the top Oracle BI, Data Warehouse, Advanced Analytics, Big Data, and Spatial and Graph experts from around the globe.
Learn more about this event and register here.

ast-employee
Congratulations to Gena D. for earning recognition as AST’s Employee of the Month for January 2016!
Gena is being recognized for her support outside of her territory to make up for a gap in sales coverage, and for helping to bring accounts to successful closure.  All of this effort is in addition to managing a dual (public sector and commercial) territory.
Gena has been a consummate team player and is always willing to go above and beyond to help sales efforts and the greater good of the AST team.  Thank you, and keep up the great work, Gena!

accounts-payable
Increased efficiency within a firm is often achieved with the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, such as Oracle E-Business Suite, as well as Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems, to aid in the storage and access of content in a more efficient manner.  Even with such systems in place, however, companies often view Accounts Payable processes as separate silos of work and not a collaborative effort.  This model may be reducing your firm’s overall efficiency.
The use of Cloud and on-premise ECM technology has become prevalent in the corporate environment to overcome such roadblocks.  This technology is used most effectively when teams think outside the box and apply technology properly to independent situations, rather than using a standard process for clearly unique business problems.
Currently, E-Business Suite (EBS) Accounts Payable (AP) users are comfortable utilizing EBS to store invoices, along with supplier and other internal communications, as attachments.  Then, when questions and audits arise during the payment process, they are routed to AP for further insight, as there is no Cloud or CRM system access to the documents.  Each time a question arises, AP spends valuable time searching and forwarding copies of documents to internal users and suppliers to answer questions that could be addressed through self-service.
In a Cloud or ECM environment, questions and answers can be posted by AP, suppliers, and other parties, and documents are shared to resolve issues in a collaborative manner.  Deploying a system that allows internal and supplier collaboration helps firms realize greater efficiency and an increased bottom line.

cloud-integration
Customers with on-premise, enterprise solutions have to significantly invest their IT resources and users’ time to maintain, patch, and support multiple in-house applications.  To address these concerns, many customers are now embracing cloud applications.  Although moving to the cloud is a choice that can significantly simplify system maintenance, it does introduce a new set of integration challenges.
 
AST’s Cloud Integration Accelerator is a proven, fully-configurable accelerator that provides pre-built interfaces for Oracle Fusion Cloud integration with both legacy (on premise) and cloud SaaS solutions.  AST’s Cloud Integration Accelerators will help eliminate the burden of designing and planning each cloud interface.  Our web-based GUI enables administrators to define a complete integration flow, including:
 
·        Data Validation Rules
·        Data De-duplication Rules
·        Mappings and Transformations
·        Search to locate individual messages and transactions
·        Pre & Post-processes
Join AST for a free webinar this Thursday, January 21st, at 1:00 PM CST, and learn how AST’s Cloud Integration Product reduces cloud integration time from weeks to days, enabling increased ROI and rapid deployment.
Find out how your organization can leverage our solution to stay ahead of the curve, limit your overall integration investment, and enable faster adoption of cloud platforms and services.
 
Register here!

cloud-service-specialist
Four of our consultants completed valuable certifications this month!
Congratulations to Frank D., who is now an Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite 11g Certified Implemented Specialist, Kevin N., who earned his Enterprise Performance Reporting 2016 Cloud Service Specialist Certificate, Lisa R., who completed her Oracle Fusion Applications Cloud Service 2016 User Experience Specialist Certificate, and to Chris W., who earned his Oracle Application Testing Suite: Essentials Ed 2 LVC Certificate.
Congratulations to you all, and keep up the great work!

weblogic
The IT world is buzzing about the use of Docker. What is it and how does it help in developing and administering J2EE applications? In this article, Radu Dobrinescu explains how to configure and leverage Docker for WebLogic Development Environments.
Docker packs your development server environment into a standardized unit. It is a virtualization solution that is based on Linux containers, and an entire WebLogic server environment can be “dockerized” with modifications to the environment captured in subsequent versions of the image.
Docker helps in the development and administration of J2EE applications by capturing all of the server configurations with desired JDK and binaries. The images created with Docker can easily be shared between developers, ensuring all developers have identical environments.  Furthermore, changes to the environment can be versioned for greater flexibility.
Learn more about how developing J2EE applications can be improved by using Docker to manage shared development environments here.

oracle-and-sap
The two industry giants in the enterprise application space, Oracle and SAP, face many of the same challenges as the technology market makes a significant shift.  Each company approaches these challenges quite differently.
Oracle is defining itself as a complete solution provider, from database, to infrastructure, to hardware, software, and more.  It is moving aggressively and promoting cloud-based SaaS and PaaS solutions, while facilitating growth and development both organically and through acquisitions.
A notable distinction between Oracle and SAP is that the latter is focused more heavily on acquisitions, spending billions of dollars on key, Cloud-native products.  The German software firm also operates more superficially in the stack, focusing more of its operation on the business applications.
Nevertheless, both companies must consider that the buyer profile has shifted from IT to the business end, and shape their value propositions accordingly.
Read more about the strategies of each software company in Conner Forrest’s full article.

vgfoa
On Friday, December 4th, AST representatives will attend the Virginia Government Finance Officers’ Association’s Central Regional Training Event in Henrico, VA, covering the following topics:
 
Accounting and Auditing Update
 
Arbitrage Rebate
 
GASB 74/75 OPEB Update
 
Bond Compliance
 
AST is a regular participant in ongoing training and networking events in the Public Sector and Government verticals in order to provide our clients with the most up-to-date and valuable information for their transformational projects.
The Virginia Government Finance Officers’ Association (VGFOA) was organized in 1968 with the purpose of promoting the improvement of methods of governmental finance and to extend the educational and professional activities of the members.  The VGFOA provides educational and professional development opportunities through conferences and Certificate Program courses.
To learn more about this event and to register to attend, click here.

ast-employee
Congratulations to Chris L. for earning the recognition of AST’s Employee of the Month for December 2015!
Chris is being recognized for his outstanding ability to identify customer needs and deliver results promptly. Chris has been responsible for the design, development, and deployment of the most visible and critical customer interface in the client solution. He has consistently exceeded his job expectations and goes above and beyond by working additional time to deliver an exceptional product. Chris is successful in collaborating with peers between and within knowledge areas, and he reaches out to his teammates to ensure he has delivered the best technical solution.
We are glad to have you as part of our team!  Keep up the great work, Chris!