Oracle : E-Business Suite Intro

Oracle E-Business Suite is a comprehensive set of enterprise-wide business applications that runs entirely on the Internet. You can implement either one module or the entire suite. Oracle E-Business Suite helps an enterprise make smarter decisions with better information, share unified information across the enterprise, reduce IT expenses, and help run business more efficiently.

•  Automate key internal business processes
•  Extend automation and collaborate with your trading partners
•  Drive continuous improvement with real-time intelligence

Some of the Oracle Product Families are:

• Oracle Financials
• Customer Relationship Management Suite
• Project Management Product Suite
• Supply Chain Planning and Management Suite
• Manufacturing – Discrete and Process and Order Management
• Human Capital Management (HRMS, Payroll)

Architecture:

E-Business Suite has five principles that drive its Business Architecture. That architecture is driven around supporting and fulfilling business needs. Those principles are as follows:

1.E-Business Suite is built on a “modern foundation.” What this means is that Oracle is putting all of its new development into open, scalable standards. These standards include using Java/J2EE, HTML, Javascript, Internet-accessibility, and centralized management.

2.E-Business Suite is the first complete e-Business system. The E-Business Suite provides a complete enterprise-wide manufacturing, supply chain management, financial, project, human resource management, marketing, sales and service process solution. Because of that completeness, it is able to deliver a 360 degree view of the company.

3.EBS provides its completeness in a fully end-to-end integrated package. This is crucial to understanding the architecture. EBS integration is engineered into the product. It is not realized through systems integration/customizations.

4.It is fully globalized EBS is accessible via global networks. It accommodates multiple languages and currencies. It supports international features like flexible date formats and multiple radix support. And it has accounting and business localizations built into it.

5.It brings considerable tools to the implementation task. These tools include a rapid installation tool, patch application tools, and a host of configuration files and customizable help files to allow the customer to configure the system to meet their needs and they help to significantly reduce implementation time.

Technical Architecture:

The technical architecture is a direct response to the business needs. In supporting the business needs, four architectural modes to support the users have been developed. Those four architectural modes are accessed and controlled through the Personal Home Page (PHP) or Portal.

Forms-based users are typically people involved in the transactional operations of the organization. They are typically full-time users who need and demand a robust, full-featured interface.

Self-service users are typically infrequent users that want their interface with EBS to be as simple and quick as possible. Most users fall in this category.

Business intelligence users are typically senior executives who want an easy to use interface that can be used to reveal critical business information. By utilizing a browser, the business intelligence products eliminate the need for the users to learn a new system. If they are familiar with browsing, they know the basics of the business intelligence interface.

Finally, mobile users cover a surprisingly large range of users whose jobs are likely to keep them away from a readily available, network-connected computer. These users can range from sales people to inventory folks. By utilizing the mobile interface, they are able to send and receive information at points where it is important and convenient for them

Basic Technical Architecture of Oracle EBS

A tier is a logical grouping of services, potentially spread across more than one physical machine. Oracle E-Business Suite consists of a three tier architecture. The diagram represents the basic technical architecture of  E-Business Suite.

Desktop/Client tier: This tier provides the user interface. This tier could consist of a desktop computer, laptop or mobile devices like PDAs, and so on. This tier is mainly involved in capturing and displaying information to the user.

Application tier: This tier is responsible for holding all the application logic. It supports and manages various Applications components, and is sometimes known as the middle tier.

Database tier: This tier is responsible for storing and retrieving the application data. It supports and manages the Oracle database.