Oracle Opportunity

IN THIS PACKAGE YOU WILL FIND:• A Biography of the Author

• What they said about “The Oracle Opportunity – The Blueprint to Succeeding as an Oracle consultant”

• The Introduction & a Preview Chapter from the Book

• A synopsis of the books content

• Information on where to buy the book

2www.ILoveOracle.com

Biography

Aidan Duffy is a career-consultant, and has been working with Ora-cle technologies since 1993. He has worked in technical, functional & team leading roles during his career.

He has worked for major multinational clients such as Pfizer, General Electric & Canon, across the U.K. & Europe. He has been re-hired by Clients several times, having worked for one client four times, and has an excellent reputation in the European Oracle Consulting industry.

Aidan holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Computing Science, and is a white paper and book author, and blogger. In his spare time he likes to keep up with developments in IT, and is a keen golfer. Aidan enjoys networking; his LinkedIn Profile can be found at http://ie.linkedin.com/in/aidanduffy. You can also check out the http://iloveoracle.com/ blog for more information on Oracle Con-sulting topics.

http://ie.linkedin.com/in/aidanduffy

http://iloveoracle.com/


What they said about “The Oracle Opportunity – The Blueprint to Succeeding as an Oracle Consultant”

“Aidan your Book has helped me prepare for my interview, researching the key areas that a functional consultant is accountable for. Your Book also mentions making the most of the opportunities within your current organization to extend your business or functional knowledge; I will be taking full ad-vantage of this in the future. In addition to this there are some best practice methods that I will be keen to adopt when starting my new employment to ensure I make the correct impression.

Thank you for all your help”

Balwinder Kler Oracle Financials Functional Analyst

“This is an excellent read for anyone thinking of becoming an Oracle consultant. An excellent step-by-step guide to the ‘ins and outs’ of Oracle consulting. I wish I had this knowledge before I became a consultant, it would have saved me from making many mistakes.”

Ken Coyne (Oracle Consultant with over 10 years of experience)

The Oracle Opportunity


“Reading this is like having the chance to spend a day with a senior consultant and being able to ask them truthfully “How do I get to where you are?”

Nic Connor Oracle Ebusiness consultant and Recruiter

“This book provides a roadmap for those wishing to become successful Oracle eBusiness consultants. If you follow these steps, you will become a respected consultant”

James Parker Oracle Specialist Recruiter for Ntrinsic Solutions (http://ntrinsic.net/)

The Oracle Opportunity is a great introduction to the world of freelance consulting; written with first hand-experience and real insight, it brings together a set of strategies to address the main challenges encountered by first time freelancers — from prepar-ing for an interview through to managing your time-sheets, in-voicing and getting paid. It’s not just for first timers either as old timers will find it useful to refresh some of their knowledge, for example on personal marketing and how that can now be applied to social media. A really useful set of tips and trade secrets.”

John Needham Oracle EBusiness Project Manager


Synopsis:

I’ve seen those guys and girls around the office, right? You know the consultants? The ones in the smart suits, arriving in from a flight, working the week and flying back out again early on Friday after-noon? Seems like a nice life right? Working for Big Clients; Excit-ing Projects; Exotic Locations; Nice Hotels; expenses. Those are the lucky ones, right?

And the way they act in the office, so confident, knowing most of everything it seems, directing the project, they are the ones in con-trol, right?

So tell me, what is the difference between you and them? What EXACTLY is the difference?

It’s hard to say exactly what the difference is, isn’t it? Is it the way they act? The way they talk? The knowledge they have built up? The contacts they have made?

I am here to tell you that the difference between you and them is smaller than you imagine. So small, in fact, that in reality it only exists in your mind.

The opportunity to become a consultant is closer than you think. An-yone with Oracle skills can be an Oracle consultant, and this book is the Blueprint for showing you how.

This Oracle Opportunity is yours for the taking!


Book Content

“The Oracle Opportunity – The Blueprint to Succeeding as an Ora-cle Consultant” contains the following chapters:

IntroductionChapter 1. “Know What You Know”

What skills do you need to work an Oracle consultant?

Chapter 2 “Know What You Don’t Know” How to increase your knowledge up to consultant level using “free” resources

Chapter 3. Build Your Skills and Professional ProfileBuild your skills and profile within your project, your company and the wider Oracle market

Chapter 4. Identify OpportunitiesHow to find Consulting opportunities & get to know the con-sulting market

Chapter 5. Know the Project Life CycleUnderstand a typical Oracle project lifecycle, and where you might fit in the project team

Chapter 6. Prepare and Conduct a Winning InterviewHow to prepare for, and succeed at interviews

Chapter 7. Consider and Accept an OfferDeciding if a consultancy offer is the right one for you?



Chapter 8. Prepare for Transition into Your New RoleHow to leave your current boss wishing you had never left, and hit the ground running in your new role

Chapter 9. Begin Your New Job:What to expect in your new job, and how to get off to a “flying” start. Learn “who is who” in the new project team

Chapter 10. Prove Your Worth and Build RelationshipsProve yourself early, get to know the right people, and how to interact with other team members

Chapter 11. The Art of CommunicationOffering Your Opinion as a consultant. Knowing When to Assert Yourself and When to Back Down

Chapter 12. Manage the DetailsDocument the Work your complete and Get Paid on time

Chapter 13. Build on Your SuccessHow to make your boss beg you to stay

Conclusion: Build and maintain your reputationThe key to increasing your reputation as a consultant


Introduction

The hours tick down towards Go-Live. Tomorrow morning the new system will be switched on. Billions of dollars of transactions will start to flow through the framework I have created.

This is where it all begins. My program is the gateway to Oracle. The rest of the processes and the success of the project depend on me.

This Client has implemented Oracle in multiple European markets, but nothing as difficult as this before. They chose to work on this market last. It was expected to be the most challenging; they were right about that.

I have been stretched way beyond what I expected. I have managed a team of inexperienced people. I completed tasks I didn’t think I could do. I have made many personal sacrifices. I’ve put way too much of myself into this, for it to go wrong. I have learned a lot about myself. I can execute tasks and perform well under pressure, even in the “white heat” of a large Oracle project.

At the end of tomorrow, I will present the metrics at the Go-Live meeting. I need to be able to say ‘We had a good first day’. Nothing less will be accepted. Dare I hope to say, ‘everything got through successfully, 100% ’?

Despite all this though, I feel calm. I have double and triple checked everything, and tested from every possible angle. I’ve used the experience gained over ten years as a consultant. I have leveraged



the relationships I’ve built up over the lifespan of the project. I am happy this will be enough.

My reputation with this Client is at stake. If tomorrow goes well I will have successfully switched roles within the same Client. I have operated at a new level, way out of my comfort zone. I have proved that I can deliver any task assigned to me.

I can’t wait for tomorrow.

I have been an Oracle consultant since 1999. Many Clients have paid me thousands of dollars to help them with Oracle. I have worked with the largest multinational Clients including Accenture, General Electric & Pfizer. I have worked in the hottest locations in the world, such as London, Prague, New York and Amsterdam.

This book will tell you how to position yourself intelligently, pack-age your experience, promote yourself to the Oracle market, & part-ner with the right people.

Position Yourself:When I say position yourself, I mean, exactly what do you know about Oracle? Can other people understand exactly what you do? Can you explain it in a single sentence? If you are short on skills, what are you missing? How can you get those missing skills?

Package your experience:You have some experience in Oracle, but can you communicate that in your resume or profile? Have you really thought hard about what you can do, and where you might fit in a project team?



Promote yourself:A lot of consultants think promoting yourself stops when you start a new role and starts again when you finish up. They couldn’t be more wrong. Promoting yourself is an everyday activity both with your current & potential new employers.

Partner with the right people:As a consultant you need to partner with your client, with other con-sultancies and with end client staff, in order to succeed. This book will tell you how to interact with these people. It will also tell you what is expected of a consultant, and how to be retained by a client.

One of my managers said the most memorable thing about me was that it was obvious that I really cared about what I was doing. I think we’ve gotten too far away from that in the consulting world. Some consultants have one aim in life, to maximize their billable time. I will talk about how to act with integrity, respect the Clients you are working for, and the people you are working with.


CHAPTER 1

“Know What You Know”

“Know what you know” means being able to clearly define and communicate exactly what your skills and talents are in non-tech-nical terms, and being able to communicate how you’ll apply those skills to complete the project objectives. You also need to com-municate honestly about necessary or useful skills you may not yet have mastered.

Though it sounds simple, this process can be challenging and many consultants miss opportunities because they fail to express what they know and why their knowledge is important. If you’ve ever found that you have a hard time describing what you do in a personal or professional conversation, you’ve experienced how difficult it can be to explain what you know – the language you use will depend on your audience.

When preparing for an interview, it’s helpful to create a list of both Oracle-specific (Project) skills and soft (People) skills, and be sure you can state how and why they are relevant in appropriate, under-standable language.

What do you know?A “skill” can be broadly defined as “the capacity to carry out tasks often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both.” In other



words, skill is the ability to use your knowledge to achieve maxi-mum efficiency in producing a product or result.

Your fundamental abilities as an Oracle consultant include both “hard” skills (project skills) directly related to Oracle projects as well as the “soft” skills (people skills) vital to successful projects, such as effec-tive communication, team building, active listening, and negotiation.

Soft skills in particular can set you apart as an effective consultant, so be sure to highlight this skill set when interviewing.

Project SkillsIt’s important to highlight both functional and technical knowledge when defining your Oracle-specific skills in language your audience can understand clearly. Below are a few examples of essential Ora-cle project skills you’ll want to bring up in interviews:

Project Skill Definition in Lay TermsGather Business Requirements

Ability to learn and assess business needs and modify or develop applications (forms, scripts, reports) to meet those needs

Understanding Of Business processes

Know basics of Order-to-cash, Procure-to-Pay & Record-to-Report

Basic Understanding of Accounting

Awareness of accounting entries behind basic sub-ledger transactions

Downstream impacts of changes

Knowing how modules link together. Configuration in Order Management will affect Receivables. A change in Purchas-ing will affect Payables.



Project Skill Definition in Lay TermsSQL Coding Ability to extract data, update and mod-

ify system reports, and perform various data analyses

PL/SQL Programming

Ability to import and export data into and out of Oracle systems

Write Test Scripts Ability to incorporate business require-ments into applications and anticipate test scenarios accurately; create scripts to test systems, diagnose and rectify issues as they occur during test phases

Design Oracle Reports

Ability to extend and enhance standard reports to meet specific business needs; design custom reporting solutions if necessary including report development in Oracle Discoverer

Interface Data from External Systems

Ability to seamlessly integrate Oracle data with other organizational business data; includes interpreting and convert-ing data in multiple formats and writing import/export scripts

Create Documentation

Ability to use AIM (Applications Imple-mentation Methodology) or other stand-ard methodology to create clear, concise user instructions as well as accurately documenting processes and applications development



People SkillsWhile most consultants are comfortable discussing their technical and functional knowledge, many fail to highlight their soft skills as they apply to project tasks.

However, often it is exactly these interpersonal skills, which make or break a project’s success, and pointing out your project abilities can give you an advantage.

The ability to express these skills is vital to differentiating yourself from the other candidates.

Below are a few examples of talents you may want to highlight:

People Skill DefinitionBusiness Analysis Ability to communicate clearly, ask rel-

evant questions, and actively listen to gain a thorough understanding of client-specific business processes and requirements; in-cludes ability to accurately define “As-Is” system and identify all key stakeholders to determine requirements of ”To-Be” system

Communication Having enough knowledge to talk with other teams in the project, understand their concerns, and avoid actions that adversely impact them.Ability to work with non-project team members; ability to marry the project & non-project team objectives.



Team Building Ability to build solid working relation-ships, foster trust and cooperation, diffuse tension, and effectively negotiate when working with multiple business units and across teams

Support Consulting

Ability to anticipate and meet ongoing business needs through building flexible, dynamic applications; ability to ask rele-vant questions and actively listen in diag-nosing issues and provide ongoing support

Oracle Consultant skillsProject teams hire consultants of two types

• Functional consultants / Business Analysts(B.A.’s)• Technical Consultants

Functional Consultants or B.A.’s are the liason between the project team and the business. They gather and analyze the requirements, design, configure & test the solution, and support the business once the project has gone live.

Technical Consultants allow the project to implement customized functionality; to adjust Oracle standard features to suit the business requirement.

There is a third type of consultant, who has a combination of func-tional and technical skills. The “Hybrid” consultant is becoming



more valuable to projects, as there is a significant gap between a pure technical and functional consultant. Hybrid consultants bridge this gap increasing effective communication between the teams.

The diagrams below displays the typical Oracle EBusiness Consult-ant Skillsets

It’s useful to review the next diagrams to see where your skill set could place you on a project team

Consultant SkillsThe following diagrams illustrate the common skill-sets of func-tional and technical consultants. Over time a consultant may pick up skills in both areas, but the project team will generally hire a person for a “Functional” or “Technical” role.

Design Communicate

Deliver

Testing

Gather Require- ments

Analysis Solution Design

Support/ Change

Mgt Configure

Oracle Functional Skills

Fig 1.1



Functional Skills include

Solution DesignSolution Design is the role of the Solution Architect. This is a critical skill in delivering successful Oracle projects. A so-lution architect should be an experienced consultant who can recommend a project high-level approach & design. Once the approach is agreed, the solution architect keeps the pro-ject team aligned with the overall solution, from the start of the project to the finish.

Gathering Business RequirementsAbility to discover and assess business project needs. Once a requirements list has been created, is it decided if each requirement can be met by standard functionality, or a cus-tomization is required.

AnalysisThe ability to analyze a problem or issue, and create a solu-tion that is acceptable to project and business teams.

Support/Change ManagementSupporting a system is important to ensure the customer can operate the new system, in the way intended by the project team. The Support phase happens directly after go-live, and is managed by the project team initially. Once the solution is stable, the Business as Usual support team takes over.



TestingTesting is required to be sure your solution is robust. Testing should be carried out on standard processes & customiza-tions, and should provide a comfort factor that the solution will operate as it should.

ConfigureConfiguration of the Oracle application is setting up the sys-tem so that it meets the business requirements. Configura-tion should control access to the system and prevent incor-rect data flows.

Technical Skills

SQL PL/SQL

XML

Reports

Interfaces Business Int. Tools

Workflow Conversion

Oracle Technical Skills

Fig 1.3 Reports

The application is delivered with a number of standard re-ports, which will meet most business requirements. Once an additional requirement has been agreed, the Technical con-



sultant decides if an existing report can be modified, or if a new report is required.

InterfacesAn interface transmits data from one system to another. The technical consultant builds the architecture so that the re-quired data can be successfully transmitted and understood by both the sending and receiving systems.

WorkflowMany of the Oracle EBusiness suite transaction flows are now controlled by a Workflow. Oracle standard workflows are designed to implement most common business flows. If a new requirement in this area is identified, the techni-cal consultant modifies the workflow to manage the new requirement, and ensures no impact on standard transac-tion flow.

XMLXML is used in Oracle Ebusiness suite to create reports & to transmit data according to document standards. These standards specify a message architecture to describing an object, and allow more efficient communication between systems. For instance the Open Applications Group Integra-tion Specification(OAGIS) specifies message architectures called Business Object Documents(BOD’s) that define the fields contained in a sales order, for example. Once an XML message meeting this sales order message architecture is created, it can be transmitted and understood by different systems in an Oracle supply chain.



ConversionWhen a business is migrated to Oracle, historical data is re-quired in the new Oracle application. This data can be de-fined as master data (customers, vendors etc), or transaction-al data (historical invoices, purchase orders). Import of these data types into the new system allows the system users to leave the old system behind. Conversion specifies what data types need to be imported, what range of each data type will be imported, how the import will be achieved, and how the results will be validated.

Business Intelligence ToolsBI tools allow the collection and display of correct infor-mation to a business audience. Data is typically reported, summarized, analyzed & distributed to various business us-ers. The information provided is then used to enable busi-ness decision-making. Technical consultants provide the architecture and design the reports to meet the business requirements.


Where to buy the “The Oracle Opportunity – The Blueprint to Succeeding as an Oracle Consultant”

In 24 hours, I’ll be opening up access to ‘The Oracle Opportunity: Your blueprint to succeeding as an Oracle Consultant’.

However, to make it worth your while ANYBODY who invests the eBook also get the following bonuses TOTALLY FREE:

a. Your personal copy of the ’The Definitive Top Thirty Tips to Make Yourself Irresistible As An Oracle Consultant’

b. Your personal invitation to the ‘Oracle eBusiness Consult-ant Masterclass’ Webinar on January 2nd

Buy “The Oracle Opportunity - The BluePrint to Succeeding as an Oracle Consultant”

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