Monday 10 December 2012

UKOUG 2012 Conference

I've just returned from the UKOUG 2012 conference in Birmingham where I managed to combine three different roles: Exhibitor, Presenter and SIG Chairman.

My company, Certus Solutions (UK) LLP, was exhibiting and showing the world that we are an experienced Fusion HCM implementation consultancy.  There was a lot of interest in Fusion and I'd like to think we have demonstrated the application's capabilities to a number of potential customers.  Oracle, please note!

As the Oracle HCM SIG Chairman, I volunteered to chair a number of sessions during the conference.  Being interested in Fusion Applications, I chose my sessions carefully and included sessions from Debra Lilley on Fusion Middleware, Richard Bingham and Laurie Pattison on Fusion Applications Support and Jevgenijs Reuts from Attido who spoke about how they had installed a bare metal instance of Fusion Applications.

Because I concentrate on Fusion Applications and attend many of the international conferences, I don't always expect to find out new information but there is always something to learn.  This year one of the hot topics was Fuse.  Fuse is the internal name for the 'new face of Fusion', but appears to be rapidly being adopted as the working name.  I have written about it before.  But at UKOUG, not only was the simplified interface available for demonstartion, but also a number of the presentations covered the subject in some detail.  I attended a session given by Jeremy Ashley (VP, UX Team) at which the user interface was demonstrated and explained.  For 'casual' users, this will certainly simplify their experience of Fusion Applications.

Mobile is fast becoming the 'next big thing'.  Watch out for a rationalisation of screen layouts making a desktop, iPhone, iPad etc. all have a common interface whilst utilising the built-in features that have made those products so successful.

Now back to work, where the end of the year looms rapidly.  Already looking forward to 2013 which is definitely going to be an exciting year for those of us working in the Fusion Applications ecosystem.  I've booked my trips to Collaborate (Denver), OHUG (Dallas) and OpenWorld (San Francisco) and have two Fusion Applications presentations accepted already for Collaborate.

In case I don't find time for another post before the year-end, have a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!