Using Expression Language in Fusion HCM

We've been doing lots of fun things with Expression Language in Fusion HCM (now there's a sad statement if ever I heard one).  Expression Language (EL) is a much under-utilised feature of Fusion Apps which can be a great help when tailoring your application.

We've all heard that in a SaaS environment you can't 'customize'.  But, Fusion Applications comes which a whole host of tools which help you control the way your application works, looks and feels.  This is all configuration.  And that's one of the differentiating feature with Fusion Apps.

Let's look at a few example.

EL Embedded in Setup

Instead of having a complicated fast formula to calculate leave entitlements, we can now use an Expression Language Formula.

Here we see a 22 day annual leave entitlement for people on Grade 1.

EL as a Conditional Statement in Navigator Menu

The Navigator menu is constructed from the Roles provisioned to a user.  For example, the HR Specialist role gives access to the Person Management Workarea.  This workarea is an item which is dynamically placed in the Navigator menu for users with that role.

However, using the FSM task Manage Menu Customizations, we can control the placement, description and visibility of the menu item.

Here's an example of the Manage Menu Customizations task,  We are looking at the New Person workarea link:



 When we edit the New Person link, we see the following properties:




 

The Rendered property is set to true and will therefore always display this item.

However, let's say we want to only display it when the logged on user has the HR Specialist Role.  We can override the Role Based Access (not change it, but just override it), with an EL Statement.


#{securityContext.userInRole['PER_HUMAN_RESOURCE_SPECIALIST_JOB']}

This statement will return TRUE if the user has the HR Specialist Role otherwise it will return FALSE.

We simply place this statement in the Expression Language field of the Edit Item Node window:




So the end product looks like this:



And now the menu will be dynamically changed according to our own variation of the role provisioning.

There are many other, much more complex variations, but I hope this gives a simple illustration of the power of the Expression Language.

Fusion HCM Release 9

Over the last few weeks, I've been fortunate to have been a part of the Early Adopters programme for Fusion Applications Release 9.

This has enabled me to take a sneak preview at some of the new functionality which is being releases as part of R9.

The main area of new functionality which has caught my eye is the Security Console.  This allows you to manage roles from within Fusion HCM rather than having to navigate the somewhat convoluted screens of OIM and APM.

The Security Console is navigated to via the Simplified User Interface (SUI).  It's the only way of getting there.  Is this symptomatic of the way Oracle is going with the Fusion UIs?  Soon, will the SUI be the only way in?

The security console will allow you to view the current setup and hierarchy of Job Role, Duty Roles and Privileges.  It will also allow you to copy roles.  This is going to be a huge time saver.

I'm going to be looking at this in more detail in a later blog post.  But for now, Happy Christmas and I wish all my readers a prosperous New Year!

Fusion HCM Cloud Strategy - Reporting from OpenWorld 2014

This is the first in a series of posts on my views of the recent Oracle OpenWorld 2014 conference, which I attended last week in San Francisco.

Chris Leone, SVP & GM Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud, gave a presentation on just where Oracle Cloud Services are with Fusion HCM.  He said that cloud services should be "personalized, connected and secure".  Oracle now has 19 datacentres worldwide and security is built on DB security options.

He reported that cloud momentum had doubled since last year.  Of over 500 HCM customers, more than 50% were 'net new' to Oracle.

Oracle now has over 13500 HCM customers across all their products.  $1BN investment is going into cloud services every year.

Oracle's mission is to "build the broadest, deepest suite of applications" in the cloud.

My view?  This is Oracle's 4th year in the cloud.  Relative newcomers, but here to stay!

Why Do People Get So Hung Up about SaaS?

As my blog title implies, I work in the Fusion Applications world.  We've done numerous implementations of Fusion HCM now, and all of them have been in the cloud.  We are convinced that cloud services are the future and have staked the bank on it!

I study the various debates about SaaS (or cloud services) and find myself time and time again coming back to this simple view of why people choose a SaaS service over an on-premises application.  Some of the more technical questions like "is it true SaaS?" often don't really mean much to a customer.  If it's not on-premises it's SaaS (see previous blog).

To me the answer's simple... you buy SaaS because the hard work has been done for you by the service provider (like buying the hardware, maintaining the software, data compression, encryption and a whole load of other stuff I don't need to understand etc.).  You buy SaaS because it's simpler than doing it in house, and should be cheaper.

But another argument I see more and more is that if the "Service" you subscribe to doesn't do exactly what you want and you can't "customise" it.   Well, that's a whole different topic (don't get me started) where the SI's value to their customers is about product knowledge - or should be, to maximise the system's capabilities through configuration.

But, back to the topic in hand... when choosing systems we get hung up about the trivial and don't place enough emphasis on the important.  For example, maybe my payroll system calculates everything I need to pay people, but for some reason doesn't have the capability to automatically produce a payslip in the format I want.  Is that a showstopper?  Probably not, because I can extract my data and format it using another tool.  Not perfect, but it works.

OK, so let's look at this in a different way.  Let's think about something which may be more relevant to our daily lives than purchasing subscriptions to cloud services - buying a car.

When we buy a car, we usually do some research, maybe put together some requirements for the vehicle - model, engine size, colour, interior styling, sat. nav., tyre size, A/C etc.  Then we go to the dealer and take a test drive and find out how much it's going to cost us.   Some things will be more important to us than others.  Maybe leather seats are a 'must have', but a 12 speaker surround sound system or a cigarette lighter isn't so important.  But, ultimately we buy the vehicle and it probably doesn't have everything we wanted and it certainly has stuff we don't want in it!  So what!  We just don't use what we don't want.  But we do still pay for it and it's there if maybe one day we might want to use it.

So, why do people get so hung up about the software they purchase (or rather, subscribe to)?  In the car analogy, I get most of what I want in the car, a lot of what I don't want, but ultimately it does the job for me better than any other vehicle within the parameters of my original requirements and my budget.  What's more, it comes with a 3 year warranty so I don't have to worry about anything going wrong.

I think subscribing to a SaaS service should be looked at in the same way as the car purchase.  Go for the best fit to your requirements (I challenge you to name me any system that meets everything you wanted) and don't worry about the extras that you won't use - although they are there if you change your mind later.

Worry about the important things, and don't get hung up about the trivial things that don't really matter - like the cigarette lighter.

Just a thought...  I like keeping it simple.

Fusion HCM Benefits

This week I've been running a training course on the Fusion HCM Benefits module.

I'm based in the UK and it's not a module that is yet in wide use in this region. 

Its functionality is very broad and it allows administrators to design and manage plans, to enrol participants and to manage the transfer of data to benefits suppliers.

There is a workbench for administrators, the Benefits Service Centre, which would be well placed to be used in a shared service centre environment.  It provides a one stop shop for all the main administration processes.

There are features for quickly creating plans and programs which are easy an intuitive to use.

For the self-service users, there is another 'workbench' style page which brings together all the activities the participant may need to do.  For example, viewing existing benefits coverages and contributions, adding and managing dependents and beneficiaries and making the election choice for the benefits plans.

I can see this module become more popular as Fusion HCM takes off.

More on the subject later.