Interesting PS Roadshow / Exec Dinner Snippets May 4, 2017
Posted by Duncan in Cedar, SelectiveAdoption, UKOUG, UX.comments closed
We recently held the annual PeopleSoft Roadshow and Executive Dinner (summary here) and I wanted to highlight a couple of observations that I think are important enough to be revisited:
Fantastic UI
While Marc was demoing some new functionality it struck me how big a stride the PeopleSoft UI has taken over the last few years.
If you’d shown me this picture a few years ago I’d have refused to believe that it was PeopleSoft. Very few applications can boast a UI as attractive as this.
Selective Adoption is being Aggressively Adopted
Julie Alonso showed this slide, detailing how many customers are really making the most of Selective Adoption.
You might need to click these to see full-size, but let me highlight the key point. The right-hand pie-chart shows that 31% of customers are ‘staying current’ – i.e. doing a get current 4 times a year! A further 25% are getting current twice a year. So more than half of customers are getting current at least twice annually. I think this is really tremendous take-up of the benefits of Selective Adoption – and the PeopleSoft team must be delighted. I had fully expected most customers to lapse into an annual update.
Come to the UKOUG PeopleSoft Roadshow April 19, 2017
Posted by Duncan in UKOUG.comments closed
The UK Oracle User Group PeopleSoft Roadshow is nearly upon us. It’s my favourite PeopleSoft event in the UK’s calendar as you know that everyone there has a focus on PeopleSoft and the agenda is always really strong.
It’s 26th April (yes, a week today!) in the Crowne Plaza, London – the same as last time, which was a great venue.
Oracle US Speakers
In terms of Oracle speakers, we’re spoiled this year with both Marc Weintraub and Julie Alonso presenting.
Marc Weintraub
Pretty much everyone should know Marc by now, and he’s always good value. He’s giving multiple sessions including a PeopleSoft Update, Modernising with Fluid, Fully Executing on Selective Adoption and PeopleSoft in the Cloud.
Julie Alonso
A new speaker to those who’ve only attended UK PeopleSoft events is Julie Alonso. She is Product Management Director within PeopleSoft HCM Strategy and the brains behind the monthly PeopleSoft HR Newsletter (if you don’t know what this is, either see Julie on the day or drop me a mail and I’ll link you up). Julie is presenting on The Power of PeopleSoft HCM.
It’s great that Oracle are supporting the event with two such speakers, and it’s wonderful to see a new face on the circuit.
Cedar Speakers
We’ve also got a couple of speakers from Cedar on the agenda.
Graham Smith
As with Marc, everyone should know Graham by now. He’s a rare blend of techie that’s been around PeopleSoft for long enough to know the history behind just about everything, but has such fantastic enthusiasm that he’s always trying the latest tools and techniques. Graham is talking about Selective Adoption and the Oracle Cloud.
Sarah Hurley
For those with excellent memories, Sarah has spoken at a PeopleSoft conference before (on a custom recruitment front-end that Cedar built for a client) however that was a few years back. Sarah has been busy managing some of Cedar’s PeopleSoft projects in the interim and is giving learnings from a Fluid implementation for a client – Fluid Development – Getting to Grips with a Different Skill Set.
Other Speakers
Check out the agenda for the full listings, but in addition to the above we’ve got Paul Smit from Oracle Netherlands, Malcolm Hewlett from Excel4Apps and Ken de Landro talking about Hays’ automated PeopleSoft testing investigations.
If the above sounds like the sort of content that would interest you – and there’s something there for pretty much everyone – it’d be great to see you there. Book here.
PeopleSoft Partner of the Year August 30, 2016
Posted by Duncan in TW, UKOUG.comments closed
I would like to borrow a few minutes of your time to ask a quick favour. If you haven’t already, could you please vote ‘Gold’ for Cedar in the UK PeopleSoft Partner of the Year competition.
http://pya.ukoug.org/index.php/survey/index
Here’s why I believe we’re worth your vote:
- We’ve been serving PeopleSoft customers for 20+ years, and in each of the last few years we’ve worked with more than 40 clients
- We’re active members of UKOUG, with multiple employees dedicating time to its committees – quite an investment for a company our size
- We’re active in the PeopleSoft community, with multiple blogs and free newsletters
- We share knowledge freely, with multiple speakers at UKOUG’s Apps15 and Oracle OpenWorld last year
- We host our own knowledge sharing events, enabling the PeopleSoft community to network and exchange ideas, whilst Cedar experts and customers share success stories
- We’re on the cutting edge, if you want to know about Oracle Public Cloud, Fluid UI or Selective Adoption, we’re the people to speak to
I hope that’s enough to convince you. If you’ve voted for us please let me know. If you need more persuasion, please do get in touch.
We’d Appreciate Your Help August 3, 2015
Posted by Duncan in Cedar, TW, UKOUG.comments closed
We’d really appreciate your help. But first, a bit of background:
The Partner of the Year awards is an annual awards ceremony held by the UK Oracle User Group. It allows customers to show appreciation for partners that have provided a good service to them over the previous 12 months. As you would imagine, being voted best by end-users is a wonderful accolade.
If you’re the recipient of any Cedar service – and this can be consultancy, advisory, or even the free PeopleSoft and Fusion Weekly newsletters that we send out – we’d be very, very grateful if you gave 3 minutes of your time to vote for us.
We’re up for 3 awards, scroll down to see why we think we deserve your vote. In case you’re already convinced, here’s the drill:
What we’d like you to do:
1) Click here (opens in new window).
2) Fill in your company name, first name and surname. Then click Next.
3) Enter your email address in both fields, then click Next.
4) Select any checkboxes if you want ‘follow-up communications’ from the UKOUG, or leave all blank, and click Next.
5) Select Cedar Consulting from the drop-down, and click Next.
6) On the PeopleSoft page, select the Gold radio button on the Cedar Consulting row (note, it’s the 3rd column!), then click Next.
7) Repeat by selecting the Gold radio button on the Cedar Consulting row of the Managed Services page, then click Next.
8) Repeat by selecting the Gold radio button on the Cedar Consulting row of the Fusion page, then click Next.
9) Click Submit.
And you’re done. Thank you very much. If you want some gratitude for your 3 minutes of effort drop me an email and I’ll thank you personally!
Why Vote For Us?
PeopleSoft Partner of the Year
This year we have worked with over 40 PeopleSoft clients. We have completed major global implementations, have 15 PS v9.2 upgrade projects either complete or in progress as well as delivering a busy programme of user-focused events. Our events included the 16th PeopleSoft Executive Dinner, PeopleSoft Optimisation, the PeopleSoft & Oracle Cloud Day plus this year’s Executive Forums. We also presented at the UKOUG conference and SIG.
Oracle Cloud (Fusion / Taleo) Partner of the Year
Over the last few years, we have developed from a PeopleSoft implementer to a specialist provider of Oracle HR Cloud services. We have a completed Fusion implementation under our belt and are currently implementing multiple Fusion and Taleo projects for different clients.
Managed Service / Outsourcing Partner of the Year
Throughout last year, 20 PeopleSoft customers have trusted us to provide market-leading Managed Services. This makes us the largest PeopleSoft Managed Services provider in the UK. Add to this the ability for us to outsource work to our Cedar India office to deliver for clients at a lower price point and we have a strong set of offerings.
We’ve had great success in this competition in the last couple of years and would value your vote. Thanks for your time.
OpenWorld and UKOUG Apps 15 Sessions July 10, 2015
Posted by Duncan in OOW, Oracle, TW, UKOUG.comments closed
I’m delighted that the sessions that I’ve submitted to both Oracle OpenWorld and UKOUG’s APPS15 conference have all been accepted.
The sessions are as follows:
OpenWorld:
PeopleSoft Selective Adoption Best Practices from the Front Line (joint with Mark Thomas of Hays)
PeopleSoft Selective Adoption is genuinely transformative, but to make the best use of it you need a plan. Come to hear from the one of the earliest adopters of this new model on defining how it can work best for you, not just the implementation but the ongoing effective use of PeopleSoft Images using PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM), the frequency of patch application and the business benefits achieved.
UKOUG APPS15:
Taleo for PeopleSoft People
We’ll show you the Taleo products that work well with PeopleSoft and explain the circumstances in which they might be a good choice for you. We’ll also show the products working together and explain how you can deploy it without breaking the bank.
Running PeopleSoft as a Service
We’ve all heard of the ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) vendors. You don’t need to abandon the many benefits of PeopleSoft to gain the agility, security and efficiencies of consuming PeopleSoft as a Service however. We’ll show the key tenets of ‘as a Service’ delivery and how functionality like Selective Adoption enables you to attain them with PeopleSoft.
The UKOUG Apps14 Conference December 15, 2014
Posted by Duncan in Cedar, TW, UKOUG.comments closed
Cedar had a strong presence at the recent Apps14 conference in the ACC, Liverpool. It is supposed to be the largest applications conference in Europe with over 800 attendees, and we were particularly interested in the PeopleSoft and Apps Innovation streams.
This year we’d decided not to have a stand (as the conference is mixed with the other applications and the database/tech community, it means the exhibition stands are much more expensive than at the PeopleSoft-only Roadshow earlier in the year, while the attendance of the PeopleSoft community is much lower) but we did support the conference with four of our team and three speaking slots.
It was nice to see a different city, although I’m pleased to see that it’s back in Birmingham next year as that is a lot more central for everyone. This is the view from my hotel room out over Albert Docks (the ACC is out to the left).
In terms of our speakers, our GP guru Alex spoke about Global Payroll upgrades to v9.2 (as Cedar has helped several clients either complete their move to v9.2 or with an upgrade in progress at the moment):
Several of us also took part in the Oracle Usability Feedback session. We have <ahem> quite strong opinions on how a UX should be so it was really interesting to be part of the process. We can’t talk about the product that was being tested, but it looks really nice. I can’t wait until it hits GA. Here’s a picture of Simon giving it a thorough test with the lovely Rhonda (the screen has been intentionally blurred):
Cedar’s tech guru Neville also spoke on a couple of topics. He covered PeopleSoft Selective Adoption / PeopleSoft Update Manager in one session (joint with Hays, who are using some of our upgraders at the moment on their massive upgrade – HCM, Fins, CRM, Portal, ELM, all at the same time!). He also spoke about Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (joint with Allen & Overy, who we helped to upgrade to 9.2 earlier in the year).
The evening in between the two PeopleSoft days was pretty fun too. It started off with a familiar looking (for Liverpool, especially) band called ‘The Cheatles’ (pic below) and then many from the PeopleSoft community sat down for ‘off the record’ chat over a decent meal.
Cedar Wins Gold – PeopleSoft Partner of the Year October 28, 2014
Posted by Duncan in PeopleSoft, TW, UKOUG.comments closed
If you follow any number of those in the Partner community on LinkedIn you’ll have seen many of us asking that you vote for us in the UKOUG’s annual Partner of the Year competition. All of the partners are really grateful for your votes as winning an award selected by end-users carries significant prestige.
I’m delighted that the company which I now work for – Cedar Consulting – were awarded 1st place (Gold) for PeopleSoft Partner of the Year for 2014/2015.
Simon (right), collecting the award from David Warburton-Broadhurst – the UKOUG’s President
Cedar were also thrilled to win Silver in the Fusion Partner of the Year awards, further establishing our reputation as the go-to partner for Fusion/Taleo for all existing PeopleSoft customers.
Simon Wragg, Director at Cedar Consulting said, “We are honoured to receive both the PeopleSoft and Fusion Partner of the Year awards amongst such a strong group of finalists. Cedar Consulting are delighted to be recognised as one of the leading partners within the UK Oracle User Group community. Winning these awards and knowing that so many votes were cast from Oracle customers is a real testament to the service we have provided over the last 12 months”
We’d like to thank all of you who took the time to vote for us, we’re very grateful for your support.
PeopleSoft in the Cloud at UKOUG Apps 2013 October 31, 2013
Posted by Duncan in Cloud, PeopleSoft, UKOUG.comments closed
A couple of week’s ago, Succeed attended the UKOUG Apps 2013 conference. The turnout was a little lower than hoped for, but there was some great content over the 2 days. Succeed presented two sessions, Michelle (T&L guru and pre-sales Funcitonal expert) presented first on running Timesheets and Expenses within PeopleSoft HCM (i.e. without having the extra infrastructure that would be required for the Financials environment that Timesheets and Expenses resides in).
On the second day, I presented on ‘Two PeopleSoft clients and their Journey to The Cloud’. There isn’t a picture of me presenting (and I don’t look as good as Michelle anyway!), so here’s a cut-down version of the slide deck instead:
Most of the sessions were pretty full, even on the morning of the second day (traditionally not the best attended sessions!). There were few spare seats in the PeopleSoft in the Cloud session – so there is clearly a lot of interest, and “friend of Succeed” Graham Smith’s Tools 8.53 presentation was full too:
Monitoring/Automating PeopleSoft with Open Source Tools March 20, 2012
Posted by Duncan in Infrastructure, UKOUG.comments closed
About a week ago I posted a video over on the Succeed Blog of a session I gave at the UKOUG PeopleSoft Conference.
If you read this blog and haven’t yet added the Succeed blog into your feed reader I suggest you do so as there’ll be an increasing amount of content there, both from myself and my colleagues.
PeopleSoft 1 day Conference 2012 January 25, 2012
Posted by Duncan in UKOUG.comments closed
We’re putting the finishing touches to the agenda for the 1 day UK & EMEA PeopleSoft Conference in London on 23rd February.
There’s some interesting content in all of the streams, however just highlighting some of the Tech stream:
- Jeff Robbins is over from the US to talk us through PeopleTools 8.52 and the PeopleTools roadmap,
- Chris Heller from Grey Sparling is also coming over – he’ll be giving a session on the Test Framework, however come and find him around the Succeed stand if you want to talk to him about their Mobile Framework.
- Steve Smith from Cambridge Uni is going to talk about security/auditing, and having seen first hand some of the work they’ve done there to customise PeopleSoft I’m looking forward to an interesting session (no pressure Steve!)
- We’ll also have a round-table session, so if you’ve got anything that’s challenging you technically bring it along and see if the awesome combined PeopleTools brainpower we’ve assembled can help out.
You can see the full agenda here.
The PeopleSoft Tipster Blog 