Smart Thinking Newsletter

5 ERP Blunders (and How to Avoid Them)

The sheer complexity of implementing an ERP system means that there are many opportunities for error; avoiding the common mistakes is key to ensuring a successful implementation. Here’s what to consider:

• ERP Apprehension – No matter how smooth your implementation, it all comes down to your users and how comfortable they are with the system. A thorough training program goes a long way.
• Manpower Needs – ERP systems require manpower for ongoing management, underestimating those needs can lead to frustration as well as affecting customers.
• Unrealistic Expectations – Setting a “go-live” date is all well and good, but things happen. Ensure your project is fully (and reasonably) thought out and planned before setting the date in stone.
• Going “Big” – Making a huge initial investment to complete an entire ERP transformation may seem like a great plan, but it’s also a huge drain on resources and comes with a significant learning curve. Small changes, over a few years, are more advisable.
• Generic Solutions – Although a more affordable option, generic solutions are not always a good fit; customization can help make your ERP system a better fit.

Okay, the website might be called TheSmartPanda, but every now and then I stumble over stupid easy things that would have made my life so much easier, if I had just thought to inquire. Yesterday was one of those days. At The Smart Panda we have contracts being signed all the time, some of these contracts can be very long and require multiple signatures.

Before yesterday, I would print the contract, sign the contract, scan the signed contract and resend the scanned contract back to the client. This requires me to be at the office so that I can use the document scanner, and I use paper, toner, time and large data storage to do all of these steps. Yesterday, I received a contract signed back to me but it was digitally done, and it dawned on me there just might be an easier way. Sure enough in Adobe PDF, on most of your readers the third icon is the “Signature” button. I just never noticed it because most times the PDF opens in the web browser not the actual reader.

If you download your PDF and open it in the reader, select the signature icon the signature navigation pane will open and you can create your initials and signature for PDF documents. Then select the place initials and/or signature along with text for items like dates, printed names, etc.

I figure this will save me 10 hours a year which makes this a huge cost saving tip, not to mention the frustration of using the document scanner and large scanned document files no larger being used. win-win-win!

PeopleSoft has introduced new functionality in 8.53 and the 9.2 applications called the Data Migration Workbench. This functionality allows for easier migration of data which is directly related to the use of the new PeopleSoft Upgrade Manager (PUM). There has always been issues try to migrate “non” PeopleSoft meta-data objects from environment to environment. So items like data mover scripts and SQR’s always had to be manually migrated.

Part of the Data Migration Workbench is Application Data Sets (ADS). These data sets can be compared and copied, however, there is a whole new security element just for ADS. PeopleSoft delivered the permission list PTPT3500, which ties to the role ADS Designer. Make sure that your Upgrade user has access to this role/permission. Also make sure that the ADS permissions are turned on. Navigate to PeopleTools->Security->Permissions&Roles->Permission Lists, select the PTPT3500 permission, and go to the new Data Migration tab. Add in any access group permissions and under the copy compare permissions make sure it is set to Full Access.

During the application patching I was doing, the PTADS{BUG#} compare step was failing.

PeopleTools 8.53.06 – Application Engine
Copyright (c) 1988-2013 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
All Rights Reserved
Begin Application Engine Process (257,401)
Compare project from repository/area/project: USKANWD21374/Area/PTADS16299507 (257,400)
Message Set Number: 257
Message Number: 400
Message Reason: Compare project from repository/area/project: USKANWD21374/Area/PTADS16299507 (257,400)
User does not have permission to perform Compare from File (257,308)
Message Set Number: 257
Message Number: 308
Message Reason: User does not have permission to perform Compare from File (257,308)
Load from file failed (257,298)
Message Set Number: 257
Message Number: 298
Message Reason: Load from file failed (257,298)
End Application Engine Process (257,402)
Application Engine program PTADSAEPRCS ended normally

After turning on this new security, I ran it again and received the same error. Just to ensure that I was on the right track, I went and deleted the 2-Tier cache (usually c:\ps\{dbname}), and re-ran and everything worked!

I was setting up a new environment for a training class and the new server was running on RHEL6.5 with PeopleTools 8.53. The application was a 9.0 application so for ease I just put verity on the server to build the portal registry index search.

The verity install went without a problem. I went in and ran the PORTAL_INDEX AE to build the search index. That went to success! I search for an item and I get no results.

When I search the application server logs I find the following error:

PSAPPSRV.30784 (808) [2014-04-14T01:39:52.074 VP1@{MyIP} (CHROME 34.0.1847.116; MAC) ICScript](0)
Error E0-1509 (Drvr): dlopen() returned: libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Error E0-1510 (Drvr): Error loading driver library ‘/oracle/psoft/pt853/verity/linux/_ilnx21/bin/locuni.so’
Error E0-1203 (Language): Error reading language definition file: /oracle/psoft/pt853/verity/linux/common/frenchv/loc00.lng
Error E0-1230 (Language): Could not create locale frenchv
VeritySrch::search: SessionManager::getSession failed: failed to obtain or create a valid VDK session.

My libstdc++.so.5 is in the 64 bit user library, when I did a little test and added the lib64 to the path, I got ELFCLASS64 error. I flipped over to the root account and install the 32bit library and the problem was solved.

yum install compat-libstdc++-33.i686

Oracle Database will typically initialize and running on the default ip address and port: 1521. However, since this is pretty common knowledge you may wish to change up the ports and/or ip address to force it listen somewhere else.

1) Modify the TNSNAMES.ora file to listen to the specific address and port that you want:
{DBNAME}=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST={IPADDRESS})(PORT={PORT})))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVER=DEDICATED)(SID={ORACLE_SID})))

2) Modify (create) the LISTENER.ora file to listen to the specific address and port that you want:
my_listener=(DESCRIPTION_LIST=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST={IPADDRESS})(PORT={PORT}))(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1522))))

3) Add the following line to the init{ORACLE_SID}.ora file to force it to listen:
LOCAL_LISTENER='(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST={IPADDRESS})(PORT={PORT}))’

Replace the {DBNAME}, {ORACLE_SID}, {IPADDRESS} and {PORT} variables. NOTE: this is just an example you may need to tweak this a bit for your specific environment. Restart the database and listener and you should be good to go! Not make sure that your firewall knows about the change otherwise you may cause things to break!