Meet The Experts: Melanie Cameron

Melanie Cameron is an Oracle EBS Manager for MSS Technologies. Melanie has focused her career on business processes surrounding enterprise management systems. Melanie has 15 years of experience on Oracle E-Business Suite, beginning on Release 9 and including Release 12, and is the author of R12 General Ledger and R12 Procure to Pay, coming out May 2009 from Oracle Press.

OCP Advisor (OCPA): Hi Melanie, on behalf of the OCP blog readers, we are delighted to have you today as our featured Oracle Expert. Please tell us something about you, your background and professional experience.

Melanie Cameron (MC): My career started in Finance but I was quickly bored with the routineness that comes with financial jobs. My first accounting system implementation was over 20 years ago. While all the data conversions at that time were manual, it peaked my interest enough to go back to school for a degree in Information Systems. From that point forward, I looked to move into IT - first doing support, then programming and finally moving into implementations and consulting. I find my accounting and business experience invaluable when working with clients. I not only know how the system works but also because I understand what the users need from the system and why. If you have never been an AP clerk or an assistant controller, it is not always easy to understand why things are asked for. To be honest, based on past experiences one can weed out the requests that are not business needs.
Outside of work, I spend my time cooking (and eating!), working out so I can eat more, doing needle arts, include crewel, knitting, and Japanese embroidery.

OCPA: How long have you been working on Oracle E-Business Suite? How do you keep yourself updated on new releases, features and functionalities?

MC: I started using Oracle on Release 9 back in 1994. I have used Release 10.7 both character and GUI, Release 11.0, most releases of 11i, and finally Release 12. With every release, the changes have been drastic, both in functionality and technology. As a long time habit, I developed of reading White Papers, Metalink Notes and more recently Blogs that helps keep me up to date on the enhancements coming out with each release. I find reading about it is not enough, so I set aside time each week to 'play' on the new releases, testing how the new functionality works and seeing how it can benefit business requirements as well as my client’s needs.

OCPA: You have recently authored two of the first Oracle EBS Release 12 books – “R12 General Ledger” and “R12 Procure to Pay” - what motivated you to write them? Do you plan to author books on other areas as well, e.g. “Order to Cash”?

MC: The biggest motivation to write these books is the lack of detailed information on setups and their impact on the system and how to process transactions. At times, I find the Oracle Manuals more confusing then helpful. I feel that users and support personnel alike should not have to discover how Oracle works through trial and error. This should be commonly available knowledge. OCP blog readers will be happy to know this these two books are part of a four book series with Order to Cash and Manufacturing being the last two topics. I am trying to a explore the feasibility of expanding the series to a book on Assets and another on Self Service Applications.

OCPA: Your books will surely be great reference material for Oracle Certification candidates. What advice do you have for candidates before for Oracle EBS certification exams?

MC: I think the biggest thing to know is not just how to do a specific setup or transaction, but understand how these are integrated with each other. For example, "What setups are required to process a check payment batch?" This is vastly different from "How do you setup payments?" and "How do you process a check?"

OCPA: Oracle Release 12 has introduced several new features that radically change the foundation concepts (e.g. 3 C’s for SOB). Do you also advice/consultant organizations that are migrating / upgrading to Release 12?

MC: The topic of upgrades and versions is one of the most common topics that come up with my clients. "Should I upgrade to R12?" "What will this upgrade take in effort and dollars?: Once that is determined, "What will our organization get out of an R12 upgrade?" These answers are very different for each organization and should be asked and analyzed prior to engaging in an R12 upgrade. If you are a small organization without in-house Oracle support, R12 may not carry as many immediate benefits to outweigh the cost of upgrading. While a large, multi-national organization will greatly benefit from the new features, allowing them to realize a substantial ROI in a shorter period of time.

OCPA: From your Release 12 experiences, which features / functionalities excite you the most? Which features may be the most challenging for an organization to implement?

MC: There are two features that really excite me and both will prove to be the most challenging to an organization, both in terms of implementation and troubleshooting! This is always the way - the more functionality that is available in the system, the more complex the system will be to setup and support. The more I work with the new Payments module, the more the new features thrill me. Many of the functions now available within the setups had to be dealt with manually with programming in the past.

XML Publisher can now create all types of payment formats, while communication features are built right in for transmitting information to banking institutions as well as suppliers about payments. The ability to combine multiple formats into a single payment batch. It almost makes me want to be a Payables clerk again!

Oracle’s ability to handle multiple financial reporting requirements, whether it be in multiple currencies or by accounting for transactions in different ways for government reporting requirements is something I never thought I would see in a system. My first experience doing this was at an organization were we were going public, and I had to do the consolidations, reporting differences, and currency translations all in MS Excel. The new features in Ledger with Secondary ledgers and reporting currencies, combined with Subledger Accounting, is about as complex as it comes, but so very much needed in our global economy of the 21st century!

OCPA: Can you please let us know one habit that has contributed most to your professional success?

MC: I would have to say the drive to always step outside the boundaries of my job, poking my nose around to corner to see what was going on and how what they did effected my work, or how my worked effected them. While many people become experts in their given areas, they often fail to understand how their area effects other departments as well as the business as a whole. Having worked for both large and small organizations, as well as a co-owner of my husband's business where we are the only 2 employees, I tend to have a unique understanding of how the different areas fit into the puzzle of business, and the upstream and downstream effects of processes. While I am not an expert in all areas, I understand the part they play and their interconnections. This helps me not just be an Oracle consultant, but someone who can advise on how Oracle as an integrated system that can assist a business meet their company wide goals.