Installation Process – Price List Wizard
The installation process was simple for More4apps and was performed by our DBA in less than a couple of hours. They also provided a trial key and since it was an Excel spreadsheet on the front end, we didn’t need to install anything extra to get it working.
Connecting the Wizard to test instance of Oracle EBS was simple too as their software uses the standard Oracle E-Business suite login, all I had to do was set up the URL and assign users to the wizard (all done within Excel).
Some of our end-user staff are not technical at all, while others have enough technical knowledge to be “dangerous”. Users with a good working knowledge of the inner-workings of the Oracle E-Business Suite should have no issues using the Wizards as the main skills required are standard Excel cutting and pasting.
Trialling the Price List Wizard
In testing the Wizard, we downloaded full price lists and partial price lists using the Wizard feature to only download currently active list lines.
Next, we used the upload functionality to not only update some of the existing downloaded data but to create new list lines and whole new price lists. It was all very easy to use.
The spreadsheets also automatically configure to your Descriptive and Advanced Pricing Qualifier Flexfields setup, so it was nice to have features like this work without any additional setup required.
Once changes are indicated in the Excel file, validation and upload is very simple and quick.
Customizing the Price List Wizard
Another feature that we really liked was the way that the end-users could customise the Template, by doing this we could exclude the columns/fields and sections which we didn’t use.
We created custom templates for:
- New Price List
- End Date Existing Item – Add New Start Date & Pricing
- Basic Price List – Download
- Extended Use – combines various updates into one
Price List Wizard Results
We achieved our goals with the purchase of the Price List Wizard. By using this tool we eliminated the use of the custom price list program which meant we could remove the IT maintenance cost for this program.
It also reduced in manually processed changes extensively and allowed the Revenue Billing Division to take full control of the end to end price list process, not only that but they have gone from 14 part-time people working on pricing to just 2 part-time personnel. It could be done by 1 person but we wanted to have a backup.
Customers
Customer Setup Challenges Oracle’s user interface for customers is complex and powerful but is difficult for end-users to use, especially when making a large number of updates. Just like for pricing we needed an easier way to create and update customer data.
This is where the More4apps Customer Wizard came to the party. It allowed us to manipulate customer data quickly and easily all from within Excel.
Customer Wizard Installation
The setup and installation for the customer wizard were virtually the same as the price list Wizard since the More4apps Wizards share the connectivity, we only needed to install one package on the database.
It also had very similar features to the Price List Wizard and we were up and running in no time at all.
Customizing the Customer Wizard
As with the Price List Wizard, the customizing of the spreadsheet to remove the columns and sections was easy. In the end, we created multiple templates, but the key 3 we use are:
- Update – Collector – Customer and Site Level
- Deactivation – Party, Customer and Site Level
- Customer DFF – Site Level
Web Intelligence / Business Objects For the Customer Wizard we also use Web Intelligence/Business Objects to run reports of the specific customers we wish to update based on logic we have which segregates out customers by business units. This saves us time downloading information using the Wizard as we have a very distinct set of customers to modify; meaning we can make changes more effectively and quickly.
Customer Wizard Results
Just like the Price List Wizard, there was a marked reduction in manual data processing of customer changes by the Revenue Team. The updates were performed within hours, not weeks and again we could remove the additional costs in time and labor of the IT department as they no longer needed to write scripts to make mass changes. Below are the timing changes we experienced.