Minutes for Atlanta OAUG Meeting

Date: Tuesday, July 15 , 1997

Time Called: 2:30 p.m.

Location: KPMG-Peat Marwick
One Peachtree Center, SunTrust Plaza
303 Peachtree Street
On block surrounded by Peachtree St., Baker St. and Peachtree Center Ave.

I. Presentation: "Project Tracking in Oracle Projects - Capital, Contract, & Indirect"

David Cogdill - Tactics, Inc.

David presented an overview of the operation of Oracle Projects and how it tracks individual projects from design to capitalization. For those unfamiliar with the module, it is designed to be a support system for accounting which tracks the costing and billing of project-based information. It is not designed to provide information on resource allocation, critical path analysis, or charts and graphs for financial statements. It is integrated with other Oracle modules such as purchasing, payables, general ledger, and fixed assets. Paper copies of the Power Point presentation were distributed.

II. Presentation: "Taking Advantage of Descriptive Flexfields"

Richard Tyre - EXOR Technologies, Inc.

Richard's presentation focused on the advantages and limitations of setting up descriptive flexfields in Oracle modules. Summarized, his major points were:

1. Descriptive flexfields are a powerful tool for adding needed extra information not shown or found elsewhere in a module. However, it is best to insure that before setting up descriptive flexfields, the user be very aware of what information the module already offers, and find alternatives to descriptive flexfields if possible.

2. Because descriptive flexfields do not interface with Oracle's standard reports, one will need to write custom reports using SQL or a report writer in order to gain the full advantage of using them.

3. Remember, the more descriptive flexfields added, the more time it will take for data entry and report writing. It is best to incorporate data into descriptive flexfields only if it is going to be used regularly and cannot be accessed elsewhere through other modules or existing key flexfields.

III. General Business - Brenda Carlton, The Tensar Corporation

1. Meeting location - The question was raised regarding whether the group would be willing to attend a meeting in Peachtree City, since NCR has kindly offered their space. However, much of the group seemed indifferent to the proposal. Remember that OAUG-Atlanta needs spaces for future meetings, so please volunteer to hold a meeting if possible.

2. Future meetings - by the request of several members, all meetings after August 19, 1997 will be held on the third Friday of the month. Please set your calendars for meetings on October 17th and November 21st.

3. National OAUG Conference - The national OAUG conference in Orlando will start on September 14, 1997. Disney-area hotel space is very tight, so contact Meeting Expectations if you are still planning on attending. OAUG-Atlanta will plan on holding a meeting on Sunday, September 14th, in the afternoon for Orlando attendees. Wear comfortable shoes, since you will be walking between three hotels to attend all of the meetings planned!

4. Volunteers needed - Please volunteer to help your OAUG chapter!

A) Host a meeting - October 17 and November 21. Must have seating for 50+, provide light refreshments and monitor R.S.V.P.'s as well as provide copying capability and an overhead projector.

B) Speaker - October 17 and November 21. Suggested topics are Oracle Alert, Web Enabled Oracle, Oracle Workflow and Custom Reports

C) Maintain web enabled membership roster - Would be responsible for collecting data on all members to be viewed at the //www.atloaug.org web page via a membership password. Information is to be collected via e-mail list server and would include member's name, title, company, industry, number of employees/users, address, e-mail address, phone/fax number, job (user, consultant, vendor), status (live, implementing)., applications installed, applications which member has expertise. Information would be compiled on all members onto a spreadsheet and sent to webmaster. Updates would be made as needed.

D) Newsletter editor for a "Tips & Techniques" newsletter to be published and distributed via e-mail list server.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m. for networking at the Marriott Marquis.

Thanks to KPMG Peat Marwick and Steve Bradley for allowing us the use of their conference room!

The next Atlanta OAUG meeting will be August 19th at BellSouth.

Thirty-four people were in attendance. Companies represented:

UsersConsultants
Tensar CorporationKPMG Peat Marwick
BTNAEXOR Technologies
BellSouthComputer Systems Authority
National DistributingEDS
OHM Corp.Deloitte & Touche
MCISource Services
ATSTactics, Inc.
NCRBOSS Corp.
Paragon Trade BrandsCAC


See web page for updates, agendas, directions, minutes, list server, etc: http://www.atloaug.org