By Steve Viarengo, Vice President Product Management, Oracle Taleo Cloud Services

您的企业是否拥有正式的人才流动项目？如果您和大多数中型企业类似，则答案恐怕是“没有”，并且您很可能会问自己“人才流动是什么意思？”人才流动是指员工在一个企业内部从一个职位流动到另一个职位，并且，无论您是否意识到，这都是员工满意度和企业成功的关键组成部分。

多年来的研究揭示了内部人员流动与企业绩效显著相关。在过去的十年进行的开创性的研究发现在“高效能工作系统”指标中排名最前10%的企业的人均销售额高4倍。引入注目的是，这些企业超过60%的职业机会由内部人员获取。相反，排名最后的10%的企业只有35%的工作机会给予内部人员。此外，研究显示很多伟大的领导者来自企业内部的队伍。

通过强大的内部流动项目，企业能够激励基础员工，将员工移动到最适合他们的岗位，从而实现公司目标。最好的部分是，这样做不需要传统外部招聘流程带来的成本支出及时间延误。没有这样的项目就位就可能造成最好人才的流失。毕竟如果他们看不到企业内部的职业发展路径，或者发现不具备这份工作所需技能的其他员工被提升或招聘进来，您最好的人才就有可能另谋他就了。而如果领导管道都被缺乏适当能力与经验却进入核心岗位的员工堵塞，企业的发展也必然会受到伤害。

您的企业可以从强大的内部流动项目中获取的好处包括：

·         更快获得生产力

·         更好的员工敬业度和留存率

·         降低人才获得成本

·         优化信息流

·         限制竞争情报泄露

·         更强大的领导团队

·         更好的财务表现

实施一个成功的人才流动项目，您必须确定您的员工知道空缺的职位和机会，主动进行好的候选人与空缺职位的匹配，并且建立员工人才池以清晰了解企业内的明星员工的位置。这听起来工作量很大，但做起来比您想象的要容易而回报却极为可观。

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 16 at 10 AM PDT to watch a live OPN PartnerCast focused on solving the data growth problems for partners’ customers. Oracle experts will be joining to discuss hot topics on Oracle Database, Oracle Exadata, and Oracle Storage. Stream it live from the Oracle PartnerNetwork homepage. Audience members will have the opportunity to submit questions, participate in polls, and share comments during the live event via Twitter by using @oraclepartners or #OPN in your tweets.

Oracle Storage Combo kit gives you the opportunity to sell a unique integrated solution for secure data management and administration. You're not selling any standard additional storage solutions. You are bringing much more value to your customers for their data management on premises or 'into the Cloud' infrastructure. Oracle ZS3 Storage together with Partitioning and Advanced compression database options provide the highest level of integration for simplified data management. Oracle Partitioning and Advanced Compression are fully integrated with ZS3 Storage for High Availability solutions as well.

by Nandita Vijay Sinha, Principal Consultant, Manufacturing Unit, Infosys

成长型中型企业需要从企业应用软件项目上快速获取价值，但他们往往不会打破任何速度记录。在2013年，The Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group (KOJ集团) 部署了Inforsys公司的Oracle Accelerate的Fusion HCM RapidStart 解决方案，从开始到结束只用了32天。这是那时Oracle Fusion HCM有史以来最快的实施。

在Infosys，我们力求不断发现革新独创的方式交付Oracle Fusion应用，使我们的客户从云及传统部署模式中都能受益于最佳实践。

KOJ集团是位于中东并拥有660+零售店的快速成长的连锁企业，其运营涵盖美容、时尚、健康护理，儿童学习与发展产品等多个特许经营权，在6个国家拥有12个品牌和3500名员工。

他们的管理团队很早就意识到有天分并快乐的劳动力是其持续成功与发展的核心。2013年，在其快速增长期，为了适当的奖励员工和确保使用准确的管理发展进程，他们认为对业务而言，评价系统的自动化非常关键。在未来，评价周期的完成应该在2个月之内。

唯一能够满足他们HCM需求和时间要求的解决方案就是Infosys Oracle Accelerate的Oracle Fusion HCM RapidStart 解决方案。 Oracle HCM云在2013年具有KOJ集团所需的一切，同时有可以无缝配合他们与2006年着手的Oracle IT战略。

基于同Oracle的长期关系，KOJ集团信任Oracle对HCM的承诺，同样也相信Infosys在很紧的时间范围内成功完成项目的经验和专业技能。成功的关键是通过指导委员会获得的高层管理的坚定承诺及由KOJ集团，Infosys和 Oracle专家组成的高效的合作项目团队。

快速的项目带来快速的收益

快速项目构成包括：

• 项目第1天即可用的Oracle 云实例，
• 通过使用培训时收集的数据预先建立配置模板，
• 使用明细流程性能需求文档使产品能够处理预建立的数据迁移解决方案，
• 800+ 预建立的系统集成测试 (SIT) 情景。

部分成果包括：

• 跨越3500名员工，650+商店（至今为止），6个国家单一的并与核心ERP集成的HCM解决方案，
• 建立特定的可量化的员工绩效目标，
• 确认并奖励最佳表现者的能力，
• 能够实时检查评估（业绩评估）状态，
• 管理者可用的业务分析显著提升，
• 多语言支持，
• 管理成本的显著降低。

协同驱动成功

Oracle Fusion HCM云，Infosys方法论和快速实施工具的协同使得KOJ集团从项目中实现所需的目标。

“这是一个惊人的项目。”Rizon于项目在2013年上线后说道，“在KOJ，Oracle和Infosys的优异团队合作下，实现了第一个里程碑业绩评估的上线！”

“最具挑战性的截止日期，”Martin Alexander，KOJ集团人力资源总监补充道，“由于我们的坚定承诺，专业精神，团队合作和艰苦工作，我们实现了新评估系统的成功实施。我很骄傲我是项目的一员。”

KOJ集团的马车栓到Oracle上

By Jim Lein, Oracle Accelerate for Midsize Companies

“马车栓到星星上”是一个美国俗语，大意是“追求最高的目标和理想”。我确信中东有类似的表达，我也很想了解是什么。

Nandita提交了她的博文后，我对KOJ集团做了一些研究。2006年，公司着手进行All-Oracle的“Red Stack”战略，这个决定基于Oracle Retail中的行业最佳实践，Oracle电子商务套件财务模块端到端的强大，我们对于建立完整的现代应用软件套件的承诺，以及应用软件与平台的集成。

       All-Oracle战略对KOJ集团很适用。正如Mohammed Thameem Rizvon，集团IT经理，在这个视频中讲述的那样，KOJ集团提升了他们客户的体验。同样重要的，他们通过践行最佳实践的最终用户实现了员工效率和生产力的提高。

     这个视频录制于2012年。从那时部署集成的Oracle IT平台起，KOJ集团的商店数量几乎加倍(从300到500+) ，而仓库工人 (155到135)和IT员工(51到27)却减少了。

    和Oracle一样，KOJ集团追求最高的目标和理想。他们曾经并不断继续获得巨大的成功。正如很多成长型企业，他们相信会与Oracle一起不断成功。他们借鉴我们的专业技能，经验，解决方案的深度和广度，合作伙伴和财务能力。简而言之，他们将自己的口碑和我们及我们的主要合作伙伴，如Infosys连接到一起。

    自从KOJ集团与2011年部署了Oracle HCM 云，Oracle发布了HCM云的增强功能和新模块，也收购了同类最佳解决方案，如Taleo Talent Management.。正如Larry Ellison在最近的Oracle CloudWorld中所说，“我现在的焦点在于人，这就是说照顾你的员工，照顾你的客户……HCM这个应用产品管理你最宝贵的资产——你的人员”。

       KOJ集团和Infosys的连喝项目团队并没有打算创造吉尼斯世界纪录。他们以激光速度完成实施是因为业务的需要。32天现在还是史上最快Oracle HCM 云实施吗？我也不知道，有些事并不是用来竞赛的。

Jim Lein

我传播Oracle Accelerate，Oracle面向成长型中型企业的应用产品战略。我于1999年加入JD Edwards，最近庆祝了加入Oracle15周年纪念。我工作在Evergreen，Colorado，热爱与软件，现场音乐，或大山有关的关于创意与创新的故事。这里表达的观点为我个人观点，未必反映Oracle观点。

A new version of BI Applications is now expected imminently. This release will provide a simplified approach to unifying on-premise and cloud application data, while also delivering new analytic content and self-service access to data discovery capabilities with Endeca. Expected significant functional enhancements include:

• A new adapter that provides out-of-box integration between Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics and Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, in complement to Financials, Order Management and Supply Chain existing adapters; Oracle Spend and Procurement Analytics enable executives, managers, and frontline employees relying on JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to benefit from increased visibility into corporate spend as well as the complete procure-to-pay process, with comprehensive analyses of procurement performance, supplier performance, supplier payable trends and employee expenses
• Oracle BI Applications Connectors for Oracle Cloud Applications (Fusion HCM Cloud Service and Fusion CRM Cloud Service initially),
• Oracle Talent Profile Analytics, a new Oracle Human Resources Analytics module for developing and maintaining a skilled work force,
• Self-service access to data discovery functionality powered by Endeca Information Discovery.

Stay tuned! (any early question, please contact Jacques Senchet).

If you have a near-term project for your clients to implement OBI Applications version 11g using ODI (the current version), then this 3-day Live Virtual Class scheduled for the EMEA Time Zone to run 14-May-2014 to 16-May-2014 should help to fill any skills gaps.

This course will train partners in skills to implement the OBI Applications version 11g using ODI, delivered by Oracle University; providing step-by-step procedures for installing, configuring, managing, and customizing Oracle Business Intelligence Applications and Oracle Business Intelligence Warehouse with Oracle Data Integrator and perform post-installation set up.Students will need to pay for this course, but OPN member partners can claim their normal OU discount.

For more information see Course DescriptionLink

And click here to Register

• Improved drag and drop support in the Home screen and SQL Editor
• Visual Explain 2. The Visual Explain feature was revamped and is now easier to read and interpret. You can also get the traditional tabular explain output from within the same interface.
• Performance Dashboard. A graphical representation of some key statistics from the server status, gives you a bird's eye view of the status of key server subsystems.
• For advanced users, Performance Schema Instrumentation. A GUI for configuring the Performance Schema in detail, for advanced users.
• Performance Schema based reporting. Gives insight into the operation of the server through many high-level reports.
• New query result view. Get more information about queries you execute, such as information about the fields in your result set and key performance statistics from your query (timing, index usage, number of rows scanned, joins etc).
• Form Editor for resultsets. In addition to the result grid, you can now edit records row by row in a form style editor.
• Table Inspector. Similar to the Schema Inspector, view detailed information from tables. A streamlined interface for creating indexes is also included.
• Support for the Windows accessibility API and Windows high contrast color schemes. A new high contrast theme has been introduced.
• And more.

We are very pleased to announce the availability of E-Business Suite 12.1.3+ Recommended Patch Collection 1 (Patch 17774755).  This Recommended Patch Collection combines recommended patches for EBS 12.1.3 into a single integrated and regression-tested patchset.

Note: Patch 17774755 must be applied into an existing Release 12.1.3 E-Business Suite environment.

For the complete installation steps and Functional information, refer to My Oracle Support Doc ID 1638535.1.

2014 Oracle Excellence Awards: Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation

Oracle is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2014 Oracle Excellence Awards: Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation.  The Oracle Excellence Awards for Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation honor organizations using Oracle Fusion Middleware to deliver unique business value.  This year, the awards will recognize customers across nine distinct categories:

• Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud
• Oracle Cloud Application Foundation
• Oracle Service-Oriented Architecture
• Oracle Business Process Management
• Oracle WebCenter
• Oracle Identity Management
• Oracle Data Integration
• Oracle Development Tools and Framework
• Big Data and Business Analytics

If you consider yourself a pioneer using these solutions in innovative ways to achieve significant business value, submit your nomination for the 2014 Oracle Excellence Awards for Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation by Friday, June 20th, 2014, for a chance to win a FREE registration to Oracle OpenWorld 2014 (September 28-October 2) in San Francisco, California.   Top customers will be showcased at Oracle Open World 2014, get a chance to mingle with Oracle executives, network with their peers and be featured in Oracle Publications.

What was reported?

A couple of bugs were discovered with Advanced Global Intercompany System (AGIS) transfers with incorrect CREATED_BY id's for certain processes.

What Processes Were Affected?

The following relevant programs that record user id's were reported to pass incorrect details to other programs and interfaces:

• Intercompany Import Program (FUNXIMPB)
  
• Manual Intercompany Transactions Sweep (FUNPRDSTSB)

How to Address This Issue?

A patching solution is now available for both affected processes!

• For Intercompany Import Program please review Patch 17233375:R12:FUN.B and Doc ID 1577818.1
• For the Sweeper Program review Patch 18207386:R12.FUN.B and Doc ID 1638656.1

Keep a Clean Audit Trail linking to correct user id's, Patch Today!

Április 2-án, szerdán délelőtt ismét support szeminárium lesz az Oracle-ben.

Érdekességek, részletek, gyakorlati bemutató, milyen eszközök, információk léteznek, amiket ingyen használhatnak a supporttal rendelkezőügyfelek,...

Aki látta Gruhala Izabella előadását a HOUG Konferencián az Adatbázis-kezelő szekcióban és vannak kérdései, az azért jöjjön el, aki meg nem látta, pláne érdemes eljönnie. Természetesen az április 2-ai rendezvényen nem csupán az adatbázisokról lesz szó.

Over 9000 Java Community members attended the Java 8 Launch event. If you missed it, it is available for replay. Hear from these Java experts how Java SE 8 is a revolutionary release:

• Mark Reinhold, Chief Architect, Java Platform Group
• Brian Goetz, Java Language Architect
• Richard Bair, Java Client Architect
• Robert Vandette, Consulting Member of Technical Staff 
• Roger Riggs, Consulting Member of Technical Staff
• Jim Gough, Associate Leader,  London Java Community 
• Bruno Souza, Founding Member, SouJava
• Adam Messinger, Chief Technology Officer, Twitter 

There are also over 30 videos covering the technical features and business benefits of Java SE, Java Embedded, Java ME. 

Watch technical videos.

Download Java 8.

Join the discussion on the OTN Java 8 Questions Forum.

I just figured that I'd talk about studio's social media presence.

First off, we have our own forums. One for the compilers and one for the tools. This is a good place to post comments and questions; posting here will get our attention.

We also have a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Moving to the broader Oracle community, these pages list social media presence for a number of products.

Looking at Oracle blogs, the first stop probably has to be the entertaining The OTN Garage. It's also probably useful to browse the blogs by keywords, for example here's posts tagged with Solaris.

In this article, I will talk about how to enable and use the Test SP Application in OIF/SP, which is very useful when OIF is an SP and Federation agreements are set up. It provides the following capabilities:

• Test the Federation SSO flows
• Verify if the mapping rules work
• See which attributes are sent by the IdP, how they are named and how they are processed by OIF/SP
• See the Federation token (SAML Assertion or OpenID SSO Response)

This tool is very useful to diagnose issues in the SAML/OpenID flows, before rolling Federation SSO out.

This is a Web Application that will exercise the SP functionality of OIF via a browser without creating any OAM session:

• The application is accessed via a browser
• Federation SSO is started with the specified IdP
• You authenticate at the IdP
• OIF/SP processes the SAML Assertion / OpenID SSO response
• The application displays the result and SAML Assertion / OpenID SSO response

Enabling / Disabling the Test SP Engine

Out of the box, the Test SP application is disabled and you will need to enable it before being able to use it.

Note: once you’re done using the Test SP App, you should disable it.

To enable or disable the Test SP app, you will need to execute the following OIF WLST commands:

• Enter the WLST environment by executing:
  $IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh
• Connect to the WLS Admin server:
  connect()
• Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:
  domainRuntime()
• Execute the configureTestSPEngine() command:
• To enable the Test SP Engine:
  configureTestSPEngine("true")
• To disable the Test SP Engine:
  configureTestSPEngine("false")
• Exit the WLST environment:
  exit()

Using the Test SP Engine

Starting Federation SSO

Starting the Federation SSO flow involves:

• Going to the Test SP application via a browser
• Selecting the IdP to perform Federation SSO with
• Start the operation

The URL to use to access the Test SP application is:
http(s)://oam-runtime-host:oam-runtime-port/oamfed/user/testspsso

The Test SP application will display a drop down with a list of IdPs to perform Federation SSO with:

• Either you select an IdP
• Or you choose the one references as the Default, which will instruct OIF/SP to use the Default SSO IdP

Once you select the IdP, click on the “Start SSO” button that will trigger the Federation SSO with the specified IdP:

• You will be redirected to the IdP, similarly to a normal Federation SSO operation (the IdP will not be aware that you are using the Test SP application bundled with OIF: the IdP is only aware that OIF/SP is performing the Federation SSO)
• The IdP will either:
• Challenge you for your credentials, and then send a SAML/OpenID response
• Send an SAML/OpenID response (either because you are already authenticated, or because an error occurred)

Result of the Test SP Operation

When the IdP redirects the user with the SAML Assertion / OpenID Response to OIF/SP, the server will validate the response, map it to an LDAP user record and return the result to the Test SP application which will display:

• The result of the authentication operation
• The canonical user ID to which the response was mapped which contains
• The Identity Store name
• The user’s DN
• The user’s ID
• The authentication instant
• The IdP partner name
• Attributes from the SSO Response that will be stored in the OAM session (see my next article for more information)
• The decrypted/decoded SSO response

Diagnosing Issues

If the Federation SSO between an IdP and OIF/SP is not working, the Test SP engine can be a good tool with the OAM/OIF logs to diagnose the problems.

Mapping Issues

If the incoming SSO Assertion cannot be mapped to a local LDAP user record, the Test SP application can show:

• The error message
• The NameID/attributes sent by the IdP
• The SSO message sent by the IdP, which contains the NameID/attributes

In this example, the IdP’s and OIF/SP’s administrators agreed to use SAML 2.0 and identify the user via the email address. The issue here is that the email address for alice at the IdP is alice.appleton@oralce.com, while in the LDAP directory used by OIF/SP, the email is alice@oracle.com

The Test SP application will show the following information at the end of the flow:

• The authentication operation failed
• The Assertion could not be mapped to a local user record
• The data extracted from the Assertion as well as the message itself

The OIF log files will show the following error message as well as the SAML message:

<Feb 28, 2014 7:18:05 AM PST> <Warning> <oracle.security.fed.eventhandler.fed.profiles.sp.sso.assertion.Saml20AssertionProcessor> <FED-15108> <User was not found during attribute based authentication using NameID mapping for name identifier: alice.appleton@oracle.com name identifier format : urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress and message : <samlp:Response xmlns:samlp="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:protocol" Destination="http://adc00pcc.us.oracle.com:23002/oam/server/fed/sp/sso" ID="id-aWfL5-f37nhQWh0WWjHbobsVetM-" InResponseTo="id-hqkZGMV-wEO5-CulpYxArIvr91Y14dA-WSRYZ8zP" IssueInstant="2014-02-28T15:18:05Z" Version="2.0"><saml:Issuer xmlns:saml="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion" Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">http://adc00peq.us.oracle.com:7499/fed/idp</saml:Issuer><samlp:Status><samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/></samlp:Status><saml:Assertion xmlns:saml="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion" ID="id-PoOD-BDUeoiSY4ajPCQ86yjZWkw-" IssueInstant="2014-02-28T15:18:05Z" Version="2.0"><saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">http://adc00peq.us.oracle.com:7499/fed/idp</saml:Issuer><dsig:Signature xmlns:dsig="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#"><dsig:SignedInfo><dsig:CanonicalizationMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/><dsig:SignatureMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#rsa-sha1"/><dsig:Reference URI="#id-PoOD-BDUeoiSY4ajPCQ86yjZWkw-"><dsig:Transforms><dsig:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#enveloped-signature"/><dsig:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/></dsig:Transforms><dsig:DigestMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/><dsig:DigestValue>X5ojFxrpBOS4klosM5jcBOF8Bqg=</dsig:DigestValue></dsig:Reference></dsig:SignedInfo><dsig:SignatureValue>VJKJOBOowHZ4lVkHjX4w2YHi+0ZAa4ez/+D+ketAQcOxxtwOZPcBYERwkMgazudMh0XEMbIkwsBTVwb4tX+uV327Gjlp1hXc0uYnm2n8mZfen9Ppru6jTES4N7PoD3mOpCfFEHBUJg118DihWGLfzBWw7LMLaN2A+dMhQwBMXAw=</dsig:SignatureValue></dsig:Signature><saml:Subject><saml:NameID Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress">alice.appleton@oracle.com</saml:NameID><saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer"><saml:SubjectConfirmationData InResponseTo="id-hqkZGMV-wEO5-CulpYxArIvr91Y14dA-WSRYZ8zP" NotOnOrAfter="2014-02-28T15:23:05Z" Recipient="http://adc00pcc.us.oracle.com:23002/oam/server/fed/sp/sso"/></saml:SubjectConfirmation></saml:Subject><saml:Conditions NotBefore="2014-02-28T15:18:05Z" NotOnOrAfter="2014-02-28T15:23:05Z"><saml:AudienceRestriction><saml:Audience>http://adc00pcc.us.oracle.com:23002/oam/fed</saml:Audience></saml:AudienceRestriction></saml:Conditions><saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-02-28T15:18:05Z" SessionIndex="id-2i7BY1gGnhukoBSDmrvkBIaG-NI-" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-02-28T16:18:05Z"><saml:AuthnContext><saml:AuthnContextClassRef>urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport</saml:AuthnContextClassRef></saml:AuthnContext></saml:AuthnStatement></saml:Assertion></samlp:Response>.>

Response Validation Issues

If the incoming SSO Assertion cannot be validated, the Test SP application can show:

• The error message
• The SSO message sent by the IdP

In this example, the IdP’s and OIF/SP’s administrators agreed to use SAML 2.0 but the IdP is not signing the Assertion as required by OIF/SP (typically the Assertion is signed: for this example I disabled the signature on the IdP to showcase the error)

The Test SP application will show the following information at the end of the flow:

• The authentication operation failed
• The Assertion could not be validated
• The SAML message

The OIF log files will show the following error message as well as the SAML message:

<Feb 28, 2014 7:23:05 AM PST> <Error> <oracle.security.fed.eventhandler.fed.profiles.utils.CheckUtils> <FEDSTS-18003> <Assertion is not signed.>
<Feb 28, 2014 7:23:05 AM PST> <Error> <oracle.security.fed.eventhandler.fed.profiles.sp.sso.v20.ProcessResponseEventHandler> <FED-18012> <Assertion cannot be validated: <samlp:Response xmlns:samlp="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:protocol" Destination="http://adc00pcc.us.oracle.com:23002/oam/server/fed/sp/sso" ID="id-De7M27k5CWpBsuGzgaxwHgwqV1g-" InResponseTo="id-fX4nHKLCMcA-ZjHvsKfCORDZLmIDcQMpVYjqmxQb" IssueInstant="2014-02-28T15:23:05Z" Version="2.0"><saml:Issuer xmlns:saml="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion" Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">http://adc00peq.us.oracle.com:7499/fed/idp</saml:Issuer><samlp:Status><samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/></samlp:Status><saml:Assertion xmlns:saml="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:assertion" ID="id-EAdQSXj-royYNuuWbaBWZVdBtu8-" IssueInstant="2014-02-28T15:23:05Z" Version="2.0"><saml:Issuer Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:entity">http://adc00peq.us.oracle.com:7499/fed/idp</saml:Issuer><saml:Subject><saml:NameID Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress">alice@oracle.com</saml:NameID><saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer"><saml:SubjectConfirmationData InResponseTo="id-fX4nHKLCMcA-ZjHvsKfCORDZLmIDcQMpVYjqmxQb" NotOnOrAfter="2014-02-28T15:28:05Z" Recipient="http://adc00pcc.us.oracle.com:23002/oam/server/fed/sp/sso"/></saml:SubjectConfirmation></saml:Subject><saml:Conditions NotBefore="2014-02-28T15:23:05Z" NotOnOrAfter="2014-02-28T15:28:05Z"><saml:AudienceRestriction><saml:Audience>http://adc00pcc.us.oracle.com:23002/oam/fed</saml:Audience></saml:AudienceRestriction></saml:Conditions><saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-02-28T15:23:05Z" SessionIndex="id--0QWpaU2AV-L7UpNvLH5Bn7Z5Xk-" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-02-28T16:23:05Z"><saml:AuthnContext><saml:AuthnContextClassRef>urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport</saml:AuthnContextClassRef></saml:AuthnContext></saml:AuthnStatement></saml:Assertion></samlp:Response>.>

In the next article, I will describe how to integrate OIF (11.1.2.2.0 or later) with ADFS 2.0 for Federation SSO using the SAML 2.0 protocol.
Cheers,
Damien Carru

As we are transitioning from a very long and cold winter to a more gentle spring, something for you to look forward to is the upcoming 3rd Annual Oracle Maintenance Summit, taking place April 29-30 in Barcelona, Spain, and hosted by Oracle partner Viziya. Need some extra convincing to attend this important event? Check out the list below to see why the Oracle Maintenance Summit is not to be missed!

1. Keep on top of new developments in your industry. If your company is an asset-intensive organization and the achievement of your goals is based on the successful implementation of your asset strategy, then the ability to react to and control situations quickly is critical to achieve and maintain profitability. Attend the Oracle Maintenance Summit 2014, and learn about new developments from industry experts.

2. Gain critical insight into maintenance strategy from author and industry luminary Terry Wireman, author of many maintenance books, including the recent Maintenance Work Management Processes. Wireman will be sharing his insights and experiences including components of a successful maintenance strategy that will enable attendees to help their companies see greater asset availability at a lower cost with reduced risk.

3. Enhance the value of your maintenance system. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about tools, tips and tricks for advanced functionality that will enhance the value of their maintenance systems in areas such as maintenance management, mobile solutions, business intelligence and improved analytics.

4. Networking, networking, networking. We hear from our customers that the best part of attending these events is the opportunity to network with fellow Oracle users. The Oracle Maintenance Summit enables attendees to not only network with peers, but also with Oracle experts and partners over the course of two days. 

5. Visit lovely and historical Barcelona. Of course, this list would not be complete without mentioning that the Oracle Maintenance Summit is taking place at the Pullman Skipper Hotel, a gorgeous hotel located in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. If you must get out of the office to attend a conference, you couldn't hope for a nicer place to travel to--and a great location to look forward to after the rough winter. 

Register here to reserve your spot at this important event! 

By John Hansen - Originally posted on Brokernews

A business is a collection of people working for the same cause, and a leader is required to define that cause. Growth of a business will only come through the time and talents of others. To identify, attract, fill and retain corporate leadership talent, companies need leadership development programs focused on hiring strategies, employee development, and career and succession planning.

Companies face two major challenges in finding and developing leaders. They need to identify qualified candidates to fill current and future leadership roles, and they need to develop a comprehensive leadership program to cultivate and develop the leaders of tomorrow.

In the past, leadership development was focused on only a few individuals in the organisation. First-generation systems to assist with leadership development were siloed and/or hard to use and were not widely adopted. Companies need a system-enabled way to unify methods of assessing and selecting leaders, executing programs to develop skills, and measuring the success of these programs.

Now technology can be deployed to extend these practices across the enterprise and down into all levels of the workforce. Human resource development then becomes an enterprise-wide effort across the management team and not just the job of the HR department.

ELEMENTS OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

Major talent management functions all play a part in a comprehensive leadership development program and can be well supported by a unified talent management technology platform. These functions include recruitment, assessment, performance management, succession planning and career planning.

A successful leadership development program begins with the alignment of leadership development with company strategy and an understanding of the type of leadership style(s) needed to execute that strategy.

1. DETERMINE THE BEST LEADERSHIP STYLE FOR YOUR ORGANISATION

There are many theories about and techniques for determining the right leadership styles for an organisation. The leadership style, for instance, that is required by a head of corporate security would obviously be vastly different from the leadership style of an art museum director. Company culture will also play a major role in determining leadership style.

One of the main reasons for the high failure rate of new CEOs – more than half never make it past the four-year mark – is poor organisational fit. Here are two ways to assess leaders’ fit.

• Get to know them better. Psychological and behavioural assessments have been statistically linked to current and future success in leadership roles.
• Understand the culture better. Ask your board, employees, vendors, consultants for insight into what makes an effective leader in the company.

Use both sets of information to find alignments or disparities. If there is a glaring cultural conflict, be ready to find a better candidate who possesses the unique skills your organisation requires.

2. IDENTIFY CURRENT AND POTENTIAL LEADERS WITHIN OR OUTSIDE THE COMPANY

Leaders can be found both internally and externally. Companies must weigh the cost and timing of developing internal leadership against the cost and availability of hiring from the outside. Research has shown that one of the key advantages of developing leaders internally is that they achieve productivity almost 50% faster than external candidates.

To evaluate potential leaders in the organisation, a leadership program needs to identify the expected leadership skills and competencies. Whether companies develop a competence model of their own or use a model, they need to define the success measurements and build them into their performance management system.

When leadership positions cannot be filled from within the company, recruitment should use the same measurements to test the existing competencies of future potential candidates.

Online pre-assessments and full assessment testing can help ensure that the right candidates are on the short list. Unqualified candidates are automatically filtered out, not on the basis of their resumes but, rather, on the basis of a self-administered online test or questionnaire.

3. IDENTIFY LEADERSHIP GAPS

To fully recognise leadership gaps, companies should determine current and future leadership requirements and compare those with the current leadership team. Then look at the leadership development pipeline and identify gaps in skills and the time required to fill those gaps either via succession plan or recruitment.

4. DEVELOP SUCCESSION PLANS FOR CRITICAL ROLES

Succession planning avoids disruption and employee trauma when the CEO leaves, whether the departure is anticipated or not. But a succession plan should not be confined to executive roles. As part of the leadership program, companies should evaluate critical roles throughout the organisation.

For the greatest efficacy, succession planning should be supported by technology systems that provide the ability to:

• Create backfill strategies that use data captured in the recruiting and performance review processes, coupled with individual career plans
• Add multiple candidates to a succession short list and view all the best options
• Display multiple talent profiles – from C-level executives to individual contributors –side by side to quickly identify the best fit
• Track candidate readiness based on skills, competencies and performance; promote top candidates based on relative ranking and composite feedback scores 

5. DEVELOP CAREER PLANNING GOALS FOR POTENTIAL LEADERS 

Companies that support career planning for their employees gain in retention, engagement and protection of the leadership pipeline. Combining employee development with self-service career planning enables employees to not only explore potential career paths but also to select the development activities necessary to attain them. 

6. DEVELOP A SKILLS ROADMAP FOR FUTURE LEADERS

Once the high-potential employees have been identified, a skills roadmap should be developed for the future leaders. In today’s connected world, development programs need to support both traditional and non-traditional learning such as incorporating social networking tools into the development process.

7. DEVELOP RETENTION PROGRAMS FOR CURRENT AND FUTURE LEADERS

Linking pay to performance can be a motivator for an employee, but goal alignment helps potential leaders stay focused on what is important to the company. Recognise excellent performance, and base the upside of bonus potential on the success of both the employee and the company.

Leadership retention is critically important for all organisations, for two main reasons: turnover is expensive and top performers drive optimum business performance.

CONCLUSION

A well-designed leadership development program is the key to identifying, attracting, filling and retaining corporate leadership. Technology applications can provide the enabling platform, including recruitment, assessments, performance management, succession and career planning, and development programs.

Talent management practices implemented with robust technology applications can effectively identify and develop – from all levels of the workforce – the leaders who will best drive business performance.

John Hansen is vice president, HCM product management, JAPAC at Oracle. Follow him on Twitter @JohnHansenHCM

A frequent guest on OTN ArchBeat Podcasts, Oracle ACE Director Ron Batra is Director of Cloud Product Solutions at AT&T. As if that doesn't keep him busy enough, Ron is also a member of the Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG) Cloud Computing SIG, and headed up the committee for the Cloud Computing track at this year's Collaborate 2014, which gets underway one week from today (April 7-11)at the Venetian and Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas.

In this video Ron talks about some of the sessions in the Collaborate 2014 cloud track, and about how that track has evolved since last year's event.

Ron has posted a comprehensive list of the sessions in the Collaborate 2014 cloud track on his blog.

Connect with Ron Batra

Dear WebLogic Partner Community member,

Did you miss the Oracle Fusion Middleware Partner Community Forum in Malta?

Most of the presentations are available at our WebLogic Community Workspace (WebLogic Community membership required) - Key announcements include free implementation assessment vouchers, WebLogic 12.1.2 and the SOA Suite 11g On-Demand Course. During the conference, attendees also had the opportunity to learn more about Internet of Things (IoT) a great showcase for middleware. Thanks for the excellent feedback at Twitter#ofmForum and the first impression on the WebLogic Community Facebook page.

Oracle OpenWorld Call for presentations is open –make sure you submit your WebLogic, ADF, Java, Coherence papers! Do you want a free trip to JavaOne? Please make sure you participate in the IoT Challenge!

Java 8 is Revolutionary! Do you want its Proof? Get the latest version of Java 8 including NetBeans IDE 8.0 and Java 8 and Adopt OpenJDK.

WebLogic 12c supports now WebSockets,  GlassFish user can migration to WebLogic or get commercial
GlassFish Support by C2B2.

Thanks to the community for sharing all the great articles: JDK JAVA SE 7, 8 puppet module, Improve SSL
Support for Your WebLogic Domains,Developing Java EE applications with Maven and WebLogic 12c and Getting the most out of WLDF Part 1: What is the WLDF? By Mike Croft.

In our ADF section Going Mobile with ADF continues to be a hot topic. If you haven’t seen it so far, it’s time to visit the ADF Code Corner with excellent samples.

Thanks to the community for sharing all the great ADF articles: Using ADF BC Declarative Built-in Rules:
Collection Validator & The Future of Application Development Tools at Oracle by Tori Wieldt & AMIS "Enterprise
to Mobility” Oracle ADF Conference Wednesday, May 21 - Friday, May 23, 2014& ADF Angels in the
Architecture by UKOUG.

Best regards,

Jürgen Kress

To read the complete newsletter please visit http://tinyurl.com/WebLogicNewsMarch2014(OPN Account required)

To become a member of the WebLogic Partner Community please register at http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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