Deloitte Consulting LLP
OTM Support Winning Approach
Post Production Support Made Easy
August 2014
2
Presenters
Oracle Technology Consultant with Deloitte Consulting LLP
Over 3.5 years of experience in OTM implementations
Experience with a variety of clients in areas such as:
Industrial Manufacturing
Retail
3rd Party Logistics
High-tech Manufacturing
Experience with OTM versions 6.2 and 6.3
Cameron Gauntner
Satya Narayanamurthy Vabilisetty
Madhavi Chinnam
Paroma Biswas
3
Contents
Introduction
Objectives
Right Approach to Drive Support
Plan and Design for Support
Identify and Categorize Issues
Define Resolution Process
Enlighten, Educate. Equip Users
Best Practices
Appendix Some common issues and resolution provided
4
Objectives
The purpose of Post Implementation Support is to establish a methodology and structure to manage and
support the production environment with the appropriate resources, tools and procedures. This
presentation highlights the following key areas:
Support Challenges in OTM
Expectation Management
Demarcation of the Support function
SLA/SLO Management
Support Resources
Documentation & User Training
Educate and Empower the End Users
OTM support issues Matrix
Functional areas
Technical areas
Support Tools
Best Practices of OTM support
5
The Right Approach to Drive Support
A well-managed production environment can provide cost-effective long term use of systems and realize a
higher rate of return on investment.
Identify and Categorize
Issues
Define Issue Resolution
Process
Enlighten, Educate.
Equip Users
Plan and Design for
Support
Successful Support
Define clear categories for day
to day issues based on
Parameters
Train Client and Support user
community to categorize the
issues
Capture as much data as
possible
Understand, Educate and train
the client and the support
teams.
Empower the client community
with tools and accelerators
Prepare and maintain
knowledge repository
Continue to enhance the
process
Define clear Service Level
Agreements
Implement a resolution process
to meet the SLAs
Use Support tools to monitor
and report
Establish a clear escalation
path
Monitor Support matrix
Identify Support team and
define roles and responsibilities
Demarcate the Support teams
based on the roles and
responsibilities
Identify client SPOC for the
team
Lay down a clear
communication process
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Plan and Design for Support
Plan Support
Team
Identify Roles
and
Responsibilities
Lay down
Communication
Path
Identify Client
Team
Components Issue and Impact Leading Practices
OTM solution support requires knowhow, experience and deep
application expertise
Likely Impacts: lack of trained teams to support issues, Inadequate
contingency plan, longer timelines for issue resolution
Unclear roles, inadequate support teams and poor resource planning
Likely Impacts: Passing the buck, user community is unable to
assign issues to the right team; longer resolution time and missed
SLAs
Lack of a good communication templates and tools to identify, raise
and communicate issues and missing information.
Likely Impacts: Inadequate information in the issue, unable to
assign issue to right team and resource, lengthier resolution time
Lack of client super users and business users
Likely Impacts: Unable to assign accountability for testing resolution
Post implementation support is often overlooked by businesses keen to return to business as normal. Planning support for
an OTM implementation is key to the success of the solution.
Transition and
Training
Lack of proper transition about the client business processes, OTM
solution, configurations and issues faced in the testing cycle
Likely Impacts: Unable to resolve issues efficiently, unable to
realize criticality and business impact
Clearly define team structure including
responsibility, ownership, and
expectations of all team members.
Institute a strong governance program,
in which procedures and
communication channels are explicitly
outlined.
Collaboration between teams in
order to ensure understanding of
ownership and accountability of
testing and approval process.
Routinely update design and
configuration documentation and also
augment end user system knowledge
through ongoing training and support.
Establish a comprehensive, scalable
support team to support the day to day
needs of the application.
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Identify and Categorize Issues
OTM Configuration OTM User Interface Integration with ERP General and 3rd Party
Capture Issue using Support Tools
Assign to the correct Queue
Assign Severity to Issues based on Score Card
Bulk Plan Outputs
Null Pointer exceptions
Route built by the plan
New carrier has been
contracted
Remote exception while
processing Tender
PCMiler/ Kewill / Carrier
Connect fetching wrong
data
Missing Fuel Surcharge
Fields not available on
the screen
Fonts on the screen
set
New users and access
related issues
Increase the count of
records in the screen
Inbound Order Interface
Outbound Trip interface
Tenders to carriers
Data integrity in the
interface
Time taken for interface
jobs to complete
Reports and the related
data
Code and mapping
Bulk Plan
performance and time
OTM and ERP
systems have time
zone mismatches
Application is brought
back after bounce
PCMiler/ Kewill /
Carrier Connect
servers not
responding
Typic
al S
upport
Are
as
Support
Accele
rato
rs
Cate
go
rie
s
A successful support model must clearly define a simple way for the user community to identify and categorize issues in
buckets or queues followed by assigning severity levels that will determine resolution timelines.
The more the information the faster the resolution
8
Identify and Categorize Issues Common Examples
Proactive Response: Proposing /
recommending fixes for potential
issues:
Notify the user before the rate
expires
Monitor Business Monitors
Monitor and investigate Bulk
plan diagnostics
Reactive Responses: Fix any
configuration related areas
Set up access and controls to
enable correct users from
controlling master data
Set OTM to send notification
emails on integration failures
Shipment Tender offer for
multiple logistics involved party
contacts on a shipment
Increase Bulk Plan numbers
Enable service providers to add
equipment initial number on an
accepted shipment
Technical
General and 3rd Party
OTM Configuration and UI
Reuse the code fixes for recurring issues
Tune performance to increase bulk plan
throughput and reduce time.
Large Bulk plans, elaborate
workflows, lengthy saved queries
used in reports/agents
Tune interface performance to expedite
the inbound and outbound flow of orders
and shipments into and out of OTM
Web Tier: slow painting of screens,
large number of users logged into
OTM
App Tier: Multiple Bulk plans and
large volume of transactions
running simultaneously, slow web
logic memory, high App server
CPU usage, OTM threads related
to workflows
DB Tier: DB locks, updates to OTM
are slow, Retrieval of data to
results screen is slow
PCMiler/ Kewill / Carrier Connect
servers not responding
Integration with 3rd party EBS tools
Integration with GTM related 3rd party
tools
Data loading CSV files
Set up a recurring processes to send
shipments to external systems without
duplication
Reload data into FTI(Fusion
Transportation Intelligence) Database
after it was already sent
Categorizing issues can save time and increase efficiency by leveraging knowledge from prior experience. Some examples
of common customer requests that can be mitigated quickly and efficiently include:
Details provided in the Appendix
9
Capture Issues and Assign Severity
helps quick assignment to the correct Support
queue
causing least impact, ensuring steady
business as usual
Capturing an issue at the right time and recording all required information such as static element, business impact, and user
impact are critical for an effective resolution process.
assigning the correct severity using pre-
determi
