1. Achieving Maturity in
OTM Implementation
Processes – Part 1
Best practice definitions for Data Management
and User Access Management

2. History
§
Oct
2005
(just
before
Oracle
acquired
GLog)
–
under
20
OTM
implementors
within
Europe
•
Success
in
Projects
achieved
through
individual
endeavours
•
Regular
issues
with
deployment
to
producHon
–
typos
in
agent
code,
missing
master
data
etc
•
Regular
issues
with
user
provisioning,
eg
Hckets
raised
by
business
as
user
in
Poland
is
seeing
currency
in
USD
etc

3. History continued
§ 2006
thru
2009
(Steady
growth
of
OTM
install
base
within
Europe)
•
“Home
grown”
tools
emerge
built
by
individual
implementors
to
solve
their
needs
at
a
parHcular
point
in
Hme
(excel
funcHons,
excel
with
vba,
access
db,
pl/sql,
vb,
java
applet)
•
Lack
of
consistency
in
approach
between
implementaHons
•
Clients
encounter
performance
problems
leading
to
learnings
about
do’s
and
don’ts
-­‐>
fed
back
through
development
to
become
the
“Performance
tuning
guide
• Projects
delivered
successfully
but:
§
risk
of
“home
grown”
soluHons
become
unsupportable
when
the
originaHng
implementor
leaves
the
project
§
resources
have
to
learn
new
processes
when
moving
from
one
project
to
another

4. History continued
§ 2010
onward
(Rapid
growth
of
OTM
install
base
within
Europe)
•
Conscious
effort
to
define
best
pracHces
•
Aim
to
have
consistent
approach
across
all
of
our
new
projects
•
New
breed
of
clients
purchasing
OTM
who
previously
developed
so^ware
in
house.
-­‐>
Strict
code
management
and
deployment
processes
in
place
which
have
to
be
met.
• We
start
to
migrate
“home
grown”
tools
to
common
enterprise
grade
producHsed
plaaorm
§ Result
is
that
we
have
now
got
defined
best
pracHces
and
are
in
the
process
of
rolling
those
out
across
Mavenwire.

5. Data Loader
Rate Maintenance Challenges
How to get the rates
from Excel to OTM

6. Data Management Best Practices
§
Remove
the
IT
middleman
from
the
day
to
day
process
and
allow
the
business
end
user
who
is
responsible
for
the
data
to
also
load
the
data
• To
do
this
the
process
must
not
require
the
person
transforming
the
raw
data
and
uploading
it
to
OTM
to
have
any
knowledge
of
scripHng/macro/
coding
languages
• The
process
should
be
efficient
to
use
(minimal
number
of
mouse
clicks
etc)
§ Use
robust
repeatable
process
• TransformaHon
of
the
raw
data
must
produce
idenHcal
results
every
Hme
•
Define
consistent
naming
convenHons
•
Validate
the
data
is
correct
•
IdenHfy
data
formaeng
issues
•
Avoid
recurrent
errors
• Verify
that
foreign
keys
exist
in
OTM
already

7. Data Management Best Practices
§ The
transformaHon
must
be
able
to
evolve
over
Hme
• Adapt
to
new
opportuniHes
(e.g.
modes,
services)
• Simple
way
for
IT
to
handle
change
requests
to
the
transformaHon
(e.g.
new
modes,
services)
• Naming
convenHon
change
should
cascade
to
child
objects
with
minimal
effort
§
Data
should
be
Consistent
across
environments
• e.g.
new
locaHons
loaded
to
Prod
should
also
be
loaded
efficiently
to
test
environments
§
The
end
user
should
be
able
to
download
the
exisHng
data,
make
modificaHons
and
reload
the
new
data
§
When
new
versions
of
rates
are
loaded,
the
old
version
should
be
automaHcally
expired
(this
should
not
rely
on
the
naming
convenHon)

8. User Access Mgmt Best Practices
§
Define
one
consistent
model
for
user
access
configuraHon
§ “Level”
and
VPD
profile
are
for
the
funcHonal
role
§ VPD
context
is
for
the
geographical
element
§ User
role
brings
together
the
funcHonal
role
and
the
geographical
element.
§ User
provisioning
should
require
creaHon
of
a
gl_user
record
and
assignment
of
one
or
more
user
roles
and
absolutely
nothing
else.
§
AcHon
checks,
acHon
morgs,
menus,
status
type
filters,
default
finder
sets
are
funcHonal
role
related
so
should
be
agached
to
the
“level”
§ Timezones,
currency,
business
monitor
and
therefore
preference,
along
with
saved
query
filters
are
geographical
based
and
should
be
agached
to
the
user
role.

9. Data Loader
Rates maintenance Options
BUSINESS
NEEDS
§
Through
the
UI?
New Contracts
•
MulHple
objects/tabs
Contract
•
Time
consuming
Expiry
§
IntegraHon?
Rate Updates
•
Disparate
source
data
Scheduled •
No
Rate
interface
Adjustments
(e.g. Fuel)
§
CSV
file
upload?
Preferred
Carriers
•
How
do
you
generate
the
csvs
for
many
tables
•
How
is
it
supported?
•
How
is
it
managed?
•
Where’s
the
audit
trail?

10. User Access Mgmt Options
BUSINESS
NEEDS
§
Through
the
UI?
•
MulHple
objects/tabs
Role out
•
Time
consuming
functionality to
new
•
Edit
User
Access
screen
geographical only
available
to
region
“ADMIN”
Level
§
IntegraHon?
Add new
action check to •
No
interface
all users
§
CSV
file
upload?
•
How
do
you
generate
the
csvs
for
many
tables
•
How
is
it
supported?
•
How
is
it
managed?
•
Where’s
the
audit
trail?

11. How are we internally
implementing these Best
Practices?

13. Data Loader User Access
Facilitate the business
to load their own data Manager
efficiently and robustly Facilitate rapid and robust
user provisioning
Data Archiver
& Cleaner Configuration
Meet legal requirements for
long term storage of critical Manager
data while keeping your Robust deployment
primary database running processes
efficiently with minimal live
data Deliver
Support tool for issue,
request, feature and bug
tracking

14. Data Loader
Data Loader
§ Supports multiple environments with different OTM
version
§ User Friendly error handling
§ Miscellaneous validation & conversion rules
§ Data can be pushed directly into OTM or loaded using
csvutil zip file through the OTM UI
§ Very quick and robust process
§ UI for IT personnel to easily manage and create new
templates
§ Extract Data from OTM back into Excel
§ User
Security
&
Help

15. Data Loader
Data Loader Templates
Template for OTM csv for
CE TL RATES CE TL RATES
Template for OTM csv for
NE RAIL RATES NE RAIL
RATES
Template for OTM csv for
LOCATIONS LOCATIONS
§ Validation Rules
§ Mapping Rules
§ Versioning Rules

16. User Access Manager
User Access Manager
§ Supports multiple environments with different OTM
version
§ Locking Mechanisms to force serialisation of tasks if
they collide.
§ Saved queries built from templates plus parameters
§ Uniform naming conventions enforced across all
geographies
§ Time to create action checks greatly reduced
§ Load to OTM directly or using csvutil zip file

17. Data Loader
Data Loader Process
§
Start
with
an
empty
(or
pre-­‐populated)
spreadsheet
•
Send
to
Pricing
Team
•
Send
to
Carrier
§
Upload
spreadsheet
•
Validate
2
•
Error
Handling
§
Load
into
OTM
•
csv
zipfile
3
•
or
direct
db
1

18. Data Loader
Demonstration

19. Data Loader
Other Uses
§ Load test data into OTM for OTM testing before
integration feeds have been built
§ Load performance test data
- eg > 100000 orders with related shipments etc
ready for inbound and outbound message testing
§ Extract business objects from production and load them
into a test environment for issue replication
§ Prototyping
§ Load test data onto integration stub tables

20. Questions
?
Questions and Answer
Email: LearnMore@MavenWire.com