A Linchpin's Journey

If you've read my previous posts, you may be aware that I've been complaining about the low salary I've been getting in Oracle. It's just really enough for our family. But it definitely is not going to be enough in case of emergencies or sudden expenses, like a car battery replacement, a rise in amortization costs, or  inflation. As much as I have loved my experience in Oracle, the recognitions, achievements, and of course, the people, I have other goals in life. There's more to it than just work. Financial goals, in particular, are what I needed to work on. And ultimately, the decision to leave Oracle seemed to be for the best. I've recently finished reading The Dip , by Seth Godin. I knew it would be a source of comfort as I enter this liminal space of unemployment. The book reaffirmed that my decision to leave was the right one, and that I had been in a cul-de-sac in Oracle all along. Oracle was truly a happy place. There was a lot of space to grow, but only ...

REGEXP_COUNT is quite interesting, especially when you combine it with NS_CONCAT. Doing so will allow you to count the number of elements in the NS_CONCAT results, allowing for further flexibility to your searches. Further, you can perform mathematical operations between multiple REGEXP_COUNT expressions. You'd normally think to create a calculated measure in the Analytics Workbook in order to perform this, but it appears there are times when a saved search is all you need. Here's an example: Say you want the search to show each sales rep, and the number of customers they have that are from referrals (marked via referral checkbox in the customer record). Sales orders, and phone calls have the same checkbox, and you want to count these too. To add, you have another checkbox, that indicates if an upsell was offered. The checkbox appears in sales order, call, and task records. Then you'd also want to count each instance the checkbox is marked. Using NS_CONCAT(DISTINCT) will re...

"Coming up" could mean a foreshadowing of events, such as telling you right now that I have been really busy these past few months. "Coming up" could also literally mean an escalation of a phase in life, to which I'm also foreshadowing. So I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy. November through March had been really tough months for our team, especially since there were a lot of code changes that would impact specifically the product area I handled. There were also slow days, where I got to take more time to myself, not really trying to be a linchpin. I didn't help out others as much during those times, as it was not my responsibility, after all. Though I could have, and that would have made a difference. Sometimes I guess you just need some time to breathe. I guess these were also the thoughts of the technical lead, who resigned and left the company on January 1. This was troublesome for the team, as now several people would have to chip in ...

Customizing the standard Campaign Response Summary report has its limits. Meanwhile, you can create a Campaign search, allowing you to add formulas in the criteria, and get much more targeted results. Once you have defined your criteria, head over to the Results tab and simply follow the table below. Field Summary Type Formula Summary Label Recipient Group     Campaign ID Count     Response Detail       Formula (Numeric)...

User wants to send an email that pulls the creator of a sales order via Freemarker. It is currently not possible to pull the creator of a sales order onto an email without customization. Navigate to Lists > Search > Saved Searches > New Click Transaction Search Title: Enter a title Public: Enter Checkmark Click Criteria Filter: Select System Notes System Notes Filter: Select Type Type: Select Create Click Set Click Results Click Remove All Field: Select Formula (Text) Summary Type: Select Maximum Formula: Enter {systemnotes.name} Click Available Filters Filter: Select Internal ID Click Save & Run Navigate to Customization > Lists, Records, & Fields > Transaction Body Fields > New Label: Enter a label Type: Select Free-Form Text Store Value: Remove Checkmark Click Applies To Sale: Enter Checkmark Click Display Subtab: Select Main Display Type: Select Inline Text Click Validation & Defaulting Search: Select the search that was created Click Save View any Sal...

It's actually 4:14AM on a Monday, and I've been doing a lot of thinking about work. So I've spoken with a couple of senior managers and it seems like they're willing to help me get into SuiteCloud. I'm looking forward to it. The SuiteAnalytics SME team met, after I provided my inputs, and people have been more active in the channel now. I'm excited about the Knowledge Management task force I'm setting up. I just need to train them on December 1, and do one-on-one discussions with each to ensure everything is in place. Progress! While a few things are moving along nicely, there are a few things that I am quite worried about. Becoming a linchpin actually opens your eyes to the reality that there are really those who choose to be cogs, and don't want anything more. You get to identify who those people are, and become more concerned about the other potential linchpins out there, who are getting affected by the lousy work the cogs bring to the table. Being a ...

 So just an update of what I've been doing daily at work. A lot of things really. Apart from my regular tasks on taking cases, calling customers, and filing defects, I've been doing extra for no recompense. A 'gift' if you may. I've been trying to get the aging cases of my colleagues in the CRM product area down. There are a lot of cases where reps may have felt stuck, or untrained to complete the task. So I've been teaching them how to work on such cases. There are indeed some cases on niche features, like the Dunning Letters bundle, that come once in a blue moon, so it's not very often reps get familiar with how to help customers with concerns on these features.  Consultations have not been limited to CRM. People from SuiteBuilder and SuiteCloud have also approached me for consultation. A lot of people have been consulting lately about saved searches, especially in the SuiteAnalytics Subject-Matter Expert (SME) Slack channel. I'm unfortunately the only...