Issue #28 – 30th January 2013
News and Latest Developments
Oracle has announced the Exalogic Elastic Cloud Templates for quickly deploying PeopleSoft (and other Oracle Applications). This will allow customers to reduce the time and cost needed to get up and running on PeopleSoft. As we understand it, these templates can be used within both the public and private clouds.
The latest patch for the current version of PeopleTools was released recently (support login required).
Functional
Payroll guru John Eckersley writes about his experiences with the RTI changes here in the UK. If you’re after PeopleSoft specific payroll content, there’ll be an article next week on new functionality in the recent bundles and patches.
A compilation of links for the UPK
A comprehensive collection of links for the User Productivity Kit from the ‘Oracle UPK & Tutor’ blog.
Technical
Database Caching in PeopleSoft
Succeed’s infrastructure guru Tam posts about the use of Database Caching (rather than file system caching) in PeopleSoft.
Integration Broker basics for the PeopleSoft developer 
A very comprehensive post from recently anointed Oracle Ace Hakan Biroglu and John van der Kooij from CGI in the Netherlands covering all aspects of Integration Broker. Not to be missed!
Comparing Projects before an Environment Refresh
Most of us have either lost code due to an environment refresh overwriting it, or had to stall a refresh while we backup code. Chris Malek from Cedar Hills Group shows two different methods to determine what PeopleSoft projects will be lost due to a database refresh.
SQL Queries – A Lost Art
Altan Khendup posts about how useful SQL skills can be, and speculates that it’s a skill that may be on the wane. Of course, another reason for fading use of SQL might well be SaaS hosting (where you don’t get access to the database so lose the ability to utilise this useful skill).
Reading
10 Innovations in PeopleSoft 9.2 
This post by John Webb (VP, PeopleSoft Enterprise Product Strategy) is the start of a series on the innovations that we can all look forward to after upgrading to PeopleSoft 9.2. Some of these will be related to the platform that it’s built on (PeopleTools 8.53) and some on the improvements in the Applications themselves.
I’m Praj Basnet and This is How I Work
This time the spotlight falls on Praj Basnet, the man behind the very popular PeopleSoft Wiki website.
Listening
Why mid-size companies buy Oracle to grow
A 10 minute podcast on the reasons why Oracle software is the right choice for mid-sized companies that have ambitions of growth.
And Finally…
15 Icons that don’t make sense any more 
Many people have spoken about how the ‘Floppy Disk icon means Save for a whole generation who’ve never seen one’. We were surprised how many other design metaphors are just as outdated.
13 Reasons Why You Are Failing
This one is included as much for the infographic at the bottom as the article text. A quick read through the list now and again should help keep us all focused.
The PeopleSoft Weekly newsletter 