Metroline
Extend Oracle E-Business Suite with an ApplTop Solution

Metroline, one of the top five London-based bus companies that carries over 180 million passengers each year is getting more from the Oracle E-Business Suite with the help of a product called ASL*Rapport from ApplTop Solutions.

Metroline required a means of providing their users with an easy to use method of accessing data not readily available within the standard applications. They considered a number of options but kept coming back to the same issue of the end-user having to use a tool that was separate to the application they spent most of their working day using.

Metroline were introduced to ASL*Rapport from ApplTop Solutions. ASL*Rapport is a new breed of reporting/querying tool that is completely integrated into the core application with the exact same native look and feel making the end-user feel right at home. Metroline can produce new reporting solutions very rapidly without the need to call upon highly skilled and expensive technical consultants whilst ensuring the finished solution is part of the host application.

Patrick Rankin of Metroline says “The main benefits to us are that users can now run reports directly from within the Oracle Applications themselves and no longer need to run them in a separate application. Users are already conversant with querying forms within the applications and are used to the look and feel of Oracle standard application forms. Data can be easily exported out of ASL*Rapport solutions into spreadsheets for further use and manipulation.”

ApplTop’s product line is designed specifically for the Oracle E-Business Suite with the non-technical user in mind, this allows Metroline’s own team to not only define a solution but implement it too. Furthermore, solution creation times are significantly less than what they would have been had more traditional methods of development been engaged.

Installed and put to work within a matter of hours, ASL*Rapport brings new levels of productivity to the team at Metroline, Mr Rankin goes on to say “We will be using ASL*Rapport to run custom reports against all our Oracle 11i Business Applications, this includes HR, Payroll, Financials, Purchasing and Inventory”.

For more information about Metroline see their website at www.metroline.co.uk

Metroline is one of the top five London-based bus companies, currently running 12% of the capital's bus services under contract to Transport for London. Metroline carries 181 million passengers every year, operates 82 routes, covers over 31 million journey miles each year, employs almost 3000 people and runs a fleet of almost 1000 buses in North, North west, Central London and South Hertfordshire. Metroline is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Singapore based ComfortDelgro Corporation Limited which is one of the largest listed land transport companies in the world.

ApplTop Solutions to exhibit at UKOUG Conference & Exhibition 2004

You will be able to see all of our products, ASL*Rapport, ASL*Form, ASL*Accelerate, ASL*Secure, ASL*Audit and ASL*Query in action.

You will also be able to collect your free product evaluation CD-ROM which contains all of our products for evaluation purposes for upto 3 months.

We will be running a number of product demonstrations and you will have the opportunity to try them out for yourself.

Come and see us on the balcony area on demo table 77 and see how ApplTop Solutions can help your business. We look forward to seeing you there.

New Product Announcement

ASL*Secure is a new product that we are launching today.

Implementing complex rule driven security policies is very simple using ASL*Secure. Almost any data can be secured in a matter of minutes without the need for complex coding or customisation.

A security solution that may have taken weeks or months to implement in the past can now be implemented in less than a day. Let your security policies evolve over time without impacting your application code in any way.

In most environments, not all security policies are defined during implementation, rules change, and new legislation is introduced which can mean you need to be able to rapidly implement new security policies with minimal effort, ASL*Secure is designed to hit these kinds of issues head on.

For more information click here.

New Product Announcement

ASL*Audit is a complete auditing solution for the Oracle E-Business Suite...

Two editions of the product will be available, the first edition to be released is the Standard Edition (SE); this supports transactional data auditing. Shortly after the release of this edition will follow the Enterprise Edition (EE) which will include many more features.

Full licensing and pricing details will be published in the next few weeks.

New Product, New Pricing, New Look

But that's not all, to coincide with the launch of our new look we are also announcing the following...

ASL*Rapport is a new product that we are launching today. ASL*Rapport provides the ability to Rapidly create fully Integrated and Interactive Reporting solutions for the Oracle E-Business Suite. For more information click here.

To go with the new look and new products, we are also introducing new lower and simplified pricing for all of our products.

Pace Micro Technology
Make the Most out of Oracle E-Biz Suite 11i

Pace Micro Technology has been a user of Oracle Applications for a number of years. They began with release 11.0.3 in June 2000 and upgraded to Oracles' latest and greatest offering, Oracle E-Business Suite 11i in March 2003.

Having been using Oracle 11i for over a year now, Pace noticed areas of the system that could be enhanced or extended. Users have made many requests to the IT department for various things but for the most part only the absolute essential enhancements and extensions have been developed. The reason for keeping these kinds of improvements to the system to a minimum was all the usual suspects, high costs, long development times, lack of resource, undue risk…etc.

Pace were introduced to ApplTop Solutions and were given a demonstration of their flagship product, ASL*Form along with a demonstration of ASL*Accelerate. Pace instantly recognised that ASL*Form and ASL*Accelerate would give them what they needed; the ability to very rapidly develop extensions and enhancements for the Oracle E-Business Suite that are 100% integrated with the exact same Oracle look and feel without the extremely high costs and unwanted risks normally associated with such practices.

Pace evaluated the products for a few months to determine if the potential benefits were real and to see if the products really could deliver the goods. Business Systems Manager for Pace, Peter Lane says "Having successfully completed a trial of ASL*Form and ASL*Accelerate, we are convinced of their potential for increased efficiency for both our Oracle users and developers"

Further demonstrations of both ASL*Form and ASL*Accelerate were given to end users to help get them thinking out of the box in terms of ways in which the applications can be streamlined and both products have been met with very enthusiastic responses from management, IT and end-users.

Mr Lane goes on to say "There has been an enthusiastic response from users to initial ASL*Form and ASL*Accelerate developments in Oracle Procurement and we now have further developments underway in Finance, Projects and HR".

Pace have embarked on a program of continual improvement with the help of ApplTop Solutions and are now making the most out of their investment in Oracle E-Business technology.

Mr Lane concluded with "These ApplTop products are an excellent addition to our Oracle toolkit!"

For more information about Pace Micro Technology see their website at www.pace.co.uk

Pace Micro Technology, a leader in digital television technology was founded in 1982. The Company's primary focus is the development of innovative set-top boxes and 17 million have now been installed in homes worldwide.

ApplTop Solutions to exhibit at UKOUG Reporting Tools Special Event

To best cater for your needs and those of your organisation, the UKOUG will be running three parallel streams throughout the day. One stream will address Technology issues, another addressing Application topics and a third on product information. Additionally, an exhibition which includes key Oracle partners and suppliers of Oracle related products and services, will be open to delegates throughout the day.

Main attractions of the Reporting Tools & BIW Special Event and Exhibition will include keynote presentations and a post event drinks reception sponsored by InfoCyclone, enabling you to network with your peers as well as enjoying a few drinks.

We will be demonstrating the concept of Ri² Reporting for Oracle Applications using ASL*Form.

Come and see us at and see how ApplTop Solutions can help your business. We look forward to seeing you there.

Upcoming Presentation at the UKOUG Business Intelligence & Reporting Tools SIG

Ri² Reporting means...

• Rapid
• Integrated
• Interactive
• Reporting

Bacrest Group, a user of ASL*Form will be joining us on the presentation to give their view of ASL*Form and how it is helping them get more out of the Oracle E-Business Suite 11i. The presentation finishes with a live demonstration of Ri² Reporting using ASL*Form.

We look forward to seeing you there.