CaoSys Updates Oracle Apps Toolkit

Adds new productivity tools, including XML import/export

• By James E. Powell
• 03/21/2008

CaoSys, a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) and productivity software vendor for Oracle's E-Business Suite, has updated CS*Applications, improving support for XML data import and export and adding access control and notification components.

CS*Applications consists of several products, all designed and built specifically for use within the Oracle E-Business Suite. The suite’s compliance components include

• CS*Audit, a data auditor, allows users to implement complex audit policies in a rule-driven hierarchical manner

• CS*Comply provides segregation of duties and general user access internal controls

• CS*Secure supports the creation of data security policies that can hide and mask data at both row and column level database-wide

• CS*Accelerate includes both compliance and productivity capabilities, enabling users to enhance and augment existing screens within Oracle to help improve security, usability, and efficiency

CS*Applications also offers several productivity tools. Its flagship product, CS*Form, allows non-technical users to build and deploy complex extensions to Oracle E-Business Suite as standard look-and-feel interactive screen; the company says it reduces development times over traditional approaches. The tool is aimed at Oracle E-Business Suite users -- from power users to functional consultants to system administrators to developers. The company also offers a scaled down version of CS*Form, called CS*Rapport.

For ad-hoc querying, CS*Enquire provides a simple embedded interface for writing and sharing SQL-based queries within Oracle E-Business Suite.

The suite is fully integrated into Oracle E-Business Suite as a single install that delivers a standard look and feel. All of the tools are designed for use by non-technical users, which can further help to reduce cost of ownership.

CaoSys has improved the capabilities for importing and exporting content; most components now use standard XML as a means of moving content between systems, simplifying management.

The update also extends the automatic e-mail notification system within CS*Comply to make access requests more efficient. AccessGuard, a new component included with CS*Comply, brings a “brute force” method for controlling access to risky functions within Oracle E-Business Suite. CS*Comply scans the system for what it considers conflicts based on a predefined matrix, but AccessGuard takes a different approach by allowing users to flag functions as high risk in their own right and therefore deny access across the board by default and only grant access on specific cases. This approach allows high-risk functions to be prevented quickly without defining a conflict matrix and then scanning the system searching for violations.

Among other improvements: CS*Audit now uses hierarchical audit rules for greater control of what is audited. Audit solution configuration and security cloning has also been included to make building multiple audit solutions much easier.

The new version (build 221) is available now and can be downloaded for use on development and test servers for unlimited evaluation directly from the CaoSys Web site: http://www.caosys.com.