GARY KIRSH
gkirsh@NextExtent.com
SUMMARY
Oracle Applications Technical consultant with 20 years of Oracle consulting experience. I worked as a Principal/Senior technical consultant for Oracle Corporation for over 6 years, then as an independent Oracle consultant for the last 14 years. While at Oracle, I was part of the original product development team for the Oracle Applications.
I specialize in Oracle Applications customization and interfaces, using Oracle Forms, Reports, PL/SQL and SQL. In addition, I have extensive experience with Oracle Applications implementations, upgrades, and DBA work.
ORACLE EXPERTISE
Oracle Applications Technical - Technical knowledge of the following Oracle Financials modules: General Ledger (GL), Accounts Payable (AP), Purchasing (PO), Receivables (AR), Human Resources (HR), Order Management (OM), Alerts, and Workflow.
Oracle Applications Customization and Interfaces – Developed bank interfaces including electronic payments (EDI 820), procurement cards, positive pay, check reconciliation, lockbox payments Experience customizing Financials forms and reports, including the Forms Custom Library and Forms Personalization. Implemented interfaces from external systems to the Oracle General Ledger (GL), Accounts Payable (AP), Purchasing (PO), Receivables (AR), Human Resources (HR), using the Oracle API’s and interface tables.
Oracle Applications DBA - Oracle Applications 11i (11.5), 11.0, 10.7, 10.4, 9.4, 8.0. Installations, upgrades, patching, database cloning. All aspects of System Administration, including setup and configuration of concurrent managers, printer drivers, keyboard mappings, security, menus.
Database Administration – Oracle RDBMS Versions 5, 6, 7, 8, 8i, and 9i, and Application Server 3, 4 and 9iAS. Installation, upgrade, database design, implementation, optimization, backup and recovery including RMAN, Oracle internals, Oracle Advanced Security / Kerberos, capacity planning.
Performance Tuning - Proficient in configuring new ORACLE installations for optimal performance, as well as analyzing statistics, tracing, and tuning existing databases. Utilize Oracle tools such as EXPLAIN PLAN, TKPROF, and optimizer hints to maximize the performance of Oracle applications.
Analysis and Design - Directed full life cycle projects utilizing the Oracle CASE Methodology and Oracle Designer. Proficient in entity relationship modeling and logical database design.
Development Tools – SQL, PL/SQL, Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, BI Publisher, XML Publisher, SQL*Plus, SQL*Loader, UNIX shell scripting, Toad.
Platforms - UNIX (Sun Solaris, HP, IBM, Pyramid, Sequent), DOS/Windows XP/NT/2000, VAX/VMS
Teaching - Taught Introduction to ORACLE for Developers and Advanced ORACLE for Developers classes.
Presentations – Presented Administering Oracle Financials in a UNIX Environment at International Oracle User Group conference.
CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
Petroplus, 1/07 – 4/09
Developed system to automate the client’s numerous interfaces to and from external systems, including file transfers, job submission, error handling, and email alerts, using PL/SQL, UNIX shell scripts, FTP, and Oracle Alerts. Wrote concurrent program which reads a data file extracted from the external payroll system, and hires, terminates and updates employees in Oracle Human Resources. Created custom purchase order, payment remittance and billing statement documents using BI (XML) Publisher. Developed custom Oracle Reports for the Receivables, Payables, General Ledger, Purchasing, and Assets modules. Extended Oracle Applications by implementing forms personalization.
CMP Media, 6/06 – 2/08
Developed custom table, PL/SQL and Oracle Form so that senior management could compare quarterly sales projections with actual results. Created system using PL/SQL to load billing data from an external telecom program into Oracle Payables, in order to automatically generate invoices. Developed custom Oracle Reports for the Receivables and Order Management modules. Extended Oracle Applications by implementing descriptive flexfields.
Premcor Refining Group, 3/04 – 4/06
Developed and implemented EDI payment system, written in PL/SQL and integrated with Oracle Payables. Tuned Oracle Applications 11.5.8 database on Windows, which had been crashing regularly. It is now very stable. Developed and maintained interfaces from banks (procurement card, positive pay, check reconciliation) and plant maintenance systems (Maximo, Empac) to Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables, and Oracle General Ledger. Extracted and formatted accounting data for both internal and external auditors. Developed and maintained employee interface to ADP payroll system, using HR API’s.
Lifecare, 7/03 – 11/03
Upgraded Oracle Applications to version 11.5.8, database to 8.1.7.4, and application server to 9iAS, on Sun Solaris. Trained client’s DBA staff on Applications System Administration. Created custom application to preserve client’s customizations through upgrades.
Consumers Union, 2/95 – 10/03 (1-3 days/week)
I was the DBA for the Oracle Financials implementation, and have provided support and maintenance since. Customized many Apps forms, and created new custom forms and reports. I designed and developed four custom applications, using Oracle Forms and Reports, which interface to Oracle Financials, and track marketing campaigns, printing and letter shop quotes, and book sales, inventory, and royalties. Performed numerous upgrades and migrated the system from a Pyramid to a Sequent platform, then later to Sun Solaris. Other responsibilities have included implementing backup using RMAN, UNIX system administration, training, performance tuning, and UNIX shell scripting.
Goldman Sachs, 9/94 – 3/03 (2-3 days/week)
Production DBA for a large number of globally distributed 24/7 Oracle databases, on both UNIX and Windows platforms. Responsibilities included:
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, 9/94 – 8/99
DBA and System Administrator for an Oracle Financials implementation on Sun Solaris. Performed installation and configuration, and handled all technical tasks while training client’s DBA. Wrote custom reports and created custom administration tools. Provided support and maintenance, both on-site and off-site.
Furman Selz, 11/94 - 12/97
Client was having many problems due to a prior faulty installation. I re-installed Oracle Financials on Sun Solaris, and then performed all DBA and System Administration work for the client. Provided support and maintenance, both on-site and off-site.
Tomen America, 4/97 – 6/97
Applications DBA supporting an Oracle Financials implementation on IBM AIX hardware. Responsible for installation, initial configuration, patching, system administration, creating and cloning databases.
Oxford Health Plans, 1/97 – 4/97
Oxford was having experiencing problems processing payments their high volume of payments using the Oracle Financials AP module. I was able to increase the daily check throughput by tuning the database as well as the interface program to the billing system.
Quick and Reilly, 9/96 – 1/97
DBA and lead technical resource for an Oracle Financials implementation. Responsibilities included installation, initial configuration, patching, system administration, creating and cloning databases, developing PL/SQL programs for data conversion from legacy system.
Dannon, 7/96 – 8/97
Created EDI interface to Oracle Financials using SQL and PL/SQL, which created files in EDI format for transmission to a bank.
ITT / Madison Square Garden, 4/96 – 6/97
Setup 13 Oracle Financials and Peoplesoft databases on one IBM AIX system, including production systems for ITT Corporate, Sheraton Hotels, and Madison Square Garden. Created custom tools to allow for easy management of the large number of databases. Trained client’s DBA.
Toys-R-Us, 4/95 – 5/96
DBA and System Administrator during a large Oracle Financials implementation on Digital Alpha hardware. Responsibilities included installation, patching, database cloning, configuration, backup and recovery, performance tuning, and training client’s staff. Wrote custom programs to migrate data from legacy system.
EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE
ORACLE CORPORATION, Senior/Principal Consultant, 2/88 - 9/94
Solved client problems in almost all technical areas related to the ORACLE Relational Database Management System, for companies in a wide range of industries, on many different hardware platforms. Worked as a developer on the initial release of one of the Oracle Financials products, and was the first consultant in the NY region trained on Oracle Financials. Taught introductory and advanced SQL classes to clients.
RAPPORT CORPORATION, formerly Logica Database Products
Technical Consultant, 1984 - 1987.
Responsibilities included development and technical support of the Rapport relational database management system. Created a product for the Artificial Intelligence market by implementing the software in the Symbolics environment, creating distributed processing and multi-user database capabilities over the Symbolics network. Enhanced the product by designing and implementing a Lisp interface, mouse and windowing capabilities, and user-friendly menus, using object-oriented programming. Consulted on customer applications and designed custom systems using Rapport software. Provided technical support to Rapport end-users, and isolated and fixed software bugs.
IBM CORPORATION, Information Systems Group, Data Management
Data Analyst Programmer, Summer 1983.
Revised existing IBM customer database management system to allow for efficient updating and retrieval of information, and wrote comprehensive system documentation.
EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Moore School of Electrical Engineering
Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, May 1984.