donderdag 22 september 2016

Why implementing Oracle Cloud ERP REALLY is faster

Remember the days when setting up an ERP system was a long and tedious process? I do. Luckily, with Oracle Cloud ERP, it is time to cut the time spend on setup and complex designs in half.

Oracle has been strong in stressing the significant decrease in implementation project timelines and has been emphasizing the ease in which a system can be setup. But of course, seeing is believing.

After I have done the seeing, I can safely say that these statements are not mere hollow outlets of a corporate marketing machine. Below some of the best improvements:
Easy step by step guide for doing setup
Simple solutions are often the best. With the functional setup manager (FSM), all of the necessary -and optional- setup steps needed per business area (procurement, projects, accounts payable, etc.) are shown in an simple overview. Not only makes it sure that you do not skip an important step, it also has all of the required setup gathered into one place. 

No more scavenging through the system to look for that specific setup step that you overlooked somewhere. What a relieve! 
Example of the Functional Setup Manager in Cloud ERP R11


Partial implementation = Partial setup! 
The functional setup manager has another advantage; it makes clear what is required to make a certain process running and what is not. Before it was often unclear what was needed to setup to make a functional process actually work. Via trial and error eventually you would find out, but that is was optimal way of working. To give an example, if you were to use Oracle Cloud Sourcing as a standalone solution in the cloud, there is no need to do any comprehensive finance setup like setting up the accounting structure. Oracle knows that if you only use Oracle Cloud for the negotiation process, there is no need for such setup.

Simplified unit structure

With the flexible, business unit structure on of the most important parts of an ERP system has received a complete overhaul. Of course it still needed to setup the enterprise and legal entities, but the most improvements are made with the concept of business units.

Business units can support not only one, but more business functions and can be setup as shared service center. This means that a specific business unit can serve as a service provider to other business units. Examples are business units that perform requisitioning on behalf of other units or business units that service as a central for invoicing to other units in the company.

This approach can make sure that all business units that are part of the shared service model comply to the same rules and standards. 


             Example of business units

To conclude, next to the fact that Oracle Cloud ERP is now more and more up to par with process flow functionalities of on premise ERP, the way it is structured is much more flexible. This modern approach makes the implementation process much faster.