The Problem:
As system integrators, we often get involved with customers that are not completely happy with the functionality delivered by the applications. We hear things like, “I wish Oracle could do….”, “At my old job I was much more efficient because our ERP did…..”, even “I can’t get any accurate reporting that meets the need of…..”
In many of these assessment or health check engagements that we do, we often find that people are unaware of functionality that is readily available, but not enabled or not being used.
The development team at Oracle does a great job of keeping their products current and useful. Upgrades often bring many new features , however, typically upgrades are run by IT, with only minor engagement with the business stakeholders. They want to stay supported, and they have time and budget constraints that force them to keep the project as small and as focused as possible.
We have seen customers that have been on Oracle ERP for ten, even twenty years, and they are still using the same set of features deployed during the original implementation.
Oracle publishes release documents that outline new features that are being made available. However, we find that these documents are not accessible to the business via My Oracle Support, because typically IT leverages this helpful resource and controls the access.
In many cases, we have found that customers have made elaborate customizations, or even purchased third party products or services to meet requirements that could have been met by Oracle right out of the box. And in some cases, those third party products are not willing to update their software to keep up with the business needs. And if they do, it is at a heavy cost to the customer.
Additionally, Businesses don’t always communicate needs to IT, sometimes they look for their own solutions. There may not be a business/IT intermediary, or in some cases roles are outsourced to third parties who are focused on maintaining status quo, as opposed to enabling change.
The Solution:
Getting current requires a disciplined approach. While firms like O2Works do these engagements for clients, there are many things that can be done without involving consultants.
First, you need to form a team that spans IT as well as business resources. Identify a project manager for this effort. These improvements need to be treated like a project, with actual requirements gathering, and testing through various cycles to ensure the business need is actually met.
Determine what Release was the go live release, and this becomes your starting point for researching new features. Get access to My Oracle Support and gather the Release Content Documents. In many cases, these documents are cumulative so that you do not need to research every point release in detail. If you went live on a very early release, like 10 or 11, you may need to gather several documents.
For ease of use, gather and store documents these together, so that they can be accessed and viewed easily by the business without too much effort.
Next, identify key stakeholders from the business who may represent one or more applications being used, or even a whole set of applications like HRMS, or Finance. Interview them to determine their areas of concern, pain points, or even a wish list. Gather these into a single location to be analyzed against the Release Content Documents.
Additionally, work with IT to determine what is licensed. We have often found modules that were not implemented, but could easily meet business requirements. Oracle representatives can help confirm what is licensed.
In some cases, the wish list items may not even be a new features; it may be a feature like a profile option that has been defaulted, and no one was aware of a capability.
Once you have gone through this analysis, create a scope for the project and get support from both IT and the business to ensure their involvement. In some cases, a patch may be required, or a customization backed out, or a third party product disabled. You may wish to make several releases or improvements as opposed to a big massive effort.
We have seen many organizations improved by unknown/unused capabilities of Oracle, where efficiencies are gained and processes are improved for the ultimate end users and key stakeholders.