Oracle hosted an Oracle Partner Network (OPN) webcast yesterday with some exciting updates to Oracle Cloud ERP and EPM.
Market Highlights include:
ERP SaaS market will reach $23.8 Billion in 2018 for 17% CAGR since 2013 (IDC); ERP includes accounting & finance, procurement, supply chain, and HR
Accounting and Finance was ~25% of the ERP market in 2016 (BCC Research)
Procurement Market (full Source-to-Pay) is growing rapidly with total revenues of $7.9 Billion in 2017 for 13% CAGR (Forrester)
Mid-size companies are expected to make up the majority of cloud customers
Oracle has around 10,000 E-Business Suite customers, of wich over half are mid-size
Organizations are reducing their TCO by over 50% and increasing their ROI by 3.2 when moving to Oracle Cloud
Industry Trends & Challenges you should know:
81% say staying current on technology is a top benefit of ERP Cloud (ERP Trends)
Average age of ERP systems nearing 20 years (ERP Trends)
Average lifespan of an ERP system is from 10-20 years (e2bteknologies)
ERP performing more routine, core processing typically done in Excel (CIO.com)
Compliance with SOX, GDPR, etc. becoming more critical for ERP (CIO.com)
Oracle Cloud ERP Benefits:
Simultaneously access real-time financial data & automate processes
Improve cash inflows and manage cash positions across the enterprise
Reduce transaction processing costs, data entry errors, and delays
Comply with global accounting standards, legislative, & industry requirements
Modernize, simplify, and accelerate project planning and execution
Improve collaboration and productivity among project teams and managers
Realize maximum savings and simplify purchasing with self-service procurement
Standardize and streamline sourcing negotiations and contract creation
Ensure contract compliance by monitoring for standard language deviations
Want an introduction to Oracle Cloud ERP? Join our next webinar, “Streamline & Simplify: An Intro to Oracle Cloud Financials” on February 19th. Register Here.
ONE event. NUMEROUS takeaways to help drive results for your business all year long! COLLABORATE 19 is the premier, user-led, technology and applications forum for the Oracle community. Produced by three independent user groups, IOUG, OAUG and Quest, COLLABORATE 19 is your event – created by users for users.
• 1,000+ sessions and panels packed with customers sharing their stories, case studies and practical “how-to” content
• Community-sourced education led by experts – for everyone, at every stage of their technology journey
• Breaking product news, roadmaps and insider information from Oracle executive management and developers
• Education and training for functional, technical and hybrid users
• Access to hundreds of other customers across industries to build your personal and professional network, including special interest group (SIG) meetings, geographic networking events and receptions
• An Exhibitor Showcase packed with products and solutions providers who can help you solve your specific challenges
• Unique events such as the Women in Technology Forum—connect with key women who are examples of success in a fast-changing environment
Team Elire will be exhibiting at Booth #442 as well as presenting SEVEN Sessions on our Industry Best Practices and recent client successes! Add our sessions to your schedule below:
106840 – Rewarding a Talented Global Workforce: Talent Profile and Workforce Compensation; a Yum! Case Study 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM | April 8, 2019 | CC 3RD FL 303A
106660 – Springfield Clinic Case Study: Lean Something New with Oracle Learning Management Cloud 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM | April 9, 2019 | CC 3RD FL 303A
105320 – PTF – Automation in Testing; Configuration; Conversion; and Production 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM | April 9, 2019 | GH 3RD FL BONHAM D
106640 – Rethinking Performance Reviews with a Rapid Implementation of Oracle HCM Performance Management 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM | April 9, 2019 | CC 3RD FL 303B
106570 – Implementation and Beyond: An Evolution of BI Cloud Reporting Strategies 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM | April 10, 2019 | CC 3RD FL 302A
105440 – Money in the Bank – Cloud ERP Implementation Success 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM | April 10, 2019 | CC 3RD FL 302B
103320 – Winning Tactics – PeopleSoft Treasury in a Regulated World 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM | April 11, 2019 | GH 3RD FL PRESIDIO B
Ready to access a wealth of information to help you navigate your technology journey? COLLABORATE 19 takes place April 7-11, 2019 at Henry B. Gonzáles Convention Center in San Antonio, TX.
PeopleSoft Update Manager (PUM) Image 30 for FSCM was released and includes a large array of new features, including enhancements to Procurement Contracts, Credit to Cash Global Search, the addition of UPN types to Procurement and Payables Tables and Components, multiple updates to Grants, and enhanced visibility for Fluid Expense Approvers.
To view all of the highlights from FSCM Image 30, view the video below from the Oracle PeopleSoft Youtube Channel.
For a comprehensive overview of all fixes and functionality in Image 30, view the Cumulative Feature Overview tool.
If it feels like it is getting harder to manage your finance organization’s fraud and compliance risks, you are not imagining things. The finance department is a target-rich environment for crooks:
Collusion
Vendor schemes
Inventory theft and fraud
Computer-based payments fraud
Conflict of interest
Fraudulent financial reporting
All told, 75 percent of global senior executives surveyed by Kroll say their organization has experienced some type of fraud, whether it’s insider fraud or supplier fraud. Each year, corporate America loses the equivalent of 5 percent of its total revenues due to fraud, studies show.
Making matters worse, businesses must contend with an ever-increasing regulatory burden and the risk of financial penalties, loss of business, reputation damage, and more. For starters, there are dozens of lists of parties that either a buyer cannot do business with, or that have specific restrictions on how a buyer can do business with them.
Having a state-of-the-art ERP application like PeopleSoft isn’t enough to manage these risks. Businesses must rethink the other systems and processes such as accounts payable that feed their ERP.
Regardless of your ERP application, manual and semi-automated accounts payable processes leave finance organizations extremely vulnerable to fraud and compliance issues in several ways:
No tracking of document history and approvals
No way to ensure that employees adhere to approval policies and separation of duties
No chain of custody assurances
Audit information that is not readily accessible
Poor PCI compliance controls
No way to prevent documents from being discarded or destroyed ahead of deadlines
Importantly, organizations that rely on manual and semi-automated accounts payable processes don’t have the real-time visibility into their financial data to tightly control their risks:
Key information is not captured
Data is poorly organized
Information is not timely
Systems are badly integrated
Decision-makers cannot access key
variables
That’s why 24 percent of all fraud cases are the result of billing schemes that could be prevented or detected by sound vendor master database controls and other reporting and visibility measures, per the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. And that’s why audits induce feelings of nausea.
Finance executives have had enough. Eighty percent of finance executives tell Accenture that they are “concerned” or “very concerned” about their organization’s compliance and security risks.
For their part, 9 percent of accounts payable leaders identify security and compliance as their top improvement priority, per the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM).
This is where accounts payable automation comes in.
Combining an automated accounts payable solution with your PeopleSoft application enables organizations to mitigate fraud and compliance risks. Here are three ways how:
Intelligent data capture: Automated accounts payable solutions capture information from invoices based on pre-configured business rules and validate the information against data that resides in PeopleSoft.
Automated workflow: Automated accounts payable solutions electronically route invoices based on pre-defined business rules, ensuring chain of custody and separation of duties and eliminating the possibility that invoices will fall into the wrong hands. What’s more, automated solutions track all activities within the system, such as who approved an invoice. And standardized processes ensure transparency and compliance.
ERP integration: Automated accounts payable solutions seamlessly upload data and images on approved invoices to PeopleSoft, providing 360-visibility into a transaction and the supplier. Invoices can be accessed directly from PeopleSoft transaction screens. And images and data are securely archived and maintained per your guidelines and cannot be discarded prematurely.
Fifty-five percent of finance organizations are investing in digital solutions to mitigate fraud and compliance risks, Accenture reports. Accounts payable automation should be part of this plan.
The control provided by the combination of PeopleSoft and an automated invoice processing solution, such as the one from Canon Information and Imaging Solutions (CIIS), gives businesses an upper-hand against fraudulent activities. By pairing continued investment in your PeopleSoft application and implementing integrated user enablement tools, you empower business users and IT to gain control of financial operations while creating the visibility required by management.
Elire was recently named the Partner of the Year with Canon Information & Imaging Solutions for 2018. Elire and Canon have partnered to successfully deliver the AP Automation Solution from Canon to Elire’s PeopleSoft and E-Business Suite Customers, as well as develop the future of OCR technology to streamline and automate day-to-day business processes for AP Users.
About Canon Information and Imaging Solutions, Inc.
Canon Information and Imaging Solutions, Inc. (CIIS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc., brings together Canon’s world-class imaging technologies and information management expertise to assist organizations in achieving their digital transformation objectives. With a focus on innovation, CIIS’s software development and solutions delivery capabilities scale across several practice areas: Business Process Automation – including Procure-to-Pay & Order-to-Cash automation, Document Solutions, Information Management Services with a focus on content capture, management and collaboration, and Security and Infrastructure Management. With expertise in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics, CIIS deploys its solutions in partnership with leading technology providers and offers comprehensive consulting and professional services that are trusted by organizations of all sizes. Additional information about the company, its programs and mission can be found at ciis.canon.com.
Utilizing Fluid UI, Payroll WorkCenters for PeopleSoft HCM have been redesigned! Payroll employees can now complete all daily payroll processing tasks from one central area with WorkCenters created by system administrators utilizing the PeopleSoft Enterprise Components Fluid WorkCenter framework. Learn more with this recent video from PeopleSoft:
Oracle’s Cloud Excellence Implementer (CEI) Program is focused on driving customer success with Oracle Software as a Service (SaaS) products by identifying, recognizing, and differentiating highly qualified consulting firms that continue to demonstration successful implementations, expertise, and superior customer satisfaction with Oracle Cloud. Elire Inc. earned this status by delivering multiple Cloud Implementations successfully across various industries and customers, as well as maintaining a fully-certified team of Cloud Implementation Specialists. Elire has long held a Gold or Platinum designation within the Oracle Partner Network, and is widely recognized as an industry leader for Cloud and PeopleSoft Implementations and Upgrades.
Value For Customers
CEI enables Oracle’s customers to have an objective view of highly qualified consulting firms in the marketplace to drive their success with Cloud Applications. The CEI program allows Oracle to better identify and engage implementation firms that best align to specific needs to maximize the customer’s potential to experience a successful Implementation and realize the full potential of their Oracle Cloud Solution.
For more information on the CEI program, visit here.
About Elire Inc.
Established in 2005, Elire is a Minneapolis based full-service consulting firm with 13+ years of experience in successfully completing projects for our customers.
We help our clients achieve success by efficiently implementing, integrating, and upgrading their software investments. In addition, we also provide strategic guidance and support to assist with a wide variety of business process improvements, and specialize in helping our clients unlock the full potential of their software investments. Learn More about Elire’s Cloud Expertise here.
About Oracle
Emerging technologies are disrupting old paradigms and unleashing new opportunities. Oracle has embedded innovative technologies in every aspect of our cloud, enabling companies to reimagine their businesses, processes, and experiences.
With the introduction of Oracle Autonomous Database, the industry’s only self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing database, Oracle is again revolutionizing how data is managed. Oracle is the #1 provider of business software, with a broad portfolio of solutions for companies of all sizes. Today, 430,000 customers in 175 countries use Oracle technologies to seize business opportunities and solve real, tangible challenges.
Team Elire packed their bags and set off for an exciting week of networking, knowledge sharing, and Oracle product updates at Oracle OpenWorld from October 22nd-25th. While in San Francisco, the Elire team was able to take advantage of all #OOW18 had to offer – including exciting keynotes, product roadmaps, product demonstrations, customer success stories, and networking with other Oracle Partners and User Group Partners!
With four days of action-packed activities and sessions, there were a LOT of exciting announcements for the future of Oracle’s Cloud and On-Premise solutions. If you missed out, don’t worry – below are the top five takeaways and announcements you need to know!
Announcement – Oracle Gen2 Cloud – During Monday’s keynote, Larry Ellison announced the arrival of Oracle’s Generation 2 Cloud Platform. Previous Cloud Platforms relied on Shared computers for User Code and Cloud Control Code – meaning that the Cloud Provider can see your customer data and User Code can access Cloud Control Code, making the system vulnerable. Previous Cloud Technology was not meant to run “Mission Critical” business applications, and security was simply an afterthought. Oracle’s new Gen 2 Cloud is run on Separate Cloud Controlled Computers, meaning that Oracle cannot see Customer Data and no user can access Cloud Control Computer or Code. This updated platform has new Cloud Architecture with security built-in from Core to Edge, allows the easy move of Enterprise Workloads to Cloud, and has Oracle’s Autonomous technology to streamline and optimize day-to-day tasks, which enables superior price performance. Gen2 Cloud is an extensible Platform for SaaS applications as well, meaning you can run your open source programs and other applications on the Oracle Cloud with ease. For more information on Gen2 Cloud, watch Larry’s keynote here.
Security, Security, Security with Gen2 Cloud Infrastructure Services – Another part of Larry’s first keynote included the introduction of Oracle Gen2 Cloud Infrastructure Security Services. This new security infrastructure includes key management services – creating customer control of network keys for all levels. Additionally, the Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) automatically and continuously monitors and remediates changes and threats. CASB utilizes AI technology and machine-learning to observe your network usage patterns and recognize anomalies to identify and kill security threats immediately with minimal downtime – specifically 99.9995% availability, even under attack. A press release on the announcement can be viewed here.
Analytics Data Warehouse – As a part of the closing keynote, Larry Ellison announced the new Fusion Analytics Data Warehouse, enabling extended analytics for all fusion applications. The Data Warehouse is built on Oracle Analytics Cloud and Autonomous Data Warehouse with packaged KPIs, visualizations, and dashboards. The analytics can be produced in a matter of seconds without database design, tuning, ETL, modeling, etc. Just a few clicks and your fusion data is at your fingertips!
Oracle Digital Assistant Voice UI – The closing keynote also announced the new Digital Assistant Voice User Interface, allowing you to interact with your Siri and Alexa devices for transactions throughout your Fusion applications. A video of the interaction can be viewed here.
Mark Hurd’s Predictions for 2025 – Similar to the last OpenWorld, Mark Hurd included his predictions for 2025. Predictions this year were comprised of the inclusion of AI technology in ALL Cloud Apps – predicting that these apps will have AI woven into all business apps and platform services, further distancing them from legacy apps. Mark predicted that AI will power 85% of customer interactions, which would improve service levels, engagements, and allow retailers to create personalized experiences on any channel. This would infer that hotels could run 24/7 without people constantly at the front desk and for all industries to connect with their customers in new, innovative ways. He also predicted that 60% of the IT jobs that will exist in 2025 have not been created yet – including Data Professionals, Robot Supervisors, Human to Machine UX Specialists, Smart City Technology Designers, and AI Assisted Healthcare Technicians. Interested in learning more? View Mark Hurd’s keynote here.A full list of predictions can also be found here.
Stay tuned for more information on individual product keynotes and roadmaps!
A Service Request (SR) is a way to report an issue within an Oracle Cloud product. This is done via My Oracle Support, where a Support Engineer will be assigned to help resolve the issue or assist in providing a workaround.
Getting Started
Create an Oracle User Account
If you don’t already have an account with My Oracle Support, navigate to support.oracle.com to get started. On the right-hand side of the screen, click on the New user? Register here hyperlink.
Fill in the required information and click Create Account to trigger a verification email.
Click Verify email address within the email body to be redirected to the My Oracle Support login page. Click Sign in on the right-hand side of the screen and enter your newly created username and password.
Connect Your User Account
If you are new to My Oracle Support, you will have to request access to the support identifier that corresponds to your test/production environment(s). Obtain your eight-digit support identifier from your Customer User Administrator. Enter this identifier, along with any note you wish to include. Click Next.
Proceed through the remaining two train stops to provide your contact information, and to accept the terms of use. Click Submit.
Viewing Service Requests
Service Request Homepage
Once your request has been submitted and approved, you should be able to navigate to the Service Requests tab within the My Oracle Support homepage. Here, you have visibility into all Service Requests associated with the support identifier(s) for which you have been approved access.
Sorting & Filtering
By default, you should see only the SR’s which are currently open. However, you have various options for sorting and filtering. If you hover your cursor over a column heading, an up and down arrow will appear, giving you the option to sort either alphabetically or sequentially, depending on the value within the column.
If you choose to filter the SR’s, navigate to the upper left corner of your screen, above the Problem Summary column heading. Select the star icon to filter for favorites, select the person icon to view only the SR’s for which you are the primary contact, and select the checklist icon to view both open and closed SR’s.
To further customize your SR homepage, select the View dropdown > Columns to select for which columns appear, or Detach to pop out your SR table. You can also Reorder Columns to change the order in which the columns appear. Select the All dropdown to filter SR list by type.
Exporting Service Requests to Excel
It is often easier to view, filter, and sort your SR’s within Excel. Click the View dropdown and select Export to XLS (Excel).
Logging a Service Request
Problem Description
To log a Service Request with Oracle, click the Create SR button in the upper left corner of your Service Request homepage. On the Problem/Severity train stop, you will first enter in Problem Summary.
TIP: include your environment within the summary (e.g., if edyv-test if your test environment, summary could be “EDYV-TEST: Error occurring when attempting to access OTBI”).
TIP: Your Problem Description should be as detailed as possible. Oracle describes a good problem description as “loss of functionality, sequence of events that occurred, expected results, workarounds.” This will reduce the amount of back and forth between you and the Oracle Support Engineer.
Select the Product your issue is occurring in, as while as Product Version. Then select your Operating System, Problem Type and the appropriate support identifier. Note: If you have more than one support identifier, ensure you select the one that corresponds to the environment where your issue is occurring.
Select the Yes radio button to indicate that your software is running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Severity
It’s important to select an accurate severity when logging your SR. Oracle describes the severity levels as the following:
1 – Complete loss of service. Problem or product defect causes complete loss of service in the production environment or work cannot reasonably continue.
2 – Severe loss of service. No acceptable workaround. However, operations can continue in a restricted fashion.
3 – Minor loss of service. The impact is an inconvenience that may require a workaround to restore functionality.
4 – No loss of service. Minor error that does not impede operations.
TIP: If you don’t receive a timely response to your SR, raising the severity is the first step you should take to ensure your issue is addressed.
TIP: Avoid Severity 1 unless your issue meets one of the following requirements:
Your use of the supported programs is stopped or so severely impacted that you cannot reasonably continue work.
You are experiencing a complete loss of service.
Ongoing operation of the supported program is mission critical to the business and the situation is an emergency.
TIP: When logging a SEV-1, the issue will be defaulted as 24×7, meaning the SR will be worked on around the clock. It’s important to make the primary contact someone who can be reached outside of standard business hours. If the issue no longer warrants a SEV-1 status, the issue can be lowered to a SEV-1 that is not 24×7, or a severity level of 2, 3, or 4.
Solutions
On the Solutions train stop, you will be guided through a series of questions to further categorize the problem you are experiencing.
More Details
If possible, attach any screenshots or log files that detail the issue you are experiencing. If you don’t provide attachments in this initial step, they will likely be requested from the Support Engineer down the road (if applicable). Providing as much information as possible will greatly reduce the amount of time spent resolving the SR.
Contact
On the Contact train stop, your name will be defaulted in as the primary contact. If you are logging an SR on someone else’s behalf, you can click the X icon next to your name and search/select the correct primary contact. Click Submit.
Maintaining Your Service Request
You should receive email notifications each time there is a Status change on your SR. Additionally, you can log onto My Oracle Support to view your SR status and respond back with any information requested by the Support Engineer.
Escalating Your SR
Raising the Severity
As mentioned in the Severity section above, it can be helpful to raise the severity of your SR if you feel it is not getting timely attention. This can be done by selecting your SR from your Service Request homepage and clicking the Raise Severity button at the top of your screen.
Contacting the Duty Manager
If raising the severity of your SR isn’t giving you the results you need, the next step is to contact the Duty Manager. Call 1.800.223.1711 to receive a call back from the Duty Manager associated with your SR.
Additional Resources
How to Create a Cloud Service Request (SR) (Doc ID 1484944.1) – My Oracle Support
About the Author: Rachel Rudolph is an Oracle Cloud Certified Implementation Specialist in Global HR and Talent Management. She is an Associate Cloud Consultant at Elire, and specializes in Core HR, testing strategy, and project coordination and administration.
The Oracle Event of the year – Oracle OpenWorld – is upon us! For those who have not attended, Oracle OpenWorld offers 2,000+ sessions focused on transforming and planning for tomorrow’s technology – on hot topics including Oracle Cloud, Block Chain, Adaptive Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, and more. Whether you have attended in the past or are gearing up for your first OOW experience, here are our top 5 reasons you should attend:
3,000+ Oracle Customers and Partners – Learn from the experts! Oracle’s Partner Network offers a wealth of information and best practice experience for you to leverage as a consultant, user, or learner
500+ Sessions and Case Studies on Emerging Technology – think hot button industry topics like AI and Blockchain. Leverage this opportunity to learn more about the future of technology while addressing your current technology needs
60,000 attendees from 175 countries – NETWORKING! OOW is the largest Oracle User networking opportunity in the world; take the time to connect with industries and geographies different from your own and exchange lessons learned
Give back – Oracle OOW has made a conscious effort to leave a positive impact on the community that hosts OpenWorld and to plan for the waste a conference this large entails! 100% of onsite emission is offset by Oracle, 81% of ingredients for meals are sourced from within 250 miles of San Francisco, and almost 8,500 meals were donated to local charities at OOW 2017! A conference with a purpose!
Oracle CloudFest. 18 – a full night of festivities featuring Beck, Portugal. The Man., and Bleachers where you can decompress and enjoy a fun night out with your team!
To learn more about the sessions available, visit the full session catalog here.
Visit the Oracle OpenWorld website for registration information (hotel pricing ends September 21st!) and their FAQ for useful tips and tricks.
Planning to attend? Elire will be presenting with Yum! Brands (CAS3707) and Oracle (PRO4335). Visit our booth #3025 and learn more about our sessions!
The global workforce is ever changing and transforming. In order to effectively manage you employees domestically and abroad, your organization needs a flexible and robust Human Resource enterprise solution to meet your needs. Enter Oracle Cloud Global Human Resources.
We asked Elire Consultant and Oracle Certified Cloud Global HR Implementation Specialist, Rachel Rudolph, what common obstacles our clients run into while implementing Global HR, and what best practices they should follow to get the most out of their investment.
Here’s what she had to say!
Interact with Rachel and learn more at her upcoming webinar, “Global HR from A to W: Assignments to Work Structures and everything in between.” Register for this complimentary webinar here.
To set up a call with Rachel and the Cloud HCM team, contact [email protected].
