It’s time for a quarterly update for Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite. Quarterly updates have become standard operating procedure for most Oracle customers. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has created a world where Oracle performs updates without requiring re-implementation by each customer. It requires some caution, but it’s not like the old on-premises upgrade tests where quarterly updates seemed fancy.
I recently spoke with Steve Miranda, Executive Vice President of Oracle Application Development, during our regular quarterly discussion about new features in Oracle Fusion Applications.
AI and automation help customers optimize supply chain management
It’s no surprise that supply chain issues have been a challenge for businesses since the pandemic began. Oracle has responded by adding to its traditional optimizations around cost and time-to-fulfillment to help customers become more resilient and enable users to execute more complex supply chain plans.
Oracle has also implemented AI and machine learning in its supply chain planning application, improving the product with robust algorithms that handle sophisticated customer use cases. Machine learning improves the accuracy of lead-time assumptions by highlighting variances based on actual performance. Planning efficiency and results can be enhanced by identifying lead-time trends, anomalies, and potential impacts with AI-assisted prioritized actions and suggested solutions.
Natively integrated with other Oracle supply chain modules, these advanced planning capabilities allow plan changes to flow seamlessly into your supply chain execution system.
To further highlight the value of a single, integrated application suite (which I wrote about last month), Oracle has also enhanced the quote-to-cash process for Oracle Fusion Applications. This integrated solution connects Subscription Management (CX), Pricing and Quote Configuration (CX), Order Management (SCM), and Finance (ERP) so that customers can Efficiently quote, acquire, and fulfill orders (mixed services). Recognize revenue accordingly. Centralized subscription orchestration enables customers to track usage, comply with accounting requirements, improve order management, reduce costs, speed time to market, and deliver a seamless customer experience .
In addition, Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) also includes new rebate management capabilities to help customers streamline rebate programs, improve audit claim accuracy, and gain greater visibility into program performance. Helpful. Part of the Oracle Channel Revenue Management module, new features automate the rebate management process from rebate calculation to financial settlement, improving payment accuracy, reducing administrative costs, and resolving customer claims faster will do so.
Supporting employee growth and potential
In a tight employment economy, even in this downturn, recruiting from outside can be difficult. As a result, companies tend to look internally at both the talent to fill key positions and how they can use learning and mentoring programs to build the necessary skills.
To support these needs, Oracle Grow is a new set of capabilities within Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) that encompasses talent management, learning, succession planning, and employee growth. Oracle Grow provides a clear vision of the skills employees need to advance in their current roles, highlights the opportunities that learning new skills enables, and reveals possible career paths. The solution uses AI with Oracle Learning, Oracle Dynamic Skills, and Oracle Talent Management to provide personalized guidance to employees.
From an employer’s perspective, Oracle Grow helps HR leaders better support employee development and potential. HR can monitor skill needs and gaps across teams and across the organization, assign specific skills needed to meet business goals, and automatically add skills to every employee’s profile.
summary
How does Oracle prioritize which features to add to the upgrade list? Miranda responded by describing three sources of feedback for the company. Customer feedback is the primary source of information for the majority (around 80%) of new features. Oracle uses her community of customers and partners online called Customer Connect. Product-specific ideas sections within the forums allow customers and partners to submit ideas and enhancement requests for the community to vote on.
Second, Oracle also prioritizes enhancements for specific industries. For example, healthcare has been the focus of several recent enhancements, as have wholesale distribution, telecommunications, and banking. It is important to know that in these particular industries there are feature gaps rather than relying on specific customer requirements. In such cases, customer engagement occurs after the fact. Improvements are Oracle-initiated and customer-verified.
A third scenario is introducing new technology to address issues that customers aren’t currently talking about or even aware of. AI in supply chains is a good example. In the future, Oracle is looking to apply generative AI to further help its customers.
In addition to these three sources of feedback, Oracle uses Oracle products. The IT group that manages the product within Oracle sits alongside the development team. The philosophy is that if Oracle needs a particular feature, that need cannot be unique to Oracle. In other words, if Oracle needs it, so do customers.
With this approach, Oracle seems to be maintaining a solid base with its customers. Every Oracle keynote features four to five customers talking about their successes and partnerships with Oracle. When it comes to earnings, we know even more. Laser focus on the customer is an ongoing theme I see from the company and I believe is a key reason Oracle is gaining momentum in the market.
Another advantage of Oracle is the ability to natively connect the enterprise front end (customers and sales) to the back end ERP without APIs or SLAs. This is where the enterprise SaaS market is headed, and Oracle is already there with Fusion and NetSuite.
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