My focus for Day 2 at Oracle Cloud World was to hear as many customer stories and candid viewpoints on day-in-the-life uses of Oracle applications as possible. It wasn’t difficult as over 800 of the learning sessions (or mini-sessions held in the Expo Hall) were led by customers. My perception is that customers are genuinely happy with Oracle as a partner, their product breadth, innovation and service. Although customers mentioned challenges, especially during implementation, most were due to internal issues, external factors like COVID and recession pressures, or third-party/SIs.
Frances Chao, Group VP of enterprise business applications, Providence Health Systems (keynote with Steve Miranda)
On how they made the decision for Oracle (full cloud suite). “I asked myself which vendor do I want to marry? It’s a commitment. Oracle had the completeness of solution – demand planning, supply planning, talent/branch management, etc. We wanted a software vendor, but we wanted an infrastructure (OCI) as well.
Lessons Learned. “Large implementations are always challenging. It takes a village to go live with an ERP System.” You, your partner and Oracle all need to work seamlessly together.
On KPIs for their Oracle project. “I don’t want to compare us to before we went live. What I think is most exciting is to start measuring from our baseline and seeing big progress – and not looking back in time.”
Advice for customers: “If you’re going to fail – fail fast. Lean into it. Don’t be scared of change. If you ‘wait til you’re ready’ you’ll be waiting forever.
Cohu CIO, Craig Halterman (keynote with Steve Miranda). Cohu is a global manufacturer of semiconductor products
What made you choose Oracle Cloud? “We grew thru acquisitions and had a ton of disparate systems. We had 6 of everything (6 supply chains, 6 HR systems, etc.) Our systems couldn’t support the business we’d grown into.”
-“We had to grow through a ‘process of elimination’ and replace the legacy on-prem systems. We needed our systems to be flexible and scale for the next acquisition. We wanted to be unified as one code. We wanted to buy into the most comprehensive cloud platform we could get (which is why we chose Oracle.)”
Implementation. “We opted the first round as a big bang. If we were going to deliver what we needed to slowly, we would have taken too long and we’d bear too much risk.”
On Oracle’s production evolution. “The continuation and maturity of products grows every 90 days.”
On Results. “I want my people focused on our business, not worried about the next upgrade. We’ve been able to bring the business into our platform and continue our growth through acquisition. We no longer need to be hunter/gatherers of Excel spreadsheets and Oracle helps us streamline and improve operations with our customers.”
Large telecommunication customer using the full suite of Oracle Fusion applications
Advice to customers in evaluation mode. “Don’t buy products. Buy partnerships. We chose Oracle based upon the dynamic solution, security, their global expertise and a unified platform.”
Unexpected benefit of their large scale implementation: “How our internal team matured throughout the process. We are much better and mature as a group than ever.”
Multibillion-dollar beauty company with thousands of independent beauty consultants and employees’ move to Oracle HCM Cloud
The project. Oracle HCM Cloud was selected to replace Peoplesoft because of its user functionality and integration with other parts of the Oracle Cloud Suite (supply chain / financials.) “We wanted employees to have their HR data on any system using any device.” They use Oracle HCM in conjunction with ADP for tax, U/C, wage payments and more (which they are very happy with.)
Results. 14 month project which yielded:
-Improved Employee Experience
-Streamlined Process across company
-Functional leaders have better / faster access to HR data
-Reduced maintenance and costs
Global Accounting Firm’s HR Transformation with Oracle HCM and Peloton Consulting
This {global accounting firm} used Peoplesoft previously and were only able to make incremental changes to their HR processes / system. They wanted to “kick things in high gear” and create an HR system which was easy to use and understand for their employees and unify their systems. “Our business grew, but our HR technology didn’t. We needed to put a focus on people and processes first before putting things into the system.
Products Chosen: Oracle ME (Recruiting, Digital Assistant, Journeys and Touchpoints) helps us avoid disparate emails and calls that used to be the way we had to do everything.
Lessons Learned: “One of the reasons the project was successful was we had a true partner in Peloton. Our initial discovery meeting wasn’t stiff or formal. They wanted to hear where we were struggling.”
On Challenges: “Were things always rosy? Absolutely not – but we were honest and transparent and it was all about being successful together. They were honest with us with hard news and challenged us when we needed to be challenged.”
Large Hospital Group’s digital transformation moving full suite Peoplesoft to Oracle Cloud
Products Chosen: Oracle Cloud Suite (financials, supply chain, HCM)
How they moved with speed: 1. Created a strategic imperative that everyone knew and embraced. 2. Identified and empowered an “A-Team” to own and make decisions quickly. 3. Kept it simple, and eliminated customizations (don’t let perfect be the enemy of ‘done’) 4. Move to the cloud fast & iterate 5. Get the right partner
“You can do this! We delivered first phase during the height of the pandemic, a 100% virtual delivery, while we were serving the needs of our community.” – Mike Brown, Supply Chain & Environmental Services
5 Keys to Success & their advice to others planning an implementation:
-Play the long game: Don’t be discouraged by the tough days during the implementation process. Focus on the bigger picture.
-Expect issues on ‘go-live’ day: The initial stages will be challenging, but it gets better over time.
-Prepare for unexpected challenges: It’s impossible to predict everything that might come up.
-Surround yourself with a competent team: Select team members based on capability, not just availability.
-Focus on building the right team: Involve individuals who are essential to your operations and can add value to the implementation process.
Final Thoughts
A company’s choice of applications can make or break its operational efficiency and future growth. Oracle Cloud World Day 2 revealed specific ways in which customers have leveraged Oracle’s suite of applications to drive transformation. From healthcare to telecommunications, the stories shared painted a vivid picture of challenges faced, strategies employed, and success. But beyond the technological insights, the underlying message was clear: successful implementation is as much about the human element—teamwork, partnership, and adaptability—as it is about the software itself. As businesses chart their digital journeys, these lessons from Oracle Cloud World serve as both a roadmap and a testament to the power of the right tools in the right hands.
See also: Oracle Cloud World, Day 1 Recap