R12 Upgrade - What's in it for Retailers?
Most Product companies flourish by rolling out newer versions every now and then. Most versions are mere bug fixes, is there a difference then in the fusion enabled Oracle R12 version, especially for Retailers who have been long waiting to get an integrated suite of applications to run their business!
An upgrade is both a necessity and an opportunity for all companies. Typically upgrade is viewed as an IT driven exercise and there are dangers that lie in this kind of a view. Any investment made, be it IT driven, has to have business benefits attached to it. More so for Retailers who are already struggling with an economic recession and a decreased consumer spending. Evaluating the portfolio of IT projects and revaluating the business benefits is a key part of budgetary planning exercise.
R12 is an integration of best practices between Oracle Applications, Peoplesoft, Siebel and other Oracle Corp acquired products. This makes the upgrade an especially challenging one, from my point of view, following are the key themes that are different in this upgrade
1. Functionality - Fundamental changes like accounting ledgers, multi org acces control which make the entire user experience easier and nimble akin to the best of breed web based applications.
2. Technology Stack - Reporting and Integration are two key areas that offer improved functionality with features such as XML reporting, BPEL integration
and last not the least
3. Business Process Management - Why should an upgrade need business process redesign? IT tools have changed since the advent of ERP, especially Oracle which started its applications division in late 80s, with the advent of Y2K most companies implemented General Ledger/Oracle Financials the precursor to the current set of Oracle EBS. Since then, this is the first time that Oracle has made such fundamental changes in its GL, AP, AR structure and there is a good reason too. That is why i believe that financial divisions gain a lot be taking a closer look at their business processes, understanding the R12 fundamentals and redesigning to better suite the business needs.
