Cloud, Twelve and the Oracle Office of Confusion

At the end of January I explained why I am forced to use the 'F' word again. The confusion between Cloud Apps or Cloud on Apps is growing. I recently heard about a senior person who thought EBS on Cloud was Fusion!

Currently I am validating Release 12 before it is available for standard upgrades next month. If I say that in my office everyone knows what I mean. Release 12 of the SaaS, Cloud or Fusion Applications.

But I also listened to a webcast on Friday evening with Oracle Development which was about a new Cloud service bundle for mid-size customers  with bundles for fusion-based CX, ERP and HCM, that introduces multi tenancy for the first time. This is huge news for Oracle as it drives the price down even more as customers can share an application but unlike other vendors they are not sharing any data or even the database utilising the private database containers introduced in Release 12 - of the database.

And in the spirit of confusion, I nearly missed the webcast because the US have adopted daylights savings already and our clocks don't change until the end of March!

Fusion Middleware, not to be confused with Fusion apps is also at release 12 and can you guess what version E Business Suite customers are on?

So please don't just say Release 12, or Cloud, stop, think and articulate carefully and then ensure the person you are talking to has the same understanding as you.

Don't worry it will get better and then it will be as clear as mud.

OUGN 17 - I love this boat

This year the Norwegian user group had their 10th annual conference aboard the ColorLine cruise ship. For me it was my fifth, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016 and now 2017.

On my first cruise with OUGN they had about 250 delegates but this grows every year and what I really love is they have a good, solid applications interest. I don't often go to the same user groups every year but OUGN is one I like to. The sessions give them the opportunity to ask questions, and as we can't run away there is a lot of networking and conversations about projects.

This year I missed the speakers dinner as I was hosting the UKOUG Applications Cloud Event in London, and as it was still had to leave that early. However Martin Widlake had recommended an amazing boutique hotel in Oslo and we all met up for breakfast before walking down to the boat.

 One of the exhibitors EBS Consulting are now embarking on their own Cloud Applications journey and it was interesting to hear their thoughts and we discussed based on the experience of projects I have been involved in, different ways to approach. They have been listening to me with interest for a number of years and now wanted back presentations. I hope that is true of all users, it may not be relevant to you today, but if you listen and keep abreast of the changes, if you later need to be involved you will be much better prepared.

The exhibition on the boat is held on a car deck, and there is a great buzz. I spent a lot of time talking to Oracle about the number adoption of Cloud in the Nordics and just loved this T shirt one of them had had made. Think I should get a few for his colleagues in the UK. 

As ever their was a great number of ACEs on this very popular event, and it is always good to catch up with them and the hospitality of the Norwegians is faultless.

My favourite things outside the sessions, is the chance of a currywurst in Keil and the ever stunning sunset as we make our way under the Great Belt Bridge on the way home. 

photo thanks to Arturo Viveros

Then all too soon we were back in Oslo and saying goodbye to everyone. I did go walking around the Town with Sai and Simon Haslam as we were all on the same flight home. Hope to be back soon.

Applications Journey to the Cloud - 8th March 2017

This was an event so long in the making. I did blog in the run up about why we needed this event. It was meant to happen last July but just before the event a different kind of cloud failed us. Flash rain storms caused chaos in London and flooded the venue, we had to postpone.

However in those 8 months the increasing interest in moving from Oracle on-premise Applications to their SaaS offerings has gained momentum and the event was over subscribed.

I got to open the event, and was very proud of what we have put together. Andy Campbell shared some insights into Cloud Life especially in the UK, in his opening keynote and then we moved into the parallel sessions. The idea was that we covered the 3 pillars of CX, HCM & ERP plus some of the tech that supports that.

The importance of this event was about the 'How' do you move? I had two presentations, one on PaaS4SaaS extending the applications, and then about how to approach the project. This was really interesting as it was based on a presentation I gave to ONS when they were looking for an implementation partner for their journey. Then later in the day, their project manager Sarah Green spoke about their project and how they are now live on both HCM and Finance. In fact the presentation is based on an interview I did with Sarah which is in the new Oracle Scene.

Several customers shared their stories and partners explained the different phases and what new skills would be learnt. All sessions were busy and everyone seemed to be getting a lot from the day.

The people in organisations who support the on premise today, want to know what this journey involves and what it means to their role in the future. We are now in a time of many people making that move, not just a few but many. The trick now is what do we in UKOUG do to deliver what they, the people who have moved, need to get the most out of their investment?

The day ended with a great panel session, but I had left by then, I had a plane to catch.....