Oracle Fusion General Notes
Oracle Fusion General Notes
Oracle Fusion General Notes
This below link takes us to the SCM cloud related templates and control files.
https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/supply-chain-management/18c/oefsc/Item-309714858-
fbdi-11.html
Attaching the Item conversion template and the item ctl file which is used in the cloud Product
Management to import the items from the legacy to the cloud application.
ItemImportTemplate
.xlsm
Oracle Fusion
Oracle Fusion is not a single product, rather it is a name for service-oriented platform
and applications suite that provides next-generation enterprise technologies,
applications, and services.
Oracle Fusion is the new suite of business applications. Fusion comes in two different
offerings, Cloud and On premise.
The most common is Cloud or SaaS (Software as a Service) where Oracle hosts the instance
in one of its servers, in return the client pays a monthly subscription depending on the
number of modules implemented. In such case, the client only needs an internet connectivity
to access the instance. The maintenance is performed by Oracle teams.
The On-premise offering allows the client to host Fusion applications under their roof in one
of their servers. In this scenario, the client acquires the hardware and purchases the licenses
of each module they implement. This offering is costlier and less seen in the market.
The picture below (from Oracle) shows the whole Fusion picture.
Oracle Fusion referred in two distinct branding contexts:
Oracle Cloud
Unlike on-premise, Cloud is a platform where the Customer need not buy any Oracle product
or install any software locally which would make it very expensive considering the hardware
cost, manpower cost, maintenance cost etc. So, Oracle is offering most of its Fusion
Middleware products and Fusion Applications in Cloud where Oracle is hosting all hardware
and software, is responsible for maintenance etc. making it cheaper for the customers.
Customers must pay subscription fees for the services it needs and access them using a thin-
client like browser.
Requirement and Subscription Options
1. Storage Space
2. Application Access
3. Application Access & Customizations
Advantages of Fusion?
The perception was that Oracle EBS was only suitable for big businesses who could afford the
expensive licenses, so the Redwood company went back to the drawing board to try and create
a product to sell to Small and Medium size enterprises [SMEs].
The result was a product that could be deployed faster with greater customisation on the "off
the shelf package", this is different from EBS where companies hired developers to create
bespoke scripts to get their end result. Oracle listened to the feedback of their tools but also
to the cash-tills of their competitors like Salesforce, Workday and SAP.
Another deviation from EBS is that interestingly it can be run on the company's own data
centre or in the Cloud, depending on the preference of the company. This differs from the
marketing approach in Oracle that everything is moving to the cloud and all products should
be built with this in mind.
Oracle also have a product called Fusion Middleware which promises to connect the ERP
system to other parts of the IT ecosystem with minimal disruption to make sure all the data
flows through for your benefit. These are all a lot of promises to make but the trick is to deliver
on these promises, we will analyse this in the next section.
So on the ground, I can't see any companies in Ireland who have implemented Oracle Fusion
Apps in their architecture. Behind all the sales pitch and 4 years after it's launch, it has yet to
break into a use case on the island. I have heard that some companies have the license for it
as it was bundled in with the sales of other products but nobody was interested enough to
strike it out with Fusion on their own. When talking about this tech with Oracle users, I would
always simply ask what's the reason and will go through the answers here in each point.
Expensive: Oracle Fusion is viewed as costly with little added benefit. I tried to get a quote
on a standard implementation but to no avail as each situation is different and each company
needs a bespoke approach to their ERP systems. Evidence given by companies in Ireland is
that their main operational goals are being solved by Oracle EBS R12 already, they can not
win extra budget without presenting a clear business case with Oracle Fusion Apps. They are
focusing their innovation spend on buying new modules within the system rather than
upgrading to a new version.
Successful Use Cases: As there has been no implementations happening in Ireland, there
has been little talk about it in the network of colleagues/friends or in conferences. This is a
key factor under-looked by Oracle sales, if something is successful then people will want to
copy it for their own company to help them achieve their goals. The lack of information means
that the conversation has not even happened yet.
Resources: Feeding into the previous point, developers with experience in implementing
this are thin on the ground as there has been no successful use cases. I have seen only 1 large
consultancy present resources for exorbitant daily rates, these IT workers come direct from
projects in the UK and work to 4 figure sums. This type of upgrade needs matching expertise
from consultancies but they seem to have little interest in pushing these services to their own
clients. This creates a chicken and an egg scenario where you need both so this is leading to
indecision on upgrading.
Little Appetite for change: As many IT people know, there is never a positive response
from business users with any type of large scale change! I find that Irish tech culture can
sometimes adopt a wait-and-see approach rather than being on the cusp of change, this
mentality means the real innovation and advantages of Oracle ERP systems are taking place
in the UK and the USA rather than the Emerald Isle. With the factors of costs, lack of other
successful uses cases and resources, there is no need to have change for the sake of change if
it doesn't deliver a tangible benefit to the business.
Overall Oracle Fusion Applications has been a major disappointment for the company, long
touted as the full "business solution", it has not resulted in purchases or even having a positive
image in Ireland. Sometimes new products in the ERP market take a while to settle in as the
buzz of the benefits takes times to spread, the opposite has happened in Ireland with Oracle
Fusion. The reasons for this are broken down in more detail in the results section.
My own advice would be to only take Oracle Fusion if it solves a very specific problem with a
module for your company, I would also heavily negotiate the cost of the system due to the
lack of take up and put myself forward as a use case to ensure free publicity of the company
products. If you are an established company with R12 and it's meeting your needs then there's
no need to rock the boat with a new system, Oracle stopped doing support for Oracle EBS R11
on the 31st of December 2015 so there is a timeline in place for R12 as well, when this happens
then I would revisit Fusion after they've ironed out all the kinks and other companies have
taken the leap.
For new companies, I would recommend going straight to Fusion over R12, there are benefits
compared to R12 so there is no advantage in paying for a full upgrade after installing R12. If
you do decide to change, then I would lay out a lengthy timeline to allow time for fixing issues,
one company I talked to last week has a 5 year migration plan from Oracle to SAP ERP
systems so you can imagine the similarities with Fusion.
Oracle Fusion Applications were launched in September 2010 and released one year later at
OpenWorld 2011.
Cloud portability doesn’t get a lot of notice, but should. ERP and financial systems are mission
critical applications, and consequently incur large investments that even when acquired
through subscription (thereby reducing CapEx in favor of OpEx) incur big investments in
system integration, software customization and complimentary apps development.
Buyers are understandably reluctant to be locked into a single vendor’s cloud, or be denied
the ability to switch to a public cloud (i.e. Amazon, Rackspace, etc.), and certainly don’t want
to invest in custom developed extensions, add-ons and integrations with their vendors'
platform as a service (PaaS) tool that only works on the vendor’s cloud and doesn’t work on
any other cloud. Oracle and a few select other ERP software vendors are responding to
requests for portability with both delivery choice and cloud transferability that gives
customers the option to move the vendors ERP software to the their cloud of choice and better
protect their investments.
Oracle announced their Fusion release at OpenWorld 2011. One year later at Oracle
OpenWorld 2012 the company announced that it had acquired 400 Fusion customers, near
evenly allocated among CRM, HCM and ERP with about two-thirds being deployed in the
cloud. As I commented in the Oracle OpenWorld take-aways, progress was evident but far
from setting the woods on fire. Now one year later Fusion adoption shows near linear
progress.
Forrester released a report titled "Oracle Dilemma: Applications Unlimited Versus Oracle
Fusion Applications" which suggests that Fusion has incurred "low levels of adoption by
existing Oracle customers, in part, because Oracle's Applications Unlimited policy has
provided them with little incentive to migrate."
For reference, the Oracle Applications Unlimited program was announced in 2006 (after
acquiring PeopleSoft/JD Edwards in January 2005 and Siebel in January 2006) as a
commitment to continue enhancements and support to these acquired products beyond the
delivery of Fusion.
While Forrester’s main assertion is 100% correct, Oracle aggressively challenged the report
and correctly reminded that Fusion is not designed as a replacement to existing Oracle ERP
solutions such as the E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards, but a compliment or
extension to these systems. Fusion apps are designed to co-exist with Oracle legacy systems,
thereby extending customer investments while at the same time permitting adoption of more
modern business applications in a less than wholesale transition.
While market adoption of Fusion is slow, it’s important to remember that customers
reluctantly change ERP systems based on their internal requirements and not based upon
new product availability. Further, at a more macro level, Oracle now earns over $1 billion
annually in Software as a Service (SaaS), which has quickly elevated Oracle to become the
second largest SaaS company in the world (behind Salesforce.com). While existing Oracle
SaaS revenues are largely from non-Fusion products such as RightNow and Taleo, it
nonetheless bodes well for Oracle’s overall cloud progress.
Another concern area is Fusion’s TCO, an area that primarily consists of two factors being
high subscription pricing and complex deployments. Oracle Fusion subscription pricing is
high, and IMHO, this is largely influenced by the relatively minimal market competition for
cloud ERP suites.
Being early to market with an enterprise-wide cloud ERP software suite puts Oracle in a
position of reduced competition, which of course reduces competitive pricing. And
unfortunately for the ERP software market, Oracle’s primary rival, SAP, is extremely
challenged in delivering or even visioning a cloud ERP software suite.
In fact to say that SAP is behind the curve when it comes to cloud ERP software is an
understatement. It’s first cloud ERP suite, Business ByDesign, was released in 2007,
retracted in 2008, released again in 2009, repositioned from a suite to more modular
applications in 2012 and through six years of big investments matched with poorly planned
releases, has shown dismal adoption. To turn the tide, SAP has designated its most current
executive champion, Lars Dalgaard, as the public face to resurrect Business ByDesign, but
now a year later under Lars sponsorship the SaaS ERP software has shown no material
advancements or increase in market adoption rate.
Other traditional ERP competitors such as Infor also remain without a viable cloud vision,
but alternatives do exist. NetSuite offers an impressive cloud ERP suite for the SMB market,
and is slowly but steadily moving upstream. Workday is early with a cloud financials suite,
but is flush with cash and making investments that are likely to accelerate its progress. And
look for Microsoft to be the wildcard that disrupts the cloud ERP industry this year with a
new Dynamics SaaS ERP suite.
And while Oracle prices are high, it’s helpful to remember that with Oracle all prices are very
negotiable. The company links its sales flexibility to the competitiveness of the sale
opportunity, quarterly results and Wall Street expectations, and it’s no secret that the
company will sacrifice some one-time up front revenues for the high margin recurring
revenues that come with annual software maintenance contracts. ERP software discounting
is less pervasive with SaaS ERP, but nonetheless continues to occur.
Adding to acquisition costs are implementation expenses. At this stage, Oracle Fusion is not
a mature application accompanied with deployment productivity tools, needed packaged
integrations, rapid deployment frameworks, accelerated deployment methodologies, or
sufficient best practices. These factors contribute to more complex implementations which
magnify time, risk and cost. As one Fusion customer told me at OpenWorld, "it’s great for the
system integrators, but not so much for the customers that have to pay their fees."
The final Oracle Fusion concern includes technology choices that trigger business impact.
While Oracle Fusion’s technology stack is impressive, one area of common debate is Oracle’s
choice to use virtualization as opposed to a multi-tenant database architecture for its cloud
ERP software. While many times these arguments are based on esoteric technology points of
view, there are real business implications that impact ERP software innovation, evolution and
ROI that buyers should consider.
Multi-tenant business systems leverage the most shared computing resources – including
database, operating systems, apps and hardware – which effectively reduces computing costs,
eases software updates and delivers more agility. While there’s no requirement that a cloud
app must be or should be multi-tenant, it was multi-tenant cloud apps that pioneered the
change of delivering new application upgrades from about every two years, to seasonal
releases. Customers clearly benefit from more frequent software releases, especially when
those upgrades occur in the background without technical acts and with the ability to turn on
the new capabilities on demand. This is a far cry and massive savings relative to the fork lift
upgrades that ERP software customers have come to dread.
You are unfortunately right about the lack of cloud ERP software competition which is
keeping Oracle’s pricing artificially high. SAP Business ByDesign is a troubled SaaS erp
product which suggests to me that SAP was never serious about the cloud ERP market,
possibly more of a competitor response that a real strategy.
In my early analysis of Business ByDesign it was difficult to tell whether this cloud ERP
solution was more of a defensive play to keep line of business apps like Salesforce.com and
Tier 2 ERP solutions such as NetSuite from continuing to erode its install base, or an offensive
business growth strategy. It’s still an unanswered question, but when I consider the bigger
picture my belief is that it’s an offensive play that’s just been poorly executed. I share this in
large part based on ERP software market saturation for on-premise apps and what is still a
near green field opportunity for cloud ERP apps. SAP holds a near dominating ERP software
market position among the Fortune 2000, which is great, except for the fact that there are
only 2000 of these customers and once they become saturated business growth becomes
limited. For SAP and the ERP software market at large to grow, ERP software publishers must
consider new market opportunities which clearly include the cloud ERP market. SAP is a
smart company so I’m sure they get this. Their vision remains cloudy at best, and I personally
view their cloud ERP play as down, but far from out.
Virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is an emulation of a computer system. Virtual
machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical
computer. Their implementations may involve specialized hardware, software, or a
combination.
There are different kinds of virtual machines, each with different functions:
System virtual machines (also termed full virtualization VMs) provide a substitute for a
real machine. They provide functionality needed to execute entire operating systems. A
hypervisor uses native execution to share and manage hardware, allowing for multiple
environments which are isolated from one another, yet exist on the same physical machine.
Modern hypervisors use hardware-assisted virtualization, virtualization-specific hardware,
primarily from the host CPUs.
Process virtual machines are designed to execute computer programs in a platform-
independent environment.
Some virtual machines, such as QEMU, are designed to also emulate different architectures
and allow execution of software applications and operating systems written for another CPU
or architecture. Operating-system-level virtualization allows the resources of a computer to
be partitioned via the kernel's support for multiple isolated user space instances, which are
usually called containers and may look and feel like real machines to the end users.
A "virtual machine" was originally defined by Popek and Goldberg as "an efficient, isolated
duplicate of a real computer machine."
The physical, "real-world" hardware running the VM is generally referred to as the 'host', and
the virtual machine emulated on that machine is generally referred to as the 'guest'. A host
can emulate several guests, each of which can emulate different operating systems and
hardware platforms.
What is Virtual?
This is not having physical existence