Case Study of a successful Oracle Fusion Cloud Implementation

 

Subbu was browsing his LinkedIn posts when this post from April '20 caught his eye. 

"I just completed managing my first Oracle Cloud implementation. I loved it. There are many reasons why I loved it. Here are two of them.

One, no customization. This means that you have to sweat your consulting and solutioning skills to come up with the best solution to complex requirements of the customer. This is exciting.

Two, functional consultants become owners of data. EBS had an ownership dispersion where the developers who import data did not have a clue about data they are importing. Functional Consultants are ALWAYS the owners of data. Cloud process restores the balance."

Subbu's mind went back a few months to the time he was working on the project. It was 2020 BC (Before COVID) again...

Very tough engagement it was, thought Subbu. Large Scope, many complex processes, India Localization....

Tough one.

But we did it. It was a job well done.

Despite being a stoic, Subbu could not but heave a sigh of satisfaction.  

He continued reminiscing.

The scope of work included the following:

1. Number of Legal Entities: 11
2. Number of Business Units: 11
3. Number of Ledgers: 11
   
4. Applications: 
• Financials (General Ledger, Accounts Payables, Accounts Receivables, Fixed Assets and Cash Management)
• Supply Chain (Procurement and Inventory)
• Project Portfolio Management
• Landed Cost Management 
• India Localization handled through Oracle Fusion Tax (GST, TDS, TCS)
• Dubai VAT
  
• Niche Solutions: Budgeting, AIP (Automated Invoice Processing), Complex Approvals, Consolidation
  
5. Data Migration 
• Chart of Account Master (7 elements)
• Trial Balance
  
• Customer Master
• Customer Balances
• Supplier Master
• Supplier Balances
• Fixed Assets Opening Balances
• Inventory Quantity and Value
• Bank Master and Balances
  
• Leased Assets
• Open Projects
• Inventory Organizations
• Item Assignment
• Location Master
  
• India Localization (GST Reg No, PAN No etc)
  

The project closed on time and budget on 17th of April. 

Subbu's mind travelled back to the last couple of months of 2019. 

Projects do not become successful just like that. Any number of things could have gone wrong, he told himself. At different points in the project I wondered if we could get this right. First I was not sure if we could ever get a complete solution on India Localization. I faced challenges on resourcing, complexity of solution, complex tax systems in the country and finally, gosh !! how complex can the tax configuration become. (Subbu had chronicled his experience with India Localization HERE)

Then there was that requirement for Inventory Asset Tracking. Customer had multiple items in their centers which they wanted to receive in Inventory and track as a Fixed Asset, depreciation and all. That solution took a lot of discussion, multiple iterations and involved multiple applications including Purchasing, Inventory, Project Portfolio Management, Fixed Assets and Budgeting. The entire team had to put their head down and come out with a clean solution to handle that..

Hats off to the team. 

Then there was the niche solution of AIP, in which System automatically creates vendor invoices from email attachments. That was an awesome solution and we handled multiple requirements typical of a startup.

Subbu felt like noting down the things the team did right. He made the following list.

1. Prepared a detailed project plan which was reviewed and updated regularly.
2. Involved wider set of stakeholders: In addition to the usual stakeholders - Project Sponsor, CFO, Customer Project Manager, Functional Leads, Technical Leads - we also included Oracle Support as a stakeholder. We also encouraged customer to keep their auditor informed of the project progress especially about some of the key process changes with audit implications.
   
3. Had regular status reporting and fortnightly Steering Committee sessions: Subbu credited customer PM for this. He had insisted for a fortnightly steering committee meeting and that helped keep project on track.
   
4. Tested the processes thoroughly
5. Froze the Bulk Upload Templates quickly: Early in the project the team realized that data migration was going to be a challenge. There were a number of legal entities and number of data elements. So we had regular discussion with the customer on the data migration template. We had identified FBDI as the data migration tool and froze the template reasonably quickly (we could have done better). Customer was initially reluctant to accept the FBDI (File Based Data Input) templates citing huge number of fields to be filled, but after many meetings, we froze the data templates
   
6. Early in the project determined FBDI as the single tool for data load into the Fusion Application: Fusion application allows multiple data entry tools like FBDI and ADFDI (Application Development Framework Desktop Integration) etc. We decided that for all the cut-over data we will use FBDI where possible. This decision made the knowledge transfer easier.
   
7. Prepared a detailed cut-over strategy and plan
8. Selected great resources
9. Customer was ready to take quick decisions and changing their processes: There were multiple process changes that the project demanded. While the customer was very rigid at a broad level, they were ready to make many process changes at the detailed level. For example, they were very demanding on the Import Purchase process, but while discussing the process, they accepted many suggestions that simplified the process. Without quick decision making from customer, the project would not have gone live successfully, Subbu thought gratefully.
10. Data migration was planned perfectly. Data Migration Strategy Document was prepared and was approved by the customer. Detailed Data Migration plan was prepared and data migration test scripts were tested and results shared with the customer. Accounting impact was posted to GL and for each data element reconciliation sheet was prepared as necessary. Each element of data was loaded in test instance, results shared with and approved by the customer before loading the same in Production. 
    

It is not that everything was hunky dory. There were many areas where we could have done better. Some of them were:

1. Cut-over testing: We should have done some more testing including reconciliation with GL. There were areas like Fixed Assets where we faced unanticipated challenges
   
2. Documentation: This is definitely something which our team should have done better. We stressed out a lot in the end just to get the documentation completed. The critical gap was in Solution Design Documentation, we took a lot of time in freezing this milestone deliverable. Since Solution Design was not completed, team lacked clarity on many solutions. Even after so many project experiences, we lag in this area, Subbu thought ruefully.
   
3. Front-loading the work. We should have closed many issues much earlier. Ended up with a crisis like situation as we neared the Cut-over Date.
4. One area where we should improve is to test and freeze the basic processes. We missed it in this project and due to which almost four months into the project, we found that 'Material Issues' were not getting accounted. Fortunately, since Oracle Support was a stakeholder, we got quick resolution to the issue. Also there was lack of clarity in how to account for Issue to Projects. 
5. Demonstrating standard reports was another area of improvement. There are some great reports available in Oracle Fusion. One needs to know where to look. Demonstrating the reports should start from day one. For every process shown, the corresponding reports should be shown to the customer.
6. The TCM (Total Cloud Method) of Oracle for Fusion Projects do not envisage a product demo. The implementation process starts with a set of presentations (Infolets and Infotiles) which does not give a flavor of the product to the customer. Customer gets their first 'Touch' with the product only during PPB (Process Playback) Sessions where the proposed solution is demonstrated to them. At this point, instead of focusing on the solution, customer starts going field by field trying to understand what each of them mean. This clutters the PPB sessions. We should plan for at least a week of Product Demo sessions in future projects, Subbu thought to himself.

There was at least one requirement for which the ERP System could not provide a solution. This was to handle Subscription based business. Customer used to sell Gym membership for 6 months. Their clients had flexibility in managing this subscription like 'Pause and Resume', 'extend subscription' etc which the SKU focused product could not handle satisfactorily.

Finally, there were a few things that we learned on the way. This was not known at the beginning of the project. 

1. FBDI is not an easy tool to work with. Too many data templates and too many unnecessarily fields. This need to be optimized.
2. There are some 'Case Sensitive' fields in FBDI
3. In some fields there are length limitations in FBDI while the system accepts longer values. 
4. We could make the taxes inactive during the Cut-over and later make them active. We did not know it. So we loaded the masters, Customer and Vendor Masters, twice, one with the generic data and later with only the India Localization data. This was double work. 

It was tough, but it was worth it. I had a great team who put awesome amount of work to get this done. Project was successful with a clean closure.

All is well that ends well, thought Subbu. 

About the Author

Ramaswamy Krishnamurti (Ram) is a Senior Freelance ERP Project Manager and Solution Architect with over 21 years of experience in all areas of ERP Implementation starting from Product Selection, Vendor Evaluation an Selection, Presales, Implementation, Upgrade and Support and Stabilization. A graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Calicut University in Kerala, India, Ram did his MBA from Kolkata University and Post Graduate Diploma from the prestigious IIM Bangalore.

He has implemented more than 25 highly successful ERP implementations. He has worked on Scala, Peoplesoft, Oracle EBS (11i and R12) and Oracle Fusion Cloud in various roles including CIO, Program Manager, Delivery Manager, Project Manager, Solution Architect, Functional Lead and Consultant. One thing common among all these roles is an average customer satisfaction rating of more than 90% over his over 20 years of ERP Implementation expertise.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, Ram worked in Manufacturing, Academia and ERP Implementation. He has implemented ERP Solution in all business areas including Procurement, Inventory, Manufacturing, Costing, Order Fulfillment, Financials and Budgeting. He has also worked as a CIO of a Food Product Company and has experienced ERP from both sides of the spectrum. Having done many implementations in India, Ram knows India Localization like the back of his hand.

He loves ERP Implementation and the value that it can add to a customer business and the smile on the face of a delighted customer.

He is currently looking out for opportunities. You can download his latest CV from his LinkedIn Profile www.linkedin.com/in/vkramaswamy. He can be contacted on LinkedIn, Email (vkrama01@gmail.com) and Phone (+919880179317)

Work with him for a perfect, on-time ERP Implementation.