Wednesday 8 April 2015

Road to Cloud for PeopleSoft Customers



My earlier blog on CIOs being forced to give cloud options a serious consideration was followed by how different types of organizations are reacting to cloud options in the Enterprise applications space (see here). In today’s article, am getting a little specific to customers with PeopleSoft ERP.

Firstly the message from Oracle is clear – PeopleSoft has a lot of steam left. Continued technology & functionality investments in PeopleSoft as a product will only enrich it over the years to come. In the last Open World, Oracle articulated their “Continuous Delivery, Flexible Adoption” model to deliver new capabilities 2 to 3 times a year. This was exemplified by 9 new feature packs already GA for PeopleSoft HCM v9.2 in 2 years of release. So there will probably not be a version 9.3 ever. You can download the full presentation of the Open World presentation here. For more details on the module-wise features and PeopleSoft’s Statement of Direction, check out this article (My Oracle login required). The feedback SOAIS is getting from PeopleSoft install base customers is they will want to continue to remain invested in their ERP due to multiple factors. It will remain a huge challenge for them to completely switch to alternate cloud solutions in the near term.

CLOUD – what next for Enterprise Applications?



After my last post on why Cloud Services are creating waves in the CIO community in general, I wanted to share my observations on how customers in the ERP world are reacting to the buzz. SOAIS deals with various types of customers i.e. those with large ERP implementations; complex IT landscape and those with small implementations and relatively smaller employee base. Reactions vary depending on the level of maturity their internal systems and size of their operations. I have broadly classified the categories based on the type of implementations.

Early stage organizations: They have no or insignificant legacy system to carry forward and can easily adapt to business processes delivered by cloud ERPs – they are prime candidates to jump on the cloud bandwagon. These organizations tend to be flexible with their business needs and don’t necessarily need rich functionality delivered by traditional on premise ERPs. Internally at SOAIS for example, we adopted a cloud HR solution from Oracle Fusion/Taleo suite for some of our HR processes. We have been using Paybooks, a web based Payroll software for payroll processing and a cloud based CRM for a while. I have seen several similar examples across the industry verticals where small and medium organizations have begun their ERP journey with cloud apps not necessarily covering end to end business processes though. Pieces of CRM & select HR modules have a clear head-start in this segment.

Organizations with ERP Implementations out-of-the-box: These are organizations which have used their on-premise ERPs as was delivered by the software vendor. They are usually driven by a senior management mandate to adopt global best practices based on business processes delivered out of the box. They are next in the spectrum of organizations who see value in Cloud implementations. Their software vendor would’ve given them an easy path to ‘upgrade’ from their on-premise ERP to a new cloud platform. Adoption is also quicker because their management teams are committed to ‘not customize’ while they may not have too many downstream or upstream applications to integrate. They see value in the ability to stop worrying about hardware / software / upgrades / skilled IT Support personnel.

Organizations with large ERP Implementations & customizations: Large organizations typically need rich functionality, have high levels of customizations specific to their business, have several complex applications to integrate and have low risk tolerance to move data to an external entity on shared infrastructure. Though sales brochures of popular cloud software vendors indicate otherwise, large organizations have been slow to move to the cloud for their end to end application needs. While few of them have taken tentative steps, all their core applications and business critical apps remain on-premise. Pricing models of Cloud app service providers are evolving and at times doesn’t make financial sense for organizations with large employee base or running high volumes of financial transactions. But several large organizations in this category are definitely considering the Private Cloud option i.e. moving all their applications to a third party infrastructure who are experts in running datacenters, maintain hardware, have economies of scale with hosting & security.
The enterprise applications in general is on the cusp of a technology evolution searching for answers. Cloud has enabled smaller organizations (compared to before) to afford world class ERP products – bottom of the pyramid as CK Prahlad said and hence Greenfield opportunities for software vendors are enormous in this space.
SOAIS remains a trusted advisor for its customers and regularly deals with customers who want to understand their Enterprise IT Roadmap. “To Cloud or not to Cloud” remains a quandary for a CIO. In my next blog, I will touch upon how SOAIS helped a customer make decisions on their cloud journey.

SAP GUI Settings for Worksoft Certify Part II



There are some key things in some of the standard SAP transactions which play a vital role if it is not already setup in the underlying SAP environment.
  • Let’s take an example of creating a Purchase Order (PO) in SAP via tcode ME21N. I think most of you are aware that in SAP we have several types of PO which is often referred by some keyword (2/3 characters). For example, if you need to create an ‘Intercompany Standard PO’ then it can be referred by the keyword ‘NB’.
  • There is always a chance that in the given requirement to automate the process for creating a ‘Intercompany Standard PO’ using transaction ME21N, you may find this keyword ‘NB’ there instead of what it actually meant for, i.e. ‘Intercompany Standard PO’. This is confusing if you are not aware about it and will led you to a place where you would need help from others who knows it.