Oracle SCM Cloud - Innovation, Change & Opportunity

We are really looking forward to Oracle OpenWorld this year to hear how Oracle's most recent acquisitions of Netsuite & Logfire will be integrated into Oracle's current ERP & Supply Chain Solution offerings.

According to Rick Jewell, Senior Vice President, Oracle SCM Applications Development, a major sea-change in Supply Chain is taking place. (Check out this article Five Considerations for Moving Supply Chain Management to the Cloud for more detail on this)

In his letter to customers and partners talking about the acquisition of LogFire he says:

"Supply chain organizations are under enormous pressure to capitalize on evolving business trends such as omni-channel fulfillment, integrated logistics and dynamic sourcing, while simultaneously increasing efficiency and reducing costs. To meet these challenges, Oracle Supply Chain Management (SCM) Cloud offers a broad suite of innovative applications that enables organizations to modernize their supply chain processes. The addition of LogFire will complement the logistics functionality of the Oracle SCM Cloud by adding cloud-based warehouse management capabilities."

For more details on how the acquisition will add value for customers, check out this presentation of the Oracle & Logfire value proposition, one of the slides (below)  from the presentation gives a good "at a glance"  summary.

Oracle SCM Cloud & LogFire

If you would like to learn more about the vision for Oracle SCM Cloud, you will enjoy the video of Rick Jewell's presentation (below) from earlier this year which outlines Oracle's Vision on Your Path to the Cloud for the Modern Supply Chain.

Planning your Journey To the Cloud - How & When

In the presentation, as well as information on Oracle SCM Cloud functionality, there is also a very interesting section at the end (minute 34) on how you can start planning your journey to the Cloud.

Jewell talks about how, at the most basic level, you can start by hosting your existing applications and indeed we have helped many JD Edwards customers with this step.

Moving up the transformation ladder he mentions that there are generally three approaches adopted by clients:

• Complementary
• Incremental 
• Transformational

Complementary: Complementing your existing on-premise by integrating Cloud. So take an individual business function, for example, Transportation or PLM and complement your existing on-premise Application by using Cloud to add value, profits and cost-savings.

Incremental: End to End processes are done in the Cloud such as Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, Plan to Produce.

Transformation: This can often be done using a 2 tier model, so your larger plants could be using on-premise and using the Cloud in smaller sites which then can also lead to a full-blown transformation.

So which journey to the Cloud and Digital Transformation is right for you? Well, it depends on a lot of different factors such as your industry and the ability of your organization to adopt change. The matrix below gives a good summary of how to assess which path is best for you and indeed Oracle's Rod Johnson has an insightful blog "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now" on getting the timing of Digital Transformation right, a quick read and highly recommended.

Your Path to the Cloud for the Modern Supply Chain