When your CEO sponsors a strategic initiative to replace a core system in just two years, the pressure to deliver is enormous.
When your CEO sponsors a strategic initiative to rip and replace a core system in just two years, the pressure to deliver is enormous. To add to the challenge, the migration would have to be a hard cutover from the old system to the new; there was just no way to run two systems simultaneously.
This is what the teams at Oracle’s Application Labs (OAL) were faced with when they were tasked with migrating their entire Order-to-Revenue system from on-premise to the Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP. It’s well known that only a fraction of cloud migrations get completed on time, and even fewer deliver all the value that was hoped for. The Oracle teams were determined that this wasn’t going to be their story.
SAFe was adopted to handle the scale and complexity of the work and to provide an engagement model that would help keep the teams connected, engaged, and aligned with each other and with the business. SAFe would also help Oracle’s thinking evolve from a project to product mindset.
The goals were ambitious, and with the addition of a new way of working, there was no shortage of skeptics. Transformation leaders took a light-handed approach to help people get comfortable with the process and slowly build trust. They’d say, “Hey, try this out, we are only going to use it for two weeks, then we can adjust.” This approach ultimately paid off in big ways.
The migration took place as planned over a summer weekend in 2021, which was, by itself, an enormous win for the OAL teams. There were bonus benefits as well. The product was better than anticipated with improvements in order productivity, velocity, data quality, and usability, as well as automation.
Perhaps the most profound effect is that their sense of identity has changed. It’s no longer IT vs. the business; it’s all one organization. From the CEO’s office to the EVP of Fusion Product Development to OAL’s leadership, there is alignment from strategy to execution. As Oracle’s VP of Global Quote to Order Operations, Maninder Bedi said, “We are working together. We became one.”
Presented at the 2022 SAFe Summit
About Oracle:
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit oracle.com.
