RECONNECT Live! at BLUEPRINT 4D takes place May 8-11 in Dallas, TX. In this blog series, we interview key PeopleSoft speakers to get a taste of the content they’ll be sharing and hear what they’re most excited about.

We chatted this week with Oracle’s Susan Biedler, Senior Strategy Director Campus Solutions, to get her thoughts on the RECONNECT Live! agenda:

RECONNECT is back live and in person this year – what’s most exciting about that for you?

Our Higher Ed customers have always enjoyed a tight-knit, collaborative relationship with each other and with our teams at Oracle. While we’ve been able to maintain the collaborative spirit during the last few years, I am so pleased to be able to join the QUEST event in May to meet with and hear directly from our customers.  I’m looking forward to full days of listening to customers share their successes and challenges and contributing to the discussion about how Oracle is supporting our customers, especially with our Student solutions, Campus Solutions and Oracle Student.  I’m hoping we can grow our Higher Education participation at this and other QUEST events!

Any hot topics that you’re especially keen to dig into with customers?

Most of our Higher Education customers are at some stage of considering “what’s next” for them in terms of new technology and new applications.  While most of the PeopleSoft customers are very happy about the Applications Unlimited commitment from Oracle (full ten years of Premier Support for PeopleSoft applications), they also want to know more about the newer technology options from Oracle.  The two topics I’m asked to speak to most frequently are “What do you have planned for Campus Solutions?” and “When should our institution be thinking about a move to the new Cloud applications?”.  We have a lot to offer related to these two topics, so I’m looking forward to diving into both these – and any other topics – with the customers at RECONNECT.

Can you give us a preview of your upcoming RECONNECT Live! presentation?

My goal is to communicate a clear statement of direction for Oracle’s Student solutions: what capabilities we’re investing in with PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, our gold-standard on-premises solution as well as what we’re delivering with Oracle Student, the cloud-native student solution.  I want customers to know that we continue to modernize Campus Solutions as well as enable customers to streamline their maintenance burden through utilities that will help them reduce customizations.  I’ll also speak to recommendations for preparing for a move to the cloud and how, in particular, the Campus Solutions team can help our customers with that journey, when they’re ready to begin.

What other sessions would you recommend checking out, and why?

Because the Campus Solutions team leverages the enhancements in PeopleTools, I always encourage customers to keep their knowledge about Tools current. I’ve also picked a couple of sessions that I know are always well-received, including Paco’s update and Robbin’s and Beth’s guidance on preparing for the cloud. And who doesn’t like to be inspired by what other customers have done with the PeopleSoft solutions!

• PeopleSoft PeopleTools and Technology Update
  Presented by: Sasank Vemana, Oracle America, Inc
• Getting the Most out of PeopleSoft PeopleTools: Tips and Techniques
  Presented by: Jim Marion, JSMPROS INC
• PeopleSoft Configuration Frameworks Overview and Page and Field Configurator Update
  Presented by: Joe Willever, Oracle America, Inc
• PeopleSoft Executive Showcase: Delivering Customer Success in 2023
  Presented by: Paco Aubrejuan, Oracle America, Inc
• Getting started with your journey to the Cloud as a PeopleSoft Customer
  Presented by: Robbin Velayedam, Oracle America, Inc
• How to Soar from PeopleSoft to Oracle Cloud with Confidence
  Presented by: Beth Dvoracek, Oracle America, Inc
• PeopleSoft Innovator Trends and Highlights: Who’s Doing What With PeopleSoft
  Presented by: Rebekah Jackson, Oracle America, Inc

Join us!  RECONNECT Live! at BLUEPRINT 4D takes place May 8-11 in Dallas, TX.  The program includes 125+ hot topic PeopleSoft sessions and a rich in-person networking program.  Get the latest insights & updates from the Oracle teams who build your product, the partners who implement it and the customers who drive value and innovation through their use of PeopleSoft capabilities. Register now.

Quest Oracle Community is where you learn. Ask questions, find answers, swap stories and connect to other PeopleSoft customers and product experts. Find out more.