As part of Quest’s 2019 Cloud Webinar Series – Platform as a Service Day, Shirley Lum Product Marketing Director for Oracle Cloud Business Group, spoke about how to leverage Oracle Cloud Platform services to deliver continuous innovation at your pace. Oracle Cloud Platform enables customers to take a digital journey on their own terms.

In just the last five minutes, what digital technology have you used? Your cell phone, a personal fitness tracker, laptop, a digital voice-recognition assistant (Hello, Alexa!) or a wireless headphone? The list could go on because individuals have incorporated digital technology into their everyday routine. Our culture, though, has not yet integrated digital technology as thoroughly in business. Change is coming, though. Digital technology is changing economic fundamentals and industry dynamics. To sustain a competitive advantage, businesses must get on board.

Disruptors in Today’s World

In her presentation, Lum called the Internet of Things (IoT) a key digital disrupter. A growing portion of IoT devices are created for consumer use, including connected vehicles, home automation, wearable technology, connected health, and appliances with remote monitoring capabilities. The demand for businesses to integrate IoT comes from both customers and employees who expect an improved experience with a rapid response and visual interest.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is another disrupter. Lum cited surveys in support. According to Boston Consulting Group & MIT Sloan Management Review, 84 percent of companies said that AI is key to gaining competitive advantage. Of the companies surveyed, 75 percent said that AI will enable their companies to move into new business.

In that same survey, it was found that, despite the expressed belief in the power of AI and digital technology, only one in five businesses have actually incorporated AI into their offerings and processes. The survey found a significant gap between the leading businesses that have adopted and utilize technology and those who don’t.

Benefits of Adopting Emerging Technology

The core benefits for the businesses who have adopted AI and digital technology include:

• Cyber Security: The increasing number of security breaches as digitization has grown has made enterprises more vulnerable than they were in the past. An increasing number of malicious actors conduct these attacks from governments to rogue hackers who steal data, create fake news, and present fake personas. Simply outwitting them isn’t really an option.
• Experience-Based Economy: Consumers today have high expectations and desire immediate gratification.
• Work Made “Human”: Human resources teams have concerns that AI could possibly make work less personable. The experience though, has shown the opposite. HR can embrace AI to make the steps of hiring simpler, more agile and more human than before. HR can hire smarter, improve the on-boarding process and retain employees longer.
• Business Model Agility: Eliminate mundane tasks and errors. Contribute information using data to contribute to decision making
• Coexistence of Machines and Humans: In the supply chain area robotics and humans work side by side. Digitally transformed companies will see this in areas of finance, HCM, and CS which will benefit with relief from record keeping pressures and other highly manual procedures.

To be on top of these trends, businesses need to maximize their utilization of data. Oracle is the world leader in secure data management for government, global enterprise, and other software companies. Oracle places data as the fabric connectivity to all business parts – customer experiences, finance, workforce development, supply chain, etc. Oracle uses a common data model and applies emerging technology like IoT, AI, blockchain, etc. to make businesses future-ready to outpace change.

All this progress does not mean that digital transformation is a one-and-done process. With new business dynamics, nothing stays still. Businesses need to continue to leverage innovations to outpace change. Businesses need to be adaptable. This requires a 360-degree view of operations for quicker insight-led decision making. Talent, data, and intelligence are required to transform processes for agility and responsivity. The ultimate goal isn’t a digital package but business outcomes with revenue growth, increased productivity, and exceeded customer expectations.

The time for digital transformation is now as the digital divide is widening. The companies leveraging technologies have grown exponentially. The companies which have not adapted are losing momentum. The gap is only going to grow wider with time.

Exploring Paths to the Cloud

The good news is that becoming a digitally transformed company is within reach and businesses can choose a path to the Cloud that works for them. Lum reviewed three paths with Oracle:

• Oracle Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud-based software delivery model in which the cloud provider develops and maintains cloud application software, provides automatic software updates, and makes software available to its customers via the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. Through this path, an organization adopts innovative opportunities at a foundation level.
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is for those who want a hybrid by keeping their on-premise apps (for governance, predictability, control) and accessing modern cloud services that are on-demand, self-service, scalable, and pay-for-use.
• Oracle Cloud at Customer is a fully managed service that runs in a company’s own data center. Oracle supplies the hardware, installs the software, manages the day-to-day operations and provides ongoing support. a public cloud experience delivered in your data center behind your firewall. Your IT division maintains control.

Each journey to the cloud is unique. The goal, however, is the same. Each organization making the journey to the cloud has the goal to survive and thrive in the digital world that is filled with high expectations from customers and internal audiences. To support a successful journey, Lum names three core expectations an organization needs, and which Oracle enables:

• Simplify: Oracle helps organizations to optimize operations with application integration, process automation, and collaboration opportunities.
• Enrich: Oracle brings data visualization, intelligent analytics and extensions through AI and machine learning applied analytics. This gives the all-important 360-degree view of a business and makes outperforming competition a matter of intelligence.
• Elevate: Using conversational user interfaces, smart devices, and smart transactions preferred by all your constituents – from employees and customers to business partners.

Businesses that make the journey to Oracle Cloud services have many options and benefits. Oracles AI plan for the future addresses the build-and-buy strategy making it accessible to all organizations. Lum breaks these down into three easy-to-understand options:

• Ready-to-Go: This pre-built packaged solutions with data and AI-powered applications includes AI apps such as IoT and blockchain, intelligent user interfaces, and digital assistants.
• Ready-to-Build: This developer-friendly AI-powered platform enables customers to develop custom solutions. It also supplements Oracle applications allowing businesses to connect, extend, secure and analyze.
• Ready-to-Work: An autonomous database that is self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing.

Leveraging the Oracle Cloud Platform

Lum takes a deep-dive with an explanation of the ready-to-build option, Oracle Cloud Platform services. She describes is as “unique in that it is complete.” All components are integrated and run together seamlessly. It accommodates any journey to the cloud now and into the future. The features address application development, integration, analytics, security, and autonomous database. This platform enables you to connect, extend, secure, and analyze.

Lum suggests that while there are so many great reasons to step forward on the Oracle journey, businesses will continue to see a number of “triggers” for technology purchases. Triggers generally relate to the demands of business for efficiency, growth, and changes in business models. Many of the benefits become triggers as the need for technology becomes urgent.

The ultimate goal isn’t a digital package but business outcomes with revenue growth, increased productivity, and exceeded customer expectations. As a result, digital transformation is an ongoing effort.

Oracle Cloud Platform services integrate components and accommodates future growth.  This platform is used to build, deploy, integrate and extend applications in the cloud.

The time for digital transformation is now as the digital divide is widening with businesses embracing technology outpacing competitors.

Key Takeaways

• Businesses that adopt Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will be well-positioned for a later move to Oracle SaaS.
• In addition to AI enabling HR to hire smarter, it can also assist in identifying talent internally, redeploying skills as the business grows and changes, and enhancing the employee experience.
• Expect many lines of business to want to capitalize on the benefits of a digital transformation. Team members in marketing, HR, sales, finance, and others look forward to gains they can make by enhancing experiences for both internal and external audiences.

To access this presentation and other recordings from Platform as a Service Day and the rest of the 2019 Cloud Webinar Series, check out the Cloud Webinar Series landing page.

Additional Resources

COLLABORATE 20 will take place April 19-23, 2020 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada! Don’t miss this chance to share inspiration, insights, and solutions with your peers, vendors, and the Oracle team! Register before March 6, 2020, to take advantage of Early Bird pricing.