When running a high-stakes project, IT leaders know that they will need a lot of sign-offs before going live. When the City of Atlanta was about to go live with its new all-Cloud ERP strategy, it had to get a blessing from a surprising source - the National Football League. Atlanta was hosting the Super Bowl in February 2019, and the city wanted to go live with its Cloud project before then in order to help the city through the demands of that event, which draws hundreds of thousands of people to the city. 

Considering a move to the cloud requires more than an understanding of the capabilities that cloud ERP solutions offer. You will also need a broader awareness of migration approaches, industry trends, and technology considerations. As part of Quest's 2019 Cloud Webinar Series, Mukesh Baldua and Kishor Pawankar of World Wide Technologies discussed the reasons behind choosing Oracle ERP Cloud and the ERP Cloud migration approaches to help you get there.

Linda Currey Post, Human Capital Management Cloud content strategist for Oracle Content Central, wrote about how colleges and universities see the possibility of Cloud in higher education helping keep college affordable for students.

Jim Maholic, Business Value Services, Oracle, wrote about how to align ERP Cloud benefits with business drivers when building a business case for why your organization should implement ERP Cloud.

When building a business case for ERP Cloud, project managers should look beyond the standard ROI and TCO calculations that IT teams have historically relied on. One of the biggest challenges for project managers is thoroughly identifying all of the benefits of a proposed project and ascribing credible, tangible, financial and business value to those benefits. This is critical to a successful business case.

Lynne Sampson, Managing Editor of Oracle’s The Modern Finance Leader, wrote about how a gaming-entertainment company recently leveraged Oracle ERP Cloud and Oracle HCM Cloud to combat manual processes, customizations, and legacy systems that were preventing them from operating more efficiently and effectively.

Navigating the Cloud journey can be daunting. Regardless of where you are in your Cloud journey, seize the opportunity to learn from peers, catch up on the latest hot topics surrounding Cloud technology and walk away with actionable insight to help you drive your business forward with Oracle Cloud technology. Our 2019 Cloud Webinar Series can help you do exactly that. This series will feature free, online education about Oracle ERP Cloud, Oracle EPM Cloud, Oracle HCM Cloud, and Oracle SCM Cloud. Join us tomorrow for part one – ERP Cloud Day!

Many companies are understandably cautious about investing in new technologies – particularly back-office systems that are critical to their operations. However, a new report from MIT Technology Review showed that after a decade of companies moving to Cloud applications, those that hesitate put themselves at greater risk than in the past. The old ways of staying current won’t be sufficient enough to compete with companies that are truly modernizing their operations and even creating new business models with Cloud applications. Oracle Vice Chairman Jeff Henley said that reluctant company leaders and boards must be sold on the strategic advantages of Cloud applications, not just on their cost benefits. Three companies – AirAsia, Sportable Scoreboards, and TrueBlue – leveraged Oracle Cloud applications (HCM, ERP, EPM) to future-proof operations.

Once again, Oracle ERP Cloud was named a Leader in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites for midsize, large, and global enterprises. Gartner is a global research and advisory firm that provides advice and tools for leaders in IT, Finance, HR, and more.

More and more organizations are moving their on-premises enterprise applications to Cloud solutions because they want to change the cost structure of their applications portfolios and reduce their risk for technological obsolescence while delivering growth, innovation, operational agility, and efficiency. There is more Cloud momentum today than ever before. In fact, 76 percent of finance leaders surveyed in Oracle's 2018 ERP Trends Report said they intend to run ERP in the Cloud within the next two years. Due to this growing momentum, Oracle released a five-step guide that can help users learn "how to Cloud" and complete a successful Oracle ERP Cloud project. It provides a high-level sequential summary of recommended steps based on actual Cloud projects and advice from leading partners for successfully executing the journey to Cloud. This document is not intended to be a substitute for engagement with Oracle or one of its partners. It is simply a starting guide. Oracle recommends implementing solutions with input from experienced project and technical professionals. 

No industry is immune from the current pace of technological change. While this acceleration presents radical opportunities for growth, analytics, and connectivity, it also brings real and pressing challenges to the adaptability of business organizations. At COLLABORATE 19, Chinam Kry, VP of Cloud Business Group at Oracle, shared with the Quest community how aligning HR and Finance through Cloud-based applications creates an agile, adaptable business response to navigate both the current business landscape and future innovation.

Jim Maholic, Business Value Services, Oracle, wrote about how to build a winning ERP Cloud business case that will win over your company’s executives and convince them to make the move to ERP Cloud. Whether you are planning to upgrade a departmental solution, move one or two solutions from on-premises to the Cloud, or embark on a full-scale digital transformation, your executives will likely expect you to explain how the company will benefit from investing in this initiative. This will require you to build a winning ERP Cloud business case to present to your organization’s leaders.

A recent Oracle blog talked through the reasons to tackle your ERP/EPM and HCM systems together to create an integrated Cloud solution. It starts with a scenario: Imagine that you’re getting a promotion to a management position, which would impact your purchasing authority, approval workflows, travel allowances, and pay structure. On top of that, you’re moving to North America to Europe, where your company operates under a different legal entity. How long will it take before your new role is reflected in your company’s Human Resources system, you start getting paid at your new rate, and your new team can start submitting expenses to your for approval?

JP Saunders, Vice President of Business Value Consulting at Oracle, wrote about results from recent HCM Cloud and ERP Cloud benchmark reports from the Oracle Value Realization Program.

Lynne Sampson, Oracle’s managing editor of The Modern Finance Leader, wrote about Oracle CEO Mark Hurd’s thoughts on why automation improves financial reporting across your company.