Oracle E-Business Suite Reviews

We are using this solution in our whole business as an EBS.

The solution is good for small businesses.

Earlier when our organization was small they chose Oracle because in the telecommunication industry everybody was using Oracle. Our company has grown to a size where our particularly billing phase has created some challenges and now we are looking at alternate solutions. There is not a billing engine or module that you can buy from Oracle that can be added to this EBS solution to fix our problem. They should add a billing module or engine to the solution.

I have been using this solution for approximately three years.

The solution is stable.

The scalability has been good.

We have been in continuous contact with technical support but they do not have a solution to the billing problems we are faced with. Additionally, there are other issues they have not been able to help us with.

The initial setup was complex. The migration took a very long time, approximately four months.

The price of the solution is extremely high.

We are evaluating different solutions.

In my current scenario, I would not recommend EBS for anyone. It is better to purchase a cloud solution rather than having this one.

I rate Oracle E-Business Suite a five out of ten.

Our primary use case is for order management, bills of materials, work in progress, and finance. I take care of the infrastructure in the Oracle apps. We're a customer of Oracle and I'm a system analyst.

Oracle has always been known for its finance modules and that is definitely a valuable feature. From the back-end, Oracle has been the leader forever. Also from a functional perspective, it provides us with great customization which I'm not sure is available in most of the other ERPs. In that sense it provides a great level of flexibility.

Oracle has always had one drawback and that is that it's not as user friendly as it's competitors, whether from the database perspective or switching from SAP to Oracle. The amount of administrative effort required for SAP is far less than that required for Oracle where the administration part is very tight and can be a bit of a headache. With SAP, the number of patches, bug fixes or interim upgrades are far less than Oracle which releases a lot of patches for bugs. As a head-on comparison, you get the feeling that SAP is a far more stable product. The bottom line is that the administration of the database and the application could be improved. 

There are many additional features I'd like to see. From an automation perspective, things could be improved. If you compare it with many of the competitors' products, the markets associated patent technology is highly competitive. Most other solutions are very user friendly and have such rich experience in the user interface that I think a holistic approach towards making Oracle more user friendly and usable is something I'd like to see.

I've been using this solution for about 10 years. 

It's a stable solution but Oracle releases security patches every quarter, so you need to apply them and then there are additional bug fixes with respect to the business center. The solution doesn't crash and there's no unpredictability in behavior. There's no performance issue. It's very robust when it comes to overall setup. 

Scalability has improved recently because of the many interfaces that Oracle has and many other products that it can integrate with. Even in Identity Access Manager, it has its own products. So in that sense, it's improved a lot on its scalability.

The support is good. Oracle has a global presence when it comes to support so depending on the timezone, the quality of support might vary. My experience with the Middle East is not great but when it comes to Europe, they are good. From Asia, specifically India, it can be two extremes. In general, support is good. 

The previous company that I worked for had its own ERP.  The switch to Oracle was made because it's a bigger brand with a wide array of products. Oracle is into database within application and it has a number of modules. In addition to Identity and Access Management, it has the WebLogic, SOA and its own server storage's operating system. 

The initial setup takes three or four people. One is the DBA, one is the technical guy and then we have the functional person which could be two roles; one for testing the application for its functional gain, the business process etc., and the other, who does the setups and support work. Within our company we would have more than 100 users of this product. 

Deployment is more complicated and challenging than you'd find in comparable solutions. We normally have multiple iterations for the deployment. One iteration from a DBA perspective normally takes a few days but then there's the functional part, technical part. I expect it would take two to three weeks for that.

If it's just installation of the ERP then you're looking at a few days but you need to consider the environment, amount of customization, functionality, etc. That takes about three weeks because it involves testing, functional setups, technical setups, and the DBA.

The licensing costs for E-business Suite depends upon what modules you're using, the number of users, core database components and things like that. I believe we pay around USD $100,000 annually. There are no additional costs unless you opt for additional products or components.

I briefly thought about evaluation other options, but it didn't happen because I'd already had some experience with Oracle. 

For someone who has never used Oracle, I would tell them that it's not a user-friendly application, so it takes time to get your head around it. On top of that, Oracle is mostly done in Linux and Unix which is completely command-based so from an administration perspective, it's helpful to have some experience and knowledge because it's not a walk in the park. 

Landscapes change and so do the products and services. With that perspective in mind, I would say that although Oracle is a very robust technology and a leader in certain areas, it takes time to adapt to it. Other technologies are far easier to implement but perhaps the complexity makes the job more secure and challenging.

I would rate this solution a seven out of 10. 

We are using Oracle Red Hat and Oracle database. It's working on cloud Azure cloud.

Many of our customers have Oracle WebE business tools and databases. We are using single-tier, multi-tier, multi-node, single node. Recently, we have migrated the tenant to tenant, like Oracle E-Business Suite.

We use HR modules, and financial modules are a very common industry. 

Oracle could improve its licensing model by offering more flexible options, such as subscription-based pricing. Nowadays, people are going for more open-source products. 

I would like to see Oracle E-Business Suite include all the necessary patches and fixes in the main product instead of requiring customers to pay for support for each one.

We have been using it for the last ten years.  I'm a system infra architect and also have some DBA training or Oracle DBA, backup, cloning, deployment, patching, and migrations.

The product is stable, but with the passage of time, if you leave some kind of new feature and apply and customize the product, then you have to patch the product. 

For example, we raised the request to the Oracle technical team, and the technical team recommended and applied the dispatch; the issue will be fixed. So, we are continuously applying the patches. 

But this is a continuous process.   Nothing is 100%. Everything is streamlining with passive providers, even in  Microsoft, Oracle, EVS, etc. Patches are there, and bugs and fixes are there. We continuously apply everything.

Oracle's technical support is better than others.

Positive

I simultaneously worked with SQL Server from 2000 to 2004, 2008, 2017, and 2019.

Oracle E-Business Suite is a complete business suite, while SQL Server is only a database. All customized applications in front-end development use SQL. If they have a high budget, they use Oracle.

We have over 200 customers and use a variety of solutions on Azure, including SQL Server and Oracle E-Business Suite. We primarily provide technical support for our customers.

Oracle is a vast domain. For a skilled person, it is not complicated, but for a new person, it is a bit complex.

There are OS and EBS within compatibility libraries. Most issues and bugs are due to the compatibility of configurations. Otherwise, it's not so difficult. 

For deployments, we have streamlined the processes and migration. We have also streamlined the migration process, whether it is a VM migration or either it is cloning. We streamline everything.  

It's pricey. Oracle's pricing is on the higher end, but it is justified given the product's maturity, stability, and feature set.

I have been working with Oracle E-Business Suite for the past 10 to 12 years. There are always some bugs and missing patches, so I would rate it a nine out of ten.  Also, they have fixed it, but with the passive time after month-to-month payments, we have to beg to apply the patch to the product. That is the main thing we are missing.

I would like to see Oracle E-Business Suite include all the necessary patches and fixes in the main product instead of requiring customers to pay for support for each one. This would make it easier and more efficient to customize the product to meet specific needs.

I implement the solution for customers in Saudi Arabia who prefer on-premises solutions.

E-Business Suite is an on-premises solution but you have the option to deploy its infrastructure as a service. For example, we have already implemented Amazon, Google, and Oracle on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. With the infrastructure, you don't need to have your own data center but you need to have ownership of your database and more. You have options with the solution. You can install it on-premises, host it elsewhere, or place it in a cloud solution like Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as a service. 

The on-premises solution has maturity in features but also flex fields. If you have ownership of a database, you can fully customize and personalize the solution. 

This differs from a public cloud where you are limited in customization such as adding tables or integrating with a third party. 

Improvements could be made in mobility for mobile applications or tablets. The solution still has some web-built pages and Java forms, and Oracle is currently shifting Java forms to be web-based. Once that is complete, Oracle will be accessible from mobile applications and tablets. This is a main difference and strong benefit in comparison to cloud-based solutions like Oracle Fusion. 

I'd like the addition of modern merges and an integration with social media like LinkedIn. 

Minor enhancements in function are sometimes requested and should be implemented. 

I have been using the solution for nine years on and off. 

The solution is very stable. It was created in 1980 and there's a pool of consultants very experienced in working with it so they don't even need to contact support for issues. There are 40 years of knowledge behind it and all issues are known. 

The solution is scalable. 

Customer support is based on the awareness of the person who contacts Oracle. Service requests sometimes loop because Oracle supports the solution at the product level, not the functional level. The product level is any item related to the product itself. The functional level includes change requests or maintenance for the product.  

Neutral

The initial setup is straightforward and simple. For maintenance, two consultants might be needed to address any issues. 

I am a member of the Oracle Implementation Team and implement the solution for customers. 

One of the major issues is that the solution has a high price. 

We evaluate options to determine the best solution for customers based on scope of work. We determine the type of business, requirements, architecture, and streamlining needs. For small to medium companies, we generally recommend Oracle. 

I rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

Oracle E-Business Suite is used for accounting activities. Customers use the general ledger and accounts receivable functions, and those make their lives easier, especially when the solution is well taken cared of, e.g. through patching then being able to assess the system on time.

What I found most valuable in Oracle E-Business Suite is the patching, because it is straightforward. As long as you follow Oracle best practices, you are able to finish the task of patching without a problem.

I like that it's also easy to add products, e.g. if you want to add on financials, you can, or if you don't have financials, you can expand on that. I like that Oracle E-Business Suite is really scalable.

As the pricing for Oracle E-Business Suite is too high and maintaining it is too costly, instead of users patching in a timely manner, they complain about the price, and only do the patching whenever there's an issue. Pricing for this solution could still be improved by Oracle.

Another area for improvement, particularly when working with the on-premises version of Oracle E-Business Suite, is that it can be difficult to expand, unlike its cloud version. On cloud, it's easier to improve on things, and there's a lot of improvement, while in the on-premises version, it's more limited.

I've been using Oracle E-Business Suite since 2017.

The solution is also stable, but its stability depends on doing the patching on time, and as the maintenance of Oracle E-Business Suite is too costly based on feedback from people we've worked with, they only do the patching whenever an issue arises.

Oracle E-Business Suite is a really scalable solution.

The technical support for Oracle E-Business Suite is good. If you do things right, their support can speed up the process, rather than relying on documents and their site. With Oracle support, proper knowledge, and understanding what the problem is, you'll be okay.

I did the deployment myself. Deployment of this solution took a lot of time, because I was using my own laptop, and only had 16GB RAM. I experienced some errors, so deployment took almost a day to a day and a half.

Oracle E-Business Suite makes life easier for its users, so it really helps a lot in terms of return on investment. It was a great adventure for me to work on such an environment.

My take on the ROI is based on the feedback of the customer I was helping. Looking at the fact that using the solution does not require you to spend most of your time trying to resolve issues, it will definitely help bring in the ROI.

Most of the people we've worked with were complaining about the pricing of Oracle E-Business Suite being too high.

I have worked mostly with Oracle E-Business Suite.

I'm using the old version of the solution. The new version I was just using it to try on my own environment, e.g. doing the installation from scratch and trying to do it on my own. Oracle E-Business Suite has general ledger, financials, and HR functions, but I'm not much into those, as I'm much interested in the installation and administration of the solution.

I'm particularly interested in the patching and installation of Oracle E-Business Suite, and when there's an issue, I'm able to address the issue, e.g. in case there's a need for patching, I can do it.

I was looking at the interface of the latest version of Oracle E-Business Suite, as I was trying it, and compared to the previous version, there were so many changes to the interface. For now, I cannot say what can be changed or added to this solution, because there were so many changes to its interface, but it was easy to navigate through when you are training.

Because Oracle E-Business Suite is being used in a government department, I can only give a range in terms of the number of end users: more than 100 and less than 1,000.

My role was usually to run some Oracle assessment tools to gather information, and those tools will teach you about the whole system when you gather the information, depending on whether you understand the information on the report, so that gave me a lot of insight.

It was only me who took care of the deployment and maintenance of Oracle E-Business Suite, then there's only engagement with a specialist or a system admin when needed, but in terms of doing the assessment for the solution, I do it myself.

My advice to others planning to implement Oracle E-Business Suite is to be patient, especially when you do the administration part, because the solution is so broad, so it depends on what you are doing, e.g. there are different specializations such as financials, general ledger, etc. In terms of the technical part of it, it will be a matter of time to learn and to download those free ISOs from Oracle e-Delivery, and then try them. Doing that will definitely help, the same way it really helped me with Oracle E-Business Suite.

I didn't evaluate other products, because my specialty is Oracle database administration. I'm a database administrator, and I'm focused on the database, Linux, and Oracle E-Business Suite. They all work well together.

My rating for Oracle E-Business Suite is eight out of ten, because of the price.

Based on my technical background on Oracle EBS, I can tell that the primary use case of this solution is having a sophisticated software, an ERP, in the environment. It is to have a software system that consists of global business applications with built-in integrity. Generally, my customers use it for their business applications: CRM, Financials, Human Capital Management, Procurement, Supply Chain and more. There are also some seperate applications outside these ERP systems, but mostly, they are also tightly integrated with EBS.

EBS is a software as a whole. It includes its own database (Oracle Database), an application server (Oracle Weblogic), and software. It has cross-industry capabilities and makes customers operate in cost-efficient way.  As an ERP system, EBS offers lots of applications built in. So it helps the customer to automate their back office processes and let them make correct, fast, and reliable decisions. In Human Capital Management implementations, customers benefit from having a complete HR system and do all the HR work using the EBS screens. By customizing the product, customers can make the application processes be compatible with their special needs. Localization and translation options are also available with the product. Although the software is built by an American company (Oracle), other languages can be enabled and localization can be deployed without touching any code. With these features that support having a global software environment, customers who are working worldwide also gain an advantage. 

Using EBS features like Oracle workflow, lots of the processes are automated and made easier. Mobile Web Applications can be used to make the relevant users be able to use the applications directly. Successful implementations, success stories, big install base, know-how and continuous support of the community (Oracle itself and EBS consultants), make the customers feel safe. With the integrated service oriented architecture gateway (SOA Gateway) of EBS, EBS APIs can be triggered outside (from Cloud or from other applications).. This feature lets customers be able to integrate their application with EBS easily. When core business needs something from the back office, it just uses SOA Gateway to retrieve the meaningful data from EBS. All the technology and software is from Oracle. This is also very important to be able to get single vendor support when required. The technology stack is built on Oracle Technologies. It is not hard to find an expert when needed both for development and administration.

When I put these aside, EBS saves time and increases the efficiency for the customers.  By using the tightly integrated application of EBS, customers, provide the solutions for their business from a single source. The ultimate application design, high-level software engineering and power of the Oracle technologies delivered with the product are felt at any moment.

EBS has lots of application families and lots of features. It is modular in deployment and flexible enough to let the customer increase the built-in capabilities and enable new applications when needed. These are very important things at hand in case there will be a need to expand the product capabilities and/or implement new projects.

EBS has a certain history. There is a certain know-how with documentation for almost all its use cases.

The product relies on Oracle technologies, the world's leading Oracle Database and Oracle application tier. This is valuable because, while it satisfies lots of customer requirements and standards, it also means that the technology layer gets continuous improvements and updates, as Oracle keeps the components on this layer always up-to-date.

EBS 12.2, the newest release also provides an Online Patching option for supplying near zero downtime both for applications (functional side) and the technology stack. This is valuable in mission-critical environments. Online patching removes the barriers for an upgrade because it is online. It gives the customers the ability to make downtime negotiations easier. Using online patching, they have planned downtime and it is measured in minutes.

For customers who are using a virutalized environment, Oracle delivers VM templates (for Oracle VM Server). This feature also provides easy enablement for applications.

High availability and disaster recovery architectures make the product continuously operate by any means. Continuity can be guaranteed with these architectures. 

Oracle gives high importance to this product and following a "Continuous Innovation" release model for Oracle E-Business Suite 12.2. EBS 12.2 will be supported at least until 2030.

Administration takes some effort. Administrating the technology stack is not so complex but application aware database administration and following the new methodologies like online patching can be a little complex and time consuming. Oracle should ease the administrators jobs and do some innovation on this administration area as well. Oracle Autonomous Database is Oracle's leading technology these days. Using a similar approach, application stack may become a little more self-managing.

EBS still leverages Oracle Forms technology. Oracle Forms might be considered as an old technology when it puts the client machine into the picture. Clients are using their web  browser to connect to the EBS and use several functionality and applications using the web browser only. However, some applications automatically runs Oracle Forms through a Java applet on the client. Of course, this creates a fast, easy-to-use client experience, but it has disadvantages as well, such as, the requirement to manage the client side java.

I have been using and administrating this ERP system (Oracle EBS 12.2) almost since it was released. I have used Oracle EBS for human resources and financials in one my ex-companies and I have worked in the implementation of several EBS 12.2 projects in different customer environments with different product families. It has been more than five years now. I have also used the earlier releases of this product, such as Oracle EBS 11i and R12).  Oracle continued to enhance the product over the years, so this is a review for the latest release, version 12.2.

It is quite stable. It has been in the market for a long time. It is a product of the Oracle Corporation and was created in late 1980s and Oracle continued to enhance the product over the years. The latest release (release 12.2) was created in 2013. Before that, we released R12 (12.1 and 12.). Even release 11i which is quite old, is still used by customers.

The architecture, code, and support are by Oracle. The product is stable and behaves as expected, according to the documentation. Customers can get the benefit from business continuity, recovery, load balancing, fault tolerance, consistency, and scale-out architecture when the implementation is done accordingly.  

It is highly scalable. It supports scale-out architecture with both load balancing and high availability. Applications can run on multiple nodes and database can run Active-Active on Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters). This increases the computational resources. Note that, this is not only for increasing the throughput, but the high availability as well.

As EBS can leverage Oracle Real Application clusters techonology in the database tier, EBS databases can scale-out by adding database nodes to the configuration.. Thus, EBS database workload can be distributed to multiple Oracle database instances and EBS database throughput can be increased almost linearly. 

Similarly, in the application tier, we can have multiple application nodes working together to increase the application tthrougput.. In this context, we can have multiple application nodes, each have their own application servers (Weblogic), their own runtime and batch proccesses. By having this ability, we can increase application performance and make Oracle EBS handle several concurrent user connections.  Batch processing (which is called Concurrent Processing) can also work in the parallel mode (parallel across multiple application nodes) and can also leverage multiple Oracle database instances to provide better and guaranteed throughput.

When needed, more application and database nodes can also be added to the configuratio. We can also declare the role of these nodes according to our needs.. For instance, we can have one application node for serving the requests of internal users and we can have another application node for serving the requests of external users.. Similary, we can have a application node for serving all the web requests, and we can have another application node only for batch processing.

Having a multi-node application tier also provides high availability. That is, if we use a load balancer and configure our EBS well, application contiunity is guaranteed in case of a application node failure.

Moreover, EBS application and database tiers can be replicated to the disaster recovery sites for disaster recovery.. Oracle Data Guard Technology is used for database replication. A replication tool (such as rsync), a filesystem replication feature or a storage replication feature can be used for replicating the application tier to the disaster recovery sites. 

This type of a configuration can provide application continuity in case of a site failure..  Morever, active dataguard can be used for offloading some production reporting to Oracle EBS disaster site database instances..

Customers get their support from the Oracle support portal (support.oracle.com). Customers can also get local support from the Oracle Partner companies, which are quite capable of both implementing and supporting the solution. Both functional and technical support is available. Additionally, there are lots of public documents available, such as, books and blogs about EBS. This is also advantageous for customers who want to learn the product on their own and keep their support and consultancy cost minimum.

My customers and my ex-companies have used several custom and packaged applications before switching to EBS. They were using different application for different purposes. The applications they were using weren't modular.. 

The decision for switching to EBS was to have a centralized software system for bringing all the required functionalities and applications together. For one of my customer, the decision was made by head quarters which was located in another country. It was a big, global holding company and the head quarters decided to use the same software for all the companies under its control. 

Technically, it is straightforward. However, there are challenges in the functional side. This is expected as implementing ERP is a complex subject. 

When managed with a proper project plan and right resources, projects are completed on time and with success.

In most cases, I was on the vendor team that implemented the projects. In my experience, Oracle partners who are specialized in this area can be classified as experts with knowledge and real life expertise.

By using EBS, and putting almost all the functionality and applications integrated together inside this ERP, maintenance and consultancy costs previously required for different applications and application vendors can be reduced.

The labor and time required for manual data entry is avoided.

A better integration across the divisions is provided with these ERP implementations. This also provides a better visibility and reporting. Also, lots of business processes can be automated.

Thanks to online patching, Customers gain an opportunity to decrease their downtime.

In order to minimize the implementation and consultancy costs, business lines should have proper definitions. They need to have a proper way of retrieving their data, which should be structured well.

Both the current projects and future projects should be defined well. Licensing should be done according to current and near future plans.

Customer should do their sizing and understand their computational resource needs. They need to start sales negotiations according to their actual needs.

Customers should evaluate the partner who is responsible for implementing the project. 
The better the partner, the higher the success rate of the project.

We did evaluate other options. Customers usually evaluate solutions from local software providers. However, most of the time, enterprise customers conclude that those solutions are less capable than EBS. Most of the vendors that supply those solutions are quite smaller when compared to Oracle.. 

According to my experience, enterprise customers also consider SAP. In these considerations, the conclusion usually depends on the costs and are indexed to the success in the sales and pre-sales activities.

Customers can run Oracle EBS on Oracle Cloud today.. If the client's needs and expectations are met and they are compatible with the regulations they are subject to, they can also think of running Oracle EBS on cloud.

E-Business Suite's best features are BAT functionality, flexibility, configurability, and integration with Oracle Database.

E-Business Suite's user experience and interface could be improved. There are also some issues related to the cloud version, such as less powerful flexibility that prevents easy customization and integration. In the future, I would like E-Business Suite to include more self-service applications and no-code/low-code capabilities for users to create simple applications.

I've been using E-Business Suite since 2004.

Oracle's support could be quicker and more responsive.

The initial setup is easy and takes six to twelve months - about eight to nine on average.

Compared to other vendors like SAP or Microsoft, the prices for Oracle are reasonable, but they could always be lower.

I especially like E-Business Suite's data management functionality - I would say it provides perfect data management inside the app. I would advise anybody wanting to implement E-Business Suite to try to understand and implement standard functionality first before doing any customization. I would rate E-Business Suite as eight out of ten.

We use this solution in our company to help with processes and dealing with payments for company projects. We are customers of Oracle and I'm the director of ERP systems. 

There are a few valuable features in this solution, the most valuable of which is the ERP. The customization and integration features are also great, it's the main thing you look for in a suite. 

Our biggest problem with this solution is the user interface. We'd like to see a simpler, more user-friendly product, with a flexible process, like you get with Fusion or SAP S4HANA. Both those solutions have a better UI, whereas Oracle has older features and feels like an outdated product. We're looking to migrate to another product because of that and because Oracle is lacking AI features. 

I've been using this solution for five years. 

This is a stable product. 

Technical support is a mixed bag and depends on the support requested. Sometimes it goes to someone who isn't knowledgeable and can't help us and sometimes they're fine and can solve our problem. 

The initial setup was a little complex for us and I think it took close to seven months to complete using an integrator team; it's a continuous process. We have a team that deals with the maintenance of the solution and there are around 400 users in the company. 

This is an expensive solution but it's to be expected because ERPs are expensive. 

This is still a good product and I would recommend it even though it doesn't suit us anymore. 

I rate this solution a seven out of 10.