What is most valuable?
The flexibility to scale up is very good. Regardless of the customer, customization is not as complicated as it is in SAP or even ISS and other products.
There is a range of modules available in Oracle which you can switch on as you progress in your organization. You don't have to necessarily take a lot of time to kickstart the implementation. You can just start with basic HR, finance, and purchasing. Then, later on, you can extend the application landscape with more modules as you progress. There is essentially one solution for every industry within Oracle — you won't require a third-party solution. Still, if you wish to use a third-party solution because the price is too high or because of a specific technical requirement, then you are free to do so.
What needs improvement?
I currently work for a company that specializes in aircraft maintenance. There used to be a module in Oracle called CMRO. Now, the current situation is that they are pretty much closing down that module. Roughly eight or nine years back when they started it, they were anticipating a good number of customers but the reality turned out to be different — that's why they closed down that module. That created a lot of trouble for a lot of companies. Truthfully speaking, that is the reason I moved towards ISS. Although it's not as popular as Oracle or SAP, ISS focuses on industries. ISS provides us with an industry-based solution, geared toward aviation, field service management, or manufacturing for example.
Oracle E-Business Suite uses an old technology (Forms), which is Java-based. If you're using a functionality that is based on Oracle Forms, then the client machine needs to download an applet in order to use that function. Often I've encountered, during support issues, that the client machine, if it is a little obsolete or an older version, the Java versions cause trouble. Wherein if you look at the modern cloud perspective or modern software in general, it's mostly web or browser-based. That's one thing that Oracle should consider on-prem.
There is still a huge amount of customers who are on on-prem. Upgrades should have a business case. I don't want to upgrade just because Oracle has come up with a new version — I should have some benefits. We are one of those customers who are not interested in shifting to the cloud for various reasons. Because of this, we have to live with this old Forms technology. Oracle should try to offer a balance between both versions instead of pushing customers to the cloud. This seems to be a strategy that both SAP and Oracle follow.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle E-Business Suite for more than one year. In total, I have more than 10 years of experience with Oracle.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Oracle E-Business Suite is definitely stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Regarding their technical support, my personal experience over a period of two to three years is that you'll begin to notice a pattern regarding what time you should raise a service request so that it reaches the right place. Whether it goes to India or to Egypt — these are the two most popular centers for Oracle support. But if you manage to hit the right people, the support is there. 70 to 80 percent of the time, I receive a solution to my problems simply through the technical repository — within the portal itself. I prefer to do it like this rather than by creating a service request and waiting for a response from a potentially inexperience staff member. I'd rather just depend on the documentation. The documentation is very rich. The Oracle community is big.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was quite straightforward. I have worked with SAP, Oracle, Dynamics, and now I'm using ISS. With all of them, you need to have some basic expertise before you jump into the pool, otherwise, your life could be complicated. If you have that basic guidance and experience, it's not complicated when it comes to Oracle. Still, there are prerequisites for each of them — especially when it comes to Oracle. You need to have had hands-on experience with PL/SQL or developer experience with Java.
The best part about Oracle is that it has openly published its documentation on its implementation checklist — how to follow, configure, etc. For this reason, it's much easier to implement Oracle compared to ISS or SAP, for example. This is due to the fact that they insist that you need to follow their documentation and it's not publicly available everywhere. This makes things a bit easier when it comes to Oracle.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If you're buying a license, support is roughly 22% of the price of the whole product. So, in the first year, you'll definitely get support. Some companies, over a period of time, try to knock off the Oracle support costs because it just keeps growing. Every year, according to their published price, it will increase from three to five percent from the last year. Now, imagine you bought a product worth 1.5 billion; what would be the support cost in the first year? And then plus 5%, plus 5% — it goes on, and on. You'll come to a point where you feel you're wasting money because support is support whether I am paying for five users or 500 users.
There is a solution for all of your current problems in Oracle E-Business Suite, but the constraint is the license. I'll give you a live example. Let's say I bought an employee self-service. What I would get is a bunch of licenses that I can use on the web version on my local internet. But with the current model of digitalization, you know that the employees would prefer to have some sort of mobile app or at least a desktop site. So, if I want that to happen, then I'd need to buy another set of licenses. The same self-service on the mobile version.
These are the pain points with Oracle. The license is normalized or broken down to such a level that it becomes a pain. Regarding a new customer, unless he's been using this solution for two or three years, he won't get used to these licenses. There is a good chance that he'd become exploited by Oracle's account managers in terms of licenses. Oracle's licenses are not straightforward.
Personally, I have worked on several projects where I have had to help customers understand Oracle licensing — it's not simple in SAP either. There are pros and cons to both solutions. Sometimes it could be beneficial and sometimes it's troublesome. That is something I feel that Oracle should try to simplify.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven.
Oracle E-Business Suite is not for small businesses as, over a period of time, you will incur a huge cost when it comes to hosting. It's not just about application licensing, there is also hosting infrastructure, etc. It's not the functionality that's the problem for small entities, it's the overall cost. Smaller companies should go for something like AppDynamics, SAP Business, or NetSuite.
Oracle is best suited for large organizations — from medium to large. It's a great solution for companies who grow quickly and need the best scalability possible. Unless you have a minimum user base of 3,000, you shouldn't be using Oracle.
Oracle is for medium to large-sized companies that are projected to grow in one or two years. Otherwise, it will become a pain point for you because the IT expenses will shoot through the roof. As a product, as a functionality, if you check this particular prerequisite, I would definitely recommend it.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
