What is our primary use case?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for about 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
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.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
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.
How are customer service and technical support?
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.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I briefly thought about evaluation other options, but it didn't happen because I'd already had some experience with Oracle.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.