Oracle E-Business Suite Reviews

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.

We manage all our financial operations, including sales, purchases, and inventory, through this system. Everything is fully configured, and we’ve found it highly effective.

It handles all my financial functions, including the entire process of financial transactions.

It's more expensive than other options due to licensing costs and core-based hardware. Managing licenses can be tedious. For example, if I want to discontinue some licenses, it's a complicated process. Once we're committed, it's challenging to exit the system.

I have been using Oracle E-Business Suite for 13 years.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

About 200 users are using this solution

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

We opened a ticket, and we got the solution on time.

We relied on an integrator for initial implementation and cloud migration. After that, our internal team managed it.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Our company specializes in implementing Oracle ERP solutions.

Our company has worked with specific customers in the telecommunications industry, some of whom were looking to replace their existing systems. For those with technical needs, we were able to provide effective solutions, and in one instance, we successfully implemented IaaS Logistics.

I am not familiar with those specific details. It's possible that the information is only available to the marketing department or another team within the company.

Our clients have experienced improvements in workflow and time efficiency.

The most valuable features of Oracle ERP depend on the specific needs of each customer. 

The financial module has excellent features that many find valuable, while the HCM module is also highly regarded. 

Additionally, Property Manager IFRS 16 is known to be effective. 

Ultimately, the choice of which features to use depends on each customer's unique requirements.

Improving the reporting and user interface of Oracle ERP would be beneficial and is something that can be considered for future updates.

As an operations manager, my knowledge of the functional aspects of Oracle ERP is limited, and functional experts would likely have a better understanding. However, based on feedback from many customers, the reporting features of the system are not considered to be very effective.

We have been working with Oracle for 12 years.

We are working with the latest version of Oracle E-Business Suite.

Oracle E-Business Suite is a stable solution.

Oracle E-Business Suite is a scalable solution.

The Oracle ERP software is customizable, you can tailor it to your specific needs and requirements.

While technical support for Oracle ERP can be slow at times, overall it is good and helpful.

I would rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

We also work with Fusion.

Speaking from a functional perspective, I don't believe that the initial setup of Oracle ERP would be a particularly complicated task for the team responsible for handling it.

Here's a possible rephrased version, based on my understanding:

The Oracle ERP software doesn't require any specific maintenance beyond normal routine maintenance.

Most of our customers have deployed it on-premises.

Here's a possible rephrased version, based on my understanding:

We have a team responsible for deploying and installing Oracle ERP for our customers.

My team consists of both DBAs (Database Administrators) and other technical professionals with various specialties.

In my opinion, the prices for Oracle ERP are reasonable, especially considering the various discounts that are often available. 

Overall, I believe the pricing is fair.

Oracle ERP is widely recognized as a very good product, and information about it can be found on our website and through our partners. 

When a customer is in need of an ERP solution, they often turn to Oracle due to its reputation and track record of delivering high-quality products.

I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.

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

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. 

We primarily use it as an ERP.

This product helped us automate our business processes 13 years ago. But nowadays it is not modern enough. 

The system has been useful to us in the past. We have had a good experience with this solution for 13 years. 

But now it is deprecated and not suitable enough. So, we go to Oracle Fusion Cloud. Now we are launching a new system.

This system can't be improved.

For 13 years.

This system was quite stable. 

We didn't use Oracle technical support directly. We worked with an Oracle partner, a Russian company. We are happy to work with them and satisfied with the level of service they provide.

Positive

Previously we used iScala 2.2

The initial setup was not easy.

Oracle ERP is not a cheap solution.

It is not a good idea to use this old system nowadays. It is deprecated.

Choose more modern system.

This solution is used for handling a lot of modules and files, e.g. HR and supply chain. These are the main uses of Oracle E-Business Suite in the workforce.

This solution offers customization. We have the ability to change and add our custom solutions and integrate them with the standard ones.

These modules are integrated together. HR files are integrated with the supply chain files, e.g. employees are defined on the HR module. You can use this solution as a buyer or as a supplier, and it has a file server. Transferring files is integrated with HR, and the files would be applied to the employees. It can be used and it can uptake the accounts and copy them to the server, and all of the modules could be integrated together.

The most valuable feature of Oracle E-Business Suite is that it is customizable.

The biggest improvement for Oracle is for them to move to the cloud. With Oracle E-Business Suite, movement to the cloud should be supported. I am still not working on cloud applications, but I will eventually.

I've been implementing this solution for four or five years.

This solution is very stable.

Scalability is not related to our Oracle plan. We are not allowed to expand. We're only allowed to apply our custom solution. If we want to add a page or add a screen, we are allowed to do that within limits. We are not allowed to change the Oracle product itself. We can add something, but without touching any object that Oracle implements.

Sometimes, Oracle's support is very good and they give fast replies to all cases, but not all replies contain the solution. Sometimes they provide accurate solutions and effective solutions. Other times, they don't. Support could be improved.

The initial setup and deployment were done by another team in our company. We call them the DBA team (Database Administrators).

I am not working with Oracle Business Intelligence (BI). I am working as an Oracle developer, but not with Oracle development tools. I am working with tools such as Oracle Reports and Oracle Workflow Builder, but not with business intelligence tools.

I don't work for an Oracle Vendor, but I implement some products, e.g. the Oracle E-Business Suite.

We are developers and we aren't authorized to set up. For setup, there are other people concerned with setup, such as the administrators. There are three main jobs in this field. Administrators are responsible for setup, security, and configuration. Consultants are the ones who know the business, business rules, and verification among application screens or pages. Developers receive the instructions from the consultants and apply these solutions technically, and also add and make changes.

I am working as a freelancer, so I don't know all the sites the company implements this solution in, but it depends on the customization needed in each site. Some sites don't have a lot of requirements, e.g. they use the standard form of the application, meaning they don't need a lot of customization. There are sites or huge companies that have a lot of different business cases so they would need a lot of customization. It could take more than one year or two years to complete.

We are from Egypt and we fall under the Gulf area market. Most clients are from the Gulf area, but I don't know exactly how many clients. The main competition is between SAP and Oracle, but in the Gulf area, Oracle E-Business Suite is used more than SAP.

I don't know exactly how much this solution costs, but it will depend on the number of users.

My advice to people who want to implement Oracle E-Business Suite is to first be clear about the customizations they need. This is important. They should be clear and know what exactly they need to implement, and they should also know accurately the changes they want to implement for their business.

I am not able to give a rating because Oracle E-Business Suite is the first app on the market. Every application has disadvantages or points of weakness, but Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics are three of the most accurate. They are the three best products in the world, but for this solution, I'm giving a seven out of ten.

I'm working with a vendor to implement Oracle EDS for my customers.

I like Oracle ERP for streamlining the entire process from PRTL and invoice payments. It also has the decision and internet sale order, and my customers can correct the internet decision. It automatically converts to the internet order, and they don't need to create the entry object. They don't need to make a secondary ledger in the parent company and subsidiary. That's very helpful for internet decisions. If they get an order at the parent company, it automatically creates the sales system in the subsidiary.

The user interface could be better. It's not good because they made their interface all in one, and my customers don't want to use it. I have to customize the interface and personalize it to hide some fields on the screen. It has lots of information on the screen, and the user can't easily navigate it. It's very difficult to use. 

I think that Oracle should have something like best practices. They need to provide some patches to simplify the interface based on the industry niche. Because now we see everything on the same screen, but the users don't need all that information. It's complicated to use for end-users, and we have to spend more time training them.

In the next release, I think they should implement most of the features in the mobile app. It should be better. Oracle didn't update their mobile application for a very long time. Connecting the mobile application is complicated.

I have been working with Oracle E-Business Suite for 19 years.

Oracle support is good.

The initial setup is complicated. For the end-user, it'll take about two or three weeks to use one of the modules.

Oracle prices are better in Vietnam and more flexible. If we need to customize something in Oracle, it's very flexible and easy to customize.

I would tell potential users that they need to understand the requirements and the time required to implement them. They can implement it separately in phases. Phase one is very simple. It's simple for finance, procurement, and inventory. After that, we can extend it step by step. They shouldn't implement several models at once as it's complicated.

Oracle consultants should take more time to learn the product, and they have to understand the Vietnamese. They also take time to learn the product becasue it's very complicated.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Oracle E-Business Suite a seven.

Some of the features we have are purchasing the inventory, general ledger, order management, receivables, payables, and process production.

It would be nice to have more web services. For example, it would be easier to integrate our applications with EBS.

I would definitely like to see web services in purchasing. It has badly covered integration with APIs.

I have been working with Oracle E-Business Suite since 2007.

Oracle E-Business Suite is a stable product.

We have approximately 250 licenses in our organization.

We have support from our local vendors who send service requests directly to Oracle.

Service requests directly from Oracle take too much time and effort. 

The price would be better if it were lower.

We are adopting other modules with local vendors. We have support from them.

I would suggest getting a local implementor.

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