The last few months have been perhaps some of the most challenging in recent history. The economic impact from Covid-19 has reached out and touched every sector of our business community and the need for quality data to be available, up to date, secure and accurate has never been more important. For many businesses the need to streamline and improve efficiencies internally is vital and the speed at which we enter data can be the key.
For businesses faced with these challenges, prior to the pandemic, the need to find efficient ways to create and update data into the Oracle ERP Cloud provided an opportunity to reduce costs and maximize the value of their ERP investment.
The simple act of improving processes (such as the process for entering purchase orders) can have a major impact on the ongoing success of an organization from bottom line savings right through to the ability to redirect staff time or effort onto other vital areas–such as rebuilding, debt collection, sourcing new products, negotiating better supply deals, and refocusing strategies to strengthen business in these challenging times.
For Oracle users reliant on huge amounts of data and who are working in the Oracle ERP Cloud environment there has always been stumbling blocks and barriers.
Answers to these questions are captured in More4Apps self-funded research paper: “Importing data into Oracle ERP Cloud: A comparison of efficiencies”, which is hosted here. This paper provides a good starting point for any organisation working with or moving towards Oracle ERP Cloud. It provides a review of Oracle’s data loading tools and the new More4apps ERP Cloud Toolbox . It outlines key concerns or pain points and the different solutions and how this new offering fits.
Oracle offers three options for data entry and import – the traditional Oracle Forms user interface for every day operations; a mass loader with a .csv format spreadsheet loader known as FBDI and ADFdi, a spreadsheet integration for a small number of data processing needs. This has now changed with the first offering from longstanding Oracle Gold partner More4Apps Cloud Toolbox.
Summarized below are the key findings in the whitepaper:
From these findings it is evident that the More4Apps ERP Cloud Toolbox offers positive solutions for those working with large data sets.
Key benefits of the More4Apps ERP Cloud Toolbox include speed, accuracy and the integrity retained by the ERP as the single source of data. With this first launch, the focus was the Procurement Module.
“Due to popular demand, More4apps opted to release the first product right away. Additional functionality will be added to the Procurement Module over the next 12-18 months.” John O’Keeffe, More4apps CEO and Founder says “For several years,
More4apps’ existing customer base has requested versions of the existing tools for the newer ERP Cloud environment, the need for a well-designed spreadsheet integration for the new ERP became increasingly apparent.”
The Procurement Module, the pioneering product of More4apps’ ERP Cloud Toolbox, assists in streamlining the process of creating, updating and cancelling purchase orders within Oracle ERP Cloud. The Module is immediately available for demonstration and testing via the company’s website www.more4apps.com
So back to purchase orders. Purchase orders are a common process across all businesses. Initial user testing, (conducted by a major USA food chain) showed significant time and cost savings, reducing the time it took to upload a 100-line purchase order from 55 minutes down to just 5 minutes – the potential benefits for the business are immense. Effort can be redirected onto more important things!
The More4apps ERP Cloud Toolbox Procurement model consists of a familiar Excel spreadsheet interface that integrates directly with Oracle’s public Web Services to allow streamlined data uploading and updating. It verifies data before loading, and provides a consistent and user-friendly experience across all functions. Once again the potential for business change is huge – data is being used, validated and entered by the end user in a way they understand!
“End users authenticate with their Oracle ERP Cloud credentials via the standard Single Sign-On mechanisms. Because we use Oracle’s web services, our Modules respect all built-in data access rules and roles,” O’Keeffe states.
In conclusion, in today’s challenging times, businesses need to get back to basics – look internally for opportunities to change or simplify process improvements such as improving the time it takes to enter purchase orders. Simple changes in these areas can provide huge opportunities to refresh, reinvigorate, redeploy effort, and improve. Having the right tool can empower end-users to do this and the Oracle ERP Cloud combined with the More4apps’ ERP Cloud Toolbox lets them do this.
Article written by More4apps Product Champion Lead David Wright and Tech Translator Aandrea Murray.
This article was first published in the Oracle Applications & Technology Users Group online magazine INSIGHT.
The OATUG Insight magazine, allow members to share implementation tips, successes achieved, lessons learned and more.
