Accelerate & Simplify Oracle EBS Data Loading Processes

Improve your data loading process substantially with our Oracle E-Business Suite (Oracle EBS)

This blog outlines the solutions and explains how we can help to improve Oracle’s data loading process for your business.

How Important is Data Accuracy to Your Business?

According to Gartner, allowing poor data to enter your system could cost your business up to $12.8 million annually.

If you’re already using Oracle EBS, then you know that it is a powerful data processing tool. Despite its many benefits, the EBS user interface is inefficient when entering and updating mass data loads. A specific limitation of Oracle EBS is the burden of improving and extracting information. 

Committing to improving data quality; has a positive impact on your top and bottom-line results. However, what is the best way to achieve better data quality in Oracle EBS? 

In our latest whitepaper, “What are the Choices?,” we’ve weighed the pros and cons of each available option. Understanding each solution is crucial to ensure you choose the option that best meets the needs of your business when working with Oracle EBS. 

Free Solutions

Web ADI is included with your Oracle EBS license and is pre-installed on your Oracle system. However, it does need to be installed on the user’s PC.

Web ADI  is a self-service Oracle application that is part of EBS. Processing is managed by the server, meaning there is no need to install any additional software to enable its use. 

It includes a selection of ready-packaged and customizable solutions. Using it makes data inputting easier because it allows end-users to complete EBS tasks using familiar programs such as Microsoft Excel and Word.

WebADI does not offer the level of functionality required by most businesses. It includes more than 300 seeded templates, but these are not specific to the unique needs of your business.

Custom-Built Solutions

Bulk loaders such as SQL*Loader and APEX can handle millions of data lines with supporting PL/SQL scripts. Although, building them can be time-consuming and require specialized ongoing maintenance. That means you’ll need to employ skilled developers with the relevant knowledge and experience.

Finding a suitable developer can be tricky. EBS launched 20 years ago, so the people who worked on early implementations may not be available. If you do manage to find someone, they will expect a high rate of pay in exchange for their expertise.

Another problem with custom development is that it is insecure and unaudited. It requires many hand-offs and exchanges between the developer and end-user, adding even more delays to the data processing timeline.

Third-Party Software Solutions

Dataloader

Dataloader offers two variants; one free and one paid. Most companies are happy with the free version and use its basic keyboard stroke emulation functionality. 

It’s ideal for small data loads but does tend to continue running even if it hits an error. In some cases, this will create invalid data.

The paid version has some better features, including the ability to record transactions to playback. It is also much faster. However, it requires the setup of Samba drives or FTP to get the loads to run.

Getting the correct data in the spreadsheet format is tricky and time-consuming, whichever version you choose.

Your Excel Interface for Oracle 

We make Oracle EBS more accessible, meaning you can utilize its full functionality.

Our solutions allow businesses to integrate their familiar Excel spreadsheets with Oracle EBS. You can load data more efficiently because the ERP becomes a single source of robust data.

Why choose a third party?  We’ve been a trusted Oracle partner for more than 20 years and have 34,000 users around the globe. We’re proud of our reputation as a market leader for Oracle spreadsheet loading tools and will help you achieve faster, more accurate data loading for better business.

Our products were designed with Oracle EBS end-users in mind and developed to help you upload and download data more efficiently, saving time and money. 

Our tools work in harmony with Oracle EBS, all within the familiar interface of Microsoft Excel and leveraging Oracle’s mid-tier for connectivity.

Since Excel is the main interface, training or onboarding are unnecessary because end-users already have experience with the program. Although, we do offer simple, quick, and focused training sessions if needed, giving IT Managers peace of mind. 

Our solutions are feature-rich toolsets that empower data owners to carry out mass uploads and updates. End-users retain ownership and control of their data, instead of relying on IT.

EBS Toolbox

End users can own their entire data loading process without API experience because data is transferred effortlessly between Excel and Oracle. 

 Our EBS Toolbox will save your company time and reduce errors, ultimately improving overall business performance. 

How do our Solutions Benefit Stakeholders?

Investing in a solution from us provides the following business benefits:

Senior Managers:

• Decision-making is supported by highly reliable, accurate data
• Improved efficiency within the data entry team, meaning reduced costs in terms of headcount
• Faster processing times for important business operating procedures
• Improved return on investment from Oracle

IT Team:

• Releases their time to provide support with more technical tasks
• Enables stakeholders to better utilize Oracle systems, resulting in fewer queries 
• Positively impact data quality, governance, and security
• Improves audit quality across the business

Management:

• Reduces the amount of time spent on routine data processing, releasing more time for other important work 
• Improve accuracy and offers the ability to detect and resolve data quality issues and errors
• Improves audit trail
• Allows employees to spend more time analyzing data and taking appropriate action, rather than being focused only on data entry

End-user:

• Users  complete their data inputting work more quickly and easily, using a familiar program
• Removes the need to work with Oracle forms, which are not user-friendly
• Easier to detect and amend errors or omissions in the data
• Users can work in a familiar environment, reducing the need for additional training

Conclusion

Every company is under pressure to save time and increase revenue. Eliminating inefficiencies in operational areas such as IT is vital. 

When considering ways to improve efficiency, business leaders may discuss moving tasks away from the IT department or sourcing cheaper technology solutions. Whilst these are valid considerations, they must never compromise the integrity of the ERP or incur excessive time or money to implement. 

Each of the data loading solutions has its own merits. So why should you choose our tools for your business?

Our products are focused on improving the end-user’s experience. That means they are designed to be simple, user-friendly, and quick to implement. 

Why do we choose to work with the end-user in mind? They are the people who know the data better than anyone else. So we think empowering them is part of ensuring high-quality data is entered in accordance with business timescales. 

Empowering the end-user to deal with the end-to-end data loading process means skilled IT staff can focus on more technical tasks.

Are you interested in learning more? Click the “Contact us” button below to complete the short form and one of our experts will reach out to you directly.