Oracle’s Growing Ecosystem of Mutual Customers Gain Intelligent Touchless Business Processes

For years, Oracle was considered one of the few technology vendors capable of selling enterprise databases, applications, and cloud services all under one roof. Despite that distinction, the vendor is going even further by directly connecting buyers, sellers, and service providers to integrate and automate end-to-end business-to-business (B2B) transactions.

For example, Oracle is now providing the keys to process electronic payments, virtual card services, and freight movements by matching shippers and carriers automatically.

Steve Miranda, executive vice president of Oracle applications development, has been reiterating the mantra that Oracle is transforming itself into a service company by enabling its clients to offload the above mundane transactions to a robust technology fabric made up of Oracle’s cloud and industry solutions as well as best-in-class service extensions from its partners like FedEx and JP Morgan.

With such service extensions, Oracle customers can easily conduct a range of touchless transactions like issuing corporate cards for procurement, obtaining real-time financing, or executing instant payments around the clock.

Even Oracle’s latest Artificial Intelligence offerings can be seen through the lenses of its strategy of integrating and automating end-to-end business processes – packaging practical and useful software technologies into enterprise services with the end goal of solving everyday business problems.

At a recent analyst event, Oracle showcased Grow, an AI-powered solution in Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) that connects learning, skills growth, and career mobility in one personalized experience to deliver self-directed learning, visibility into career growth opportunities, and skills development aligned with business objectives.

Moreover, Oracle introduced more embedded AI capabilities within Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) that enable automated lead time estimates as well as the ability to turn the whole quote-to-cash process into a single, integrated, and continuous order management data stream with insights that make seamless customer experiences possible.

Miranda Nash, Oracle’s group vice president of applications development and strategy, likens Oracle’s AI approach to radical practicality by prioritizing business value first in any AI innovation.

The symbiotic relationship between Oracle and its customers under an array of commercial arrangements, from strategic cloud services for data center migration to contactless point of sale terminals for omnichannel retailers and from tabulating national health records to real-time supply chain management for integrated transportation and logistics support – underscores the fact that Oracle’s role in helping its customers address their biggest challenges is bound to grow.

With more than 10,000 customers on Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and over 30,000 on Oracle NetSuite, and an army of its systems integration partners managing 80% of the go-lives, Oracle has now built a vibrant B2B community of over 40,000 buyers, sellers and service providers that are capable of conducting touchless transactions with one another.

One use case involves helping JP Morgan customers to obtain invoice factoring directly from Oracle Cloud ERP in order to improve cash on hand quickly through automatic debtor finance. And the benefits for all the parties involved are manifesting themselves in a tangible way.

David Hovstadius, senior vice president of finance operations at Hearst, said the media company has been able to achieve 20% in cost savings to its finance function over the past two years with increased use of Oracle AI for dynamic discounting. AI capabilities in Oracle Cloud ERP mean that Hearst can generate financial reports without manual effort, reaching a level of automation that it has never been able to achieve in the past.

Other multinationals have been able to scale out their financial management function by adopting Oracle Cloud ERP to handle multi-level trading and operate internal banking operations all in the Cloud, while keeping their far-flung subsidiaries running in tip top shape. These scenarios would have been difficult if not impossible in an on-premise environment, said Rondy Ng, executive vice president of Oracle applications.

After becoming a household name during the pandemic, Zoom has more than quadrupled its size between 2020 and 2022 as it migrated from NetSuite to Oracle Cloud ERP to accommodate its stunning growth following its direct-to-consumer pivot to meet the demands of over 300 million concurrent users. The online meeting leader is now collaborating with Oracle Cerner to make telehealth services available to physicians, hospitals, and patients, again illustrating the far-reaching implications of Oracle’s push into every nook and cranny of the business world.

After acquiring more than 40 major software providers in banking, communications, construction, healthcare, hospitality, life sciences, and other verticals over the past decade, Mike Sicilia, executive vice president of Oracle Industries, said the Oracle Cloud is probably the only Cloud that truly delivers mission-critical software and virtual services. He illustrated the point by explaining how the Oracle Cloud ensures the smooth running of a large swath of global commerce from the likes of Pfizer and Merck, that use its products for clinical trials, to local Big Boy restaurants that run its software and payment services for touchless transactions.

With its radical practicality approach in AI to mitigate common risks in early-stage technology implementations, Oracle is hedging its bets by immersing itself into multiple industries all at once. By spreading far and wide, Oracle can avoid being caught dead in a down business cycle that threatens to drag down any particular industry for an extended period of time – similar to what the commercial real estate industry is experiencing currently.

What works to Oracle’s advantage is its focus on end-to-end automation corresponds to how its business partners work together to create a virtuous cycle that results in productivity gains, cost savings and better customer and employee engagement for all the parties including buyers, sellers, and end consumers with Oracle emerging as the ultimate power broker pulling the strings virtually.

List of Oracle Cloud Customers

Source: Apps Run The World, June 2023

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Feature