Getting More from Your Oracle ERP: An ERP Leader's Guide

The Critical Role of ERP Leadership

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems—and those overseeing them—are crucial to organizational efficiency, productivity, revenue, and growth. The titles of those tasked with ensuring ERP success range from Financial Systems Director to Business Systems Manager to CIO. In every case, these leaders see the ERP system as mission-critical to the business.

After talking with leaders from across industries who manage Oracle E-Business Suite and Fusion ERP systems, three shared areas of focus are apparent: ERP road-mapping and innovation, ERP system integrity, and ERP end-user support.

1. ERP road-mapping and innovation - ERP leaders devote time to planning for the future and driving digital transformation efforts. They want to optimize current ERP usage and find new, innovative ways to accelerate data efficiency and growth. In this mission, ERP leaders partner with business stakeholders and ERP users to identify desired new features and define their priority, cost, and expected ROI.They also seek opportunities to automate or simplify ERP tasks and improve business processes, primarily around their data. After establishing their vision and goals, ERP leaders unite stakeholders for project planning and implementation. As the project proceeds, they monitor progress and business impact.
2. ERP system integration - ERP leaders are responsible for ERP reliability and function. They oversee system updates, new functionality releases, and master data maintenance. Their teams work to prevent system outages, failures, and user errors.Another concern is data accuracy for reporting, financial transactions, and other essential workflows. In addition to monitoring the ERP system and usage, ERP leaders and their teams frequently check in with stakeholders in areas like AR, AP, and procurement to identify and understand potential issues.
3. ERP end-user support - If the ERP system is hindering employee productivity or on-time and on-budget task completion, ERP leaders will need to provide a solution. Their teams are also responsible for end-user support services and increasing user satisfaction and efficiency. This includes answering user questions, engaging with technical teams, and training users on the ERP system, business processes, and related tools. Strategic ERP leaders aim to decrease help requests and make ERP usage easier by not only improving documentation and training but also simplifying processes.

The Challenges of Maintaining ERP Data

Many ERP leaders name data management and maintenance as a daunting challenge and frequent topic of user support requests.

Having outdated or inaccurate data impacts business processes and limits agility and growth. Yet ERP end-users often struggle to efficiently and accurately update data in mass volumes. Many processes are manual and confusing, frustrating users and taking hours of their valuable time.

Oracle’s built-in tools for working with mass data are not user-friendly and require substantial investment in IT hours and user training. They are hard to customize and only work for limited use cases. Data validation is also a complex process with Oracle’s data loaders, leading users to either miss errors or have trouble addressing them.

Selecting the right software for data loading can simplify an ERP leader’s job. Here are some tips to remember when searching for a solution.

1. Secure alignment on requirements and priorities Talk with stakeholders to determine what they value most in data loading and editing tools. Common considerations include: ? Support for mass downloads, edits, and uploads? Ease of use for non-technical end-users? Customization options for various use cases? Precise error reporting and real-time data validation? Single spreadsheet data view? Automation that will reduce manual entry and human error? Ability to work right out-of-the-box (no IT dev needed)? Software security and reliability, with a quality support team
2. Set clear KPIs for software impact ERP leaders may track or aim for improvements such as:? Increased data accuracy? Faster and/or expanded reporting capabilities? Faster completion of recurring tasks? Higher user satisfaction? Decreased help requests? Reduction in IT development/maintenance needs? Improved ability to meet deadlines
3. Look for software with benefits for multiple teams Look for a tool with the flexibility to satisfy a range of business use cases and needs. Having teams from across the organization use the same software will simplify initial change management efforts. It will also make ongoing support and training easier. Additionally, there will be fewer vendor relationships to manage, and organizations typically save money by choosing one tool over multiple.
4. Plan to support future scale Another consideration is how data volume and usage will grow over time. Whatever software businesses select, an increase in data should not add complexity for ERP users. Moreover, organizations should be confident that the software will support business and workflow changes without requiring extensive IT support or manual entry.

How More4apps Helps ERP Leaders

More4apps offers Excel-based software for Oracle data loading that addresses many challenges faced by ERP leaders. More4apps software makes it easy for non-technical users of Oracle E-Business Suite and Fusion Cloud to complete mass downloads, edits, and uploads. It provides an integrated spreadsheet solution and full Excel features and functionality.

More4apps reduces manual input, improves data accuracy with real-time validation and actionable error messaging, and eliminates reliance on complex Oracle forms or tools like Web ADI, ADFdi, or FBDI.

With teams able to customize spreadsheets to their unique needs, organizations often deploy More4apps across many departments. End-users can work with their data for wide-ranging uses, including maintaining suppliers, project ledgers, and much more. The software works out-of-the-box without the need for IT development.

After adopting More4apps , users will see increased speed and ease of task completion, including loading data 90% faster. More4apps tools require very little user training, and ERP leaders can expect to quickly see elevated user satisfaction and productivity along with reduced help requests.

As a result, teams will gain more time to devote to strategy and organizational improvements. By helping companies update data efficiently, More4apps also makes it easier for leaders to introduce new ERP workflows and business processes.

Want to learn more?

Contact our team of experts today and find out how More4apps can help you!