IBM Consulting for Oracle in the Americas: The industrial sector

In August 2021, I was appointed to a?new role?as leader of IBM Consulting for Oracle in the Americas.

Together with Neil Mclaughlin, I recently met with sector leaders from our Oracle Americas practice to brainstorm our go-to-market strategy and discuss how we plan to bring about business transformation for clients. In this blog series, I’ll share insights from the leadership team about trends and priorities for the industries they serve.?

In this first part of the series, I want to highlight the?industrial sector.?

The industrial sector in the IBM Oracle Americas practice covers several industries:?

·??????Automotive—which is shifting focus?to connected vehicles and digital services

·??????Chemical, petroleum and industrial products—where companies are rethinking customer experience, employee safety and asset management???

·??????Electronics and high tech—which is eager to innovate with agility and boost manufacturing productivity

2021 was an exciting year for the industrial sector.?The group has grown significantly,?with world events creating substantial demand upon manufacturers to evolve their business processes. In turn, IBM has been helping our clients tackle their challenges and make the necessary changes.

Randy Chinn?is the Oracle go-to-market partner for the industrial sector in the IBM Consulting for Oracle Americas practice. He’s worked at IBM for the last 11 years providing solutions to IBM clients in the Oracle ecosystem. Before that, Randy spent 20 years as an Oracle employee, focused on implementing Oracle business solutions.

Below are some of Randy’s reflections and strategic plans for the industrial sector in the IBM Oracle Americas practice.

What are some of the biggest trends and challenges you’re seeing in the industrial sector??

Our clients in the industrial sector tend to have much of their business on Oracle E-Business Suite. Moving them to the cloud is still a big trend for us, and we have a range of services and solutions to support their move to Oracle Cloud—from impact assessments to support for rapid migration to cognitive enterprise offerings. In addition, business transformation and?application management services?continue to be big in the industrial sector. Moving to Oracle HCM is a big trend. And Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is critical due to the nature of industrial sector clients’ environments.

Our clients need to transform their business operations while hitting their goals and migrating to the cloud. Putting these three elements together successfully can be a big challenge. The organizations we work with typically have complex hybrid computing environments. The good news is that IBM Consulting for Oracle can help.

What is our strategy in the industrial sector?

In IBM Consulting for Oracle in the Americas, our strategy is to use all of IBM’s deep and diverse capabilities to enable businesses to develop a business transformation plan and gain commitment from key internal stakeholders for a path to bring it to fruition. Typically, business transformation plans for our clients in the industrial sector involve moving as many of their systems to cloud as possible and developing a cost-efficient and ongoing support model. Such projects take time, but we can help at every stage of their journey with Oracle.

What solutions are most relevant to clients in this sector?

IBM Consulting has offerings in the?IBM Cognitive Enterprise Business Platform for Oracle Cloud tailored to the subindustries of our sector. Our enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions are robust, including for clients who want to move from SAP Business Planning and Consolidation to Oracle Cloud ERP. We also offer an?IBM Cloud Impact Assessment?uniquely tailored to the industrial sector. And?IBM RapidMove for Oracle Cloud?can help clients migrate from Oracle E-Business Suite to Oracle SaaS.

How are you working with Oracle in the industrial sector?

Oracle is very strong in industrial and high tech, so it’s a natural alignment for two big players in this space to have an excellent working relationship. IBM and Oracle have collaborated for decades to bring business transformation to clients.?

IBM Consulting for Oracle has deep knowledge of Oracle and of the specific solutions that can support our clients. We generally have a longer tenure working with them than most of our competitors. And it shows—clients recognize the fact that we do it right the first time and stay with them for the long haul.

If you want to learn more about the IBM Oracle Americas industrial sector strategy, leave a comment below and?connect with Randy on LinkedIn. And feel free to explore the?IBM Consulting for Oracle?website to see some of service offerings and read client stories.??

Stay tuned for the next piece in the series.