Oracle OpenWorld 2011 Fusion and Supplier Relationship Management Sessions

It was an informative and fun week at Oracle OpenWorld!  I attended 14 sessions at the conference and presented one.  The majority of sessions I attended addressed PeopleSoft 9.1 and 9.2 Supplier Relationship Management and Supply Chain Management and Fusion SRM and SCM.

One of the most exciting features, in my opinion, is what’s called Transparent Punchout.  Basically what this means is that the user can punch out to a direct connect supplier or marketplace and never leave the PeopleSoft eProcurement page.  All results of the search executed in eProcurment are brought back from the vendors without ever leaving the page and it brings results back from multiple vendors.  The technology supporting this feature must be supported by the vendor(s) being punched out to.  The transparent punchout feature will be available in PeopleSoft in an upcoming 9.1 feature pack release.

I went to several SRM and SCM Fusion sessions.  The message being delivered by Oracle is that Fusion is available and is being implemented in many early adopter organizations.  Included in this message is that Oracle will continue to support its current suite of ERP systems through the use of feature pack releases and major version releases.  Users who want to remain on their existing ERP systems will still be supported by Oracle.

 Based on what I have learned from the conference, the overwhelming majority of early adopters are implementing one or two Fusion modules and using delivered interfaces in the form of web services to connect to their existing systems.  As an example, one company has implemented the Fusion Sourcing module and the Supplier Management module and integrated back to their existing systems.  One of the primary reasons they took this approach is because they had many disparate supplier masters and needed a way to better manage the administration of their supplier base.  Also, they had no electronic strategic sourcing system so decided to move in the direction of what they felt was the future of Oracles’s ERP solution.

All in all I thought it was a very productive conference. If you learned anything interesting that you would like to share please do! I really appreciate your feedback and opinions of the sessions you attended. With so many sessions and limited time, it is impossible to attend all the sessions that peak my interest.

I would be happy to share with you the presentations I attended.  If you contact me by email I will reply with the slide deck from the session(s) you specify from the list below.  I look forward to hearing from you!

1. PeopleSoft  Supplier Relationship Management: Roadmap for Procurement Excellence
2. PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory Management: Anywhere and Anytime with Mobile Inventory Application
3. PeopleSoft SCM Revolutionizes Revenue Optimization with the Supply and Demand Work Center
4. Oracle Fusion Procurement Overview, Strategy, and Roadmap
5. Oracle Fusion Procurement Customer Adoption and Experiences
6. Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management: Oracle Fusion Distributed Order Orchestration Deep Dive
7. Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management: Coexistence with Other Oracle Applications
8. Finding and Buying What You Need in PeopleSoft eProcurement: Today and Tomorrow
9. Oracle Fusion Procurement: Answers to the top 10 Questions
10. Oracle Fusion Inventory Management and Costing Deep Dive
11. PeopleSoft Enterprise Supplier Relationship Management Customer Case Study
12. Sensor-Based Solution for Managing Transportation Logistics and Security
13. Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics for PeopleSoft
14. BTRG HCM9x-AWE – Approval Workfolw Engine (Janet Martin – BTRG)
15. Extending the Reach of PeopleSoft SCM (my presentation)