Oracle Corp. has confirmed it will be dismissing several hundred employees next month as the leading software developer attempts to restructure its existing cloud computing strategy.

The announcement may represent a fraction of its expansive workforce but does include a focus number of people working within the infrastructure cloud units which are intended to generate growth.

The database leader intends to cut over 350 people on May 21st in a report released with the state of California. Regional media reports that the company had recently removed a number of unspecified jobs outside of California over the last week. Oracle has faced challenges to increase its revenue during a transition towards internet-based systems and services.

Deborah Hellinger, a representative for Oracle explains that as their cloud business grows, they continually look to balance resources and restructure their development group to create the right people to deliver the most effective cloud products to customers worldwide.

At the Oracle Modern Business Experience conference in Las Vegas, Oracle confirmed a series of updates to the Oracle SaaS suite that expands its focus in finance, HR and within the supply chain.

This week Oracle announced they had expanded their artificial intelligence capabilities with the Oracle ERP Cloud and Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud. The innovative new systems include an expense reporting and project management assistant, enhanced financial controls and expanded supply chain management.

Rondy Ng, the senior vice president of Oracle Applications Development explains that Oracle continues to provide its promise to its customers of progressive financial innovation. Rondy states that their AI strategy, along with new product updates will enable efficient adoption with effective business results, allowing finance and operations teams to stay ahead of technological developments and remain competitive.

The latest machine-learning based systems will allow finance and operations teams to allocate more time on new initiatives that improve the efficiency and compliance of business processes. New innovative products include:

Expense Reporting Assistant – streamlining expense reporting by automatically creating and matching expense items. Users can work with the assistant via a voice interface or by sending images to the assistant via email or SMS. The assistant uses machine learning to improve the process of ordering expense items and reducing audit risks.

Project Management Assistant – providing rapid project updates and allows users to update time and project progress via an assistant. The assistant learns from previous entries, planning data to modify interactions and collect project information.

Advanced Financial Controls – provide continued analysis of transactions and configurations to create automated audits and ensure financial disruptions are closely monitored. The system uses self-learning algorithms to measure system changes and transactions against a sophisticated set of algorithms.

Advanced Access Controls – Using AI techniques to automate user security analysis and ensure business data is protected from potential threats. The system uses graphical analysis to accurately measure violations hidden within security systems. The system consists of a range of data privacy rules to continually measure users, roles, setups and transactions.

Intelligent Supplier Management – Oracle DataFox integration provides expanded supplier profiles with AI-driven and business data to create supplier ranking and category formation. The system uses AI techniques to deliver risk signals from news content and press releases, which is combined with company data to automatically control risk to suppliers by examining which suppliers are at risk and suggesting alternative suppliers.

Other machine learning innovations for the Oracle ERP Cloud include:

-Intelligent Payments which allow companies to reduce their costs and solidify relationships with main suppliers by utilising supplier profile and risk data to create vendor offers in return for early payments.

-Intelligent Performance Management reveals difficult data patterns, delivering useful insights at the right time, improving the quality and impact of financial and operational decisions.

-Intelligent Process Automation allows for the automation of labour intensive jobs and enables businesses to assign employees to more specific strategic work.

The general manager for ERP/EPM SaaS at Oracle said their business has experienced 100% year on year growth within Australia.

Just looking back a few years, Oracle’s SaaS customers were fairly small. Many businesses that were using Oracle SaaS were unable to afford the capital costs of having an on-site system.  Today, regular users of Oracle products are transferring from on-site premises to SaaS.

Whilst the business implement an ‘applications unlimited’ policy, referring to on-premises applications will trigger further development for the next few years, customers can enhance their systems by transferring to the Oracle Fusions SaaS platform.

John Leonard, General Manager of ERP/EPM SaaS explains that nearly every project is completed within a year, with many being delivering in under 8 months. Leonard also highlights the sheer expense of on-site upgrades, suggesting they can incur costs of nearly $20 million for larger businesses. Transferring to SaaS offers a low-risk alternative to potentially costly and risky upgrades. Due to regular features releases, SaaS enables simpler adoption of new technologies, including blockchain.

Leonard explains that back in 2012, most Oracle CRM customers were using on-site software but by 2016 many had transferred to SaaS. A similar transition is now occurring within HR and Finance software.

Australia is following in this path with an extensive list of local customers ranging from investment business QIC to fast food chain Hungry Jack’s implementing SaaS. To further support customers moving to Saas, Oracle provides an option enabling companies to utilise the consultancy operation of Oracle and customers pay on delivery.

ERP is a top priority for Oracle in regards to SaaS during the next year. Leonard explains that many SaaS competitors provide point solutions, but Oracle’s SaaS applications use the same codebase and data model. Leonard believes that companies are looking for a provider to includes the whole of their business, rather than one specific area.

A key advantage of SaaS is that it allows users to monitor their software without viewing customers data. This means users can analyse potential issues before customers notice and identify any trends and react appropriately. Leonard believes that SaaS is the fastest method to provide innovation to customers, offering a significant advantage over other competitors.

Some users at Cetera were cautious of Oracle Saas platforms for ERP, EPM and HCM but have recognised the benefits of a single entry point, innovative planning and budgeting tools, along with standard Excel-based UIs.

Transforming existing conventional applications to a new and smaller range of integrated tools can be a cautious exercise for many businesses. Whilst many professionals prefer to maintain their traditional software, the benefits and simplicity of SaaS generally result in enhanced efficiency, winning over any sceptics and resulting in improved business performance.

US-based Cetera Financial Group, the main provider of services and technology for financial companies went through the process of implementing Oracle ERP Cloud for financials, accounts and procurement, and Oracle EPM Cloud for planning and budgeting.

Matthew Whitehead, vice president of financial planning and analysis at Cetera explained that the simple lack of custom features of new SaaS applications was a concern. Users questioned whether transferring from a familiar system into a perceived rigid system was a wise choice.

Cetera worked with implementation partners PwC to deliver a procedure to reduce customisation and ensure the business gained the best results from configuring Oracle ERP Cloud Software. The initial evaluation generated a range of questions such as why Cetera thinks they differ from the thousands of other installs that Oracle has performed over the years to create an efficient cloud solution.

In terms of Oracle EPM Cloud, Whitehead explains the issues were more pronounced due to the software forcing users into its financial frameworks and workforce planning. Cetera focused on selecting its main goals and financial modelling requirement to establish the EPM software’s key performance indicators.

The result? Cetera reduced its chart of accounts from the general ledger, enabling users to focus more on other accounts. Whitehead explains the system provided them with speed and flexibility in the capability to forecast, plan, report and measure continuously.

Cetera also transformed their existing planning and forecasting tool, Solver BI360. The new Oracle planning and budgeting cloud service (PBCS) has enhanced the forecasting potential at Cetera and maintained the preferred choice of interface for most users.

Whitehead explains this is the place where Oracle provides its Hyperion business intelligence and corporate performance management system. Whitehead highlights that PBCS also includes Hyperion Financial Reporting Studio, offering a more solid reporting system, allowing for reporting in both HTML and PDF formats. Whitehead explains that Excel is still a prominent focus for financial teams but to serve the requirements of business users Cetera really needed a more standardised, streamlined and simpler system.

Oracle ERP Cloud – Single Entry Point

For Cetera, one of the main challenges was determining how to communicate the impacts on procurement, expenses, planning and budgeting, areas that affect many users. Cetera was also in the process of transferring its expense system from an onsite SAP Concur to Oracle ERP Cloud.

Whitehead along with Jeffrey Buchheister, CFO of Cetera worked with marketing and communications to deliver a clear strategy that could be passed on to it users. In-house training teams and HR would support with training.

Whitehead explains that they delivered a series of communication strategies to ensure the vision was clear and more importantly, how it would impact each department and the benefits it would bring. The underlying message was that Oracle ERP Cloud and EPM Cloud would create an industry shift that promotes further growth and creates further insights into the business.

In hindsight, Whitehead suggested that a helpful process would have been to focus on more complex cases and really determine the solutions to each individual case and really understanding potential challenges that Cetera may face in the future.

Now ERP and EPM is in the cloud, employees have more access to data and insightful information. Individual accounts and logins for a range of systems including BI360 and Concur are no more, replaced with a singular intranet login via Oracle cloud, encouraging overall user experience.

Users can record performance and goals all within one portal that also integrates planning, budgeting and the ERP side of the business. Whitehead believes the entire end-user experience has been transformed and improved dramatically and general feedback has proven the system change has been a huge success for Cetera.