Think cloud, and the first thing that comes to mind is a commercial enterprise organization. They may be leading the charge, but alongside them is a massive category making the same transition – the public sector. The latter covers state and local government and education, frequently referred to as SLED.

There’s undeniable SLED executive motivation to migrate to the cloud for enhanced speed and efficiency. They’re moving from legacy on-premise applications for back-office operations to SaaS applications, many favoring Oracle Cloud Fusion suite as the solution of choice. There’s little doubt that Oracle will powerfully shape government agency cloud presence over the next three years. A Gartner study agrees, predicting that most SLED operations will have invested in cloud-centric systems and modernized their critical legacy applications by 2025.

Many SLED entities are selecting Oracle Fusion, which offers a suite of Oracle applications built for comprehensive business tasks. These include enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and human capital management (HCM). Transitioning to Fusion is one thing; leveraging SaaS investments for public sector agencies is something else altogether. There are some severe challenges in-house when it comes to Oracle application management and Oracle Fusion-related services provided by the latter.

Public sector challenges when transitioning to Oracle Saas

Government agencies migrate from their legacy systems to Oracle Fusion Suite (or similar) every day. It’s only when management gets into the process that mind-bending obstructions become apparent. In many cases the realization that finding solutions to these challenges is beyond current internal capabilities causes delays to project timing.   This article addresses why partnering with the cream of Oracle managed services providers makes ultimate sense if you want a guaranteed Oracle Fusion experience that’s nothing short of rewarding.

For example, CIOs/CFOs in the forefront of the app modernization strategy often appreciate what’s required. Still, they can’t figure out how to achieve compelling results within tight budgetary constraints across any time dimension (short, and long-term). Moreover, most know they don’t know about the process of hiring skilled staff who can:

●     Manage and maintain the new systems.

  • Scale the systems as demand for new services, and

They find out, sometimes to their dismay, that Oracle Applications come with continuous updates. These, in turn, create a permanent decision-making crossroad that forces management to decide between:

  • Investing in new upgrades
  • Or fixing and patching what’s there.

Then, executives struggle to stay compliant as tax, legal, and regulatory changes are in constant flux, expanding with the digital landscape. Dealing with an array of somewhat alien issues is distracting, throwing strategic priorities off-balance.

Solutions to the challenges government agencies face.

IT services companies such as CherryRoad have stepped into the breach to solve SLED’s Fusion Suite dilemmas. The company is an Oracle partner functioning as:

  • Certified solution consultants and system integrators
  • Managed Service providers for Oracle SaaS Fusion Suite

The company reflects the resource depth to function fully as an extension of SLED staff, seamlessly filling the gaps when interfacing with Oracle Fusion issues. With CherryRoad in your corner, you automatically get the advantage of accessing:

  • Fast connection to your unique industry challenges.
  • The agility you need to identify process improvements that efficiently keep you ahead of the curve.
  • Technology that converges on increasing your operational effectiveness while lowering costs.
  • Managed Services geared to get the most out of your Oracle on-premise or ERP Cloud solutions.

8 ways managed services can help government agencies leverage Oracle SaaS investments fall under Category A and B as described below:

Category A. The first of these is the critical understanding of how to squeeze the last drop of value from the Oracle technologies without going through the proverbial wringer that inevitably translates into massively expensive trial-and-error exercises. This is the overriding responsibility of strategic support for your Oracle cloud and on-premise solutions. The range of services includes:

  1. Continually assisting you to evaluate what’s right for your business, which inextricably connects to implementing and supporting new Oracle Fusion advances quickly and cost-effectively.
  2. More specifically, upgrading Applications & Tools involving:
    • Integrations & Extensions whenever necessary
    • Reconfigurations versus New App Acquisitions
    • Process Improvement to match your unique industry needs
    • Controlling and managing the continuous innovation
    • Maintaining and updating documentation
  3. Regression / Integration Testing that includes but is not limited to:
    • Automated RPA-enabled “test-bank” to accelerate every patch / upgrade.
  4. Management of your hosted system in the Cloud that covers:
    • Staff training, User Administration, and Onboarding Aimed at enhancing user experience and adoption
    • Emergency response capabilities 24/7/365 to minimize downtime.
  5. Development (including BIP & BSSV)

Category B. The second category focuses on Cloud Support Services.

There’s no doubt that ERP systems are state-of-the-art tools providing robust continuity and excellent functionality. That’s the foundation, but what you build on it makes all the difference to your service quality and competitiveness. Embracing new best practices that are inherent in your Cloud application is vital to maintaining and extending your Cloud presence. Once you engage with Cloud applications, one certainty is that add-on components will become a way of life to enhance your ERP’s native capabilities. CherryRoad’s mission is to stay aligned with:

  1. Your most critical Oracle cloud-system needs, most particularly functional and technical support that covers:
    • Application monitoring; hybrid / PaaS / IaaS / on-premise support
    • Managing enhancements
  2. Infrastructure Services offering global coverage centered on SLA-based service support.
  3. Database Administration that drills down to:
    • Application monitoring
    • Dev/Test environment refreshes
    • Regular health checks

As a bonus, CherryRoad customers get the benefit of insightful recommendations, namely, directing the Oracle Fusion Saas features to bolster their Human Capital Management (HCM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Business intelligence (BI). The last-mentioned item opens up SLEDs most valuable asset, namely – Big Data. You may have noticed, it’s coming through the cloud-based systems in unprecedented volumes as mega-computers and their Saas networks absorb information like never before. The formidable task, of course, is to use structured data for oneself, others (for free), or market it. Oracle Fusion ties into all of this, and the Cherrywood team can make sense of it for you on many levels.

What are the bottom-line benefits provided by Oracle managed services providers?

You’re in or committed to Oracle Fusion; we get that. Hopefully, at this point, you’re comfortable with the notion of strategy and support services for your cloud presence there. The benefits will be immediately impressive as long as you partner with the right company. CherryRoad Technologies comes with substantial Oracle-centric assurances that SLED management can take to the bank. They are as follows:

  • Ensured Business Continuity with regular system health scans, continuous network monitoring, and compliance audits that keep you online 100% of the time.
  • Infinite scalability and accelerated growth through a team made up of Oracle-certified engineers capable of accommodating any changes within the Oracle infrastructure. The latter includes implementing any Oracle app.
  • Peace of mind that methodologies are agile, service-level agreements are strict, applications are readily accessible, and budgetary sense underlies all recommendations.
Conclusion

SLED and other government agencies migrating to the Oracle applications can take comfort that the optimum IT expertise is close at hand. Things like service request management, new functionalities development, Oracle release & patch management, and regression testing are routine. So are user and system documentation, licenses and contract management, business process improvements – and much more. CherryRoad Technologies fits into the Oracle paradigm like a hand in glove – the best partner in your corner to address the unexpected and avoid misstepping as we enter a volatile arena. To request a proposal for CherryRoad Managed Services for Oracle Cloud Applications, mail us at info@cherryroad.com