By Bill Wright
Thoughts from the Blueprint 4D event in Las Vegas
DWS recently attended the Quest Oracle Community event – BLUEPRINT 4D. Supported by Oracle and partners, the event took place at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, June 6th through to the 9th.
The return to this major event in-person after a three-year hiatus was a huge success! The event had over 500 customers in attendance and over 250 educational sessions, product roadmap updates, demos, exhibitors, and networking sessions. Everyone I spoke with; customers, vendors, and Oracle employees were excited and very pleased to be in attendance.
Oracle vice-presidents Gary Grieshaber and Paul Houtkooper delivered a very informative keynote presentation on “riding the digital wave”. They outlined three customer case studies that focused on how their businesses were innovating by continuing to invest in the technologies that Oracle is delivering. These technologies were summarized on a slide entitled: “Digital Transformation-Sparking Innovation and Growth” that included:
- Automation with Orchestrator
- Mobile Applications for remote workforce
- A code current strategy
- Adopting new applications
- Hybrid Cloud
- Secure Systems
Additionally, Oracle continues to invest in JD Edwards with premier support extended to, at least, the end of 2033 and it’s apparent that customers are responding. Oracle provided some key highlights during the past couple of years when they talked about “Riding the Barrel through the Pandemic” (another surfer reference).
- 286 features delivered in 9 years
- 2,500+ interactions with partners and customers
- 700+ customers using Orchestrator
- 381 new updates published on LearnJDE.com
- 320+ go-lives and upgrades
- 166+ customers migrated to OCI
- 86% adoption rate for 9.2
While the event was positive and upbeat, focusing on the digital transformation tools that Oracle has provided to date, including a glimpse into what’s coming in Release 23, it is apparent that achieving continuous innovation is more difficult for some. Some companies are implementing forward plans, and Oracle envisions that the need for continuous adoption on the part of customers is more prevalent than ever. There is an urgent need for continual investment in tools and functionality, hiring needs, increased security measures and many other challenges abound in today’s global business landscape. This is where the trouble lies.
All the projects and issues are not going away. Now more than ever, Oracle JD Edwards customers need to create a plan for continuous adoption and execute on that plan. Although, this becomes nearly impossible when IT departments are struggling under the burden of manual testing. I spoke with many customers who visited our exhibitor booth, and the recurring question was: How can they test effectively and efficiently to meet the ever-increasing needs of the business? When you consider that testing can account for up to 60% of an overall project effort, it is imperative that companies embrace automation technology to transform the way they plan and execute tests, to in turn deliver increased value to the business. This is where DWS continues to help customers throughout the global Oracle JD Edwards ecosystem. We help companies utilise testing automation and commit to a process approach to continuous innovation so that they can deliver incremental value to their business.
If you’d like to learn how DWS can help your company, contact us: https://dws-global.com/contact-us/
We look forward to speaking with you!
