What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless, what happens is a significant announcement by Oracle at Collaborate 2017.

Lyle Ekdahl, Senior Vice President and General Manager of JD Edwards, delivered his Keynote address on April 3rd. For current (and potential) users of JD Edwards, there was some interesting news; most notably the extended life of the current releases of World and Enterprise One.

Historically, JDE has operated a ‘five plus three-year’ support model. With 9.2 originally released in 2015, this would have seen it supported until 2023. Ekdahl announced that this would be extended by another five years to 2028, making it the longest published support timeline of any major ERP vendor.

9.2 has seen over 2,400 downloads since launch, representing around a quarter of the user base. Most JD Edwards E1 customers are running 9.1 but, according to Oracle research, 55% of them are committed to the journey to 9.2 and will be upgrading within the next 18 months.

Other key takeaways from the presentation include the delivery of enhancements in easy-to-consume feature packs, released 2-3 times per year, and the concept of “continuous delivery”. Get used to this phrase, as you are going to be hearing a lot more of it. Oracle is building, testing and releasing software faster and more frequently – making software updates more routine and predictable.

A copy of the full presentation can be found on the Oracle JDE YouTube channel

The ERP Landscape is fundamentally changing – for the better

It’s a safe bet that just about everyone reading this article will have a smartphone and access to a cloud-based service of some description. Perhaps it’s a media streaming service like Netflix, Spotify or iTunes; or maybe it’s a collaboration tool like Office 365, WebEx or Dropbox. The way we provision and consume new versions of software has changed radically with the evolution of the Cloud.

The major upgrades every three years have been replaced with smaller, more frequent upgrades delivered as businesses demand. This customer-led innovation allows ERP vendors to be more responsive to the changing needs of business and provides greater agility for the end-user organisation; streamlining the digital transformation process.

What now?

If you are already on E1 9.2, adapt your strategy to align with Oracle’s continuous delivery model. Plan for more regular updates to 9.2 to stay code-current and make the most of the new enhancements and features being delivered by the JD Edwards team.

If you haven’t made the move to 9.2 yet, plan to do it sooner rather than later. The extended life of 9.2 will help with building a business case for the upgrade.

Here at DWS, we’ve been advocating a code-current strategy for several years; advising customers to plan for regular updates and avoid the cost and potential disruption associated with a major upgrade. The Oracle announcement is a validation of this approach and should help make easier upgrades a reality.

We have created a suite of SaaS based products designed specifically for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne that perfectly compliment the continuous delivery strategy of Oracle going forward. Our portfolio of impact analysis, test planning and automation tools makes it easier to update on a regular basis; reducing the time it takes to apply ESUs and driving down the TCO of JD Edwards.

For more information on our Dimension™ suite, visit https://dws-global.com/products-services/

Alternatively, if you’d like to understand more about the impact of the Oracle announcement for your organisation, contact us now.