by William Wright
Reflections on 2020 and Looking Forward in 2021
Another year has come and gone. I think it is a fair assumption to say that most people are certainly glad to bid bon voyage to 2020. The year 2020 was anything but a “normal” year. The global pandemic of Covid-19 plunged the world into an environment of fear and uncertainty. Instability became the new normal and we as human beings were reminded of our fragility.
The good news of course is that while we are still dealing with the Covid virus, the outlook is much brighter than it was just a couple of months ago. Vaccines have been developed and countries have started towards a plan of vaccinating their populations. While it may take time to deploy the vaccine worldwide, we at least have a comforting feeling that going forward we will have a health solution to combat the spread of Covid.
Aside from the global pandemic, as I reflected back on 2020 (especially over the past month), I would hear the late, great John Lennon’s song: “Happy Christmas”. At the very beginning of the song, John Lennon asks the question: “So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over and a new one just begun”. I thought about my answer to this question and I came to the conclusion that although I worked hard, made charitable contributions and generally tried to be as helpful to people as I could, I came to the realization that I probably could have done a bit more.
In addition to answering John Lennon’s question, my wife asked me a question over the holidays that really made me reflect even deeper on the past year. She asked: What one thing did you learn about yourself over the past year? Now I must admit that generally my wife and I don’t ask such questions of each other; usually, it’s something more along the lines of “What do you want to do for dinner?”. So, I thought about my wife’s question and my reply was that I found myself to be an adaptive and persevering individual. I learned that when confronted with change and challenges, I press forward and try to find the best solutions. However, I also realized that I need the help of others to help me achieve what I set out to do. The reality is that no one individual can go it completely alone. This certainly was illustrated during the past year. The entire world dealt with the pandemic, lockdowns and people literally had to change the way they worked and lived. As the months passed during 2020, fear and uncertainty were replaced with empathy, precautionary measures and an even stronger sense of teamwork. People came together as never before because everyone was in the same situation. This collective support formed the foundation for society to continue moving forward and for individuals to focus on the positive rather than the negative.
As we enter a new year filled with promise, we at DWS would like to offer a simple but reassuring message to all Oracle JD Edwards customers: We are here for you! You don’t have to go it alone. Whether you have plans to upgrade, plan and maintain a code-current strategy, or reduce the burden of manual testing in your JDE projects, we are here to help you and your colleagues make the most of your continued investment in Oracle JD Edwards. Please feel free to contact us to discover how we can help. Wishing everyone the best for a Happy, Healthy and Productive 2021!
