Welcome to Cloud Chronicles: Real-World Global Transformations. In today’s podcast, Megan Testani, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Project Partners, discusses three organizations’ biggest challenges during their cloud migration processes to Oracle Cloud Applications or Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and how they overcame them.
Megan Testani, Project Partners: Let’s begin with Jochen Rahm, the CTO for PROMATIS (an ITG Company) and the Program Manager for PRODINGER. Jochen, what were the biggest challenges you encountered during the migration process, and how were you able to overcome them?
Jochen Rahm, PROMATIS: So I think everybody knows if you want to start a project and standardize processes and have a highly customized environment, business was one of the biggest challenges – getting the company to use standard functionality to change the process behavior. So that was one of the most significant topics we had. To overcome that challenge, we used some reference models outlining what we bring into the projects so that we had clear guidelines on standardized processes that showed the standard functionalities of Oracle. This enabled us to go through all of the challenges. But this is something everybody needs to be aware of. This is very, very hard.
This is how I would describe it: if you take a car, you drive it for ten years, then you change it to another vehicle, you need to learn how the new one drives.
Megan Testani, Project Partners: Thank you, Jochen. Next, let’s go over to Laurence Cauchy, the Enterprise Performance Management Center of Excellence Director for AtkinsRéalis. Laurence, How was your team able to manage the changes encountered during the migration process?
Laurence Cauchy, AtkinsRéalis: Yeah. Change management was a big challenge for us because, as I said, we were switching from two instances to a single one. Nobody was working the same way, and we wanted everybody to work using the same methods. So, change management was really a challenge here. Data migration was also a challenge because we were on different levels. We didn’t have the same time dimensions in the two systems and needed to migrate all of this into a single system with the same dimensions.
To manage change, we did a lot of training sessions. We had sessions with the users, and we called them drop-in sessions. So we were available for them nearly 24/7 so they could drop in and ask questions. We also had a Viva Engage channel where people could exchange. We also had change management champions in all of the regions. So, yeah, change management was really important.
Megan Testani, Project Partners: Let’s stay with AtkinsRéalis and move to Randy Martin, Director for Financial Application Strategy and Innovation. Randy, what were the biggest challenges you encountered when migrating to OCI and upgrading your database?
Randy Martin, AtkinsRéalis: I think testing was an important element for us. It was a major version upgrade across the whole stack. So, from the application to the database, the database went from 11 out to 19c; at the time, the application went from 11i to 12.2.9, as I mentioned earlier, but all the total tech stack, Linux, Java, all of that was a major upgrade. So, doing all the testing was crucial in identifying gaps.
We did have some issues. During the database upgrade from 11 to 19 CE, there were different changes in how the database functioned. So, we did a lot of performance testing to ensure that some of our processes were tuned properly. We also did some work around some syntax, and some of our customizations had impacts we had to address. But all of that was, as I said, testing was the big element there. That was our primary engagement with stakeholders, which was ensuring we had thorough test plans that addressed all the areas.
Megan Testani, Project Partners: Thank you, Randy. And finally, let’s speak with Wino Verschoor, the Director of Applications for Vanderlande Industries. Wino, you were migrating from the IBM iSeries into OCI. What were the biggest challenges you were encountering, and how were you able to overcome them?
Wino Verschoor, Vanderlande: Yeah, the biggest challenge was, indeed, the database. We went from the IBM DB2 to Oracle. So, of course, that was a big change with some risks involved. We prepared well for that. So we also took time for that, together, with our partner. We had to retrofit many objects, and we did it as early as possible. Also, the testing was done as early as possible to highlight the issues as soon as possible. Of course, predicting all the variables in such a project is very difficult. So, I think the project’s scoping was also very important.
I really felt the need to improve. I wanted to get good customizations to have additional benefits. As an example, at that time, we were at 32 bits and wanted to go to 64 bits. So, we scoped that as much as possible to make that project a success. To make the delivery date, we planned for March 6th, 2022, and we also were able to reach that date. So that was nice and a success. Later, we added some additional improvements. Also, we went later in two phases, 64-bit, etc., everything to make it a success and to scope the project as much as possible.
Megan Testani, Project Partners: Thank you, Wino. That wraps up episode three of Cloud Chronicles Real World Global Transformations.
Join us for episode four, where we will deep dive into managing the transition from legacy, on-premise ERP systems into Oracle Cloud applications.
Did you miss Episode 2? Click here to listen in.
