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Oracle Sri Lanka, Indochina and Maldives Head of Applications Chandita Samaranayake Addressing the media (3rd from left) others from left: McLarens Group Head of ICT & Digital Business Umeshi de Fonseka, MAS Holdings Group Human Resources General Manager Ushaan Abeywickrama and MillenniumIT Technology Alliance Innovation Head Rahal Jayawardene – Pic by Upul Abayasekara
Oracle Cloud is helping Sri Lankan firms to fast-track digital transformation and innovation whilst improving efficiency and reducing cost, the media was told last week.
The benefits of using Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud, Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud and Oracle Financials Planning Cloud were shared by MAS Holdings, MillenniumIT ESP Ltd. and the McLarens Group respectively.
Oracle Head of Applications Sri Lanka, Indochina and the Maldives,Chandita Samaranayake, said MAS Holdings had taken the employee experience to the next level via Oracle HCM Cloud and the McLarens Group was progressing fast in taking its financials to the Oracle ERP Cloud solution. MillenniumIT ESP has gone live to Oracle ERP Cloud solution in quick time, enjoying a host of new benefits.
They shared key insights into how they were transforming their businesses and accelerating the adoption of the latest innovations thanks to the use of Oracle Cloud applications.
The briefing to the media focused on cloud-driven innovation, the experience of these three companies on how modern cloud offerings are helping them transform and embrace innovation as a result of being able to increase business agility, lower costs and reduce IT complexity.
According to them, the Oracle Cloud, the broadest and most integrated cloud solution in the industry, enables these businesses to take advantage of innovative technologies to enable seamless expansion of their business prowess to the next level.
MAS Holdings
MAS Holdings is a $ 1.8 billion conglomerate and one of the world’s most recognised ‘Design-to-Delivery’ solution providers in the realm of apparel and textile manufacturing. The organisation is headquartered in Sri Lanka with 53 manufacturing facilities across 16 countries, and design locations placed in key style centers across the globe with over 98,000 people involved in its operation.
MAS Group Human Resources General Manager Ushaan Abeywickrema said the company selected Oracle Cloud solutions after a thorough analysis and the first phase had been completed since the introduction in July last year. Phase two was ongoing and it set to be completed in quick time as well. “When we chose Oracle we were looking for a partnership rather than a normal vendor. Oracle is also a big spender on Research and Development (R&D) and MAS having a similar focus benefits a lot. We too are a happy Oracle Cloud customer as we are successfully implementing the largest HCM implementation by a Sri Lankan company,” he added.
He explained that Human Resources (HR) teams have traditionally had to pick between simplicity and performance when selecting new technologies. To accelerate innovation, improve productivity and successfully prepare for the future of work, HR can no longer make this trade-off. Instead, they need to apply new strategies and technologies that attract, engage and retain employees.
“The latest innovations within Oracle HCM Cloud have enabled us to address these challenges by providing simple, powerful solutions that can proactively anticipate and respond to changing employee and workforce needs. Oracle Applications will help optimise our talent management acquisition process, provide complete workforce insights, increase operational efficiency and make it easy for everyone to connect, collaborate and do their job—from anywhere, on any device,” Abeywickrema added.
MillenniumIT ESP
MillenniumIT ESP is one of Sri Lanka’s leading information system integrators providing a wide array of solutions, services and IT integrated products to many industries. Incorporated in 1996, MillenniumIT ESP has evolved into one of the largest IT Infrastructure solution providers in Sri Lanka. The company is reputed for supporting a range of customers including all banks, telecommunication service providers, apparel manufacturers and leading conglomerates here in Sri Lanka and overseas, and has also received various excellence, innovation and performance-based awards globally.
In December 2017, Ambeon Holdings Plc– a holding and management company - acquired MillenniumIT ESP. With over 3,500 employees, the Ambeon Group is a medium-sized conglomerate reputed for its market dominance in the areas of financial services, manufacturing, real estate and strategic investments.
MillenniumIT ESP Ltd., Head of Technology Alliances and Innovation, RahalJayawardene, said: “Today’s businesses are faced with unprecedented changes that demand a rethink of the traditional enterprise management processes and models. To be effective in this new operating environment, business leaders need to drive operations with confidence, monitor results continuously and course correct with agility. The latest additions to Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning Cloud are empowering our organisation to embrace change and take advantage by providing us with the end-to-end solutions we needed without any need for customisation to fully embrace Oracle’s cloud capabilities. This has enabled Millennium IT ESP to embrace industry best practices, connect disparate applications and improve productivity and decision-making to capitalise on opportunities faster than any other industry player.”
He said MillenniumIT ESP was a happy customer as Oracle EERP Cloud was part of the company’s digital transformation initiative.
“The solution was implemented in a record time of just 10 weeks. Among the benefits were, as opposed to previously having to close books on the 25th of each month with five days for accounts reconciliation, today MITESP keeps books open till 30th or 31st,” Jayawarene added.
McLarens Group
McLarens Group is well-established across the shipping, marine and logistics industry. It is a brand synonymous with the shipping industry of Sri Lanka. It is the partner of choice for several multinationals with commercial interests in the island. While shipping, marine services and logistics remain at the heart of the group, the company has established a lead market presence in bunkering, oil and gas services, manufacturing, lubricants trading and distribution, property development, hotel and leisure services as well as food and beverages and other strategic investments.
“We evaluated multiple vendors but felt that Oracle was uniquely positioned to help us with the comprehensive offering we needed. By upgrading to the latest Oracle Cloud applications, we will be able to increase our agility by transforming the way we consolidate all our financial details,” saidMcLarens Group Head ICT and Digital Business General ManagerUmeshi de Fonseka.
The McLarens Group began its journey to the Cloud about one and half years ago and opted for the Oracle ERP Financial Services given Oracle’s proven track record, expertise, functionality and integrated solutions offering.
“Oracle has been on the ground and involved from day one; other providers let partners get involved and get engaged only at the latter stages,” de Fonseka said. Oracle’s Customer Success Managers also play a key role in helping firms journey to the Cloud.
He said McLaren’s implementation has been around four months so far out of a total nine whereas usually it takes about two or three years.
“Once successfully deployed we will be able to streamline processes and enjoy greater visibility to business insights and analytics, and help us make informed business decisions in a timely manner. The deployment will also increase the business transformation efforts of the group, enabling us to maintain data integrity, accuracy and consistency,” de Fonseka added.
Oracle recently unveiled the world’s first automated enterprise cloud application upgrade product that will enable customers to reduce the time and cost of cloud migration by up to 30%.
By providing a complete set of automated tools and proven cloud transition methodologies, the new ‘Soar to the Cloud’ solution enables customers with applications running on premises to upgrade to Oracle Cloud Applications in as little as 20 weeks.
“It’s now easier to move from Oracle E-Business Suite to Oracle Fusion ERP in the cloud than it is to upgrade from one version of E-Business Suite to another,” Oracle CTO and Chairman Larry Ellison said. “A lot of tedious transitions that people once did manually are now automated. If you choose Oracle Soar, it will be the last upgrade you’ll ever do.”
Oracle Soar includes discovery assessment, process analyser, automated data and configuration migration utilities, and rapid integration tools. The automated process is powered by the True Cloud Method, Oracle’s proprietary approach to support customers throughout the journey to the cloud. It is guided by a dedicated Oracle concierge service to help ensure a rapid and predictable upgrade that aligns with modern industry best practices. Customers can keep the upgrade on track by monitoring the status of their cloud transition via an intuitive mobile application, which features a step-by-step implementation guide indicating exactly what needs to be done each day.
Oracle’s automated cloud migration solution enables customers to reduce upgrade costs, accelerate time to value and improve delivery predictability
“We know the power of automation in solving business problems for our customers—it’s baked into all of our applications,” said Oracle Senior Vice President - North American applications consulting Beth Boettcher. “We’ve applied the same thinking to the cloud upgrade process to create an end-to-end solution that will enable our customers to experience a rapid, predictable, and cost-effective journey to the cloud.”
The Oracle Soar offering is available for the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle PeopleSoft and Oracle Hyperion Planning customers who are moving to Oracle ERP Cloud, Oracle SCM Cloud and Oracle EPM Cloud. Oracle will continue to invest in the development of the product, extending the solution to Oracle PeopleSoft and Oracle E-Business Suite customers moving to Oracle HCM Cloud, and Oracle Siebel customers moving to Oracle CX Cloud in the future.
Sri Lanka is one of the high-growth markets in Asia Pacific for the adoption of Cloud technology, Oracle Head of Applications Sri Lanka, Indochina, and the Maldives, Chandita Samaranayake, revealed last week.
“Sri Lanka is high on the league of countries in Asia Pacific for both adoption and growth,” Samaranayake told the media.
He said financial institutions, telecommunications and apparel manufacturers, blue chip companies and local businesses have come on board for faster innovation and business transformation through cloud applications.
“The shift to cloud is real and it is making most enterprises re-evaluate their architecture and application landscape. Sri Lanka has made major strides towards becoming a cloud-ready nation and we are witnessing more and more organisations gradually migrating their business processes and data to the cloud,” Samaranayake added.
“The speed of innovation can be daunting and rapidly shifting consumer expectations continue to change the game. This means successfully growing a business has never been harder,” Samaranayake said.
“To navigate this change and help Sri Lankan business leaders create breakthrough experiences, Oracle Cloud offers customers trusted business applications, empowering them to overcome the barriers to growth and successfully scale by delivering industry best practices,” he emphasised.
According to him, modern cloud offering is helping them transform and embrace innovation as a result of being able to increase business agility, lower costs and reduce IT complexity.
It was pointed out that Oracle Cloud takes over the entire burden of IT infrastructure from a customer and enables the IT staff and management to do what they ought to as businesses - add value and innovate.
“Oracle Cloud solutions have helped finance personnel to be more strategic than managing spreadsheets and IT staff to move away from mere maintenance to focus on process innovation and add value,” Samaranayake added.
Oracle recently unveiled the world’s first automated enterprise cloud application upgrade product that will enable customers to reduce the time and cost of cloud migration by up to 30%. By providing a complete set of automated tools and proven cloud transition methodologies, the new ‘Soar to the Cloud’ solution enables customers with applications running on premises to upgrade to Oracle Cloud Applications in as little as 20 weeks.
“We are seeing that many new firms are either starting with the Cloud or adopting a Cloud first strategy whilst many others who have been reliant on ‘on-premise IT’ are increasingly embracing Cloud,” he emphasised.
For example, Sri Lanka’s multinational apparel giant MAS Holdings has embraced Cloud to account for 90% of IT functions and is rolling out the country’s biggest Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud-based solution from Oracle.
MillenniumIT ESP Ltd. is also using Oracle as part of its digital transformation. Head of Technology Alliances and Innovation Rahal Jayawardene said Cloud levels the playing field for companies, organisations and countries in developing countries vis-a-vis developed nations.
“This makes a compelling reason how Cloud can be used to leapfrog faster,” he said. “Cloud is always fresh and never goes obsolete. Cloud comes as ready-consume and takes away the traditional method of consuming technology. Firms can use or consume technology via Cloud direct rather than going through IT firms or departments,” he added.
