Location
Last week, JD Edwards enthusiasts from across the globe flocked to Las Vegas to attend the Collaborate 16 conference. As always, Collaborate 16 offers an incredible opportunity to connect with the JD Edwards community and increase your knowledge base of the JDE product. We wanted to present a brief summary of what you may have missed if you weren’t able to attend the conference this year.
Sessions
Offering over 200 sessions focused specifically on the JD Edwards product line, Collaborate 16 is always a great place to boost your product knowledge. The Quest User group does a great job of making sure there are educational tracks for everyone, whether you are a C-Level executive, developer, or business analyst. Two of our team members attended sessions specifically geared toward Women in Technology. We’ll be providing summaries for both of those events in the weeks to come, so stay tuned!
Technology
Lyle Ekdahl’s session typically sets the tone of what we can expect in the year to come from Oracle’s JD Edwards team. This year was tightly focused on several key areas:
Staying Connected
Oracle has started the @WhereIsEdward1 campaign to highlight positive customer experiences with JDE via social media. 52 plush stuffed animal puppies were handed out to companies with the idea of documenting their journey with JD Edwards through the eyes of their furry friends, with progress reports being tweeted out via social media. Oracle will also be releasing the JD Edwards Newsflash app that will be available in both Apple and Android app stores. This new app will allow Oracle to seamlessly deliver JD Edwards news, success stories, and updates to enthusiasts around the world.
9.2 Upgrades
Lyle explained that E1 9.2 was developed with the acronym S.M.A.R.T in mind (Strategic, Mobile, and Architected for Real Time) in an effort to show everyone just how easy a 9.2 upgrade could be. Oracle highlighted Old Dominion Electric Cooperative for winning the JD Edwards Upgrade Challenge, completing their upgrade to EnterpriseOne 9.2 in just 42 days!
Emergence of the “Citizen Developer”
Citizen Developer is a term you can expect to hear more often over the next few years. Lyle announced the release of the new JDE UX product. This new suite of products like OneView Reporting, CafeOne, Page Composer, and Watchlists allows users to personalize their user experience. These low-cost/low-code/no-code solutions provide companies and vendors alike greater freedom to customize, personalize, and extend the JD Edwards product.
Hybrid Cloud
The Oracle JD Edwards team understands that the JD Edwards community has invested a substantial amount of capital into their on-premise software solutions. Although a 100% transition into the cloud is highly unlikely, Oracle’s JD Edwards team is continuing to preach the importance of utilizing the cloud in a strategic manner, combining it with on-premise applications to further extend the product’s value and functionality
Introducing Oracle Mobile Cloud Services
John Schiff spoke about this new product in our conversation at the Oracle Partner Summit back in February. This bundle of commonly used mobile applications is used as a PaaS offering, reducing adoption cost, security risk, and implementation difficulties.
Continued Dedication to the Internet of Things (IoT)
With only 6% of companies currently taking advantage of IoT technology, use cases and value-added testimonials will ultimately be the catalyst to drive customer adoption in this area. Lyle Ekdahl did an excellent job of highlighting several success stories in this area.
Networking Opportunities
Surety Systems’ 5th Annual “JDE Leaders Reception” was a huge success again this year. This year, over 70 key contributors to the JD Edwards ecosystem joined us for drinks and exciting conversation at the Border Grill! Congratulations to Anthony Coleman from Exide for winning our Yeti Hopper 20 giveaway!
Monday and Tuesday night cocktail hours in the Exhibitor’s Showcase never disappoint! These events are an excellent chance for customers to gather information and interact with JD Edwards Service Providers. The Surety Systems booth this year featured a digital Caricature Artist! Booth Attendees were able to enjoy engaging conversation about improving their JD Edwards systems while receiving a printed and digital copy of their caricature. The artist was a huge hit, and we have already made sure that he’ll be back again next year!
As always, Wednesday night’s party was a blast. I love this event each year because it provides the opportunity to see friends one last time before heading out of town until our next reunion! Next up…InFocus in August!
