I was fortunate enough to attend the JD Edwards InFocus 2015 conference a couple weeks ago in Denver. For those of you who weren’t able to attend, I wanted to pass along a few things you may have missed, and provide a concise list of JDE technology updates that were discussed at the conference.
You couldn’t have asked for a better week of weather! For those of you familiar with the sometimes unpredictable weather in Denver, (Ahem…Collaborate ‘13 anyone?) conference-goers were treated to an amazing week of sunny skies and 72 degrees all week. It really made this Carolina boy want to stay in Colorado!
Networking Opportunities/Tailgate Party
Although I haven’t seen the official attendance numbers from Quest, I’ve heard overall attendance was up quite a bit this year. I know that JDE content/knowledge is our main reason for attending conferences, but InFocus and Collaborate really feel like family reunions at times. It’s a great chance to reconnect with old friends, catch up on business opportunities, and get information on great vendors operating in the JDE Ecosystem. As always, Quest organized an exceptional wrap-up party, this year going with a tailgating theme in celebration of the upcoming football season. Everyone was encouraged to wear a jersey from their favorite team. We obviously saw a lot of Denver Broncos jerseys, but I was presently surprised to see a few Steeler jerseys in the crowd as well! Kudos to the Quest staff. It was a great event!
Update on EnterpriseOne 9.2 Release
Oracle plans to have 9.2 released within the next 12 months. They are planning to make an official announcement at Collaborate16, but won’t fully commit to having the product fully available by then. Oracle is planning to provide a “Simplified Upgrade” approach that allows customers already on E1 9.0.2 or 9.1 to only apply new/changed objects in an upgrade to 9.2. Oracle will only deliver net changes/new objects that are required. If you have changed an object that Oracle does not need to modify, then you won’t have to retrofit. This should drastically reduce retrofitting time, net change testing, and make it easier for your organization to stay current.
At InFocus 15, I sat in on Dawn Baker’s Oracle Keynote the second morning of the conference, and she spoke about three new features that will be enhanced for 9.2:
- Enhanced Outbound Inventory Management OneView Reporting Capabilities Involving:
- Availability Information, Inventory Turns, Usage Rates, and Agreement Information
- OneView Financial Statement Enhancements that will provide:
- Pre-built content for easy startup
- Flexible report components for Report Definition, Layout, and Version Configuration
- Real-time vs Batch Reporting
- Advanced Job Forecasting Capabilities:
- Will provide real-time financial visibility for budgets, actuals, open commitments, change orders, remaining work, and estimate at completion
- Allows you to track detailed Labor Tasks and Remaining Hours
- Flexible computation methods
Oracle IoT Orchestrator
The Internet of Things is currently the “big buzz” in IT right now, and Oracle is jumping in with the release of their “IoT Orchestrator” functionality. Ultimately their tool should help you reduce costs, increase revenue, and assist with regulatory compliance/quality issues. Oracle’s IoT Orchestrator tool is hardware neutral, meaning you’d be able to incorporate the hardware of your choice. IoT Orchestrator will filter data delivered from these devices via a JDE Rules Engine, Cross Reference applicable data, which would then trigger a specific action.
Mobility
Oracle is boasting 84 active mobile applications to date around the following areas:
- Expense Entry/Approvals
- Inventory/Order Inquiries
- Condition-based Maintenance
- Project Management
- Health/Safety Incidents
- Purchasing Approvals
- Field Services
Oracle is focused on helping customers to extend the use of mobile applications by providing Mobile Applications Archives (MAA) that allows users to obtain source code for original mobile apps, Mobile Applications Framework that allows customers to customize their branding and incorporate customized screens. Oracle is also developing Mobile Apps to provide customers flexibility for Disconnected Applications, Point of Sale, Nearables, and Wearables.
