Another benefit of moving to the cloud: Framework extensibility

Cloud computing is being adopted at an unprecedented pace as more and more companies move to the cloud to benefit from more frequent product releases, subscription pricing cost savings, built-in backup and recovery, and automatic software integration, among other advantages. Yet in this journey to the cloud, some companies deliberate on adopting off-the-shelf cloud software. Companies are naturally looking for software that will seamlessly fit their unique business needs. Indeed, studies have consistently shown that feature availability runs neck and neck with pricing as the top factor affecting a company’s choice of cloud software.

Luckily, Oracle provides a solution that bridges the feature gap that exists for some customers in off-the-shelf cloud software. The ability to configure and customize Oracle’s suite of cloud applications means companies can move to the cloud with ease, confident that their unique requirements will be met. Experience shows that more than 80% of customer requirements can be met with standard capabilities built into cloud application software. The remaining 20% can be addressed by the Oracle Cloud Extensibility Framework (PDF), which can customize everything from the application look and feel to exposing application level interfaces that make the transition to the cloud that much easier. The Oracle Cloud Extensibility Framework enables all cloud interfaces to be exposed directly to customers, reducing manual integration development tasks such as:

• Creating physical connections
• Data transformation
• Entity cross-reference or trading partner cross-reference between cloud applications and other external applications
• Routing and orchestration
• Event management

Oracle customers have leveraged the Oracle Cloud Extensibility Framework to address a variety of different requirements across their business including:

• Enabling deeper analytics, reporting and seamless data export
• Extending user interface (UI) customizations and data models
• Defining detailed behavior of applications with various workflows, rules and option settings
• Allowing easier file uploads and downloads in specific file formats
• Creating custom web and mobile applications to meet the needs of their employees and partners

Case Study: $10+ Billion Hardware Distributor

An underappreciated complexity in supply chain management is reverse logistics. This $10+ billion distributor of high end, enterprise-grade hardware found itself with a challenge when transitioning to the cloud to modernize its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) capabilities. Despite being one of the largest value-added resellers of high-end enterprise grade systems, the company got to the pinnacle of its industry by pioneering a uniquely high-touch approach. Oracle Cloud Extensibility Framework allowed the company to create its own unique set of “default fields” that would be part of a Return Material Authorization (RMA) initiated by a customer or a sales representative. With the help of Oracle Cloud Extensibility Framework, this distributor was able to automate its unique RMA process as well as many other capabilities that Oracle Cloud SCM offered, which had previously been on the backburner.

The Oracle Cloud Extensibility Framework is one of the benefits of adopting Oracle’s comprehensive and integrated collection of industry-leading enterprise SaaS applications. To learn more about how the Oracle Cloud Extensibility Framework can help you solve your unique business needs, check out this Oracle Cloud Extensibility Framework paper (PDF).