Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th January marked Oracle OpenWorld London 2019, and the Veran team were thrilled to make their way over to the ExCel to hear about the Oracle successes over the year, and what the transformational space of tomorrow might hold.
Oracle employees, partners, exhibitors and guest speakers amounted to (a rumoured) 12,000 people - all presenting and discussing ideas around eight key topics:
Developer
Finance
HR
Industry
IT
Modern IT Operations
Sales, Marketing, Service
Supply Chain
Although Veran were keen to learn about the breadth and variety of Oracle’s offerings we were, of course, mainly focused on hearing from those using Oracle to help transform their HR and Finance functions. A key speaker here being Nick McGrath, Programme Director of the Home Office Oracle Fusion Pathfinder project which Veran are currently working on. Nick spoke about the lessons learnt during this project, what they have achieved so far and their plans for the future. Interestingly, he highlighted that a main principle of the project was to adopt not adapt. Here, he referred to using processes and system design that had already been used in The Treasury and ONS thus using the hard work done there and allowing the Home Office to use their time and resource wisely, focusing only on those areas which need design work.
This ‘adopt not adapt’ ideology directly mirrors Veran’s Accelerated Cloud Transformation (ACT) methodology for UK Government. In short, ACT@Veran allows government departments to adopt government standard technology system designs (from the Cabinet Office and Home Office pathfinder projects) and tailor them to their department’s individual requirements instead of starting the whole design process from scratch. This avoids re-inventing the wheel and saves valuable resource, time and money by accelerating straight into the test phase. More information on this can be found here.
Hearing about the multiple successes of the Home Office pathfinder project really reinstated the feasibility of implementing Cloud Solutions within Central Government and the way that other government departments can piggyback onto the design features and lessons learnt thus far. With finance, procurement and expenses already live and running and HCM and Payroll not far behind, this pathfinder project within the Home Office is definitely a success for Oracle but also a success for Government Shared Services.
Another key discussion point throughout the conference was the development of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence both within and as an extension of the Oracle platform. Zoe Vince, Head of HR Innovation and Technology at the Cabinet Office, delivered an inspiring presentation focussing on how new technology, specifically automation and robotics, is improving the workplace experience of employees and managers by driving modernisation and efficiency. Again, this is something which resonates hugely with the work and research currently being done here at Veran. Over the last year, we have been conducting research into how HR teams are leading the way utilising AI, Robotics and Automation and we are now creating a maturity assessment for businesses to assess their readiness for these innovative technologies. We help companies select which HR processes they should automate and advise people on which steps to take to start their AI journey.
Oracle OpenWorld London 2019 highlighted the demand and interest in new, innovative technologies and provided a platform for partners and clients to showcase their offerings and achievements. Thanks to Oracle for providing such great insight into the future of HR and Finance – we’ve definitely got a very exciting year ahead!
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