by Rebecca Portela

Due to the pandemic, Oracle OpenWorld 2020 was reimagined as a series of online events called Oracle Live. At the time of this writing, Oracle is planning on returning to the in-person conference format of OpenWorld in 2021 but we have no additional information about those plans at this time. 

To keep you up to date, this short series from Centroid highlights some of the most exciting news from Oracle Live about Oracle ERP Cloud 2021.

This has been a difficult and trying year for everyone in and out of the business world. Industries and corporations found themselves facing unprecedented challenges. Depending on your particular field and industry, the road that led you here was fraught with its own unique obstacles and seemingly unsolvable problems.

Nonetheless, through all the chaos that has been this past year, Oracle ERP Cloud provided the services that helped businesses across industries overcome their 2020 obstacles and succeed in our new, ever-changing business landscape. 

After helping many businesses begin their cloud transformation this year, Oracle took some time during Oracle Live to share their views on what is expected to happen next with Oracle Cloud ERP

How Oracle ERP Cloud Will Empower the Finance Team in 2021

One of the biggest findings from the pandemic has been the realization of how much an enterprise’s Finance team must innovate to outpace change and pivot forward.

Therefore, Oracle’s finance vision has been focused on supporting its customers’ SaaS transformation journey right now, as well as moving forward into the future with streamlined and improved Finance team capabilities and strengths. 

Within this view, we are able to break down the Oracle ERP Cloud finance vision moving forward into 3 major themes:

  • Agility 

To move beyond traditional ideas, companies must innovate in a new Finance team operating model to create more agility and capacity for future plans. Oracle Cloud ERP will power this innovation. 

  • Advanced Machine Learning and Advanced Analytics 

Companies wanting to run on next-gen cloud technology like Oracle OCI can increase their Finance team efficiency by leveraging Machine Learning and AI to automate and uncover insights.

  • Empower Finance as Decision Leaders

When you view the Finance team as a driver of business and empower them with the tools to do more, your enterprise can approach business decisions with the rigor and enhanced collaborative culture that is required to succeed with transformation

Oracle Cloud ERP 2021: Powered by Machine Learning and AI

From what we’ve seen in 2020, cloud ERP is the key differentiator in today’s constantly shifting business landscape. Though no one can predict or control the changes that the future may bring, Oracle Cloud ERP has unique capabilities that help enterprises control how they prepare for and respond to changes.

This is because Oracle offers the broadest and deepest ERP offering on the market today, ready for any size of enterprise, in any country and any industry. 

In fact, one of the most important and unique offerings going forward in Oracle ERP Cloud will be the in-depth Machine Learning and AI capabilities powered by the Oracle Cloud Platform. These enable business transformation through: 

  • Touchless Operations

Machine learning will be able to automate most of the transaction processing in finance, while humans will be focused on managing exceptions, approvals, and fine-tuning machine automation.

  • Continuous Monitoring

Helps power agility by increasing your understanding of how you are tracking toward your financial targets every day, including immediate alerts for any surprises.

  • Predictive Planning  

Machine learning can combine data intelligently to help drive predictive trends. You and your staff can use these predictive findings to update forecasts continually and stay ahead of the curve. 

  • Digital Assistance

Conversational experiences (including chatbot interactions) will not only help with self-service transactions for customers and employees, they will also help your team navigate through the insights from prior innovations and enhance collaboration between key stakeholders housed within and outside finance.

The 2021 Industry Focus for Oracle ERP Cloud

In addition to all the innovations for Finance and with Machine Learning and AI, Oracle is also increasingly focused on expanding their coverage in industry-specific capabilities for the next year. 

Some of these industries and innovations include:

  • Higher Education 
    • Always current compliance 
    • Comprehensive analytics
  • Asset Intensive Industries
    • Integrated supply chain for capital intensive projects
    • Contractual retainage and negotiated payment terms to satisfy obligations
  • U.S. Federal
    • Dedicated government cloud data centers with FedRAMP certification
    • Key federal financial capabilities including budget planning and execution, funds control and distribution, and regulatory reporting via digital interfaces with the Treasury

Prepare for Your Enterprise’s Future in 2021 and Beyond with Oracle ERP Cloud

The pace of technological change that we all witnessed throughout the many disruptions of 2020 promises only to accelerate as we move forward into the future. 

To help drive agility for its customers, Oracle is planning on an innovative approach in 2021 and beyond, which will enable your company to outpace change and pivot forward with success. 

But the secret to success doesn’t lie in having Oracle tools like Oracle Cloud ERP, the secret to success lies in being able to choose the right tools for your needs going forward – and then leveraging those tools as efficiently as possible

Centroid, the team of pioneering Oracle Cloud experts and developers of the fastest Oracle ERP Cloud migration in the world, are the team to help you achieve your cloud goals in 2021. 

Learn more about your options for the Oracle Cloud with Centroid. 

For more than 20 years, Centroid has helped companies across a wide range of industries get the most out of the full stack of Oracle solutions, providing expert cloud guidancedatabase administrationcustom development, private hosting, and Oracle managed services support for our clients’ complex hybrid systems.

In addition to being an award-winning Oracle expert and leading Oracle Cloud consultant, Centroid is also an Oracle Cloud pioneer – we’re the team behind the largest Oracle IaaS / PaaS implementation, and we were one of the first Oracle Cloud Managed Services Providers (MSPs) on the planet. We hold 155+ Professional Cloud certificates, which makes us the team to trust when you’re ready to simplify the cloud.


Photo by Markus Winkler from Unsplash