Understanding Oracle Cloud Procurement: Applications and Use

ProcurementCloudOracle Procurement Cloud delivers significant capabilities for Procure to Pay (P2P) for Indirect Spend, Supplier Qualification Management, Sourcing, and Contracts. With the upcoming enhancements coming in Oracle Cloud ERP Release 11 for comprehensive supply chain management applications and direct procurement capabilities, many of our customers are looking to adopt Oracle Cloud Procurement. This article is intended to provide an introduction to Oracle Procurement Cloud and the capabilities available now.

Oracle Procurement Cloud Release 9 established four key capabilities for procurement organizations and the recent Release 10 refined these existing solutions. Oracle Procurement Cloud provides complete business process flows supporting Procure to Pay (P2P) for indirect spend, Supplier Qualification Management, Sourcing, and Contracting processes. These cloud solutions can be deployed as one solution to complete a procurement organizations set of capabilities, and augment other direct procurement processes already in place, or they can be used individually as capabilities are needed. As with any Oracle Cloud solution, companies can choose to ramp the use of the Cloud offering without the initial infrastructure investment that is seen with on premise installations and deploy capabilities as they are needed.

Many large companies including IKEA have already moved to Oracle Procurement Cloud to maintain the single source of truth for contracts that adhere to company policies. Others have moved to Oracle Procurement Cloud for cost savings and to create a highly scalable operation for indirect spend materials. Supplier Qualification ensures supplier compliance by checking that suppliers are properly qualified and adhere to company’s policies. It is a well known best practice that companies save money when items are sourced through approved vendors that are adhering to contract at negotiated prices, and have developed relationships with the buyer.

“The full suite of Oracle’s Procurement Cloud solutions streamline the procure-to-pay process, while keeping a consistent yet flexible approach to process driven procurement.”

I really believe that the Cloud Social Network features of the Oracle Cloud solution deserve notice. Oracle Procurement Cloud enables social interaction among buyers allowing for ranking and review of products being purchased among other functions. Teams should be able to reduce procurement lead-time through this real time collaboration and avoid delays in the buying process. Additionally, these processes are managed with fully secure and automated workflows. Overall, the full suite of Oracle’s Procurement Cloud solutions streamline the procure-to-pay process, while keeping a consistent yet flexible approach to process driven procurement.

Oracle Procurement Cloud benefits from the major investment that Oracle has made in the Fusion technical architecture. This framework enables Advanced Procurement functions to be deployed for stand-alone use or to be deployed with and integrated into current on premise applications. A major benefit of this set of capabilities is that it allows for the flexibility in your business use and a roadmap for increased adoption over time. You can also step into the cloud experience to gain advanced business capabilities at a lower cost and lower risk then you would by continuing to extend your current on premise solution. Business users gain benefit from a global scalable process, which can be accessed from anywhere and through any device. In our rapidly expanding mobile world, procurement solutions need to be in the hands of the people making the decisions when the decision is being made and Oracle Procurement Cloud delivers on this.

ProcurementCloud2Deploying Oracle Procurement Cloud is relatively fast and results are realized quickly. Many companies are seeing implementations and user adoption within a window of twelve weeks, depending on the scope and type of deployment. In the first case, clients are augmenting existing on premise systems while moving some process functions to Cloud Procurement, taking advantage of reducing IT costs and the other benefits of cloud based solutions. Oracle Procurement Cloud also provides a new entry point for companies wishing to use best in class Oracle Cloud applications as a stand-alone solution. Many new clients moving to Cloud operations are selecting the Oracle solution as a stand-alone deployment initially and then planning to integrate to ERP later.

As we look forward to Procurement Cloud Release 11, we anticipate additional features such as direct spend to be integrated into the cloud solution. This will enable integration in the overall Oracle Cloud SCM solution. If you are planning to attend Oracle Open World, you’ll be able to learn first-hand what is anxiously anticipated in the next release. We plan to highlight and advertise the sessions that cover the Cloud SCM applications and will publish an advisory guide of sessions to see for our clients.

For more information on Oracle Procurement Cloud and how it can benefit your organization, please feel free to reach out to me.

Kevin Martin | Key Contributor

Kevin Martin is a Solutions Director for Supply Chain Management at Inspirage. He started his career as a consultant focused on productivity and profitability measures. He has worked in industry and for Oracle and Inspirage supporting clients in High Tech, Electronics, and Semiconductor fields. Kevin uses his solution architecture background to help clients across many industries understand the technical, process, and people components of their supply chain. His knowledge allows them to better their supply chain processes and get the most from the Oracle solutions being integrated into their businesses. Kevin can be reached at kevin.martin@inspirage.com.