Has Fusion Interest Finally Arrived?

3 comments

image This week, the Oracle HCM User Group (OHUG) is conducting their annual conference in Las Vegas.  Unfortunately I am unable to attend this year (although I will be in Vegas later this week presenting at the HR-XML Conference). 

Word from those on the conference floor suggest the turnout is incredible.  A significant different from last year when I considered the audience disengaged and disinterested.  Has Fusion interest finally arrived?  It think so…especially with SAP’s Business ByDesign announcement last week lighting a fire underneath Oracle’s butt.  At least some credit, though, should go to the OHUG board for lifting the conference from near death and restoring some of the Peoplesoft atmosphere.  From what I hear, the conference has nearly double its attendance from last year , with an estimated 1,500 attendees.  Partners exhibiting at the conference has also nearly doubled to almost 50 (stop by the Knowledge Infusion booth if you are there :-) ).

This is sometimes how real market research is conducted!

Technorati Tags: , , ,
  • Naomi Bloom

    I’ve said more than once (solely as an observer) that an implementation of Fusion apps will be a new implementation — not what we think of as an upgrade — for any current user of Oracle HRMS or PeopleSoft HRMS. New object model means, at a minimum, data discontinuities, and a new presentation of functionality, hopefully from the business event in rather than from the data base out, means that the entire user experience must be re-implemented. Furthermore, much of Fusion apps, whenever Release 1 appears, will be NEW code, with all that implies as to lack of full functionality and the likelihood of “quirks.” The same could be said for SAP’s next gen apps for their traditional target market, which have been spoken of for 2010. I believe that when Oracle/PeopleSoft/SAP’s HRMS installed base realize what the workload will be for getting to their next generation — and when senior management’s realize what this means in terms of levels of investment — there will be a tidal wave of interest in comprehensive HRM BPO. While SaaS-delivered HRMS reduced greatly the upfront costs of using richly functional HRMS software, it does nothing for the level of effort needed on someone’s part to configure that software to reflect the user’s business rules, to load the user’s data from a differently modeled data design, nor to reduce the overall total costs of service delivery which go way beyond the total cost of ownership. The sooner these ERP vendors reveal what their next generations will look like — and I’m confident of some real advances here — the sooner their customers will get interested and then realize that a complete break with the past is the only way that these vendors can ensure their futures. And that complete break is going to mean new implementations all around.

  • Ron Hanscome

    Jason — Credit should certainly go to the OHUG conference board for the current success of the OHUG conference — however, it is inaccurate (not to mention hyperbolic) to characterize OHUG as ever being ‘near death.’ OHUG was at its inception focused on Oracle HRMS users, and saw a steady doubling of attendance since it began in the early 2000′s. Adding to the success (and the attendance) was last year’s inclusion of Oracle PeopleSoft Users and related presentation tracks. OHUG has evolved from an end-user ‘how-to’ set of meetings to something much more. Kudos to the OHUG leaders for expanding their focus and providing a much-needed opportunity for users of both these product lines to share information and use their applications more fully!

  • Lisa Rowan

    Having just come from OHUG, I can vouch for the fact that it was indeed a good-sized crowd and one that appeared very engaged. Only bit of feedback to TPTB over at OHUG – too many concurrent sessions.

    One word of advice, Jason, don’t try that direct 4:58p flight to Boston on USAir – I got home at 4am and it has been running like that all week.

    See you in Chicago.

Previous post:

Next post: