How to Spot Signs That Your Oracle Applications Need a Health Check
While everyone is talking about the inevitability of cloud migration, some are left wondering how to begin planning for this big move while maintaining existing on-premises systems. Many organizations remain reliant on an outdated legacy system, with some not even in the planning stage for cloud migration. So why are so many companies still using obsolete systems if the cloud is much better?
There are a few reasons why many organizations remain tied to an old legacy system even though they can be costly to run and lack new features:
- Budget: The organization would like to move to the cloud, but they don't have the budget yet and need their current system to continue to operate for the foreseeable future.
- Too many customizations: The organization has too many customizations on an existing system and is not ready for the time and financial investment necessary to migrate its customized functionality to the cloud.
- Familiarity: Regardless of actual functionality, many consider their legacy systems to be reliable or, at least familiar to existing users.
- Data centers: The organization heavily invested in its data center and wants to get the most value out of it by remaining on-premises for as long as possible.
What Makes On-Premises Systems Inefficient?
On-premises systems rely upon manual entry, where all updates must be managed by the organization. Many of these on-premises systems have a physical data center in the building, which must be maintained by a dedicated IT staff and is one of the many reasons that migrating to the cloud is becoming increasingly popular. On-premises data centers are a considerable investment upfront and are more costly to maintain, whereas cloud deployments are less expensive due to subscription or pay-as-you-go services.
Are you concerned that your team is not getting the expected value from your Oracle solution? Accelalpha offers an Application Health Check and Monitoring service where our consultants complete an in-depth application evaluation of your Oracle system to help determine if your organization is taking full advantage of the features available in your Oracle application.
What is Involved in Health Check?
Health checks are primarily performed for organizations that have been using their on-premises system for years and:
- want to move to the cloud or
- are experiencing performance issues and need help solving them.
Other common triggers for a health check can occur when new management takes over the organization and wants to know how the system adds value and performs, or when the organization is getting ready to take a big step, like cloud migration.
Many of these organizations will ask Accelalpha to investigate the company's Oracle systems from top to bottom to see where they can improve or solve a specific problem. Accelalpha will identify where opportunities for improvement exist, and we will assess the solution implemented to determine whether issues exist in the application or whether the original implementation is affecting the solution's capabilities.
Steps Involved in an Accelalpha Health Check
When approaching a Health Check, Accelalpha consultants will take the following steps to gain an in-depth understanding of your existing software and how it functions for your organization:
Discovery Phase
Consultants begin by evaluating the organization's current system usage and assessing the overall performance of the Oracle applications.
Business Process Analysis
We analyze your current Oracle applications, from master data, workflow agents, customizations, business processes, user pain points, to integration touch points. The Accelalpha consultants will review the key factors that negatively impact operations, understand how the solution was implemented, and investigate the system configuration.
Integration and Connectivity Analysis
While analyzing the system, Accelalpha’s consultants will see where there are inefficiencies or uncover where improper solution implementations originate.
Discovery Findings and Future Growth Analysis
Once the analysis has been performed, Accelalpha consultants build a comprehensive report and conduct a feedback call with the organization to reveal the areas where they can improve their Oracle solution. The consultants’ report aims to provide the organization with a scope of work demonstrating how they can enhance the Oracle applications to better support the organization and its critical business processes. Accelalpha does not make any system changes during a Health Check.
During this feedback session, we report our findings to the organization. Our goal is to recommend best practices to help organizations maximize the use of their Oracle applications. The Future Growth Analysis is a tool that allows the organization to see how the recommended improvements will affect its bottom line.
Common Outcomes of a Health Check
If an organization wants to take the recommended steps to improve its system, they move into the optimization phase. During the optimization process, we aim to maximize the efficiency of what was implemented. Accelalpha optimizes and ensures that the company gets the most value from its Oracle solution. The Accelalpha team will also ensure that system integrations are fluid and efficient.
As Accelalpha helps the organization eliminate redundant processes and automate manual processes, these steps give employees valuable time back to spend on more critical tasks. Throughout the optimization phase, organizations see measurably improved performance. Accelalpha helps organizations discover how to streamline the support structure they need to manage the on-premises system with many customizations.
Alternatively, IT can reduce workforce or spending by migrating to the cloud. Even if the organization retains its entire IT department after migrating to the cloud, those workers are freed up to work on other priorities, like managing security risks and VPNs, because Oracle takes care of the hardware, the database, and application upgrades.
Does Your Organization Need a Health Check?
When it comes to preventative healthcare, many people try to avoid checkups or doctor visits unless they display obvious symptoms. Similarly, many organizations are afraid to conduct an in-depth assessment of their Oracle applications. Rather than look at it as a preventative measure, we often wait for something to go wrong or break before getting a diagnosis.
As a result, Accelalpha's Solution Health Check and Monitoring services were created to act as preventative healthcare for your Oracle software.
If your organization is still using an on-premises Oracle system and you plan to keep using it for the time being, answer the following questions to determine if you could benefit from having Accelalpha conduct a Health Check:
- Is your system experiencing performance-related issues or failing to improve existing operations?
- Are you able to take advantage of the solution benefits and functionalities you were anticipating?
- Is the system helping you to actively improve key organizational processes?
Why Migrate to the Cloud?
Organizations are being advised to move to the cloud because, in a number of years, Oracle will no longer support on-premises versions many have been operating with. This means that even those who put off a cloud migration in the short term will eventually have to make the change.
As a result, your organization should plan to complete this migration sooner rather than later because if you wait until the last moment, Oracle may no longer support an application that your organization relies on. With an Accelalpha Health Check, we can help you assess your organization's cloud readiness and choose the best time to move to the cloud.
Something to Consider
Accelalpha knows that it can be difficult for some organizations to dedicate the time or resources to invest in the proper level of knowledge and training needed for their teams, which is why Accelalpha offers a range of managed services. We have the people you need to outsource problem resolution, testing, application upgrades, and continuous improvement of your Oracle environment. If your organization requires a Health Check or wants to find out more, please reach out to an Accelalpha consultant.