Oracle EBS Upgrade Vs Re-implementation

R12 Decision to Upgrade or Re-implement.

The information below offers best practices and advice to customers currently in 11i who are not able to take decision to upgrade or re-Implement and who are in dilemma. After going through these details they can understand the benefits, pro and cons and decide either to upgrade or re-implement based on the business goals and requirements. R12 is the latest and most advanced version of the E-Business Suite. Many of the technology components and new features in R12 will carry over to the Fusion Applications. For customers running earlier release of 11i, upgrading/Re-implementation to R12 will allow you to move to the Fusion Architecture in an incremental manner.

Understand What Upgrade is.

Upgrade makes use of Process or Oracle Toolkit to ‘Convert’ data from Current Oracle Applications release to R12. The process involved

• Pre-Upgrade Steps
• Auto Upgrade
• Post-Upgrade Steps
• Supported Tools & utilities

Understand What Re-Implementation is.

If the legacy system from which you migrate your historical data is an earlier release of the E-Business Suite (i.e. Treat Current System as Legacy System) then your fresh implementation may be described as a “reimplementation”. The process involved

• Install Latest Release
• Configure applications
• Convert ‘Static’ Data
• Convert Transaction Data

If Consolidation of Multiple Production Instances is needed, it’s a straight fit which favors Re-Implementation Decision.

Key Factors / Decision Criteria.

• Technical Architecture
• Organization Climate, Resources
• Applications Installed and Used
• Changes to Configuration
• Extensions / Scope
• Business Process
• Customization in Current Environment
• Data
• Oracle Skills

Driving Factors.

• IT Drivers : Supportability, Stability, Improved performance, New Features, Reduce , maintenance cost, Out of box use, Retire Customizations
• Business Drivers: New modules, New features and functionality, New requirements, Operational efficiency, Design improvements, Opportunity to re-engineer,More business-handling Capabilities.

Conculsion.

It’s important to keep upgrade vs Implementation consideration in context of overall transition to R12. Before Arriving at Conclusion one should understand the requirement, Issues and Business Goals by raising few questions

• What are Target R12 Needs & Comparison with 11i Instance.
• What is scope of Resources & Project
• What is overall Transition R12 Budget
• Itemize and Inventory the changes required, then consider how to make changes via Upgrade & via re-implementation.
• What are  ‘NO NEED TO TOUCH’ list if upgrade path is used.
• What are ‘REPLICATING NEW’ if re-implement path is used.
• How Historical Data that need to remain unchanged & must be managed and migrated if re-implement path is used.
• What are other project components impacted by 11i to R12 transition eg: Report & Interfaces.