User Defined Objects (UDOs) have been around for some time, yet many have yet to realize their full potential. UDOs provide remarkable opportunities, not only for customization but also for automation, optimization, and decision-making. Looking forward, UDOs will be key to Enterprise Automation, an area expected to take center stage in the overall ERP market, and particularly for JD Edwards.
Technological progress and especially the rise of low-code/no-code tools has changed the entire paradigm of how objects work in JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. UDOs were introduced by Oracle a long time ago, and with time they have become more powerful and user-friendly.
Oracle's significant investment in UDOs brings several benefits to you as a customer. UDOs empower you to customize JD Edwards according to your specific needs, promoting the optimization of business processes and facilitating quick adaptation to new requirements as you progress on your digitalization journey. Moreover, you can make customizations without incurring additional maintenance costs or adding to technical debt.
What are UDOs?
User Defined Objects are objects that can be adapted by the user to make EnterpriseOne meet specific business needs not covered by the standard functionality. These include Queries, Watchlists, Form Personalization, Form Extensions, E1Search, CAFE1, UxOne, E1 Pages, Orchestrations, Notifications, and Workflows.
Previously, customizing EnterpriseOne required specialist skills and it was often complicated and expensive. Changes required programming, could affect standard functionality and you often had to retrofit the modifications when the system was upgraded.
The concept of Citizen Developer and UDOs means that the user can create functions and customize JD Edwards without programming. The modifications do not need to be recreated when upgrading and do not imply any additional patching costs – you only pay for your investment once!
The Potential of UDOs in JD Edwards
UDOs offer many benefits and have a wide range of applications:
- Process optimization: With UDOs you can tailor EnterpriseOne to meet your specific needs and thus enhance the optimization of your processes.
- Automation: UDOs can be used to orchestrate automatic workflows, processes and entire business flows.
- User experience: With UDOs you can ensure easy access to the data you need at a specific moment.
- Decision-making: UDOs can provide valuable insights into your company's performance, alert you to bottlenecks or situations that require action.
- Integration: UDOs allow connections within JD Edwards and integration with internal and external applications or third-party systems. This is done through industry standard REST APIs that you can easily set up without coding. You may also expose EnterpriseOne to e.g. mobile applications or warehouse scanners – your imagination is the limit!
- New functionality: You can create new functionality; calculations, validations, and process automation across programs by combining different UDOs.
In our next posts we’ll show how you can utilize UDOs in real life use cases – stay tuned! In the meantime, feel free to reach out to us if you would like to learn more about incorporating UDOs into your company's operations.
