Is Enterprise Automation the next big thing in the ERP market? As Process Automation has become an essential tool in ERP systems for managing business flows, data and resources effectively – the answer is Yes! – Enterprise Automation will be a fascinating leap forward. In this blog post we will dive into the concept and how it’s set to revolutionize business using JD Edwards EnterpriseOne!
You have probably already heard the buzz; Enterprise Automation is predicted to be the next big thing in the ERP world and the fact is that it is already well under way. Oracle has been working towards this exciting new direction for some time and as we look forward to the next few years, Enterprise Automation is set to become a core part of xperitus strategic direction.
Before we dive deeper into the implications and potential of Enterprise Automation, let's take a moment to celebrate the journey so far.
Many companies have taken significant steps in process automation in recent years. And among our JD Edwards customers, the success stories are many and inspiring. From reducing the manual steps when maintaining master data to fully automating sales order processes or integrating your Accounts Payables to external voucher scanning systems.
On the developer side significant effort has been made in simplifying the creation of process automations. From integrating JD Edwards Workflows into the Orchestrator Studio, adding more and more powerful tools to the extension framework for optimizing JD Edwards applications to expanding the features of Logic Extensions into a fully-fledged development tool.
Ok so we have a pretty good idea of what Process Automation is and what it can do so what about Enterprise Automation?
Enterprise Automation seeks to expand on Process Automation by stretching it beyond single business processes to pan-enterprise processes across the entire organization. The main goal is to streamline, give insight into how the enterprise is doing and allow for decision-making and data analysis and in the end optimization across different departments.
The primary components of Enterprise Automation include Robotic Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and integration tools that connect various modules in JD Edwards as well as external systems and data sources. By integrating these components, Enterprise Automation aims to optimize the entire range of business operations.
Here are some of the main differences between Enterprise Automation and Process Automation:
A central part of Enterprise Automation is to leverage the transactional data that an enterprise generates. Like A.J. Schifano stated in his presentation about Enterprise Automation at the JD Edwards Conference in May 2023:
While caught up in daily operations, it's easy to overlook the potential of this omnipresent data, and thus the hidden treasures within transactional data remain unexplored.
Consider, for example, that we for some items run into a mid-week shortage. After investigation it is found that a supplier is rejecting our purchase orders exclusively on Fridays. With a superficial glance, this issue might remain undiscovered, relegated to the status of a mere operational hiccup.
However, by digging deeper into aggregated data we can automatically uncover such anomalies, allowing us to address the issues directly and improve overall business performance.
Automation plays a crucial role in this data-driven journey. By automating tasks, we do more than streamline operations and improve efficiency. When automation spans across the entire enterprise, it leads to generation of massive data, which, when analyzed, can give accurate insight into the true health of the business. Suboptimization look out – Enterprise Automation is here to get you!
Automation is thus an integral part of the data life cycle, facilitating data ingestion, model generation, problem-solving, and measurement of results.
But, it's not just about automating tasks; it's also about capturing the subtleties of human interactions. By introducing light touch automation into human-driven tasks we will be able to document these actions, enriching our data pool for further analysis.
Enterprise Automation enhances the capabilities of an ERP-system and is poised to revolutionize the ERP market. Sure, while the adoption will come with its set of challenges, the concept offers numerous benefits to enterprises that embark on the journey:
By embracing this wave, your business can enhance efficiency, become more adaptable to changes and maintain your competitive edge!
Business Intelligence is another concept that emphasizes the leveraging of data. It is as you know the process of collecting, analyzing and visualizing information to make informed decisions based on facts.
Sounds a lot like Enterprise Automation, right? However, the two disciplines have different strengths and are ideally used together in optimizing a business. While BI focuses on insights and analysis, Enterprise Automation helps by automating and optimizing the processes for improved efficiency and accuracy.
Enterprise Automation can for example automate the process of collecting and transforming data from different sources as well as presenting it using automated report tools – something that is usually very time-consuming within Business Intelligence.
In conclusion, there's huge potential for business improvement and innovation through insightful data analysis and automation.
Enterprise Automation is the future of JD Edwards and even if it is still a vision, it is on Oracle’s roadmap and as you know; EnterpriseOne is not starting from scratch! There’s an arsenal of resources already at your disposal: already defined KPIs, Orchestrations, Watchlists, UxOne Pages, complex analytics capabilities in Logic Extensions and most important – your digital goldmine – your data.
Blog Post Embracing Innovation
To summarize, Enterprise Automation represents a long-term strategic plan for JD Edwards. It’s a journey of transformation that we at xperitus look forward to embarking on together with you.
You are sitting on a goldmine of information – Enterprise Automation is the key to unlock it’s secrets!