The Benefits of Consolidating Oracle s PeopleSoft Applications with the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft Optimize Your Infrastructure by Consolidating Multiple PeopleSoft Applications on a Single, Secure Platform O R A C L E W H I T E P A P E R L A S T U P D A T E D J U N E 2 0 15
Table of Contents Introduction 2 The Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft 2 Meeting the Changing Needs of PeopleSoft Users 3 Financial Users 4 Human Resources Users 4 Higher Education Users 5 Conclusion 6 1 THE BENEFITS OF CONSOLIDATING ORACLE S PEOPLESOFT APPLICATIONS WITH THE ORACLE OPTIMIZED SOLUTION FOR PEOPLESOFT
Introduction IT is playing a strategic role in business success. Enterprise growth and competitive advantage often hinge on an IT department s ability to deliver new and differentiated tools and services quickly and efficiently, and, of course, with the lowest cost possible. As a result, many corporate and educational IT organizations employ Oracle s PeopleSoft applications, including Oracle s PeopleSoft Human Capital Management, Oracle s PeopleSoft Financial Management, and Oracle s PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, to meet everyday business operational needs. These applications allow IT organizations to address a variety of business requirements, such as payroll, financial closes, staff management, and student enrollment and degree planning, with increased productivity, accelerated performance, and a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). However, running multiple PeopleSoft applications in legacy data center environments can make keeping up with changing and expanding business requirements difficult. Increased infrastructure complexity and server sprawl associated with running multiple, multi-tiered applications raises operational costs and limits the benefits of incorporating essential newer technologies into the data center environment. Aging systems and interoperability issues result in a higher risk of mission-critical system failure and increased planned and unplanned downtime, making it challenging to meet service level agreements (SLAs). A complex, heterogeneous environment limits infrastructure expansion and flexibility and requires more management resources to administer, increasing management costs and keeping IT administrators from responding to new business requirements. Inflexible infrastructures must also be sized for peak workload demand, resulting in lower system utilization. In fact, a recent study by Gartner found that most IT organizations spend 63% of their annual budget simply maintaining their current infrastructure, leaving little for strategic and transformative initiatives. 1 All of these factors contribute to growing IT constraints that hold back business. The Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft The Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft alleviates the challenges created by legacy environments. Based on Oracle s SPARC servers, Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance, and Oracle Solaris, the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft is designed for high availability, extreme performance, and secure application consolidation. Past Oracle Optimized Solutions have successfully demonstrated consolidation of multiple tiers (application, web, database) of a single PeopleSoft application. Going farther, this Oracle Optimized Solution consolidates all of the tiers of multiple PeopleSoft applications onto a single highly available platform. With the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft, all system components are integrated and supported by a single vendor Oracle greatly simplifying infrastructure 1 IT Metrics: IT Spending and Staffing Report, 2012, Gartner Research, 2012. 2 THE BENEFITS OF CONSOLIDATING ORACLE S PEOPLESOFT APPLICATIONS WITH THE ORACLE OPTIMIZED SOLUTION FOR PEOPLESOFT
design, deployment, management, and operations. 2 The business benefits of consolidating PeopleSoft applications onto an Oracle infrastructure are numerous, including improved business continuity, greater protection and integrity of confidential information, increased productivity and agility, better business intelligence, and lower costs.» Business Continuity. When mission-critical business applications are down, so is your business. Operating complex infrastructures increases the risk of application, and business, downtime. The simplified architecture and reliability-focused design of the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft result in greater system availability, essential for running business-critical applications and ensuring business continuity» Environment Security. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as PeopleSoft can integrate and unify an increasing number of business functions and core processes. This aggregates business-critical and confidential data into a single location, making it a prime target for both cyber criminals and internal attacks. As such, safeguarding internal infrastructure from intrusions and ensuring the integrity of digital information has become a business priority for most organizations. Through functional security guidelines and best practices, Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft helps protect confidential information, preserve data integrity, and enforce user accountability.» IT and End User Productivity. Infrastructure complexity can impact both IT and end user productivity. Complex environments require more time to operate and maintain, reducing IT productivity, and are more likely to experience unplanned downtime, reducing end user productivity. Consolidating your PeopleSoft applications results in a simplified environment and reduces interoperability issues and management time, improving IT efficiency and freeing up time and resources to focus on new, strategic business initiatives. Simplification also reduces unplanned downtime, and keeps end users productive.» Better Decisions Based on Real-Time Data. Business decisions, such as those involving finances and regulatory compliance, are made based on the data and reporting available at that time. With an aging, lowerperforming infrastructure, critical decisions must be made with limited or outdated information. Migrating your PeopleSoft business applications to a high-performance architecture speeds report and query generation and eliminates reporting and batch processing backlogs so you can confidently base your decisions on complete, realtime data.» Business Agility. Businesses must adapt to changing market conditions and launch new products to be successful. Legacy infrastructures often lack the flexibility to adapt to evolving business requirements quickly and effectively. The Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft gives you the infrastructure flexibility to deploy new services quickly and efficiently so you can gain the competitive advantage, boost market share and revenues, and grow your business.» Lower Operating Costs. Keeping costs in check is just as important to the bottom line as boosting revenues. With the majority of IT budgets spent on operating and maintaining current infrastructures, improving IT efficiency can drastically impact operational expenses (OPEX). The Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft simplifies operations and management to increase IT efficiency and reduce OPEX, improving profit margins and shareholder value. Meeting the Changing Needs of PeopleSoft Users PeopleSoft Human Capital Management, PeopleSoft Financial Management, and PeopleSoft Campus Solutions address a variety of business challenges. Consolidating these PeopleSoft applications using the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft brings specific benefits to each class of user, in addition to the broader business benefits already discussed. 2 For more details on the architecture of the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft, please see Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft: Consolidating Multiple PeopleSoft Applications on SPARC T5-8 Servers. 3 THE BENEFITS OF CONSOLIDATING ORACLE S PEOPLESOFT APPLICATIONS WITH THE ORACLE OPTIMIZED SOLUTION FOR PEOPLESOFT
Financial Users Up-to-date information is critical to making financial decisions, and financial officers and staff make a variety of small and large fiscal choices every day. Basing these determinations on dated, inaccurate, or incomplete information can result in poor financial guidance, insufficient fiscal planning, and noncompliance with reporting and disclosure regulations and requirements. When financial reports are delayed or the amount of information available is limited by infrastructure performance bottlenecks, the risk of making a mistake increases. Running PeopleSoft Financial Management according to the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft eliminates the performance bottlenecks that limit your access to all of the latest financial information so you can be confident in each and every fiscal decision you make. Faster financial operations also reduce operating costs, improve productivity, and allow you to make informed decisions faster, giving you the competitive edge. Other top financial user concerns and benefits of the solution are shown in Table 1. TABLE 1. FINANCIAL USER CONCERNS AND SOLUTION BENEFITS Financial user top concerns Providing accurate revenue, expense, and resource allocation guidance to stakeholders Delivering precise and timely financial planning and what-if analyses Executing the financial close process quickly and cost-effectively Enforcing information access security policies Ensuring compliance with regulations and disclosure requirements while delivering the information financial managers need to do their jobs Solution benefits Fast, accurate planning and forecasting of revenue, expenses, profits, and resource allocation Real-time insight into financial situation and what-if scenarios based on current financial information on-demand, at any time Improved financial controls and faster reporting Increased data security and compliance controls that deliver the information financial managers need while protecting data and ensuring regulations and requirements are met Human Resources Users Human resource managers deal with a wide range of employee and applicant information on a daily basis. Managing benefits enrollment, training, recruitment, expenses, and payroll requires the right information at the right time, and disparate and low-performing system infrastructures can impede access to information. Additionally, when the system infrastructure is unable to handle peak demand workloads, self-service applications and online training experience downtime, increasing employee frustration and turnover, negatively impacting productivity, and delaying revenue. With the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft, you can be assured that all human resource applications will always be available and run at full speed, even during peaks in usage. The result is increased productivity with lower costs, accelerated employee training, better-informed staffing decisions, and more satisfied employees. Table 2 shows additional human resource user concerns and benefits of the Oracle solution. 4 THE BENEFITS OF CONSOLIDATING ORACLE S PEOPLESOFT APPLICATIONS WITH THE ORACLE OPTIMIZED SOLUTION FOR PEOPLESOFT
TABLE 2. HUMAN RESOURCE USER CONCERNS AND SOLUTION BENEFITS Human resource user top concerns Providing effective HR self-service applications Supplying efficient online training Knowing the impacts of new labor regulations, contracts, and policies Matching recruits with job requirements quickly Completing payroll on time Managing expenses effectively Solution benefits Consistent, fast, and efficient self-service applications for onboarding, benefits, timesheets, and more Accelerated online training What-if scenario analysis for changes to regulations, policies, and contracts to enable better HR planning Complete knowledge of staff and recruit experience to better match candidate with requirements Faster payroll processing ensures schedule compliance and reduces costs Real-time insight into labor performance and costs Higher Education Users Managing an educational institution can be extremely complex. Creating the right class offerings, recruiting and admitting the best students, awarding financial aid, and enrolling students in the appropriate classes effectively requires a comprehensive view of institution operations and finances and student information. Incomplete, inaccurate, and delayed information can result in poor class offerings, overcrowded classes, student funding issues, increased costs, and loss of revenue. The Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft gives you real-time insight into the inner workings of your educational institution so you can manage your operations more efficiently. High-availability for self-service applications streamlines enrollment and class management for greater student success while ensuring tuition payments aren t missed. The result is a better match between institution and student, lower operational costs, and a better overall student experience. More top higher education user concerns and solution benefits are shown in Table 3. TABLE 3. HIGHER EDUCATION USER CONCERNS AND SOLUTION BENEFITS Higher education user top concerns Creating an efficient and effective admissions process Managing financial aid program effectively Offering classes students want to take and optimizing classroom capacity Streamlining student registration process Providing an effective student accounting system Simplifying complex enrollment plans and processes Solution benefits Streamlined admissions process with real-time insight into applicant pool and visibility into recruitment and admissions funnel Real-time insight and auditable controls to better manage financial aid funds and ensure regulatory compliance Real-time insight into registration information to strategically manage enrollment and class offerings Enables a fast, seamless registration process that eliminates administrative barriers to student success Self-service accounting with tight financial controls enables students to coordinate with financial aid programs and pay tuition on time Flexibility to create and manage new enrollment programs to meet evolving institution and student needs 5 THE BENEFITS OF CONSOLIDATING ORACLE S PEOPLESOFT APPLICATIONS WITH THE ORACLE OPTIMIZED SOLUTION FOR PEOPLESOFT
Conclusion Running your PeopleSoft Human Capital Management, PeopleSoft Financial Management, and PeopleSoft Campus Solutions applications in a complex, multi-tiered, multi-system, multi-vendor deployment based on unreliable, vulnerable, low-performance legacy hardware limits your ability to do business safely, effectively, and efficiently. Architecting your PeopleSoft applications using the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft provides the performance, security, and reliability you need to meet business demands now and the flexibility to adapt your systems and expand your environment as needs evolve over time, all while saving infrastructure costs. Visit http://www.oracle.com/optimizedsolutions or contact your Oracle sales representative to find out more about how the Oracle Optimized Solution for PeopleSoft can help take your business to the next level of success. Oracle Corporation, World Headquarters Worldwide Inquiries 500 Oracle Parkway Phone: +1.650.506.7000 Redwood Shores, CA 94065, USA Fax: +1.650.506.7200 6 THE BENEFITS OF CONSOLIDATING ORACLE S PEOPLESOFT APPLICATIONS WITH THE ORACLE OPTIMIZED SOLUTION FOR PEOPLESOFT
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