Oracle 11i to R12: Upgrade or Re-implementation?
Most of you should be off Oracle EBS release 11i by now. If you’re not, it’s time. While Sustaining Support for perpetual license holders of 11i lasts indefinitely following Oracle’s “From Five Years to Forever” meme, you’re missing key features from Oracle Premier Support, including new fixes, updates, critical patch updates, and, the most risky in today’s business climate—security alerts.
Once you get to Release 12, you’ll have Oracle Premier Support for a very long time—right now until 2030, and that is very likely to be extended. Oracle will review and update their support annually and extend for a period of one year, giving customers a rolling 10-year window for Oracle Premier Support. They recognize that not every business is a fit for a cloud transition, and although they have announced that R12 will be the last on-premise release, they have vowed to continue Premier-level support for it—as well as on-prem software from acquisitions like PeopleSoft and JD Edwards—with continuous innovation releases. That means they will continue to introduce application and technology innovations, however the upgrades will be minimal and there will never be another major release upgrade for on-premise beyond R12.
The leap to R12 is no easy feat, and more often than not it will actually require a re-implementation. Upgrades become more difficult the longer you wait, and if you’re still on 11i, you’ve been waiting awhile. If you have an outdated ERP version, you’ve likely added to it over time, creating customizations that have become unnecessary and possibly cumbersome. In these cases, a re-implementation will allow you to establish new customizations that are applicable and abandon the old ones that may be bogging down your system.
Re-implementations need to be treated like implementations, with proper assessments and planning, requirements gathering, and project management. Essentially what you are doing is installing a fresh installation of the newest ERP version—R12, for example—from the applications through the middleware to the database. (Another compelling reason to have a solid Master Data Management strategy.)
Once you’re on R12, you will likely be able to follow upgrade paths instead of doing a full re-implementation. But not always. Oracle made significant architecture changes in Release 12 and the web services changed. If you have heavy customization on your R12.1 installation and are looking to bring it up to 12.2, then a re-implementation of R12 may be called for.
Avout’s Oracle R12 Scaled Upgrade™ approach provides organizations with three tiers of service to allow you to implement the most cost-effective solution that meets the needs of today and will scale for the future. Download more information at https://avout.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Avout_Sales_Sheet_OracleR12.pdf