Oracle users fail to get that moving apps to cloud means business transformation – Gartner

Big business users of Oracle wares are failing to understand that moving applications to the cloud means a business transformation – notoriously tough and organizationally complex – not just a technical project.

According to Gartner, although Oracle Cloud Application (OCA) products are maturing, users haven't grasped what the migration from their on-premises applications really means.

"Enterprises transitioning to OCA fail to understand that SaaS does not allow for customization, only configuration. The OCA transition is a business transformation, not a technical migration," a Gartner research paper warns.

The message was previously levelled at users of SAP enterprise software – who are similarly challenged with the migration to the cloud. Oliver Betz, SVP head of product management for SAP S/4HANA, told customers in 2020 they could not have the modifications they have in the on-premises world with the move to software-as-a-service. "That's not how the cloud works," he said.

Oracle users considering cloud migration face a similar problem, Gartner says.

Still, help is at hand in the form of business consultants who are gobbling up work with OCA migrations. Collectively, the service providers accrued $15.4 billion in revenue from OCA-related services, Gartner found.

By year-end 2024, 75 percent of Oracle application services revenue will be cloud-related as large organizations commit to the move to the fluffy whiter stuff, the analyst said.

By the same date, 70 percent of large Oracle ERP deployments will be executed by predominantly remote rather than on-site implementation teams.

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Of Oracle applications implemented as SaaS, 60 percent are either human resource or enterprise resource planning related. One in ten are to do with advertising and customer experience while 15 percent involve supply chain applications. The remaining 15 percent are in the new area of industry applications, and Gartner expects this to be the place for expansion as Oracle invests.

Gartner rated consultants claiming to help out in business transformation related to moving applications to the cloud. Deloitte, Accenture, PwC and KPMG were the top four, in that order. The top four for technical migration were Oracle, Cognizant, Inspirage and Wipro respectively. ®