Quest Innovation Week JDE Recap & Resources

Source: JDE Keynote April 20 2020

It’s hard to believe that the JDE community would have been together in person this week in Las Vegas – and harder to imagine an April without COLLABORATE!

Last year was one of my favorite COLLABORATE conferences yet, and although I am disappointed to miss the face-to-face educational and networking opportunities, I’m grateful that Quest and the Oracle JD Edwards teams are committed to delivering the content we hoped for from #C20LV right to our homes and businesses as part of Innovation Week which kicked off Monday with a JDE Keynote and Applications & Tools Roadmap sessions.

JD Edwards Re-Imagined

Through the theme of “Re-Imagining JDE,” Lyle Ekdahl illustrated how customers are leveraging EnterpriseOne 9.2 to modernize and transform their experiences – especially as individuals, companies & industries look to adapt due to the challenges surrounding COVID-19.

“JD Edwards has the capability to truly transform your business; this modernization and digital adoption is now more important than ever.” – Lyle Ekdahl

The Oracle JDE product teams too continue to reimagine the business transformation that can be achieved with 9.2. First, Lyle announced an extension of Premier Support for 9.2 until AT LEAST 2031, which means an unprecedented ~16 years of comprehensive maintenance and software upgrades for E1 9.2 🎉 This is great news for JDE customers, especially for the 70% of those polled who are already running 9.2 (source: live poll during the JDE keynote, April 21 2020).

We also heard an official announcement of Tools Release 9.2.4.3 and 58 new Applications enhancements for digital process automation and ERP optimization including Orchestration Debugger, User Experience & Extensibility Improvements, Project Status InquiryWork Order Ledger and so much more.

I am always excited to hear about new features and enhancements, as it means I have the opportunity to update the JDE E1 9.2 Capabilities Whitepaper, which is designed to provide JDE users & managers with a holistic overview of all available tools, features & technologies within the 9.2 Apps & Tools sets. You can request the latest version here.

During the keynote, Lyle was joined by several customers who shared their real-life digital transformation stories:

  • Ford Meter Box who leveraged several 9.2 technologies including: JDE Orchestrator to automate and streamline a manual product scanning process within their manufacturing facility to bring improved data into JDE while also eliminating human errors; a unique set of fit-for-purpose mobile apps to maintain and manage customer relationships; and UX One to “make JD Edwards cool.”
  • Flatiron Construction Corp who migrated from World to 9.2 to enable better decision making and improve user experiences for employees across various job sites while also realizing: automation with IoT devices and the JDE Orchestrator to bring data back into JDE; and accelerated user adoption as a result of personalization with UX One RolesWatchlists and Employee Self-Service.
  • TruGreen who modernized operations by moving JDE into Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to improve performance & ensure maximum flexibility while integrating their field service operations with the backend of JDE.

Through these case studies, Lyle encouraged JD Edwards customers to work smarterembrace change and leverage 9.2 as a platform for continuous innovation.

Continuous Innovation with E1 9.2

After the sneak peek of the latest features and enhancements delivered in Release 9.2.4.3, I looked forward to attending the JDE Product Update & Roadmap session with Bob Monahan and Gary Grieshaber.

First, the latest JDE Roadmap illustrating updates on the 9.2 code line until at least 2031 –

Then an overview of the many future & planned enhancements to help customers simplify, automate & optimize their JD Edwards to drive digital transformation –

(For reference, Planned Features are targeted for release within the next 12 months, Research are <12 months)

We heard more customer success stories –

  • Circle K who reduced OPEX costs and improved system stability with JDE on OCI while automating Procure-to-Pay, Sourcing & Order-to-Cash.
  • The Weitz Company who simplified month end processes and eliminated manual processes and customizations.
  • Martin Marietta who achieved compliance with new lease accounting standards using 9.2 Lease Management.
  • Penn Engineering who embraced Orchestrator to reduce time spent on manual processes while eliminating human error.
  • Dutch Valley Foods who reduced customizations to enable improved item & shipment tracking with UX One.

And explored the latest delivered features at-a-glance, including the top enhancement requests from the Quest Financials and Manufacturing & Distribution SIGs – G/L Batch Status History and Work Order Activity Rules and Ledger respectively, as well as a brand new application for project-based industries – Project Status Inquiry.

Finally, we got a sneak peek of planned capabilities including Assertion Framework for Orchestrations which simplifies the process of using orchestrations as test cases to validate business processes.

(PS – It was also interesting to see the results of all the live polls throughout these sessions – something that wouldn’t have been possible at an in-person C20LV!)

Digital Transformation with JDE Tools

The third session I attended during Innovation Week was the JDE Tools Update & Roadmap with Neil Pugh and Jeff Erickson which provided a deeper dive into the enhancements delivered and planned in the latest Tools 9.2.4 releases.

A planned enhancement to simplify and schedule package builds and deployments caught my attention, as one of CE’s latest products, Smart Build, was developed to help customers with the same challenges. Learn more about Smart Build here.

We learned about more delivered and planned infrastructure & UX enhancements…

And how the JDE product teams incorporate feedback and feature requests from customers into the latest releases, such as simplifying 9.2 upgrades and moving to OCI; a redesigned Orchestrator Studio; base form security to improve user experiences and reduce customizations and more.

reoccurring theme I heard throughout all these sessions is the importance of Continuous Adoption and Innovation with E1 9.2 – themes that also extend to CE product and service innovations, as well as how the CE team works on a daily basis to ensure customer success.

To continue Innovation Week, CE also hosted Eliminate JDE Batch Job Challenges with Smart Scheduler and RPA & Business Process Automation using AtomIQ and Orchestrator:

During the Smart Scheduler session, CE’s Senior Manager of Technology Services Tonio Thomas highlighted some of the latest features the ability to call E1 Orchestrationsemail Work Center messages directly to your inbox and load balancing, as well as new add-ons including user-submitted jobs and Smart Build package automation.

During the AtomIQ session, CE’s Nitin Lakhpat, Shoaib Javed and Tonio Thomas demonstrated just a few of the hundreds of use cases available with RPA & AtomIQ including how to release held orderseliminate production capacity constraints in E1 with PlanIQ, improve user experiences and more, as well as Chatbots and add-ons including XpenseSmart Sense and Smart Audit. FYI – both the Smart Scheduler and AtomIQ sessions are now available on-demand.

In the spirit of community, CE also hosted a JDE Happy Hour & Covid-19 BINGO fundraiser in support of those on the frontlines fighting to keep our loved ones safe. Read more about this event here.

In addition, CE customers will also be sharing their continuous innovation stories during Quest JD Edwards Week, June 8-12 so save the date and look for more details soon! #GoodTimesWithJDE

Resources

JDE E1 9.2 Capabilities Whitepaper: http://www.circularedge.com/resources/jde-9-2-outline/

JDE Keynote: https://www.gotostage.com/channel/d552e579d6a942858789b5a064e21e2a/recording/7fc97de0544d4eb8af49aa4f6cadff16/watch?source=CHANNEL

JDE Roadmap: https://www.gotostage.com/channel/d552e579d6a942858789b5a064e21e2a/recording/2776007f4b3c49d4a6ce469f55e13e24/watch?source=CHANNEL

JDE Tools Update: https://www.gotostage.com/channel/d552e579d6a942858789b5a064e21e2a/recording/868e9940aabe4e7d837950e1d07da23a/watch?source=CHANNEL

JDE E1 Tools 9.2.4.3 Announcement: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E84502_01/learnjde/announcements_apr_9_20.html

JDE Happy Hour & Covid-19 Bingo Fundraiser: http://www.circularedge.com/bingo

Eliminate JDE Batch Job Challenges with Smart Scheduler (Demo Replay): https://www.gotostage.com/channel/d552e579d6a942858789b5a064e21e2a/recording/6654e3d23674466e8168760fd72a26cf/watch?source=CHANNEL

RPA & Business Process Automation in JDE using AtomIQ & Orchestrator (Demo Replay): https://www.gotostage.com/channel/d552e579d6a942858789b5a064e21e2a/recording/af302b1b38af4dca8f7312eb37379ff9/watch?source=CHANNEL

Cheers,

Chelsea

Chelsea Krieger, Marketing Manager

Chelsea.Krieger@CircularEdge.com

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