INFOCUS 18 Recap & Resources: #YouMakeItHappen

 

This year’s JD Edwards INFOCUS conference buzzed with excitement, energy and collaboration – and set a record for highest number of customer attendees.

 

It was an exciting week for the CE team as well, as we celebrated 15 years of customer success stories and product and service innovations. [Quest’s conference lanyards featured our special edition anniversary logo]

#YouMakeItHappen was the central theme of the conference, with a focus on how customers are leveraging digital technologies and JD Edwards to deliver innovative solutions across their organization.

 

Digital Transformation

Lyle Ekdahl’s keynote reinforced JD Edwards as a platform for innovation and reaffirmed Oracle’s commitment to enhancing and supporting JD Edwards, illustrated by the recent announcement extending Premier Support for E1 9.2 through at least 2030.

Through customer stories, Lyle also highlighted a few major trends that continue to gain momentum – E1 9.2 upgrades; digital technologies such as mobile, IoT and automation; and hybrid cloud solutions (on-premises, IaaS, PaaS and SaaS).

 

 

Other trends such as machine learningrobotic process automationblockchain and botswere demonstrated with an emphasis on how JD Edwards goes beyond just buzzwords to deliver autonomous ERP.

 

 

Many of the conference sessions then focused on what digital transformation means for JDE customers and why User Experience, Mobility, IoT, Process Automation and Operational Simplification are all critical components in becoming digital enterprises. Specifically, how customers can leverage JDE functionality to deliver innovative solutions – aka “making it happen.”

Scenarios included:

  • Bringing together a user’s tasks into one place using User-Defined Objects (On-Line Work Orders)
  • Monitor events in factories all over the world, detect issues and solve problems using Orchestrator (IoT Production Monitoring)
  • Delivering notifications to users even when not signed in to EnterpriseOne (Notifications)
  • Accessing data and acting upon it using chatbots as components of UX One Landing Pages (Intelligent Chatbot)

On Tuesday, Quest CEO Jonathan Vaughn led the JD Edwards executive panel in hosting a Q&A luncheon. Through specific examples from the JDE Ideathon contest, the panel shared how thinking outside the box and using digital technologies can transform business operations. Examples included Stanley Engineered Fastening’s use of bots for journal entry automation and Van Hessen’s creation of mobile apps to generate pick suggestions for license plates.

 

CE Customer Stories

 

In one of the first sessions of the conference, Hines 9.0 to 9.2 Upgrade: Dos and Do Nots, Ada Bakogianis and sAchin cHoudhari spoke about Hines’ approach towards continuous delivery, staying code current, becoming Cloud-Ready, simplifying future upgrades and improving user experience.

One important “do” Ada shared was to appoint two project leads – one to manage technical needs, such as retrofits, conversions and integrations and one to manage testing, documentation and training.

Another CE session featured Patrick Gallagher, Director of Financial Applications at Brookfield Properties Retail, and Tonio Thomas, Senior Manager of Technology Services at CE. Patrick shared why Brookfield Retail is on Cloud Nine after their 9.2 Upgrade Journey and how they took advantage of various tools and technologies to improve user experience and solve business challenges, such as duplicate onboarding, unnoticed downtime, 8+ hour daily transfers between infrastructure environments, multiple VPNs, etc.

Migrating Away from I-Series, Upgrading from 8.12 to 9.2. and the Move the Cloud presented David C Cook’s approach towards their JD Edwards Cloud upgrade utilizing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

This included an overview of their 9.2 transformation, the project roadmap, high-level views of the technical execution and I-Series move, quick wins, lessons learned and keys to success.

 

CE Experts & Innovations

 

Jonnel brought us back to the basics of JDE in his Relax, It’s Just ABCDE (Aai, Bsfn, udC, Dd, Er)…Deep Dive Into the Building Blocks of JDE session. Through humor and engaging imagery, Jonnel gave an on-boarding crash course into the components of JDE that help to keep the applications running and steer projects forward. He also shared what the ABCDE acronyms in the session title represent: Automatic Accounting Instructions, Business Functions, User-Defined Codes, Data Dictionary, Event Rules.

This session was inspired when Jonnel’s college-bound daughter asked her dad to explain JD Edwards. It is also a continuation of Jonnel’s award-winning “Relax, It’s Just…”educational series (Audit, 1099, Financial Statement, Debits & Credits). Read a recap of his COLLABORATE presentation here.

During the Cloud CNC Administrator – The Next Generation session, Tonio provided an overview of the different types of cloud computing and what each offers for the CNC. Both Tonio and Jonnel shared their experiences with traditional deployments and SaaS-like deployments and made comparing cloud types easy to understand. They also gave a few upgrade tips for those considering moving to the cloud.

As process automation was also a key theme, Business Processes Automation in JDE using AtomIQ was a great session to attend. Nitin Lakhpat demonstrated how CE’s newest flagship product automates repetitive tasks, initiates critical business events in real-time and integrates with various applications, including the EnterpriseOne Orchestrator.

We also learned how Citizen Developers can use AtomIQ to execute actions such as batch applications, generic REST/SOAP calls, stored procedures and packages, receive advanced notifications, schedule & monitor orchestrations and create rich visualizations and analytic reports.

Learn more about AtomIQ or ask about our 30-day proof of concept by contacting us.

In Eliminate JDE Batch Job Challenges with Smart Scheduler, Tonio took us on a Smart Scheduler test drive to showcase exciting new Smart Scheduler features, including Promotion Utility, Mobile App, On-Demand Streams, Multiple Schedules and Enhanced Security and add-ons, including User-Submitted Jobs and Package Automation. We also got a sneak peek at what’s next, including Load Balancing, the Ability to Call E1 Orchestrations and High Availability.

 

Further, CE showcased JDESign, our new eSignature and digital transaction management automation tool for JD Edwards and DocuSign. As well as our award-winning Integrated ERP/CX Digital Experiences, which are just a sampling of 15 years of product and service innovations.

All of CE’s INFOCUS presentations are available to customers upon request and below are the direct links to access the JD Edwards keynote and presentation.

 

Resources:

JD Edwards Keynote Recording

JD Edwards Keynote Presentation

Circular Edge at INFOCUS 18

Circular Edge Celebrates 15th Anniversary at JD Edwards INFOCUS

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