Modernize Your Business with Oracle Cloud Apps – Part 1

Join hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham, along with Cloud Delivery Lead Sarah Mahalik, as they unpack the core pillars of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications—ERP, HCM, SCM, and CX.

 

Learn how Oracle’s SaaS model, Redwood UX, and built-in AI are reshaping business productivity, adaptability, and user experience. From quarterly updates to advanced AI agents, discover how Oracle delivers agility, lower costs, and smarter decision-making across departments.

 

Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications: Process Essentials

https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-applications-foundation-hcm/146870

https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-applications-foundations-enterprise-resource-planning-erp/146928/241047

https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-applications-foundation-scm/146938

https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-applications-foundation-cx/146972

 

Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/

X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu

 

Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.

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Episode Transcript:

00:00

Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!

00:25

Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs. 

Lois: Hi everyone! In our last two episodes, we explored the Oracle Cloud Success Navigator platform. This week and next, we’re diving into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications with Sarah Mahalik, a Cloud Delivery Lead here at Oracle. We’ll ask Sarah about Oracle’s cloud apps suite, the Redwood design system, and also look at some of Oracle’s AI capabilities. 

01:02

Nikita: Yeah, let’s jump right in. Hi Sarah! How does Oracle approach the SaaS model?

Sarah: Oracle's Cloud Applications suite is a complete enterprise cloud designed to modernize your business. Our cloud suite of SaaS applications, which includes Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, Supply Chain Management, or SCM, Human Capital Management, or HCM, and Customer Experience, or CX, brings consistent processes and a single source of truth across the most important business functions. 

At Oracle, we own all of the technology stacks that power our suite of cloud applications. Oracle Cloud Applications are built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and ensure the performance, resiliency, and security that enterprises need. Your business no longer needs to worry about maintaining a data center, hardware, operating systems, database, network, or all of the security. With deep integrations, a common data model, and a unified user interface, these applications help improve customer engagement, increase agility, and accelerate response to change.

Oracle's Cloud Applications are updated quarterly with new features and improvements. These updates are based on our deep understanding of customer's functional needs, as well as modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and digital assistants. Expectations for user experience only go up. Oracle's Redwood User Experience methodology ensures those expectations are matched and exceeded by including powerful and predictive search, a look and feel that actually helps users see what they need to in the order they need to see it, and by providing conversational and micro-interactions.

Oracle, as a SaaS provider, puts the customer first by having enough dedicated resources to ensure zero downtime and increasing the speed of implementation by eliminating much of the hardware and software setup activity.

02:59

Nikita: What are the advantages of adopting Oracle Cloud Apps?

Sarah: First off, Oracle provides automatic quarterly updates, and they're usable immediately. Customers can focus on leveraging the new functionality instead of spending cycles on installing it.

There's much more accessibility because Oracle hosts the heavy part of the applications and customers access it via thin clients. The applications can be used from nearly anywhere and on a wide range of devices, including smartphones and tablets. Another great advantage is speed and agility. A lot of the benefits you see here result from Oracle's provider model. That means customers aren't spending time on customization, application testing, and report development. Instead, they work on the much lighter and faster tasks of configuration, validation, and leveraging embedded analytics.

And finally, it's just better economics. Because of the pricing model, it is easy to compare an on-premises implementation cost. While upfront costs are almost always lower, overall operational costs and risk are usually lower as well. This translates to better total cost of ownership and improved overall economics and agility for your business.

04:10

Lois: Sarah, in your experience, why do customers love Oracle Cloud Apps?

Sarah: At Oracle, we empower you with embedded AI that drives real breakthroughs in productivity and efficiency, helping you stay ahead of the curve.

With the power of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, you get the best of performance, security, and scalability, making it the perfect foundation for your business. Our modern user experience is intuitive and designed with your needs in mind, while our relentless innovation is focused on what truly matters to you. Above all, our commitment to your success is unwavering. We're here to support you every step of the way, ensuring you thrive and grow with Oracle.

04:49

Lois: Let’s talk about Oracle’s Redwood design system. What is it? And how does it enhance the user experience? 

Sarah: Redwood is the name of Oracle's next-generation user experience. Redwood design system is a collection of prefabricated components, templates, and patterns to enable developers to quickly create very sophisticated and polished interactions that are upgrade safe.

It provides a consumer grade-plus experience, where you have high-quality functionality that can be used across multiple devices. You have access to insightful data readily at your fingertips for quick access and decision making, with the option to personalize your application to create your own state of the art experience. Processes and entry time will now be more efficient and streamlined by having fewer clicks and faster downloads, which will lead to high productivity in areas that matter the most.

The Redwood design is intelligent, meaning you have access to AI, where you will receive recommendations and guidance based on your preferences and business processes. It's also adaptable, allowing you to use the same tools to create new experiences by using the Business Rule Framework with modern UX components. Oracle's Redwood user experience will help you to be more productive, efficient, and engaged with a highly personalized experience.

06:11

Are you keen to stay ahead in today's fast-paced world? We’ve got your back! Each quarter, Oracle rolls out game-changing updates to its Fusion Cloud Applications. And to make sure you’re always in the know, we offer New Features courses that give you an insider’s look at all of the latest advancements. Don't miss out! Head over to mylearn.oracle.com to get started. 

06:37

Nikita: Welcome back! Sarah, you said the Redwood design system is adaptable. Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? 

Sarah: In a nutshell, this means that developers can extend their applications using the same development platform that Oracle Cloud Applications are built on. Oracle Visual Builder Studio is a robust application development platform that enables users to rapidly create and extend web, mobile, and progressive web interfaces using a visual development environment.

It streamlines application development and reduces coding, while also providing flexibility and support for popular build and testing frameworks. With Oracle Visual Builder Studio, users can build apps for the web, create progressive web apps, and develop on-device mobile apps. The tool also offers access to REST services and allows for planning and managing development processes, as well as managing the code lifecycle.

Additionally, Oracle Visual Builder Studio provides hosting for apps along with easy publishing and version management. Changes made using Visual Builder Studio are called Application Extensions. 

Visual Builder Studio Express Mode has two key components: Business Rules and Constants. Use Business Rules, which is the Redwood equivalent to Transaction Design Studio for responsive pages, to leverage delivered best practices or create your own rules based on various criteria, such as country and business unit. Make fields and regions required or optional, read-only or editable, and show or hide fields in regions, depending on specific criteria.

Use the various delivered Constants to customize your Redwood pages to best fit your specific business needs, such as hide the evaluation panel and connections or reorder the columns in the person search result table.

08:23

Lois: Sarah, here’s a question that's probably on everyone's mind—what about AI for Fusion Applications?

Sarah: Oracle integrates AI into Fusion Applications, enabling faster, better decision making and empowering your workforce. With both classic and generative AI embedded, customers can access AI-driven insights seamlessly within their everyday software environment.

In HCM, AI helps to automate routine tasks. It's also used to attract and manage talent more efficiently by doing things like reducing the time to hire and performing automatic skill matching for job vacancies. It also uses some of that skill matching for existing employees to optimize their engagement, improve productivity, and maximize career growth. All the while, it provides suggested actions so that those tasks are quick, accurate, and easy.

In SCM, AI helps predict order cycle times by analyzing historical data and trends, allowing for more accurate planning. It also generates item descriptions automatically and uncovers potential suppliers by analyzing market data, thereby improving efficiency and sourcing decisions.

With ERP, it's all about delivering efficiencies and improving strategic contributions. You can use AI to automate some of the core processes and provide guided actions for users in the rest of the processes. This is our recipe for improved efficiency and reduced human error. For example, in Payables, you can use AI features to accelerate and simplify invoice processing and identify duplicate transactions.

And in CX, AI helps you to identify which sales leads offer the greatest potential, provides real-time news alerts, and then recommends actions to ensure that reps are working on the right opportunity at the right time and improving conversion to sale.

10:11

Lois: Everyone’s heard about AI agents, but I’ve always wondered how they work. 

Sarah: AI agents are a combination of large language models and other advanced technologies that interact with their environments, automate complex tasks, and collaborate with employees in real time. Reasoning capabilities in these LLMs differentiate AI agents from the brittle rules-based automation of the past. Since they can make judgment calls, AI agents can create action plans and manage workflows, either independently or with human supervision.

At the core of their functionality is the capability to learn from previous interactions, use data from internal systems, and collaborate with both people and other agents. This ability to continuously adapt makes AI agents particularly valuable for complex business environments, where flexibility and scalability are key.

11:01

Nikita: And how do they work specifically in Fusion Apps?

Sarah: Oracle Fusion AI agents are autonomous assistants designed to help organizations streamline operations, improve decision making, and reduce manual workloads. They can assist with simple or complex tasks and work across departments.

11:19

Lois: Sarah, what are the different types of AI agents?

Sarah: Functional agents act as digital assistants for different personas within the enterprise and perform domain-specific tasks. Supervisory agents manage other agents, overseeing complex workflows and making decisions on whether human intervention is needed.

Utility agents perform routine low-risk tasks such as retrieving data, sending notifications, or running reports. They're often optimized to help with specific roles, so an AI agent or collection of agents might act as a finance clerk, hiring manager, or a customer service representative.

11:54

Nikita: Can you give us some real-world use cases?

Sarah: In human resources, agents will assist employees with benefit inquiries and policy clarifications. In finance, agents will automate invoice approvals and help optimize financial workflows. In supply chain management, a field service agent can guide technicians through repairs by providing real-time diagnostic data, troubleshooting steps, and automating orders for parts. In customer experience, the contracts researcher agent enables sales teams to automate routine contract workflows and approvals so they can focus on selling rather than administrative tasks.

Oracle Fusion AI agents represent a leap beyond traditional AI. They don't just automate, they collaborate with human workers, making AI agents more than just tools. By integrating advanced AI within business systems, Oracle continues to lead the way in improving productivity and operational efficiency.

As AI technology evolves, expect to see even more sophisticated AI agents capable of managing entire business processes autonomously, giving your team the freedom to focus on strategic, high-impact activities.

13:04

Nikita: Thank you so much for taking us through all that, Sarah. We’re really excited to have you back next week to continue this discussion. 

Lois: And if you liked what you heard today, head over to mylearn.oracle.com and take a look at the free Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Process Essentials courses to learn more. Until next time, this is Lois Houston…

Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off!

13:27

That’s all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We’d also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.