Oracle Reimplement vs Upgrade?

Reimplement vs. Upgrade?

The first and ultimate business decision for companies considering an upgrade is the decision whether to upgrade or reimplement. An upgrade would involve taking the current EBS environment and upgrading it and all the data in it to the newer versions. A reimplementation involves installing the new version of EBS and performing setups and data conversions in the new version, leaving the old version to die a natural death. Every major release (10.7 to 11.0 or 11i, 11.0.x to 11i, and now any prior version to R12) has companies wondering which the better option is.

A good starting point is to understand what Oracle’s plans are for your current release as well as for future releases. The current statement is that for 11.5.10, Oracle will provide all support except integration with new non-Oracle products, through November 2012. Accordingly, the more stable, older release, 11.5.10, may be a viable option for your organization when you are upgrading from an older version and the functionality in R12 will not benefit your business processes.

Some key changes in the core modules to R12 may make the more expensive upgrade to R12 worth the extra time and expense. Access to multiple Ledgers in the General Ledger is one of them, and the need to account for transactions in different ways is another. If your business processes are complicated and global enough that two representations are required for government and corporate reporting, this is a strong feature in R12 that is not as comprehensive in 11i.

Another major area for consideration is centralized and decentralized processes. R12 has done a nice job of allowing for both in the same organization and module. Prior to R12, EBS segregated all transactions for subledgers such as Receivables and Payables into separate organizations, requiring users to access each organization separately, making truly centralized processing cumbersome. Now, entries can be done into multiple operating units from the same responsibility without the segregation. Payment process also has a new centralized hub allowing payment processing and bank accounts to be combined for multiple organizations. Once you’ve decided on a version, consider a few significant points that can help make the decision whether to upgrade or reimplement a little clearer.