HR specialist asks Oracle: where's the 'fusion'?
Posted October 20th, 2009 by ZDNet
In an analysis of last week’s announcement at Oracle OpenWorld that Oracle would finally be releasing its Fusion Applications next year, HR technology specialist Bill Kutik wondered out loud where and when we’ll see Fusion HCM (Human Capital Management) emerge in an SOA-ready configuration.
Despite Larry Ellison’s public pronouncement at the end of the show
that Oracle will soon pull the trigger and release the new offerings,
including Fusion HCM, Bill is still skeptical as ever. As he put it in
a recent editorial in Human Resource Executive:
“From the short demos CEO Larry Ellison showed on stage
at Oracle Open World — and even after examining enlarged screen shots
from them — Oracle Fusion HCM seems to be only on par with our best
current software.”
Bill alludes to the original promise of SOA in this regard, in which
analysts and vendors predicted that new capabilities could be assembled
in a relatively easy fashion to meet changes in the business
requirements — a la Lego blocks. It seems that’s been a difficult state
to reach, he says — and wonders if Fusion Applications will meet this
vision. He expressed skepticism at Ellison’s continued pronouncements
that SOA will enable Fusion to “easily connect to existing apps, even
SAP.”
Bill is disappointed that more isn’t being said about the
capabilities of Fusion HCM when it does arrive, and is even more than
annoyed that Oracle is keeping everyone in the dark about it. He also
says there has yet to be a clear migration path discussed for
PeopleSoft and Oracle E-Business Suite customers.
He wasn’t all sour on the announcement, however — he’s glad to see
Larry Ellison talked up the emerging Talent Management application that
will be part of Fusion.
Additional note: The latest version of PeopleSoft Enterprise (9.1)
was launched September 30. Paco Aubrejuan, Oracle vice president and
general manager of PeopleSoft, will be holding a Webcast on October 28,
11:00 a.m. Pacific to discuss the latest release. (Register here.)
Joe
McKendrick is an author and consultant with deep knowledge and insights
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