Understand the business process flows enabled by Oracle Cloud Applications with the right training

Oracle developed Business Process training as a new solution to address our customers’ and partners’ need to improve the fundamental understanding of business processes enabled by Oracle Cloud Applications – as well as advanced technologies like AI, mobile, and IoT, across all users from the start of implementation projects.

I sat down with Bill Lawson, Senior Director of Oracle Cloud Applications Product Management at Oracle University, to discuss this new training, how this helps our customers prepare for projects, and why everyone involved in an implementation project – from project teams to technical teams to end users – would benefit from taking this training.

Q: Bill, can you briefly describe why Business Process training is important?

We believe that a comprehensive understanding of business processes is critical to be able to effectively leverage current business strategies and successfully deploy and use Oracle Cloud Applications.  Knowledge of basic business processes gives you the ability to understand “how things are done” and to then apply the right processes, in the right way, at the right time. 

Q:  Why did Oracle University create this training?

 While we have comprehensive modern, digital Oracle Cloud Applications training, we felt there was a gap in the market of foundational business process training required before you even start your application implementation journey. 

To meet this important need, we developed Business Process training and certification covering Financials, Human Capital Management (HCM), and Sales Cloud Applications. This training will help users of Oracle Cloud Applications by providing foundational skills that are required to maximize the use and impact of those applications. 

Based on Oracle’s Modern Best Practices (MBP), the training defines end-to-end business process flows and illustrates how organizations can best manage day-to-day business activities and tasks, in a format that's engaging, easy to digest, and easy to learn.

With this new training, our customers can build critical foundational skills so that they can better understand and optimize Oracle Cloud Applications use and leverage emerging technologies, resulting in successful go-lives.

Q:  How does Business Process training help Oracle customers and partners?

We created this set of training courses to ensure users in a business ecosystem have a solid foundational understanding of end-to-end business process flows as it relates to the Oracle’s Modern Best Practices for cloud implementation and adoption. The training provides a “table stakes” for all roles within this ecosystem, be it business users or business process owners or consultants that are embarking on their cloud journey.

Q:  In a customer or partner organization, who is this training designed for, and how will they benefit?

Essentially, the training is for all users who a want to build a strong foundational knowledge of the best ways to implement and use Oracle Cloud Applications.

For example, partner implementation teams will benefit by getting an understanding of the modern business flows supported by Oracle Cloud Applications.

Customer project teams who work with implementation teams will benefit from defining common approaches and business rules for their organization at the onset of their application implementation.

In short, conveying the same fundamental knowledge through this training helps ensure everyone is on the same page when discovering, planning, configuring, and executing business processes in the cloud.

Q: What are some examples of what a project team member will learn?

Project teams, both business process owners and those involved in executing specific steps in the process, will gain a high-level understanding of how their teams’ processes and related tasks will change, and continue to evolve, when moving to the cloud.

As an example, for a recruitment team lead, this training will provide an overview of the best practice steps in an applicant screening process that are enabled in Oracle HCM and how that relates to onboarding and other employee lifecycle processes. This way users can consider how their team’s current screening process steps and related tasks will change, as well as how that process can evolve over time when enabled by new technologies.  In addition, process training will show how to use machine learning to help screen and prioritize candidates’ résumés.  And with this base understanding, the recruitment team lead can better contribute to improving the screening process when using Oracle Recruiting and improve overall collaboration and project planning with their system integrator and other HR project teams.

Project teams will also learn the basics around how organizations manage day-to-day business activities and tasks in areas such as Finance, Human Capital Management, and Sales. They will learn about how Oracle Cloud Applications leverage emerging technologies, such as AI and machine learning, Blockchain, and business intelligence, that help drive mission-critical organizational business processes. 

The courses highlight both interdependencies between processes as well as the data flows between each. And to provide an understanding of who is involved in executing these processes, the courses also highlight common job roles associated with executing these activities and tasks.

Q: Why would project teams take the full suite of Business Process training courses? What is the value in taking training outside of an individual’s area of responsibility?

Often in implementation projects, decision-making can be siloed. Business process owners consider the needs of their own team, especially as detailed requirements are documented and considered for each process. As leaders they want to ensure their teams’ needs are thoroughly considered to ensure they can accomplish all that is expected of them.

When planning a cloud implementation project, teams need to not only consider how their own processes will change but also how the decisions they make in planning, configuring, and implementing Oracle Cloud Applications to suit their own needs will also impact other teams and their processes.

That’s why getting an end-to-end view is so important. We created this training to ensure that business process owners across the organization, as well as the implementation teams supporting their projects, understand not only their own area of responsibility but are also considerate of the changes, and subsequent impact, for other teams as well. We really want to encourage collaboration from the beginning of the project to improve decision making at all phases by developing this early-stage awareness and understanding.

Q:  What areas will be covered in these new courses?

Today we will be rolling out HCM, Financials and Sales Cloud Applications business process training. 

For HCM, we show examples of the full suite of HR processes that encompass all stages of an employee's experience — from the time they apply for a job, to onboarding, to their last day at the company.

We are also launching Financials process training, where users can learn how to process, record, and report financial transactions, such as customer sales, supplier purchases, assets and accounting transformations, using the centralized accounting rules engine.

And finally, we have Sales process training, which teaches how to make the organizational sales cycle more effective by gathering all customer information in one place. This helps increase productivity, empowers sales reps to sell more, and delivers accurate information for boosting revenue, and so forth.

Customers can now access this new training and associated certification through Oracle’s Cloud Applications Learning Subscription.

Additional courses covering other Oracle Cloud Applications business processes will be released in the coming months as well.

Q:  Where can users find more information about Business Process training and related certifications?

Visit the Business Process training and certification page for more details on this new training available in the All Cloud Applications Cloud Learning Subscription.