Planning for your Oracle Cloud implementation can be tricky. Most Oracle Cloud implementations take more time, money, and resources than expected, so this is something project teams clearly struggle with.
Over the years, we have developed a good framework for creating a realistic Oracle implementation plan and budget. It requires a good deal of knowledge and independence from Oracle or its system integrators, but it is something that can and should be done.
Here are five steps to estimate your Oracle Cloud implementation plan and budget:
1. Begin with your Oracle system integrator’s proposed plan – but take it with a grain of salt.
Your Oracle system integrator will likely provide a proposed implementation plan based on their previous experience. This is a good place to start. But remember that these initial proposals are typically based on best case assumptions that may not fit your needs. You will want to validate the various assumptions used to ensure that they are aligned with your expectations and realities.
It is for this reason that you’ll need to go through steps #2 to #5 below to get to the right answer for your organization. This will help you translate a proposed plan into better one for you.
2. Conduct a gap analysis between your system integrator’s proposed project activities and those required for success.
Most system integrators’ plans are missing components that are critical to Oracle implementation success. This is often because a) they don’t specialize in everything required for a successful transformation, and/or b) they assume that you, the client, will address those critical areas.
It is for this reason that you will want to conduct a gap analysis to see what’s missing. Just a few commonly missing workstreams include:
- Organizational change management, organizational design, and cultural transformation
- Data cleansing and migration
- Mapping future state business processes
- Implementing business process improvements
- Facilitating internal user acceptance testing
These workstreams can have material impacts on your implementation time and budget, so they should be incorporated accordingly.
3. Incorporate complexity factors into the final Oracle Cloud implementation plan and budget.
In addition to missing components, you will also want to rationalize your implementation plan to account for the complexities of your business. For example, companies that are going through massive process changes or have resistant employees will take more time and money to implement their new digital technologies. There is no way around this.
Below are some of the transformation complexities that should be considered as part of your Oracle Cloud implementation. Notice that the biggest impacts on your time and budget will be complexities related to your business processes and people – not your technology.
4. Integrate your organizational change management plan into your overall implementation plan.5. Finalize your Oracle implementation plan and budget.
Once you have completed steps #1 through #4, then it’s time to finalize your plan and budget. This exercise is part art and part science, so it is important to leverage experts that have done this many times in the past. And don’t forget to include a contingency budgetary line item to account for the things you don’t know yet. An objective analysis of your implementation plan by outside, third-party consultants such as those at Third Stage can help.
The bottom line: a realistic Oracle Cloud implementation plan and budget is critical to success.
Unrealistic expectations is one of the biggest failure points of Oracle Cloud implementations. If you don’t understand the time, money, and resources required, you are more likely to cut activities that are critical to success. Unrealistically constrained resources lead to poor decisions later in the project.
Proper expectations and good implementation planning are two of the top success factors related to Oracle implementations. Download our eBook 20 Lessons from 1,000+ ERP Implementations to learn more.
Eric is recognized globally as a leading voice in digital transformation and ERP strategy. Over the past two decades, he has helped hundreds of organizations – including Nucor Steel, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Kodak, Coors, Boeing, and Duke Energy – define their technology roadmaps, modernize complex operations, and deliver real business value from large-scale transformation initiatives.
As Founder and CEO of Third Stage Consulting, Eric leads an independent, technology-agnostic advisory firm focused on helping clients navigate the shift from traditional ERP to more flexible, AI-enabled Digital Enterprise Operations (DEO) models. His work spans ERP selection, implementation quality assurance, organizational change, and operating model design across a wide range of industries and geographies.
Eric is also a prolific thought leader, known for his pragmatic takes on AI, cloud, and enterprise software trends, as well as his firm’s benchmark research and frameworks for de-risking transformation. He is dedicated to helping executive teams cut through vendor hype, make confident investment decisions, and successfully reach the “third stage” of their digital evolution.
