Oracle Release 12

Oracle released R12 in January 2007, so where two years on?

The number of R12 installations globally was presented at the New York OAUG a in June 2008 were as follows:

Implementations 55
Re-implementations 10
Upgrades 10

Events have moved on since then but this is an indication that the take up of R12 has been slow.
From the figures it seems it is new Oracle customers who are taking advantage of the ability of R12 to Think globally, Work globally, and Manage globally. A comment passed by a senior manager in an US company, who is already an Oracle, was he saw “no compelling business reason to migrate”.

Discussions with clients and consulting colleagues on a global basis indicate that many organizations are waiting to ensure that R12 has stabilized before considering moving. For many existing users the problems of the early versions of 11i are well known. Indeed for Global companies it was really not until 11.5.7 that the Alternative Accounting Representation functionality for management and statutory books was effective. This reticence has probably been wise as the 12.0.5 (RUP5) 5 for Financials contained more than 4,500 fixes (ref Metalink 577406.1).


Indications are that R12 is now beginning to stabilize and Oracle are already looking towards April / May 2009 for release of 12.1.

The interest in R12 is certainly there. At the UK OUG in Birmingham the R12 sessions were generally presented to full rooms, indicating that many organizations are considering R12, the question is whether that interest will translate into projects.

The global downturn in the economy is obviously going to impact many IT spend budgets. Are the functionally changes within R12 enough to support a business case? Early adopters of R12 were indicating a 6 to 8 month migration project and 12 months plus for implementation. For many organizations that have rolled 11i out across multiple sites, processes are in place to meet some of the limitations of multi-org and existing functionality. And we should not forget that those organisations have realised the benefits of the single instance which probably outweigh any of the limiations of 11i.

The other factor for CIO’s to consider is Fusion. Fusion is moving to a Service Orientated Architecture which many people describe as a paradigm shift. So would you want to move to 12 with it’s new Global Architecture, then to Fusion with SOA - or is it of lower risk to stage through 12?

So the question is - are there compelling business reasons to move to 12?