The Situation
The Problem
Implementers will convert your data to ERP Cloud for you but this can get expensive quickly. The more years of data you have and the more complex the data you are migrating, the bigger the bill. If you are converting anything more than the legally required number of years of General Ledger, your master data and any high volume open transactions then the chances are you are paying more than you need to. If you can reduce the amount and types of data you have to move to ERP Cloud you can reduce the implementation bill significantly. No matter what data you are able to convert, however, the chances are you will still be required to retain much of your EBS data for at least 5-10 years.
The Solution (APEX to the Rescue)
We proposed migrating just the database to a much smaller Linux Server and putting an APEX front end on it. Not only does this solve the problem of maintainability and cost, it also gives users a modern easy to use UI to work with.
Now that this is up and running and the old hardware retired, the next step is to move just the tables they need to a PaaS cloud service. We are thinking we can squeeze this into something like Exadata Express ($175/month for 20GB). That a big step down from maintaining a full EBS environment for something that is accessed a dozen or so times a year.
Why APEX?
- It runs off an Oracle database (which you have anyway)
- All it needs to run (aside from the database) is ORDS which, when run in standalone mode offers a tiny footprint when compared to the full EBS stack.
- The data and APEX application can be easily moved to a cloud service (such as Exadata Express).
- APEX offers an easy to use and powerful reporting capability with build in advanced end user features such as Aggregation, Grouping, Charting, Filtering, Pivoting etc. All based on a simple SQL statement.
- APEX allows you to integrate various security models so users could login using their current Active Directory credentials.