Lessons from 50+ Oracle implementations

We have delivered more than 50 Oracle implementations since 2017, across the Middle East and Africa. The projects that go live smoothly are rarely the ones with the biggest budget. They share a few habits.

1. Decide what "done" means before you start

The best projects agree early on what go-live looks like: which processes, which entities, which reports on day one. Everything else goes on a list for phase two. Projects that try to deliver everything at once usually deliver late.

2. Fix the data early

Vendor, customer, item and employee data is almost never as clean as people think. Start cleaning it in the first weeks, not the last. A test load with real data shows problems that no workshop will.

3. Use the standard first

Oracle's standard processes cover more than most teams expect. Every customisation adds cost to testing, upgrades and support. We ask "why not the standard?" before building anything.

4. Put a decision-maker in the room

Workshops stall when nobody can decide. One business owner per area, with the authority to say yes or no, saves weeks.

5. Train the people who will run it

Users who are trained on their own data, close to go-live, adopt the system faster. Training too early is forgotten. Training too late turns go-live week into a help desk.

6. Plan for the day after go-live

Go-live is the start, not the end. Who answers questions in the first month? Who handles quarterly updates? The handover to support should be planned from the start, ideally with the same team that built the system.