There has been a lot of talk around Oracle Fusion over the last 5 years.  There has also been a lot of confusion around what Fusion is and when it will be available.  There is the Fusion Architecture, Fusion Middleware and Fusion Applications.  The Fusion Architecture and Middleware have been available and in use for a number of years now.  Generally speaking, when people talk about Fusion coming to market they are referring to Fusion Applications.  These are the core set of ERP applications such as Financials, Human Capital Management or Customer Relationship Management.  Fusion Applications are the next generation of business applications made popular by other Oracle products such as PeopleSoft, EBS, JD Edwards and Seibel.

Well the wait is over!  Fusion Applications are “Here” and they are “Now”.

Fusion Applications were made available for general release in October of 2011.  Since then, over 200 customers have implemented some form of Fusion Applications.  This doesn’t mean that 200 customers have replaced their ERP applications with Fusions ERP Applications.  Actually, it’s quite the opposite.  About 85% of these customers have added a Fusion Application(s) to their existing set of applications in a co-existence model.  Oracle is making its Fusion Applications easy for customers to adopt by making them integrate seamlessly with the other ERP applications and giving customers a lot of flexibility in how they can implement Fusion.

Customers can implement Fusion Applications in four different ways depending on their needs.

Fusion can be implemented on premise as is commonly done with current ERP applications.  They can also implement Fusion in a Public or Private cloud or even take a hybrid approach.  In a hybrid approach, customers can have Fusion Applications co-exist with their current ERP installations using any of the four approaches previously mentioned.  For example, a customer that has PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 installed on location can purchase Fusion Talent Acquisition Management in the cloud and have both packages work seamlessly together.

Any customer looking at an ERP upgrade should consider purchasing additional functionality and deploying it using Fusion Applications!  With Fusion applications truly being the “next generation” in business software, I think you will see a very rapid adoption over the next 12 months.  Fusion is finally here and needs to be considered now.

Check back for my next post that will dive into greater detail on Fusion and what makes the new Fusion Applications so attractive.  I will touch on many different advantages including the integration of traditional ERP with Business Intelligence and Analytics, mobility, open source and a truly SINGLE tenant cloud solution.  Until next time…