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G4S Oracle Fusion Decommission:
Data Archive Case Study
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G4S retains searchable, audit-ready access to years of financial records after decommissioning Oracle Fusion ERP, without the ongoing cost of Fusion licensing.
Oracle Fusion ERP
Oracle APEX
Overview
When G4S decommissioned Oracle Fusion ERP, DSP delivered a purpose-built Oracle Fusion data archive on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, housing the historical data in a secure Oracle database, then delivering a searchable Oracle APEX application on top of it. Finance and audit teams retained full access to years of records, with no ongoing Oracle Fusion licensing cost, and the system was live within weeks.
Context
G4S is one of the world’s largest security organisations, operating across multiple territories with complex financial reporting obligations. Following a global programme decision to exit Oracle Fusion ERP, G4S faced an immediate data retention challenge: years of Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable records, including original invoice attachments, had to remain accessible to satisfy the organisation’s compliance and audit obligations.
DSP designed and delivered a two-phase Oracle Fusion archive solution, restoring the historical data to a secure Oracle Cloud environment and constructing a purpose-built Oracle APEX application on top of it. The system was live and in active use within weeks.
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"We had a real concern about what would happen to our financial data after we left Oracle Fusion. DSP gave us something we didn’t expect: a proper, manipulable application, not just a data dump. It’s fast, the attachments are all there, and the audit teams can use it themselves."
Warren Brown
IT Programme Manager | G4S
When an organisation decommissions an ERP system, the compliance obligation concerning the data it held, does not end in tandem. G4S’s decision to exit Oracle Fusion was a global programme decision, but the data retention requirement remained: finance and audit teams across multiple territories, still needed access to years of historical financial records and original invoice attachments.
Oracle supplied the legacy data as database ‘dump’ files but without an active Oracle database environment, those files were unreadable. Without the Fusion application, there was no user interface to search records, retrieve attachments, or produce the reconciliation reports that auditors require.
The obvious fallback, maintaining a minimal Oracle Fusion environment purely for read-only access to historical data, was not a realistic option as Oracle Fusion licensing costs are substantial, even at minimum configuration. Carrying that overhead indefinitely, for a decommissioned system serving only archival purposes, represented a significant and avoidable cost. G4S needed a different approach: a purpose-built Oracle Fusion data archive that preserved full compliance without the commercial burden of the original platform.
The solution had to be secure, accessible to finance users without technical support, and capable of serving international teams from a single environment.
DSP delivered the project in two closely sequenced phases.
Phase 1: Restoring and validating the data
DSP built an Oracle Database environment within G4S’s existing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenancy, then imported the Fusion ‘dump’ files, resolved import errors, and validated data integrity through a mixture of financial reconciliation (e.g. trial balance extracts) and record counts. The validation covered customer and supplier records, invoice header data, and invoice attachments held within the Fusion database (rather than extracting to a potentially unsecure shared area).
This validation step was not optional. Financial data extracted from a decommissioned ERP carries the risk of incomplete exports, corrupted attachments, or reconciliation gaps that would undermine audit reliance on the archive. DSP confirmed the data was complete, intact, and in correspondence with the original GL positions before any application development began.
Phase 2: Building the archive application
With the data verified, DSP built an Oracle APEX 24.2 application directly on the restored database. The application was designed to give G4S’s finance staff a fully searchable, filterable interface into their historical financial records. Users can view and download original invoice attachments and export data to PDF and CSV in a secure, self-contained Oracle Fusion archive, without IT involvement. The archive is accessible only to authorised users across G4S territories, hosted within G4S’s own OCI tenancy, and carries none of the licensing overhead of the original Fusion platform.
Services Delivered
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Oracle Database provisioning and configuration on OCI
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Oracle Fusion file import and error resolution
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GL trial balance data validation and reconciliation sampling
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Oracle APEX 24.2 archive application development
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ORDS deployment and configuration
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Secure access configuration with IP-level controls
The application was delivered within weeks and immediately put to the test: finance teams in Serbia needed urgent access to historic invoices for an audit shortly after go-live. The system delivered without issue.
The archive is now in continuous use across G4S’s international operations, supporting audit and compliance obligations across multiple territories. Finance users access historical financial records, retrieve original invoice attachments, and produce export reports independently, with no ERP licensing cost and no dependency on DSP or internal IT for day-to-day use.
| Outcome | Detail |
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AP/AR data preserved and searchable
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Years of historical records, fully intact
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Invoice attachments retrievable
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Original documents viewable and downloadable
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Delivery time
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Live and audit-ready within weeks of project start date
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Licensing cost
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Zero ongoing Oracle Fusion licence dependency
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First audit use-case
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Resolved by the finance team shortly after go-live
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DSP understood the data retention challenge from all angles: the technical requirements of restoring Oracle Fusion legacy data and the compliance obligation driving the project. That combination allowed DSP to scope and deliver the right solution, not a generic database migration.
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The Oracle Fusion archive was designed to eliminate ongoing cost, not just solve the immediate access problem. Deploying on G4S’s existing OCI tenancy meant no new infrastructure commitment and no new licensing dependency.
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The two-phase approach, validating data integrity before building the application, gave G4S an archive its audit teams could trust. This was emphatically confirmed by the first post-go-live audit in Serbia.
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Significant cost reduction versus retaining Fusion licensing: Oracle Fusion licensing is a substantial commercial commitment even at minimum configuration. Maintaining a Fusion environment solely to provide read-only access to historical data would have carried that cost indefinitely. DSP’s Oracle Fusion archive solution, built on OCI and Oracle APEX, replaced that obligation with a purpose-built platform at a fraction of the cost, deployed within G4S’s existing cloud tenancy with no additional infrastructure overhead.
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Future proof archive solution: As part of building the solution, all Fusion data has been extracted while the APEX application itself is, by its nature, fully extensible. G4S can operate in confidence knowing that all future reporting and audit support requirements can easily be catered for.
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Data integrity verified before go-live The GL trial balance reconciliation step confirmed data completeness and integrity before the application was built. An archive that finance and audit teams cannot rely on is not fit for purpose, but by validating the data first, DSP gave G4S a system its teams could use with confidence from day one.
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Self-service access for finance teams The APEX application was built for the people who use financial records, not for technical administrators. Finance teams across G4S territories can search, filter, view, and export historical data without raising a support ticket. When an international audit requirement arose shortly after launch, the team resolved it themselves without requiring assistance.
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What happens to your data when you decommission Oracle Fusion?
Oracle supplies the legacy data as database dump files, but without an active Oracle database environment, those files are unreadable, and without the Fusion application, there is no interface to search records, retrieve attachments, or produce audit reconciliation reports. The compliance obligation to retain that data does not end when the ERP is decommissioned. A purpose-built Oracle Fusion data archive, restoring the data to a database and building a dedicated application on top, keeps the records accessible and audit-ready. -
Can you keep read-only access to Oracle Fusion for compliance instead of archiving the data?
Maintaining a minimal Oracle Fusion environment purely for read-only access to historical data is possible in principle, but it is rarely a realistic option. Oracle Fusion licensing costs are substantial even at minimum configuration, and carrying that overhead indefinitely, for a decommissioned system serving only archival purposes, represents a significant and avoidable cost. A dedicated data archive delivers the same compliance access without that ongoing commercial burden. -
How does an Oracle Fusion data archive compare to the cost of retaining Fusion licensing?
An Oracle Fusion data archive, such as the Oracle APEX application DSP built for G4S, is deployed within the customer's existing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenancy, so it carries no new infrastructure commitment and none of the licensing overhead of the original Fusion platform. Retaining even a minimal Fusion environment for read-only access carries substantial licence cost indefinitely. Replacing that with a purpose-built archive removes the ongoing Oracle Fusion licensing dependency entirely.
Facing a similar challenge with Oracle Fusion data retention?
Let's have a chat! An Oracle Fusion data retention review from DSP's specialists will look at your current Fusion data, your compliance and audit requirements, and recommend the right path to a secure, self-service Oracle Fusion data archive.