Oracle E-Business Suite upgrade for Middlesex University
Middlesex University successfully upgraded Oracle E-Business Suite, a key university system, to 12.2 before Oracle’s Premier support expired.
Oracle E-Business Suite
Professional Services
Overview
Middlesex University has a student body of over 19,000 in London and over 37,000 globally. The University’s London campus is in Hendon, northwest London, and there are additional campuses in Malta, Dubai and Mauritius, as well as student exchange links with over 100 universities in 22 countries. The university’s history goes back to 1878 when its founding institute, St Katharine’s College, was established. Today it is a global university driven by the difference it makes to people’s lives; open-minded, progressive and passionate about its vibrant diversity and embracing the new possibilities of technological, economic and social change.
“We approached Claremont (now owned by DSP) to assist us with our Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2 upgrade. As a collaborative project, Claremont was an excellent partner to work with, providing invaluable support throughout the whole process. It’s clear to us that Claremont are a very experienced Oracle Partner, and we would have no hesitation in recommending them to other universities and public bodies.”
Middlesex University
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Middlesex University utilises Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) across their business, including Financials, Human Resources, Payroll and Procurement modules. With Premier Support for Oracle E-Business Release R12.1 expiring in December 2021, organisations were required to upgrade to R12.2, allowing them to benefit from Oracle’s continuous product innovation, supported until at least 2030. Faced with the implications of losing its Oracle Support, the university decided to upgrade its Oracle EBS system from R12.1.3 to R12.2, providing them with continued Oracle Premier Support. Middlesex University has an experienced in-house Oracle support team but wanted to work with a reliable and efficient Oracle partner to implement the upgrade smoothly and on time.
Shortly after the tender process, we won the contract to assist the university in delivering its R12.2 upgrade. The university’s project lead said the team's response “offered the most clarity in terms of all the activities involved and the number of days effort required to complete the upgrade.” With the clock ticking to complete the upgrade ahead of the deadline of 31st December 2021, we recommended that an early upgrade assessment was performed. This would ensure critical information was gathered and plans were made early, which would de-risk the project by enabling key decisions and accurate procedures to be made from the outset.
This collaborative approach ensured a smooth and easy upgrade, resulting in a genuine partnership with an in-house team fully involved with knowledge sharing throughout the project. As a result, the upgrade project ran smoothly from start to finish and was completed on time and below budget. The live upgrade was delivered over a long weekend by a team of DBAs and the university. At the end of the upgrade, the in-house team was skilled and experienced with R12.2 and was empowered to continue supporting the system without needing a managed services partner.
This upgrade assessment provided helpful information to the team at the university, such as:
- What customisations needed to be upgraded.
- The complexities of these customisations.
- Validating whether the hardware the university would purchase to run EBS 12.2 was appropriate for the upgrade.
- Detailed project plans and timelines based on the information learnt during the assessment.
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