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Qantas puts Oracle ERP in the cloud with Tata Consultancy Services

Airline Qantas signs IT outsourcing services firm TCS to upgrade its Oracle ERP platform and move it into the cloud

Karl Flinders
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Published: 11 Nov 2014 11:30

Airline Qantas has upgraded its Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform and moved it into the cloud through an IT outsourcing contract with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The Australian airline contracted TCS to upgrade its customised Oracle E-Business Suite to the latest version and make it available in the cloud, using a pay-as-you-go model. The software had over 1,800 customisations.

Qantas has moved from Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11 – which supported a range of financial applications, supply chain management, customer relationship management (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) business processes – to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. Macquarie Telecom hosts the software.

Qantas wanted to increase the functionality of the ERP platform and reduce system management complexity. The move will put all Qantas's IT suppliers under TCS’s management. 

Kash Paracha, head of technology services at Qantas, said the deal helped the airline meet three key goals. “Firstly, we have leveraged the latest ERP functionality from Oracle, enabling greater business agility and a superior user experience," said Paracha.

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"Secondly, we have ensured smooth and stable business operations by virtue of a simplified infrastructure platform. 

"Thirdly, we have consolidated all IT services under one supplier, to ensure vastly improved quality of service and usage-based billing.”

Oracle sets its sights on Salesforce.com

With the date approaching when Oracle will stop issuing legislative patches to eBusiness Suite 11i, users need to plan for a migration to release 12.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said in June 2014 that the company intended to increase the focus on cloud and had its sights set on overtaking Salesforce.com, to become the largest software as a service (SaaS) player in the market, leaning on a range of applications including CRM, ERP and HCM.

In a recent survey of nearly 1,400 software decision-makers in North America and Europe, Forrester Research found 26% had either already replaced their companies' core financial systems with SaaS alternatives, or were planning to do so within two years, up from 13% the year before. Similarly, just 39% said they had no plans to use financial SaaS applications, down from 63% in the previous year.

Next Steps

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