How to Determine a User and License Management Strategy

If you’re following along in this series, we’re dissecting what to consider before your EBS migration. We’ve covered hosting your legacy EBS data, secure printing from the cloud, customizations and integrations, and reporting and data warehousing. When planning your migration from EBS to SaaS and Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, it’s essential to consider all aspects of the end-user experience.
In this article, we’ll cover how to assess your user management and access needs as well as your license management needs so your implementation is set up for success from the beginning.

License Management

Let’s start with License Management. A common misconception we hear when customers are migrating from EBS to a SaaS solution is they feel they will be freed from licensing obligations. Unfortunately, that is not the case – your business still needs to factor in license needs and costs to the SaaS solution.

The license requirements for your needs will change when moving from an on-prem to cloud solution. It is essential to your success that you use the resources available to help make the transition manageable.

At Apps Associates, we’ve seen customers struggle with understanding the true cost of their SaaS licensing, resulting in overpayment and frustrated customer efforts that fail to remedy the customer’s overages. While Oracle does offer some out-of-the-box reporting options, we’ve found that customers need a more comprehensive explanation of their usage to enable them to implement a plan that leads to a resolution that positively affects the cost of the customer’s overages. That’s why we developed Apps License Safeguard.

Apps License SafeGuard

Apps Associates created Apps License SafeGuard to provide customers with a powerful subscription usage management tool that gives full visibility and real-time cost mapping based on specific subscription entitlements and current system configuration. With this data, the customer may easily understand what is being used and make business decisions based on the subscription cost implications.

Apps License SafeGuard enhances the data a customer receives from the Oracle-provided Subscription Usage and drill through reports. These standard reports from Oracle are a good start, but do not provide the tailored cost implications of the various SaaS Services being employed. Even with SaaS, you still must proactively manage your application usage. When implementing new custom roles, design is critical. At Apps Assocaites our goal is to inform and educate so you can get the most value out of your Oracle SaaS investment.

Learn more about the License SafeGuard here.

User Management

In considering your user management strategy, you should account for not only the number of users you have, but also what their experience will be. We’ve mentioned several times in this series the importance of change management and training, and how this can have a major effect on the success of your implementation.

For example, you might consider a Single Sign On (SSO) option for your users. These protocols are widely used now and users expect a seamless login experience. Something as simple as frustration with creating or managing multiple passwords could deter an employee from logging in and using the new processes, leading to poor adoption and unused licenses.

Identity Access Management

Identity Access Management (IAM) is a non-negotiable for company security and user experience. With most workers in hybrid or remote roles, special care must be taken to ensure they have access to emails, files, and other company data while maintaining proper security protocols.

A solution like Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s Identity Access Management identity domains contains features such as authentication, single sign-on (SSO), and identity lifecycle management for Oracle Cloud, can help automate provisioning and deprovisioning processes, assist with compliance activities and provide accurate cloud application reporting. Additionally, it can significantly improve the end-user customer experience which will go a long way in aiding adoption.

You will have to consider new metrics and guidelines for selecting the right licensing structure for your business. But rest assured, there are plenty of resources and tools available to make the transition manageable.