Overcome Oracle EPM Migration Challenges with Continuous Test Automation

Published: 2021-12-06 14:18:16

Due to low cost of ownership, data security, real-time access to data, scalability, and flexibility, enterprises across the globe are looking to migrate from on-premises “Oracle Hyperion” to “Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM”. Undoubtedly, there are numerous benefits of migrating to Oracle EPM Cloud, but there are also some concerns as well. CIOs, IT Managers, & IT heads are worried about the initial cost of migration, business disruption, and risks. Furthermore, there is also concern about security, time to transition, ease of adoption, and data conversion.

These concerns are not vague. In fact, they are backed by some potential data.

One of the most recent and widely talked about software glitches happened in a globally renowned Citibank. The glitch in the software at the backed financial system cost them $900 and a bad reputation in the market.

Now, the big question is how to address these challenges.

The answer is “testing”. In fact, testing is crucial to successfully migrate an on-premise EPM application to Oracle Cloud since it ensures that applications are stable, functional, and secure in the new cloud environment. In case, adequate testing is not performed, issues like server crashes, database errors, & application crashes may occur and can be very expensive in terms of time, resources, and customer experience.  

In this article, we’ll highlight challenges that customers are facing when moving their Oracle EPM environment from on-premise to the cloud. 

**Key challenges in Oracle Cloud EPM Migration**

**Oracle is in control**

The biggest challenge that you may face while migrating to the EPM cloud is in the Cloud, Oracle is in control. What exactly does it mean? It means that previously, you’re allowed to customize your solution to fit your business practice. Now, you’re moving into Oracle EPM Cloud. You should be looking for ways to adapt to Oracle Best Practice and utilize configuration to work for you. 

What will happen to existing customizations? Does Oracle Best Practice fulfill your business needs?

Will your existing business processes map perfectly with Oracle EPM Cloud configurations? 

Are your most critical Oracle EPM Cloud applications fulfilling your compliance requirements?

Adequate testing can only provide your answers to the above questions. Functional & configuration validation testing helps in evaluating the immediate or long-term effects of configuration changes on the system’s behavior and performance. It also helps you to find out the combinations under which the system can work without any flaws or issues while matching its functional requirements.

**Challenges for Integration**

While migrating to Oracle EPM cloud, IT managers need to understand that their infrastructure is changing 100%. To be honest, it is just not “your infrastructure” anymore. It is controlled by Oracle and your access is heavily restricted. Though Oracle offers interfaces and APIs that can be used to interact with the backend of your applications, however, you may miss out on having full access to their environment as well as a vast number of capabilities for integration and automation. Thus, the obvious question is

**Will your existing integrations work in the Oracle EPM Cloud environment?**

[End-to-end integration testing](https://www.opkey.com/) can also confirm that third-party applications have been seamlessly integrated with the new infrastructure. By performing end-to-end testing, you can check whether or not APIs and libraries are still working and dependencies between applications have been broken. 

**Data management**
Another challenge that enterprises will face while migrating to Oracle EPM Cloud is regarding their current data landscape. 
**
Do you really understand your data?**
Do you know about the custom database that is built to manage a specific task?

What about that department that decided to “innovate” and re-use fields for something other than their intended purpose?
Due to differences in data types, security roles and privileges, transaction management, and SQL code, it is important to map the source database schema in Oracle EPM Cloud as this can impact the applications and SQL statements embedded within it. So, data testing needs to be incorporated to ensure that the data is complete, accurate, in the proper format, and as per compliance requirements. 

**Concluding Remark**

[Oracle EPM Cloud migration](https://www.opkey.com/oracle) is a difficult process. To ensure that all your business processes work seamlessly in the new Oracle EPM Cloud environment, you need to bring in a good testing strategy. However, a good testing strategy can only benefit you, if you bring in the right automation tool to support it. A zero-code, continuous test automation solution can help you overcome the business disruption, lack of visibility, and project backlogs while achieving optimal user experience. With the right test automation tool, you can effectively implement the “test” focussed Oracle EPM cloud migration strategy.