One of the world’s largest medical centers aimed to consolidate their ERP systems across hospital branches onto a single, integrated data platform. The purpose was to improve patient care and to be equipped to handle higher patient volume by achieving the following: modernization and optimization of business operations, standardization of new acquisition onboarding, and the enhancement of analytical insight capability. They selected Oracle ERP Cloud as their new technological platform and engaged Premier to support the data conversion efforts. As one of the first healthcare systems to adopt the full Oracle ERP Cloud solution, the client faced many unique challenges; however, Premier’s methodology and Applaud® technology minimized the risk associated with data migration and paved the way for a successful implementation.

Freeing the Hospital to Focus on Validation

The client was initially responsible for loading data into Oracle Cloud, but did not have knowledge of how to execute Oracle loads nor how to perform analysis of the accompanying load logs. Recognizing Premier’s experience in loading data to Oracle Cloud for other large organizations, the client asked Premier to perform data loads in addition to the other data conversion responsibilities. This lifted significant cost from the client, allowing them to focus on data validation and testing in the Oracle Cloud environment.

High Data Volume

Conversion requirements stated that a large volume of historical data needed to be migrated for auditing purposes. Premier worked with the client to outline strategies to best address the large data volumes. From a conversion standpoint, we grouped and aggregated historical data by the month or the year using our Applaud® software, thereby decreasing data volume and easing validation efforts. For production loads, Premier worked with the client to create a schedule that ensured most of their data would be loaded prior to Cutover, allowing more time for urgent tasks closer to go-live. Premier also optimized the load processing times by tweaking Oracle’s standard settings, which improved load efficiency by up to 500%.

Master Data Management

Supplier and customer addresses from the client’s legacy systems were inconsistently formatted and contained user-input errors. Premier’s address standardization process normalized and validated addressed while providing audit trails, ensuring transparency every step of the way.

All master data (Customers, Suppliers, Items, and more) was loaded into Production at least three weeks prior to their corresponding transactional data (Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Invoices, and more). During this transition period, all changes in the legacy systems also needed to be made in Oracle ERP Cloud. Using Applaud®, Premier developed conversion programs that accounted for both newly created and modified master data to ensure all transactional data would be aligned with existing data in the Oracle Cloud Production environment.

Project Risks and Complexities

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted the Cutover data conversions virtually. Premier consultants continued to maintain regular communication with the client and we addressed all data-related issues as they arose.

The client determined that they needed to convert Purchase Order (PO) Receipts, despite recommendations from vendors to avoid this conversion due to validation complexity. Premier took on the challenge and minimized load errors by using Premier’s Oracle Cloud Critical to Quality (CTQ) pre-load validation checks, reporting validation issues before loads took place. Premier also optimized the PO Receipts conversion process by utilizing inheritance riles to pull values from the corresponding Purchase Order, which minimized the risk for mismatching POs/receipts and significantly decreased the volume of load errors.

As a research hospital, the client uses the Oracle Cloud Grants module to manage the finances of research grants and awards. The client’s awards data requirements necessitated significant manual updates/intervention, so they would not be handled with programmatic conversion like other data objects. We instead leveraged our technical support team to develop webservices that efficiently updated award records and ensured that the awards data met the client’s initially specified requirements.

Key Activities

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  • Identified and documented requirements for converting data to Oracle ERP Cloud.
  • Identified, prevented, and resolved problems before they became project issues.
  • Facilitated discussions between the business stakeholders, the functional team, and the load team to coordinate requirements and drive data issues to completion before each test cycle and Go Live.
  • Quickly adapted to changing data conversion requirements and proactively identified and addressed downstream implications, keeping the project on schedule.
  • Harmonized, cleansed, and restructured Supplier data through Premier’s deduplication process; only clean, unique records were converted to Oracle. Standardized and cleansed Customer and Supplier Addresses; additionally provided clear reporting to business stakeholders.
  • Premier’s Oracle Cloud Critical to Quality (CTQ) pre-load validation checks identified load errors prior to executing Oracle data loads. This early-stage resolution enabled efficient data loads to fit into the tight Cutover window.
  • Utilized robust data profiling and error reporting to assist business stakeholders with data cleansing, data enhancement and data enrichment prior to Go-Live.
  • Fully automated all data transformation activities, removing error-prone manual steps from all processes; ensured consistent and predictable output.
  • Tracked records throughout the data transformation process to assist with post-project audits.
  • Loaded over 18 million data records into Oracle Cloud while meeting cutover deadlines and maintaining high data quality.
  • Provided project management services to ensure data migration was completed on-time and within budget.
  • Generated reports through Applaud® to aid in validation of finances and to ensure accounting tied out.
  • Provided detailed tasks in project plan to ensure every step in cutover was accounted for.
  • Developed webservices to efficiently update large volume of awards and projects that otherwise would have required manual updates by the client.