Forbes Marshall moved their PeopleSoft systems to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and are using Cloud Manager with Policy Manager to save operational costs

Summary

Forbes Marshall, in collaboration with their consulting partner 1218 Global, upgraded and migrated their PeopleSoft HCM system to PeopleSoft 9.2 on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This transition enabled them to eliminate outdated infrastructure in addition to giving their users a superior user experience and access to new features including PeopleSoft fluid tiles on mobile devices.

Customer comments

Forbes Marshall is a leading multinational engineering company established in 1926 with 37 offices worldwide, six manufacturing units, 18 distribution centers, and 8,000 customers worldwide.

Migration journey

Forbes Marshall had an on-premises installation of PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 on PeopleTools 8.51 and Oracle Database 11g. The system was customized to add new features. However, there were challenges in maintaining operations on a self-hosted server due to complex processes.
The transformation project aimed to migrate the PeopleSoft application to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and take advantage of the opportunity to reduce testing costs by upgrading the entire stack, including upgrading PeopleTools to version 8.58, to PeopleSoft HCM 9.2 Image 38, and to the Oracle 19c database. The main goal was a smooth transition to the new platform for their users through the adoption of the fluid interface.
The integration of the OCI network facilitated the seamless migration of data from on-premises to the cloud. OCI's feature set also enabled the development team to efficiently re-implement the PeopleSoft environment in a short period of time, without disrupting the users’ daily operations.
The project adopted new features and retired outdated customizations. The change management approach made the transition to the new and user-friendly PeopleSoft interface effortless for users. The use of PeopleSoft Cloud Manager made it possible to clone environments in a short span, facilitating smooth testing and training experiences.
New features such as onboarding, offboarding, COVID-19 health & safety, and HR business partner features were implemented as part of the upgrade to 9.2.
They achieved reduced cost of ownership by isolating and retiring 20-year-old customizations with the usage of the file attachment framework, the questionnaire survey framework, and the announcement and acknowledgement framework.
The updated analytics with visually appealing fluid tiles and graphics were easily manageable and accessible. Forbes Marshall is exploring the use of predictive analytics and other data lake features offered by OCI to enhance their analytics and AI capabilities.