Getting Started with Business Process Training

In today’s competitive landscape, a comprehensive understanding of business processes is critical to successfully deploying and using Oracle Cloud Applications. Having solid foundational knowledge of business processes can help you understand “how things are done” and apply your learning to the right processes, in the right way, at the right time.   Join Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham, along with Bill Lawson, as they talk about how Oracle’s business process training can help everyone involved in an implementation project, from project teams and technical teams to end users.   Oracle MyLearn: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   --------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started. 00:26 Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Lois Houston, Director of Product Innovation and Go to Market Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Principal Technical Editor. Nikita: Hi everyone! We’re starting the third season of the Oracle University Podcast today, and this time around, our focus is going to be on Cloud Apps Business Processes. And we’re very excited about this episode, which will be an overview of the Business Process training and certification offered by Oracle University. We’ll discuss this training at length, learn how it can help you prepare for projects, and find out how everyone involved in an implementation—from project teams to technical teams and end users —can benefit from taking this training. 01:12 Lois: And we’re so excited to welcome Bill Lawson back to the podcast today. If you’ve been following our podcast, you already know Bill from last season. Bill is the Senior Director of Cloud Applications Product Management at Oracle University. His team is in charge of developing new content for Oracle Cloud Applications. So, all the amazing training that helps you successfully implement and operate our cloud apps is created by his team. Thanks so much, Bill, for being with us today. We’re really excited to talk with you. 01:41 Bill: I’m happy to be here to kick off this new season, Lois and Niki. Nikita: So, to start Bill, can you tell us a little about the Cloud Apps Business Process training in general?  Bill: Think of our Business Process training as Oracle’s official collection of courses designed to provide you with a foundational understanding of how end-to-end business process flows are defined. These are based off Oracle Modern Best Practices. So, we have a series of courses that enable learners to have a common foundational reference when implementing Oracle Cloud Applications. Ultimately, the goal of our Oracle Business Process training is to ensure that everybody in the organization, across all the various roles, are all on the same page when, you know, they are discovering and learning more about Oracle Cloud.  02:22 Lois: We already have extensive Cloud Apps training, right? So, why did we decide to create this particular training? What’s different about these courses, Bill? Bill: While we do have a very comprehensive modern digital Oracle Cloud Applications training existing today, we felt there was an opportunity to educate our customers on foundational business processes, which are required knowledge to have even before anyone starts their application implementation journey.  To meet this important need, we developed Business Process training, which, once again, is defined by Oracle Modern Best Practices and driven by Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications. This training will help students by providing them with the skills that are required to maximize the use and impact of those applications in their business. 03:03 Bill: And also providing a common framework for teams to use and to refer to throughout their cloud implementation projects, aligning from the start to accelerate and improve project planning and improving decision-making throughout the cloud implementation cycle. The training also defines end-to-end business process flows and illustrates how organizations and business users across all job roles can best manage day-to-day business activities and tasks, in a format within MyLearn and Cloud Learning Subscriptions that's engaging, easy to digest, and easy to learn. In fact, knowledge of basic business processes will enable students to understand “how things are done” and then apply those right processes, in the right way, at the right time. 03:44 Nikita: And what areas are covered, Bill?  Bill: We have training on Oracle Human Capital Management or HCM, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Experience (CX) Sales, Supply Chain Management, which is SCM, and Procurement.  In HCM, we show examples of the full suite of HR processes that encompasses all stages of an employee's experience—from the time they apply for a job, to when they’re onboarded, ultimately to the last day they’re at the company.   In our ERP training, learners use how to process, record, and report on finances reports. ERP training is really focused within the financial management area within ERP.   Our Sales training teaches how to make the organization sales cycle more effective by gathering all the customer information in one place, increasing productivity, empowering sales reps to sell more, and obtaining accurate information for boosting revenue. 04:36 Bill: Under Supply Chain Management, we have a comprehensive Cloud Applications suite that includes many products such as Inventory Management, Order Management, Manufacturing, and many more. In our business process training, as an example, we cover the processes of forecasting anticipated demand of products and services and planning the supply of materials and components, production, distribution, marketing, and sales in order to meet that demand. And finally, in Procurement, students will learn the business processes encompassing every stage of the procurement life cycle–from the initial stage of onboarding suppliers, to identifying sourcing opportunities and initiating sourcing events, to authoring contracts, to ultimately receiving the product or service and closing out the financials.    05:23 Lois: Wow, that’s a lot, Bill! So, let’s just say I’m getting started in my career with Cloud Applications. Would you recommend that I take this training or would I need to be more experienced to take it?  Bill: Anyone can take this training, Lois. We have learning paths from the beginner to the advanced level within our Cloud Learning Subscriptions today. The business process courses in particular are for any experience level, from the recent college grad to the seasoned professional who just wants to learn more about Oracle Cloud Applications. 05:52 Lois: OK, so let’s talk a little more about who this training is best for. Can you expand a little bit on who would benefit the most from the courses? Bill: The training is for anyone who wants to build a strong foundational knowledge of Oracle Cloud   Business Processes in order to successfully plan, implement, test, and use Oracle Cloud Applications. You can be a Business Process Owner, a Functional User, an Implementation Project Team Member, an Implementer, a User Acceptance Testing Team Member, or even a University Student. We feel that this knowledge is foundational for success in the cloud. 06:26 Bill: So, for example, a partner implementation team will benefit by gaining an understanding of the modern business process flows supported by Oracle Cloud Applications to gain a solid understanding in order to configure based on the flow. Or say, customer project teams who work with implementation teams and will benefit from defining common approaches and business rules for their organization at the onset of their application implementation to help avoid any delays in the project. In short, having the same fundamental knowledge throughout this training helps ensure everyone is on the same page when discovering, planning, configuring, and executing these business processes in the cloud.  07:09 Want to learn about modern best practices for cloud applications?  Oracle University is offering (for a limited time) free Business Process training and certification in the areas of Human Capital Management, Financials, Customer Experience, Supply Chain Management, and Procurement.  Oracle Cloud training and certifications empower you to explore limitless possibilities in the cloud landscape. Gain the knowledge and skills needed to design, deploy, secure, and operate modern cloud infrastructure and applications with confidence. Go to education.oracle.com for more details. What are you waiting for? Get certified today! 07:49 Nikita: Welcome back! Bill, could you give us some examples of what I’ll learn if I take this Business Process training? Bill: Great question, Niki. Project teams, both business process owners and those involved in executing specific steps in the process, will gain a high-level understanding of how their teams’ processes and related tasks will change, and continue to evolve, when moving to the cloud. But it doesn’t end there. Project teams will also learn the basics around how organizations manage day-to-day business activities and tasks in such areas as I mentioned earlier… Finance, Human Capital Management, Sales, Supply Chain, and Procurement. They will learn about how Oracle Cloud Applications leverage emerging technologies, such as AI and machine learning, blockchain, and business intelligence, which help drive mission-critical organizational business processes.  08:39 Bill: So, for example, let’s take the use case of a recruitment team lead. This training will provide an overview of the best practice steps in an applicant screening process that are enabled in Oracle HCM and how it relates to onboarding and other employee lifecycle processes.  This way, users can consider how their team’s current screening process steps and related tasks will be impacted as they move to the cloud, as well as how that process can evolve over time when enabled by new technologies. In addition, this training will show how to use machine learning to help screen and prioritize candidate résumés.   And with this base understanding, the recruitment team lead can contribute to improving the screening process when using Oracle HCM Recruiting and better the overall collaboration and project planning with their system integrator and other HR project teams. 09:29 Lois: So, you said we have a full suite of Business Process training courses. What’s the value in taking training outside of my area of responsibility? Bill: That’s such a great question, Lois. You’ll see, often in implementation projects, decision-making can be siloed. Business process owners consider the needs of their own team, especially as detailed requirements are documented and considered for each process. As leaders, they want to ensure their teams’ needs are thoroughly considered to ensure they can accomplish all that is expected of them. When planning a cloud implementation project, teams need not only consider how their own processes will change but also how the decisions they make in planning, configuring, and implementing Oracle Cloud Applications to suit their own needs will impact other teams and their processes. 10:17 Bill: That’s why getting the end-to-end view is so important, we believe. We created this training to ensure that business process owners across the organization, as well as the implementation teams supporting their projects, understand not only their own area of responsibility but are also considerate of the changes, the subsequent impact, on other teams as well. We really want to encourage collaboration from the beginning of the project to improve decision-making at all phases by developing this early-stage awareness and understanding. 10:47 Nikita: I’ve heard this training is a little different from the video-based training that we have for most of our other Cloud Apps courses. So, what’s different about it, Bill? Bill: Yeah, you’re right, Niki. So, this training combines a variety of elements, not just videos. We still do have some videos within our business process training. But it also includes rich text articles, descriptive imagery, concepts explained by experts, product demonstrations, and knowledge checks, to bring users the best possible learning experience. 11:16 Nikita: And along with this training, we also offer certifications, right?  Bill: Yeah, you’re absolutely right, Niki. For Business Process training, we have five associate-level exams included—one for each of the areas I mentioned. One for HCM, one for ERP Financials, Sales, Procurement, and Supply Chain Management. So, earning a Business Process Foundation Associate certification provides the candidate with an industry credential which recognizes a foundational understanding of the business process flows enabled by Oracle Cloud Applications. Our content prepares the candidate to earn that certification. 11:50 Lois: Well, this has been very enlightening, Bill. Thank you so much for joining us today and telling us all about the Business Process training and certifications that are available. Bill: Yeah, you’re welcome, Lois. And thanks for having me, Niki. Nikita: To get started on Oracle Business Process training, head over to mylearn.oracle.com.  Lois: Well, that’s all the time we have for today. Join us next week as we set off on our journey through the HCM business processes with Senior Principal Instructor Nigel Wiltshire. Until next week, this is Lois Houston… Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off. 12:22 That’s all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We’d also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.