From PeopleSoft or EBS to Oracle Cloud: A Practical Framework for Getting It Right

Oracle Cloud / By /

From PeopleSoft or EBS to Oracle Cloud: A Practical Framework for Getting It Right

Part 1 of 6: The Overarching Strategy

If you are running PeopleSoft or Oracle E-Business Suite today, you are navigating a real tension. These are mature, capable platforms. They have been customized and extended over years, sometimes decades, to support how your organization actually operates. The finance team knows the reports. The HR team knows the workflows. The IT team knows where all the bodies are buried.

And yet.

Oracle has made its long-term direction unmistakably clear: the future of the platform is Oracle Fusion Cloud. The investment in innovation, quarterly releases, AI capabilities, new modules, modern UX, mobile access, embedded analytics, all of it is going into Fusion. PeopleSoft and EBS continue to receive support, but the trajectory is toward cloud, and every organization running legacy Oracle products needs to be planning accordingly.

The good news is that Oracle has a well-worn path from both PeopleSoft and EBS to Fusion Cloud. The organizations that make this move successfully are not the ones with the biggest budgets or the most aggressive timelines. They are the ones with the clearest strategy and the most disciplined approach to sequencing.

This series is designed to give you that framework.

Why Phasing Is Not Optional, It Is Strategic

For customers on these platforms with so much customization to unwind, a big bang implementation can seem daunting. While there are absolutely times for customers to go big bang (when they have proper resource bandwidth, ability to test cross-pillar flows end to end, when the core business model naturally touches modules across pillars, etc), phased implementations have their benefits too. In today’s environment, where organizational change fatigue is real and IT delivery risk is scrutinized more closely than ever, phased implementations coming off of PeopleSoft and EBS specifically are a strong route.

This phased adoption is built around a crawl, walk, run, fly model. Get the foundational capabilities live and stable before adding complexity. Let your users build confidence and competency with the new platform before introducing advanced features. Reserve the highest value, most disruptive capabilities for when your organization has the maturity to absorb and leverage them.

This is not a compromise. It is how transformation actually works.

The Phase Structure We Recommend across Key Pillars: FIN, SCM, HCM, EPM

Through our work with clients across industries, we have developed a sample phased approach that balances speed to value with implementation risk management. **Disclaimer – this blog is attempting to be industry-agnostic for an average customer. 1000% there could be variations to this plan based on industry, size, resource availability, and probably 10 other factors.**

Phase 1 is the Financial and Operational Foundation: General Ledger, Core HR, Procurement, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Management, and Planning and Budgeting. These modules establish the core system of record, enable reporting, and support the most fundamental business operations. They carry the highest interdependencies, which is precisely why they go first.

Phase 2 is Extending the Core: Expense Reimbursement, Fixed Assets, Project Portfolio Management, Time and Labor, Recruiting, Talent and Performance Management, and Enterprise Data Management. These modules build on the foundation established in Phase 1 and add significant operational value, but they require that foundation to be solid before they can deliver it.

Phase 3 is Operational Depth and HCM Full Source of Truth: Lease Accounting, Enterprise Contracts, Payroll, Benefits, Absence Management, Compensation. Add some enhancements on the Finance side while completely retiring any legacy HR systems.

Phase 4 is Ecosystem Maturity. Supplier Portal, Customer Portal, Advanced Collections, Credit Management, Learn, HR Help Desk, Financial Consolidation and Close, and Account Reconciliation This phase is about making Oracle the connective tissue of your enterprise architecture and getting crisper with the peripheral business processes.

Phase 5 is AI, Intelligent Automation, Reporting & Analytics Refresh – the fly phase. By the time you reach Phase 5, your data is clean (hopefully), your processes are standardized, your users are proficient, and your governance is mature. Now the AI agents, advanced machine learning models, and autonomous workflows Oracle is building deliver transformative value, because you have done the foundational work to support them. Within Phases 1-4, you undoubtedly have developed your reporting solutions that you need and probably feel good about ability to get data. However, at this point in time, I recommend what I call an ‘R&A Refresh’. Reevaluate your overall reporting strategy and governance, internal analyst team, standardization, etc – make sure you’re using the right reporting tool for the right purpose. Now that you are familiar with the data and what your organization needs, this reevaluation will prove fruitful.

For Supply Chain heavy verticals like manufacturing, distribution, retail, etc, I recommend modules like Inventory, Warehouse Management, Manufacturing, Supply/Demand Planning, Product Data Hub, SCM Orchestration/Execution, etc in Phases 3 or 4 depending on business value priority.

What to Expect in This Series

Over the next five posts, I will go deep on each of the five phases. I will cover why each module belongs in its phase, what the key interdependencies are, what typical challenges arise, and what the business case looks like.

I will also be direct about where organizations tend to underestimate effort and where they tend to over engineer solutions that should be straightforward.

If you are currently evaluating whether and when to make this move, or if you are in the planning stages of a migration, this series is for you. The organizations that move to Oracle Cloud thoughtfully and strategically come out ahead. The ones that rush or sequence poorly spend years cleaning up the consequences.

Next in the series: Phase 1, Building the Financial and Operational Foundation

Written by

Zubin Shah is a technology and transformation leader specializing in Oracle implementations, with a track record of delivering complex ERP programs across industries. As an Oracle ACE, he is recognized for his expertise, thought leadership, and contributions to the Oracle community. Zubin focuses on bridging the gap between business strategy and system execution—helping organizations modernize operations, scale efficiently, and unlock value from their technology investments. When he’s not leading implementations, he shares insights on ERP strategy, delivery best practices, and the evolving role of enterprise technology.

He holds a dual degree in Finance and Spanish from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Zubin began his career in consulting, working across several leading system integrators where he built deep experience spanning both sales and delivery—giving him a rare end-to-end perspective on how Oracle programs are positioned, sold, and successfully executed. Today, he serves as a Practice Director at Alithya, where he leads Oracle-focused initiatives and helps organizations navigate complex transformation efforts from strategy through execution.

This blog is a personal platform where Zubin shares perspectives on Oracle technology, ERP strategy, and the rapidly evolving role of AI in the enterprise software landscape. Drawing from real-world delivery experience, his writing focuses on practical insights—what works, what doesn’t, and where organizations should be investing as platforms continue to evolve. Topics span Oracle Cloud, implementation strategy, and how emerging technologies like AI are reshaping how enterprises operate, make decisions, and extract value from their systems.