Redwood Ready SCM: Oracle’s Introduction to Redwood, AI and VBS

In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, businesses must adopt cutting-edge technologies to enhance user experience, streamline operations, and stay competitive. Oracle Fusion’s Redwood User Interface (UI), Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, and Visual Builder Studio (VBS) together form a transformative trifecta that modernizes enterprise applications. These tools redefine operational efficiency, revolutionize user engagement, and empower businesses to interact seamlessly with data, processes, and people. This blog delves into these advancements, exploring their essence, impact on Oracle’s ecosystem, and implications for businesses and consultants alike.

Redwood Capabilities

Oracle’s Redwood User Interface (UI) represents a significant evolution in enterprise application design, offering a modern, intuitive, and cohesive user experience across all Oracle applications. It shifts the focus from purely functional interfaces to an adaptive, user-centric framework that aligns with the demands of a digitally driven workforce.

Core Features of Redwood UI

1. Modern and Consistent Design: Delivers a unified look and feel across Oracle’s ecosystem, ensuring a seamless user experience throughout various application.
2. Visualization-Driven Insights: Focuses on dashboard-centric analytics, enabling users to access actionable data briefly and make informed decisions efficiently.
3. Improved Accessibility and Simplified Layouts: Enhances navigation and usability, reducing the learning curve and improving inclusivity for a diverse user base.
4. Faster Navigation and Performance: Optimizes response times and ensures smoother transitions, empowering users to complete tasks swiftly.
5. Enhanced Mobile Responsiveness: Adapts seamlessly across devices, including smartphones and tablets, ensuring consistent functionality and usability on the go.
6. Integration with VBS: Offers advanced extensibility by integrating with Oracle’s Visual Builder Studio (VBS), enabling businesses to customize applications to fit their unique needs.
7. AI and ML Integration: Leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide intelligent recommendations, personalized insights, smart search.

The traditional Oracle UI, while functional, often felt dated and complex, focusing on operational efficiency over user engagement. By contrast, the Redwood UI reimagines the user experience by intuitive designs, visualization-driven insights, and mobile adaptability create an interface that is not just a tool but a strategic enabler of productivity and engagement.

Oracle’s Next Step

Oracle has already released many Redwood & AI features and planning to release many other features in upcoming upgrades. Following is the summary on the same:

1. Procurement – Oracle Healthcare Marketplace, Buyer Workbench, Gen AI (Summarize Supplier Attachment, Purchase Order note to approver) and many more
2. Inventory and Cost Management – Mobile Shipping, Work Order Costing, RFID Inventory Tracking, Prebuilt integration and reconciliation with WMS/3PL, etc.
3. Order Management – Expediting Orders at risk using Oracle digital assistant, Redwood page for order creation and mass action, AI predictive task and travel time.
4. Manufacturing – Production Supervisor Workbench, Work Instruction Task, Kanban Management, Inspect using external Vision Systems.

Source: https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/categories/planning

Transition into Oracle Redwood

The transition to Oracle Redwood UI requires careful planning and execution to ensure a smooth adoption. Enabling Redwood pages in Oracle Fusion involves activating specific features and configuring roles and permissions, which are essential for a seamless transition.

Enabling Redwood Pages:

1. Opt-in Features and Profile Options

To enable Redwood pages, administrators must either enable the relevant Opt-in Features or enable profile options depending on the specific pages being transitioned. This process ensures that Redwood UI elements are available for use across Oracle Fusion applications. Once these features or options are enabled, users will need the appropriate duty roles or privileges to access the new Redwood pages. In such cases, custom roleswill have to be created to assign the necessary access permissions.

2. Handling Personalization During Transition

A key consideration when moving to Redwood pages is that personalization made through the traditional Sandbox interface do not automatically migrate to Redwood. Therefore, any customizations made in the old UI need to be replicated in the Redwood UI using Visual Builder Studio (VBS). This can be challenging, as it can be difficult to track all the changes made through Sandbox. To assist with this, Oracle provides a tool (Redwood Personalization Helper Tool) that helps identify and list all modifications made on a page. This list can be used to assess whether the personalization can be re-created or improved through VBS, ensuring consistency and minimizing disruptions to workflows.

Key Considerations Before Transitioning to Redwood

1. Pre-requisites Check: Before initiating the transition, ensure that all necessary user roles and access permissions are configured correctly in the test environment. This includes verifying that administrators have the right privileges to enable and manage Redwood features.
2. Redwood Opt-in Features: Some Redwood features are irreversible once activated. It’s essential to communicate this clearly with stakeholders and conduct thorough testing in a test environment before enabling these features in the live system.
3. Personalization Compatibility: Extract and document any existing personalization from the old UI. Assess if these customizations can be replicated or enhanced using VBS and determine if any adjustments or new configurations are necessary.
4. Feature Availability Audit: Create a comprehensive list of features that are available in the traditional UI but may not yet be supported in the Redwood UI. This will help manage customer expectations and develop workarounds or alternatives for any missing features.
5. Testing New Redwood Features: As part of the transition, test all new features introduced with Redwood to ensure they meet user requirements and do not disrupt existing workflows. It’s also crucial to gather user feedback during the pilot phase to identify any potential improvements or additional training needs.

Oracle AI capabilities

Oracle’s AI and Machine Learning capabilities are transforming business operations, driving smarter decision-making, enhanced efficiency, and proactive management across key functional areas. In Procurement & PLM, AI automates tasks like spend classification, supplier recommendations, while Generative AI streamlines the creation of negotiation cover pages and item descriptions. Similarly, there are various other AI capabilities across all modules which will help businesses moving from reactive to proactive operations, optimizing processes, and gaining a competitive edge through smarter, data-driven decision-making.

Oracle VBS

With VBS, Oracle empowers enterprises to innovate on their own terms. The platform enables businesses to extend Oracle Cloud applications or build entirely new functionalities, delivering tailor-made solutions with agility.

Core Capabilities:

• Low-Code Application Development: Simplify app creation with drag-and-drop interfaces.
• Integration with Oracle Cloud: Seamlessly extends functionality across HCM, SCM, and other Oracle systems.
• Rule Automation: Custom business rules enhance app responsiveness to organizational needs.

Conclusion:

Oracle’s Redwood UI, integrated AI and ML capabilities, and Visual Builder Studio (VBS) together provide a transformative platform that empowers businesses to not only streamline their operations but also enhance user engagement and decision-making. The transition to Redwood UI, though strategic, requires careful planning and execution. By understanding the key considerations and leveraging tools like VBS, businesses can ensure a smooth migration, maintain the integrity of customizations, and unlock the full potential of these advanced technologies.