As the world’s leading cloud ERP solution provider, Oracle has an enviable base of 10,000+ Oracle Fusion ERP customers and 35,000+ NetSuite customers in 175 countries.
And the reason? Customers find the Oracle Cloud “very credible”! [Source: Forbes Innovation Report]
Unlike other key ERP players in the market, Oracle has always been focused on being a ‘cloud-first’ company—its suite of cloud-based ERP applications helps customers migrate critical enterprise workloads, build their own innovative cloud applications, and support hybrid cloud strategies easily.
Oracle’s Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is especially known for its culture of continuous improvement (CI) and its mission to elevate Oracle cloud applications by means of monthly and quarterly updates that introduce new features and enhancements in your Oracle Cloud environment.
These updates are mandatory and are rolled out according to Oracle’s quarterly publication cycle to bring out new functionalities in Oracle’s cloud applications. They also include resolutions for issues that occurred since the previous update.
As advantageous as these quarterly patches may seem, Oracle customers aren’t always happy when they come. Most often wonder:
- What should they know before the update commences?
- Which modules would be impacted in the current environment?
- Will there be a lot of complexity involved during the testing phase?
- What happens if issues arise while quarterly patches are being applied?
- Is it possible to first test the impact of the quarterly patches before making them live?
As it so happens, Oracle’s very own test automation partner—Opkey, offers an intelligent solution to such problems. By simplifying business-as-usual testing during Oracle’s ERP upgrades (such as Oracle Cloud’s 24B Release!), Oracle customers can be prepared to adopt changes as they happen while ensuring a smooth transition to the latest version of Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP.
In this blog, we introduce you to Opkey’s AI-powered automated testing platform and list out how Opkey’s comprehensive testing tool enables you to take advantage of Oracle Cloud’s latest features within just a few days!
What Is Opkey?
Opkey is a no-code test automation platform built specifically for Oracle testing. It not only enables Oracle Cloud customers to create complex, end-to-end tests but also empowers even non-technical employees to create automated tests in minutes.
This effectively means that Opkey’s high-speed test creation and execution tool can help you certify Oracle’s quarterly updates and patches in as little as 3 days!
Don’t lose sleep over upcoming Oracle ERP upgrades! Reach out to us for a free demonstration of Opkey’s automated testing tool today!
How Does Opkey Help You Prepare for Oracle’s Quarterly ERP Updates?
As Oracle’s top-rated automated testing application, Opkey provides Oracle customers with a comprehensive solution that helps them prepare for something as critical as their quarterly patch update.
Let’s look at the 5 key ways in which Opkey provides unique solutions to help you get the most out of your Oracle ERP upgrade.
1. Easy End-to-End Tests
Opkey supports over 15 packaged apps and 150+ technologies, allowing users to create complex, end-to-end tests and automate single-app and cross-app tests without code. Its numerous pre-built interfaces help the testing tool integrate effortlessly with your environment.
Opkey’s test automation tool plugs into your Oracle environment to discover previously executed tests and uses process mining technology to identify common business processes and deviations.
Based on this information, Opkey highlights gaps in your test coverage and recommends additional tests to fill those gaps.
Opkey’s test cycles are enabled in a soft, non-production environment to help you assess how your actual Oracle Cloud environment will be impacted during the upgrade, based on your configurations.
2. Accelerated Test Creation Time
Opkey comes with 7,000+ pre-built, automated Oracle Cloud tests that can be instantly applied to your non-production environment. It features a no-code, drag-and-drop test builder that equips non-technical employees to create automated tests within minutes. This helps you streamline the upgrade process for your Oracle ERP systems.
3. Faster Test Execution Time
Opkey’s virtual machines execute tests 8X faster than manual testing.
This means that the platform’s high-speed test creation and execution capabilities empower Oracle customers to certify their quarterly updates in as little as 3 days! Thus, you are empowered to move from your down environment and release the updates to the production environment, after checking for impacts.
4. Simplified Test Maintenance
Opkey provides an Impact Analysis report with each scheduled application upgrade that helps Oracle customers identify impacted business processes and tests.
Moreover, its self-healing script technology reduces test maintenance efforts by 80%.
5. Managed Oracle Cloud Services
Opkey offers Oracle Managed Cloud Services for all of your Oracle Cloud Services quarterly updates, patch upgrades, and daily business needs.
The test automation platform offers continuous testing for frequent updates and patches, quick verification and certification of your Oracle Cloud quarterly updates and patches, Oracle application optimisations, and Oracle App security and compliance.
What Are Opkey’s Key Technical Features?
As a testing platform, Opkey strives to keep up with the latest technological advancements to help Oracle customers accelerate patch upgrades and enable them to access the latest features and enhancements available through each quarterly update.
Moreover, today Opkey uses AI to easily sustain enterprise continuous testing programs for Oracle customers as well as to provide managed support to help drastically reduce the time to upgrade.
Let’s look at the 7 key technical features of this comprehensive test automation platform:
1. One-Click Test Creation
With over 30,000 pre-built test cases, Opkey enables you to immediately increase your test coverage with one click—without relying on a software developer to code the test (more test coverage helps non-technical users accomplish more testing)!
2. No-Code Test Builder
Opkey’s drag-and-drop interface empowers any business user to intuitively build any test, no matter how complex, without any coding knowledge. The AI-powered platform’s test recorder can be used to automatically document browser sessions.
3. Collaborate and Report
Oracle customers can report broken tests directly on Opkey’s automated testing platform and keep a communication channel open with other departments. They can also generate automatic reports to assess what is likely to be impacted (based on their current configuration) and raise tickets, without leaving the Opkey platform.
4. Test Discovery
Opkey’s test automation tool mines your process logs to instantly discover the tests you’ve been running, and identifies gaps in coverage.
5. Impact Analysis
With Opkey, Oracle customers can get proactive alerts on what tests will be impacted before the changes in the test environment are pushed into production. You will be able to easily compare as-is vs. to-be scenarios to ensure nothing breaks.
6. Holistic Test Management
Opkey offers a convenient way to centralise control and achieve seamless traceability and visibility of testing operations across your software development lifecycle with its holistic test management and execution platform—QLM.
QLM allows for the speedier release of higher-quality software testing by allowing Oracle customers to plan and organize testing activities in accordance with project timelines. The platform comes with reusable/predefined templates for test scenarios, inbuilt Impact Reports for defects, test status, and coverage, and customisable dashboards for reporting on every project, program, and release.
7. Self-Healing Scripts
Opkey provides Oracle customers a soft environment to test and analyse what kind of impact will the new changes bring, and whether their end-to-end process flow will break if the updates are made live. Its self-healing technology ensures that even when your apps change, your tests won’t break.
Did you know that Haemonetics Corporation, a provider of blood and plasma supplies and services with 25 legal entities, was struggling with lengthy manual testing processes that were neither cost-effective nor scalable? Find out how they were able to certify and finish their Oracle Quarterly Patch Update in just one week!
Download the case study now!
What Are the Benefits of Using Opkey’s Test Automation Platform for Oracle ERP Testing?
The primary purpose behind choosing a test automation tool for Oracle’s recurring ERP upgrades is to facilitate end-to-end testing.
A comprehensive ERP system (like Oracle Fusion) seamlessly connects a multitude of business functions, ranging from accounting, human resources, supply chain, project management, compliance, and finance. It is, therefore, necessary for organisations to maintain an uninterrupted workflow, especially from the customer’s or end-user’s perspective, even when the ERP is going through its upgrade cadence.
Oracle customers would naturally turn to the ERP’s own test automation tool, Oracle Application Testing Suite (OATS), for testing and implementing its latest features. However, due to its inherent limitations, they would still require an additional test automation tool (like Opkey!) to achieve complete test coverage.
Opkey eases the testing process for Oracle customers, consultants, and ERP/application testing engineers by significantly reducing the time and effort required for testing. Let’s look at its 5 key benefits:
1. Improving Efficiency and Reliability
Opkey automates the entire testing process, from test case generation to execution and reporting. It eliminates the need for manual intervention, thereby ensuring consistency, accuracy, and repeatability in testing while reducing the risk of human errors.
Apart from accelerating your testing cycle, Opkey also enables Oracle customers to streamline migrations (such as from Oracle EBS to Oracle Cloud) through automated test creation, regression testing, and User Acceptance Testing. It de-risks your EBS to OCI migration projects through continuous, end-to-end EBS testing and ensures that your Oracle migration project does not go over the timeline or over budget.
In fact, Opkey’s Oracle customers have reported a reduced migration timeline by an average of 30%!
2. Minimising Downtime and Disruptions
One of the biggest concerns during Oracle’s quarterly ERP system upgrades is the possibility of downtime causing disruptions to business operations. Opkey mitigates this risk by enabling continuous testing throughout the upgrade process.
It simplifies business-as-usual testing by triggering tests with every application change to eliminate downtime risk. It then ensures that results are sent to stakeholders when the changes are ready to go to the production environment.
Opkey has been designed to identify issues early in the development cycle with its rapid test execution capabilities. This allows teams to address issues proactively and minimise the impact on production environments. This proactive approach not only reduces downtime but also enhances the overall stability and reliability of the upgraded system.
3. Ensuring a Smoother Transition
Smooth transitions are essential to the success of any ERP system upgrade. Opkey facilitates this within the Oracle environment by providing comprehensive test coverage across all modules and functions of your Oracle applications. This means that you can certify new ERP updates quickly with optimal test coverage while freeing your QA teams and business users from long manual testing cycles.
Whether it’s testing new features, integrations, or customisations, Opkey ensures that the upgraded system meets the desired performance standards and user expectations. This thorough testing instils confidence in stakeholders and ensures a seamless transition from the old to the new system.
4. Fully Managed Patch Upgrades
Apart from offering end-to-end testing, Opkey also offers fully managed patch upgrades and patch certification services for Oracle ERP systems. Opkey follows industry best practices to help them handle every aspect of the ERP update, from patch analysis to testing and deployment.
Thanks to Opkey’s expertise, organisations can trust that the entire patching process will ensure timely and error-free updates for their Oracle applications, which helps them leverage the latest enhancements and security fixes with confidence.
5. Impact Analysis Advisory Reports
Opkey’s Impact Analysis Advisory Report provides valuable insights into the potential impact of changes introduced during the upgrade process. By analysing dependencies, risks, and potential bottlenecks, these reports help organisations make informed decisions, ensure workflow continuity, and prioritise testing efforts effectively.
Whether it is assessing the impact of a new feature or evaluating the compatibility of third-party integrations*, Opkey’s advisory reports empower Oracle customers to reduce system downtime, mitigate risks, and ensure a smoother transition during upgrades.
*Opkey provides support for dozens of DevOps tools, including Jenkins, Jira, & Bamboo Hudson. This adaptability enables clients to test whenever and wherever they choose!
Are You Ready to Embrace Oracle Cloud’s 24B Quarterly Upgrade with Confidence?
Oracle Cloud’s 24B Release is around the corner!
According to this release’s advisory document, customers can expect exciting new features and functionalities in the HCM (Human Capital Management), Finance, and Supply Chain Management (SCM) modules.
Opkey can help you seamlessly integrate these updates into your environment while mitigating the risk of disrupting existing business processes.
Eager to find out how?
Book a free Opkey demo today and discover how you can accelerate your Oracle Cloud release cycles with confidence!
Redefining the digital landscape for organisations across 4 global locations since 2018, Corptec Technology Partners is Opkey’s strategic automated testing partner in Australia. We enable you to accelerate your Oracle migrations, implementations, and upgrades while significantly reducing Oracle testing costs and timelines.
Corptec makes it easy for you to get up and running on Opkey’s no-code test automation platform. Our test coverage discovery session helps you:
- Get a complete understanding of your existing test coverage
- Receive test recommendations based on your environment and industry
- Create your first-automated test scripts—without any coding
Book a free test coverage assessment with us today!
