Skanska moves to the cloud with Oracle Cloud Applications
The Swedish construction firm moves Oracle applications from on-premises to the cloud, reducing IT support and providing the latest features.
“With Oracle Cloud, we have more control over upgrades—we will never see those huge upgrade projects like we did before. We can also more easily adopt new functionalities one by one, rather than having to take everything in at once.”
Business challenges
From New York’s LaGuardia Airport to London’s M5 Motorway, global construction company Skanska has worked on development projects at some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks. Founded in Sweden in 1887, Skanska has grown into a $17 billion company offering commercial and residential development services across markets in Europe and the United States.
Skanska Sweden was a longtime user of Oracle technology and applications, and by 2000, the company was running Oracle E-Business Suite on-premises. Skanska later upgraded to Oracle Cloud Applications running in the company’s own data centers for its operations in Sweden.
As cloud capabilities matured, Skanska Sweden decided that running these critical applications in an on-premises environment was no longer the right long-term strategy. The company saw the value in using cloud-based applications that always have the latest capabilities and of having a provider manage the applications. The company wanted to alleviate some of the technical burden that the on-premises upgrade cycle placed on its IT team. Skanska also wanted to reduce its reliance on customizations, many of which are specific to how Skanska does business in Sweden.
We were early adopters of Oracle Fusion on-premises, and that's where we started to build up a very close relationship with Oracle. And it just continues on the cloud today. The jump from Fusion on-prem to Oracle Cloud HCM and ERP was minimal. Under COVID-19, the project team never met, but Oracle as One Oracle has adopted a really good environment that we had to play within.
Why Skanska chose Oracle
Skanska Sweden partnered with Oracle to move its on-premises installation of Oracle ERP, Procurement, SCM, and HCM to Oracle Cloud Applications. The move was based on the strong relationship between the two companies. Skanska recognized the benefits of having a single provider deliver applications that are continuously updated.
Results
Technologists from Skanska and Oracle Consulting moved Skanska Sweden’s applications from legacy systems to Oracle Cloud Applications on time and under budget.
The Skanska team and its Oracle cohort built more than 190 integrations to other applications that needed data from the cloud-based Oracle applications. For example, Skanska uses integrations that surround the financial portion of Oracle Cloud ERP to allow the company to connect financial data to specialized third-party project management systems, enabling Oracle Cloud ERP to function as the central transaction center for revenue and expenditures.
At the same time, the teams significantly decreased use of custom app extensions. Skanska now uses 66 extensions to Oracle Fusion Cloud apps for industry and country-specific needs. The company plans to further cut use of extensions to reduce maintenance requirements in its applications.
In addition, Skanska Sweden deployed Oracle Analytics Cloud to generate finance and HR reporting for top management. The team uses that platform for operational analytics based on data from Oracle Cloud ERP. Among other benefits, Oracle Analytics will help Skanska to make decisions about sustainability as it works toward its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2045.
As its cloud footprint was expanding, Skanska Sweden also deployed Oracle Identity and Access Management and OCI API Gateway on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to ensure secure access to its Oracle systems. The services help Skanska track and monitor system access and manage permissions.
Skanska Sweden is now equipped to securely manage data and provide a clearer view of operations using cloud-based applications. The company is benefiting from an overall reduction in costs and complexity, as Skanska’s IT team is no longer tasked with implementing software upgrades or operating a data center to run ERP and related applications. And Skanska Sweden’s technology staffers now have the ability to adopt new app features and functionalities as they choose, quarter by quarter, rather than taking on updates only during large, periodic upgrades as they did with on-premises applications.
Looking ahead, Skanska Sweden plans to use its foundation in the cloud to continue integrating finance and other back-office applications with core construction industry processes.
Partners
Skanska turned to Oracle Consulting to deliver a successful, on-time project.