BISSELL

As an IT Director - ERP Applications at BISSELL, Joe Butts is responsible for managing everything from requirements gathering to post-go-live support for Procurement, Payables, Inventory, Quality, WMS, Planning, Forecasting, and Financial Reporting Oracle Modules. He has twelve years of experience in designing, deploying, and supporting Oracle ERP Cloud and on-prem modules around the globe. He has built an extensive network of Business leaders and Oracle functional and technical experts.

In light of your experience, what are the trends and challenges you’ve witnessed happening with respect to the Oracle?

Finding the proper skills and resources to support the application and technology is one of the difficulties with Oracle or ERP. During the past ten years, we've had the good fortune to collaborate with Deloitte for the support and improvement of our apps. We both employed them as managed service providers as well as to implement our system. Hence, the problem frequently arises when you're trying to find the right staff or people who have Oracle knowledge. Although it has been difficult, we have been able to either grow technology professionals on Oracle solutions or recruit individuals with Oracle experience to join the company.

What are some of the points of discussion that go on in your leadership panel to mitigate these challenges?

We look at the need for resources. Our discussion is about if we want to contract out work or do we want to try to hire someone as a Bissell employee. Hence, we have a combination of the two. We'll also examine the benefits and drawbacks of devoting certain resources to various topics. In one sense, it's wonderful if you hire it out since you'll have someone with the knowledge you need, and they can ramp up quickly. Though, if you're looking for the long term and dealing with some form of sensitive data then it’s risky.

  ​We appreciate the investment that the Bissell Company has made in order for us to stay on top of these newer technologies  

How do you see the evolution of the Oracle a few years from now with regard to some of its potential disruptions and transformations?

We anticipate being completely evaluated as a SaaS provider for Oracle cloud solutions over the next 16 to 18 months. One of the key benefits is that you are not responsible for the hardware or networking of their solutions. They offer all of that foundation and experience. As a result, it might not as flexible or customizable a solution as you may have encountered in the past. If you stick with the previous Oracle versions, they aren't doing much development or putting a lot of money into those solutions. I believe being on the Oracle cloud allows you to take advantage of the most recent Oracle offerings in terms of not only solutions but also improvements to those solutions. We appreciate the investment that the Bissell Company has made in order for us to stay on top of these newer technologies.

What would be the single piece of advice that you could impart to a fellow or aspiring professional in your field?

If you want to break into the Oracle field, having a good partner can help you develop good relationships with a good system implementer. When it comes to cloud solutions, it's also important to keep an open mind. Educate yourself and continue to adapt as it is the future solution. All basic ERP systems and major application stacks are migrating to cloud solutions. Nothing is completely perfect, but it is the framework toward which the future of technology is heading. My advice would be to learn everything about SaaS and cloud solutions and implement them wherever possible in your workplace.