Cloud automation helps FedEx respond to changes 2X faster
With Oracle Cloud ERP, EPM, SCM, and Analytics, FedEx responds to business challenges in real time and better supports organic and acquired growth.
“The Oracle Analytics tools allow us to drill into the operations on an almost real-time basis and see what's going on and evaluate how things are developing worldwide.”
Business challenges
FedEx is renowned for how it uses tech-fueled innovation to constantly improve not just the delivery of packages, but the information customers have about that package. The company wanted to apply that same innovation spirit to employee-facing, back-office experiences—specifically, to finance and supply chain functions. The leaders of this effort did not want a one-time project; instead, they wanted to build innovation into their operating model.
As a result, the leadership team created a permanent organization called the Digital Innovation Center of Excellence (DICE), with the hub located at the FedEx headquarters and regional innovation centers of excellence in Asia and Europe. The DICE team wanted bold steps to make breakthrough efficiency gains in its back-office operations—and that meant bringing in the most innovative technologies and tactics. This transformation required a large-scale move to cloud applications.
Why FedEx chose Oracle
FedEx chose Oracle Cloud ERP, EPM, SCM, and Analytics to create a unified platform to support both organic and acquired growth. An opportunity to acquire European logistics leader TNT helped solidify the business case to move to Oracle Cloud, with the rollout starting in Europe, then moving to Asia and North America.
FedEx also selected Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with OCI Functions and Autonomous Database to optimize the performance of these cloud applications. For FedEx, an advantage of using Oracle Cloud’s suite of applications comes from having seamless integration across all the company’s cloud applications, and a common data format across all the Oracle applications. Oracle Cloud helps provide FedEx the ability to embrace advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. With advanced dashboard features, the Oracle Cloud analytics tools allowed FedEx to run complex analysis on their costs to better manage the finance operation.
Oracle Cloud provides a platform to explore the role of AI in helping the company be resilient, flexible, and responsive to business changes. The analytics tools let FedEx drill into the operations on an almost real-time basis, to know what’s happening worldwide, as the company constantly adjusts its networks and redistributes capacity based on demands of the moment.
Results
FedEx standardized more than 220 operations by using more than 40 Oracle Cloud applications. FedEx also uses Oracle Digital Assistant and OCI Integration Services as part of its efforts to further automate many of these processes, with more than 25 digital assistants creating touchless handoffs across those processes.
More than 3,000 employees now also use Oracle Analytics Cloud for data-driven decision-making, as well as access to AI, machine learning, and service automation.
In digital operations, FedEx has significantly cut manual effort and increased the speed of code deployments, and now has a 2X faster speed to market, thanks to its digital transformation and use of Oracle Cloud applications, infrastructure, and platform capabilities.
FedEx completely virtualized its model for deploying software and training people on new systems, enabling the team to stand up nine new local instances of Oracle Cloud ERP during the COVID-19 crisis with no interruptions to timelines. In the past, the company would send teams to a country deploying a major new system, staying there for weeks to set it up and train employees. The crisis eliminated travel to those countries, inspiring the successful shift to virtual deployments.