Situation:
Oracle came to OHUG in November, 2014 with a business challenge and proposition to combine their existing Knowledge Exchange (KX) platform (inherited from the Taleo acquistion) with their Cloud community in Customer Connect (HCM and other Cloud products). Customer Connect was to become the single source for Oracle Product Information and Oracle was not planning to migrate User Groups or Special Interest Groups to Customer Connect. At the time, Knowledge Exchange had seventeen (17) Special Interest Groups (SIGs) with 3,070 active members/users and ten (10) Regional Group (RUGs) with 2,737 active members/users (these were total users, not unique users, as there was overlap).
Knowledge Exchange was a widely known and utilized community platform for Taleo users. As OHUG was considered the user group dedicated to serving the needs of the Taleo community, the user group saw value in migrating the users into OHUG in order to have an integrated member community with the PeopleSoft, EBS, and Fusion members who already particpated in the OHUG Virtual Community.
OHUG agreed to partner with Oracle to migrate all active groups to the OHUG Virtual Community powered by the OHUG website using their interactive Communities platform, which would allow the active SIG and RUG Taleo users to have a single, independent platform to continue their vibrant conversations around HCM Cloud. OHUG is the largest and only user group devoted to the needs of the Oracle HCM user community and the migration of the KX community was a clear indicator of that dedication.
Challenges:
The first order of business focused around the deadline that the migration needed be fully up and running within sixty days (60) as the Knowledge Exchange licenses would be expiring with no opportunity to extend. “This was nothing short of a tall feat to develop the requirements, project plan and implement a project this large in sixty days; but OHUG was up for the challenge and committed to delivering an independent platform for Oracle HCM users to network, share information and learn leading practices from their peers and industry expers” says Doug Reed, OHUG President.
The second area of focus was building the cross functional team and engaging the key volunteer leaders from the Taleo Community to help shape the requirements and migration plan that met the needs of the KX Community. It was such a great opportunity for OHUG to migrate the KX Community to a independent platform that provided a new forum for the Taleo Community to reside. This project epitimized the value of a User Group and ensuring that users voices are continued to be heard in working in partnership with the Original Equipment Manufatruer (OEM). Critical to the success of this project was quickly mobilizing the right mix of resources between the OHUG board of Directors, Headquarters staff and key Taleo volunteers.
Results:
OHUG successfully migrated the Knowledge Exchange site ahead of schedule and went live in January 2015 and can be found at: http://ohug.org/ohug-sigs. Some key outcomes of the project were as follows:
- OHUG migrated 27 groups to the OHUG website and over 2,000 unique users in 30 days.
- 19 of these groups are currently active, utilizing user forums, calendars, and file libraries within the OHUG site.
- Led 12 usability trainings for both active members of KX and leaders in Q1 & Q2 of 2015.
- Implemented a Community Manager to focus on training, adoption, and utilization of the OHUG Communities platform.
- Faciliated 10 customer-focused webinars led by SIG/RUG leaders from the legacy-KX community.
- Added over 20 SIG/RUG leaders to OHUG’s monthly SIG/RUG leader call, a place for volunteers to share leading practices, discuss strategies for conference meetings, and network as volunteer leaders within the Oracle HCM user group space.