Malyadri Kapugorla, Oracle ERP Solution Architect, develops cloud-based transformation systems to improve business processes and financial controls

By Ellen F. Warren

Malyadri Kapugorla is an Oracle Solution Architect at SPL Consulting, where he applies two decades of expertise in Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Applications and Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning applications to engineering transformative process improvements for businesses across diverse sectors.

He is recognised for developing and implementing complex projects that streamline and automate financial and business processes, revenue management cloud services, and project portfolio management, to drive operational efficiencies and provide businesses with a single source of truth for data and information, as well as accurate reporting functions.

Over the course of his career, Malyadri has worked with dozens of companies in industries including air transportation, wholesale grocery, sales and distribution, manufacturing, real estate construction, technology, and software development. Leveraging his strong background in business and system analysis, configuration, testing, conversions, and post-implementation support, he has gained unique experience in designing IT system integrations between Oracle ERP applications and other legacy applications.

As a seasoned professional with advanced knowledge and leadership skills, Malyadri has spearheaded the development of best-in-class solutions for business functions such as Procure to Pay (P2P), Order to Cash (CTC), Acquire to Retire (ATR), and Record to Report (RTR). He has additionally designed applications to automate and implement an improved vendor shipment data interface from warehouse management systems to Oracle EBS systems.

In architecting these high level, cloud-based solutions, as in all of his ERP applications, Malyadri’s goal is to improve business process outcomes with agility, compliance, and high performance that better supports sales functions and technical, resource, and planning decisions.  

Malyadri received a bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Computer Applications and a master’s degree in Financial Management from Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati, India.

We spoke with Malyadri about how he deploys his dual expertise in finance and software engineering to design innovative ERP solutions that enable multiple functions for businesses at small, mid-sized, and enterprise levels, with industry customisations that improve processes ranging from managing IT security and compliance reporting, to line-of-business services, to enhancing disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities.

Q: Malyadri, your academic background gives you a sophisticated understanding of business processes such as revenue management, which is a strong focus of your software engineering development projects. After earning an undergraduate degree in technology, why did you pursue a graduate degree in financial management, and how has that influenced your work?

A: My undergraduate degree was a combination of commerce and technology. Commerce includes accounting, business, and economics, so commerce was my favourite subject, which made me choose financial management for my master’s degree.

The academic foundation in commerce, computer applications, and financial management has enabled me to better analyse the requirements of revenue accounting, financial statements, and related technology aspects when I work on ERP Implementations with Oracle Financials, Revenue Management Cloud Service, and Project Portfolio Management.

Q: In an early professional role as a Senior Consultant at Hitachi Consulting Software Services, a division of the Hitachi Group, you were responsible for developing and supporting systems in areas such as General Ledger (G/L), Accounts Payable (A/P), Accounts Receivable (A/R), Cash Management (CE), and Fixed Assets (FA).

This included design and implementation, system configuration, integration testing, data reconciliation, and analysing existing business processes to be mapped into Oracle modules in these and other areas including Financial Reporting and Governance/Risk Controls (GRC). What led you to specialise in Oracle ERP, and specifically Oracle’s finance applications?

A: After gaining financial and tech knowledge through my university education, I developed experience in accounting (GL, AP, AR and Tax) as part my early professional role as a Senior Consultant at Hitachi Consulting Software Services.

I also received training on Oracle E-Business Suite ERP Applications (Financials and Project Management) while I was working as a Senior Consultant. All these things had influenced me to pursue Oracle ERP Financials. A consultant in this specialised domain must have knowledge of Core Financial Accounting and Technology, to facilitate working with business owners to gather their requirements and prepare future state processes.

Gathering requirements, requirement analysis, and solution design for future state processes are the key elements in every Oracle ERP implementation. Since my educational background relates to accounting, financial management, and technology, I can easily understand the business requirements. This allows me to provide seamless technology solutions.  

Q: For context, can you give us a brief overview of ERP systems and how you deploy Oracle’s ERP applications to streamline business processes?

A: ERP refers to a type of software that organisations use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations.

A complete ERP suite also includes enterprise performance management, software that helps plan, budget, predict, and report on an organisation’s financial results. ERP systems, whether provided by Oracle or another technology company, are complete, integrated platforms, located either on-premises or in the cloud, that can manage all aspects of a production-based or distribution business. Furthermore, ERP systems support all aspects of financial management, human resources, supply chain management, and manufacturing, with core accounting functionalities.

For businesses of any size, one of the prime advantages is that ERP systems tie together a multitude of business processes and enable the flow of data between them. By collecting an organisation’s shared transactional data from multiple sources, ERP systems eliminate data duplication and provide data integrity with a single source of truth. ERP systems will also provide transparency into your complete business process by tracking all aspects of production, logistics, and financials.

These integrated systems act as a business's central hub for end-to-end workflow and data, allowing a variety of departments to access the information. Oracle’s Revenue Management Cloud Service (RMCS) and Oracle Project Portfolio management (PPM) are key applications in the Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems.  

Q: You recently played a leading and critical role in an Oracle Transformation System project that aimed to implement an Oracle Fusion application to help businesses better manage their customer contracting process, billing, and revenue. This involved leading eight system analysts and a dozen developers through a needs analysis and solution design for which you were awarded “Best Solution Architect” by your company. Tell us about this project, and how your innovation led to a patented development model. What are the unique benefits associated with your new model?

A: For this project, the client was a leading provider of air cargo transportation and related services. They needed an ERP application to fulfil their functional business requirements, which included the ability to track capital projects for aircraft conversion, maintenance reserve tracking for lease customers, tracking the profitability of charter flights​, tracking certain compliance details for US government reporting, the ability to easily create many revenue invoices at once, and full project capability to track revenues, expenses, resources, and status.

This client chose the Oracle Cloud Application to have a streamlined system that could accommodate everything. Because I am an Oracle Certified Specialist, I played a critical role in the execution of the client’s Oracle Cloud Application, leveraging my 18 years of experience on Oracle ERP with Financials, Project Portfolio Management and Revenue Management Cloud Service.

I led the development and implementation of the Oracle Cloud System, ensuring streamlined and automated business processes, and improved operational efficiency. I also built this system to provide a single source of truth for data and information and accurate reporting.

My significant experience in this area enabled the project to launch quickly and seamlessly. I also used my expertise to formulate a new model that has since become the base model used for other similar projects within the company, as well as a patented model for other similar businesses to use in implementation.

Q: The Transformation Project leveraged your deep expertise in Oracle’s EBS IT Finance systems and engineering financial cloud solutions across all phases, from inception through blueprint, development, testing, and go-live preparation. You are equally experienced in Oracle’s Revenue Management Cloud Service finance module. How does RMCS relate to EBS IT systems? Who is RMCS designed for, and how do you architect RMCS solutions to optimise finance functions for your clients? What are the advantages of a cloud-based revenue management system?

A: Oracle Revenue Management is a centralised, automated revenue management product that enables clients to address the ASC 606 and IFRS 15 accounting standard Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The accounting standard provides a core principle for recognising revenue: recognise revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services.

Oracle RMCS is fully integrated with Oracle Receivables, Oracle General Ledger, Oracle Order Management, Oracle Subscription Management and Oracle CPQ, which means it is part of Oracle ERP Cloud Financials. Depending on a client’s requirements, the client decides whether Oracle RMCS is needed or not.

Oracle RMCS is designed for enterprises (such as Technology and Software companies, Telecommunications companies, Media and Entertainment companies, Manufacturing Companies, Professional Services organisations, and Energy and Utilities companies) with complex revenue recognition requirements often arising from subscription-based, usage-based, or multi-element arrangements. The service helps businesses comply with accounting standards like ASC 606 and IFRS 15, offering automation and standardisation for revenue recognition processes.  

As part of the requirement gathering and solution design, I consider all the following factors, and complete the solution accordingly as per each requirement:  

·      Identify all the revenue streams

·      Ensure alignment with ASC 606, IFRS 15, or other applicable revenue recognition standards

·      Review all contracts to identify performance obligations, variable considerations, and contract modifications

·      Reporting requirements

·      Data conversion approach

·      Integration points

The key benefits of the RMCS implementation include:

·      Compliance with Revenue Standards: automates adherence to global accounting standards like ASC 606 and IFRS 15

·      Improved Efficiency: reduces manual effort in calculating and reporting revenue

·      Audit Readiness: provides detailed audit trials and documentation for compliance

·      Scalability: supports growing businesses with increasingly complex revenue streams

·      Real-Time Insights: offers dashboards and analytics for better decision-making.

Q: You’ve led your engineering teams through successful RMCS implementations for global businesses in the telecommunications and semiconductor industries, among others. Using these two as examples, can you describe the customisations, integrations, and innovations you designed to improve processes across the sales and revenue lifecycle?

A: In one telecommunications case, “seeded integration” - which refers to out-of-the-box integration capabilities between different Oracle modules or applications - between Oracle Subscription Management and Oracle Revenue Management did not provide support for a percentage of milestone billing and satisfaction measurement model.

This requirement demanded that we implement Oracle Project Portfolio Management as well, because it does support this function, but it was an additional cost for the client, and this was not part of the client’s budget. The requirement was that the client’s customers should be billed as per a designated milestone of the project, and revenue should be recognised based on the percentage completion for Scope of Work (SOW) contracts.

Keeping all these challenges in mind, I proposed a custom solution, which was reviewed and accepted by the client. Hence, we implemented Oracle Subscription Management and Oracle Revenue Management without Oracle Project Portfolio Management, within timelines, and no additional budget was needed.

My custom solution was creating a flag on the production line in Subscription Management to identify whether or not it was part of the SOW product line and then customising two integrations: the first was for milestone billing between Subscription Management and Accounts Receivable; the second was between Subscription Management and Revenue Management for revenue recognition, based on a percentage satisfaction measurement model. It was a huge customisation which helped the client to run the business seamlessly.

For the semiconductor industry, a company required a detailed Revenue report by Ledger or Subscription Line Level, with details of actual and projected revenue for a Fiscal Year. This report needed to be run as of the monthly periods for new monthly actuals and updated projected revenue that is reconciled monthly to GL account balances by Revenue Account.

The report had to be customised for how revenue is recognised for contracts and transactions, ensuring compliance with accounting standards like ASC 606 and IFRS 15. To meet this requirement, I designed and customised a Revenue Waterfall Report which gives details of Revenue earned, but not yet billed to the customer; Revenue received (or billed), but not yet recognised because the performance obligation is incomplete; Revenue that has been recognised in the accounting period based on performance obligations being met; and Remaining obligations and their associated deferred amounts.

This report helps to ensure compliance with revenue recognition standards, provides detailed audit trails for transactions and contracts, offers insights into future revenue streams, helps in forecasting revenue recognition trends over time, and tracks the progress of performance obligations. My customised solution helped the client to analyse the monthly revenue by contract over the contract duration, when performance obligation satisfaction is measured by time periods satisfied (Measure Period Satisfied)

Q: You also have substantial experience in implementing the Oracle Cloud Project Portfolio Management (PPM) module, which provides project managers with an end-to-end tool that also integrates with RMCS and other financial and ERP modules. PPM includes functional capabilities for Project Financials Management (PFM) and Project Execution Management (PEM), as well as sub-modules for managing costing, billing, tasks, resources, and grants. What are some ways that you have used PPM in various business settings, and how did it improve outcomes?

A: Oracle Cloud Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is a suite of integrated applications that help organizations manage projects, track budgets, and optimise resource allocation. Businesses across industries have successfully implemented Oracle Cloud PPM to address project related challenges and improve outcomes.

In one example, the client’s requirement was to create a bill to the customer based on the cycle quantity. Rates fsr Cycles and Block Hours were being maintained separately for each contract. As per Oracle PPM functionality, we can bill to the customers based on the event for milestone billing or based on cost with markup/separate bill rates. Since the requirement was complicated, we thought we would go for customisation by using PaaS and Oracle Integrated Cloud, but the client did not have the budget for customisation.

Without the additional cost in the SOW, I had to come up with a workaround to keep the project on track. My solution fulfilled the client’s requirement, and the project was successfully completed within timelines and the allocated budget. 

My workaround was to define each billing item by expenditure type and upload the quantity for each expenditure type with price $0 through expenditure batch. I created a transaction source to allow them to create expenditure batches without accounting and created a contract with multiple lines (one contract line for each billing item); and populated expenditure type with corresponding bill rates on the bill plan. When billing is generated, it will take the bill rate from the contract line and the quantity from the expenditure batch. The link between the contract line and expenditure batch is project and task.

The outcome of the project enabled the client to process all types of customer billing systematically. The client was also able to recognize the revenue as per requirement and capture accounting entries.

Q: You are highly regarded for your skill in business process analysis. This requires you to understand a company’s existing business processes and existing applications and design the future processes within Oracle functionality. How do you approach this process? What are the unique challenges you find in various projects, and how do you determine which ERP modules will deliver the best solutions out-of-the-box, or with customisation?

A:  During the discovery phase, I gather detailed information about current business processes, pain points, and goals, and seek to understand the existing application landscape and technology stack. I identify key stakeholders (business users, IT teams, process owners) and conduct workshops or interviews to understand their needs and challenges.

I ask about current workflows, manual processes, dependencies, and integration points, and then create process maps or flowcharts for key business processes (i.e. financial reporting, revenue recognition, project management). I also identify inefficiencies, redundancies, and areas for improvement, and then evaluate the alignment of current applications with business goals. This also requires that I document bottlenecks, compliance risks, or scalability issues. Finally, I identify areas where automation or Oracle Cloud solutions could provide value.

Once I am done with the requirement gathering phase, I analyze the requirement and do alignment assessments with Oracle functionality, such as mapping existing processes to Oracle Cloud capabilities and identifying gaps between current processes and Oracle best practices. I conduct Oracle capability workshops to showcase Oracle Cloud capabilities relevant to the organisation and highlight automation, analytics, scalability, and integration features, among others. As part of the gap analysis, I compare current business processes with Oracle’s standard functionality and identify processes that can be directly adopted, require minimal customisation, or need a customised workaround.

During the design future-state phase, I design future workflows, emphasising automation, simplification, and Oracle native capabilities. I incorporate key Oracle features like AI driven analytics, real-time reporting, and mobile accessibility. I define how Oracle Cloud will integrate with existing or third-party applications and use Oracle Integration Cloud or APIs for seamless data flow.

One of the challenges that I have seen is when a client had a requirement to get payments from customers through Lockbox, Check, and Drafting. We were able to map the requirement of Lockbox and Check with out-of-the-box functionality, but we were not able to map f Drafting because of complications with that requirement.

The client required that payments should be created automatically for the due invoices based on the due date, and an output payment file should be created accordingly as per the bank requirement and transmitted directly to the bank to debit the customer bank account and transfer the amount to the client’s bank account.

As part of this process, drafting notices should be generated and sent to customers for reference.  At the same time, if a customer’s bank account has insufficient funds, the corresponding payment should be reversed automatically based on the input file from the bank. The solution I provided combined out-of-the- box functionality and customisation. It was a fully integrated solution without any manual intervention, and the whole process ran seamlessly without any issues. Here’s how it worked:

1.        Create Receipts automatically by using Direct Debit Functionality and create Settlement batch, which generates xml output file as per Payment File Specification. Here we defined a custom XML Publisher Template.

2.        Place the file in the internal SFTP; SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) takes from internal SFTP, does PGP encryption and transmission encrypted output file to bank server. Bank will process payment based on the data provided in the file.

3.        Based on created settlement batch for remitted receipts, receipt notification must be sent to customer email, which is at customer account level. Receipt notifications are sent to customers to inform them that those payments (entered as receipts) have been made.

4.        If funds are not available in the customer’s bank account, the bank generates an input file and places it into SFTP server. SOA reads the file and gets PAYMENT SYSTEM REFERENCE NUMBER based on which SOA identifies receipt number. A small package was built to get receipt number based on payment reference number. SOA calls Receipt Reversal API and reverses the receipt by passing Receipt number.

In another challenge, the client gets invoices which are invoiced greater than the quantity received, so the balance should be adjusted to the received quantity. At the same time, if the invoice price is greater than the purchase order (PO) price, and the invoice is sitting on price hold, the balance should be adjusted to the PO price. Oracle did not cater to this requirement, so we proposed a custom solution for meeting this business requirement.

The first part of our solution addressed the case of a Quantity Variance Hold. Once invoice validation is done, because of a three-way match, if there is a mismatch between goods received vs goods invoiced, the system will place a hold on the invoice. The hold name in this case is “Qty Rec” which means that “Quantity billed exceeds the quantity received.”

Our custom process picks up all such invoices with the “Qty Rec” hold and creates a debit memo against the purchase order on the standard invoice. Similarly, if there are multiple lines on the Purchase order, there are multiple “Qty Rec” holds on the invoice. The logic needs to be done at the Invoice Line Level to the PO Line Level. The standard invoice on which a debit memo is created should not be picked up again in the next program run, which means all standard invoices need to be flagged as picked.

The Debit Memo Number shall be stamped onto the attribute at the Holds Information tab on the standard invoice. Hold gets systematically released and need no user intervention. The criteria to pick invoices is Invoice should not be flagged as picked in attribute, the Hold Name should be Qty Rec, the hold should be held by the system, and the column Held By in the holds screens should be “System.”

The second solution was designed for a Price Variance Hold. Once Invoice validation is done, because of the three-way match, if there is a mismatch between price on the purchase order line vs price on the invoice line, the system places a hold on the invoice. The hold name in this case will be “Price” which means that “Invoice price exceeds purchase order price.”

The user will look at the invoice price and the purchase price and decide which price to pay to the supplier. For this purpose, we built a separate process and customised screen. This custom process pulls all the invoices which are sitting with price hold, and which are not flagged as picked when the user queries the invoices by using Supplier Number/Name. If the user selects the invoice price in the custom screen and clicks on submit, it invokes the custom process, which will release the hold on the invoice and populate a corresponding hold reason.

If the user selects the PO Price in the custom screen and clicks on submit, it invokes the custom process, which will create a debit memo against the purchase order on the standard invoice. Similarly, if there are multiple lines on the Purchase order, there will be multiple “Price” holds on the invoice. The logic needs to be done at Invoice Line Level to the PO Line Level. A single debit memo should be created for all the Price variance lines of the invoice.

Q: Engineers may come to their roles with technical skills, but process analysis and leadership requires different skill sets. As a senior leader, how do you train less experienced members of your teams to think critically about solution design and implementation? How important is it to you to mentor the next generation of software developers?

A: Training less experienced team members to think critically about solution design and implementation, while fostering leadership, is essential for building a resilient and innovative team. As a senior leader, you play a pivotal role in mentoring and shaping the next generation of software developers. I approach this responsibility as follows:

·      Create an environment where team members feel comfortable asking "why," "how," and "what if" questions, and I promote curiosity to uncover root causes, not just symptoms

·      Present real-world problems and ask team members to brainstorm solutions and use "what-if" scenarios to analyse the impact of different approaches

·      Teach systematic problem-solving by dividing complex problems into smaller, manageable parts, and introduce frameworks like cause-and-effect analysis, flowcharts, and decision trees

·      Conduct reviews after projects to analyse what went well, what didn’t, and how processes could improve, and encourage everyone to contribute to identifying lessons learned.

Mentoring the next generation of software developers is critically important to me - not just as a professional obligation, but as a personal and strategic commitment. I believe strongly that it’s about ensuring the growth and sustainability of the industry, fostering innovation, and making a lasting impact.