Executive summary: Strategic modernization of an ERP system

01 Client

The client is a leader in Poland's leasing market, specializing in financing fixed assets for the SME sector and corporate clients.

02 The pressing challenge

The core Egeria ERP system was trapped in outdated Oracle Forms technology, facing high maintenance costs, vendor lock-in, the end of vendor support, and a critical deficit of skilled developers.

03 Pretius's solution

Pretius proposed a modernization approach to migrate the presentation layer to Oracle APEX, a free feature of the Oracle database, while preserving the complex PL/SQL business logic. This was executed using a gradual, data-driven migration strategy, running the new and old systems in parallel.

Quantifiable impact & key achievements:

Financial Savings: Eliminated millions in annual licensing costs by replacing Oracle Forms/WebLogic with the free Oracle APEX platform.
Operational Success: Achieved high user acceptance by implementing key features, including multi-session capability and keyboard shortcuts from the old system.

Stability and Security: Ensured compliance by moving the system to supported technology, eliminating the risk associated with the end of Oracle Forms support.

Client background

One of the leaders in Poland's leasing market.

The company specializes in financing fixed assets, including vehicles, machinery, and equipment, serving both the SME sector and corporate clients. In the face of dynamic changes in the financial sector, characterized by the digitization of processes (so-called digital lending) and growing pressure on operational efficiency, the stability and flexibility of IT systems become a critical strategic resource.

As part of a global financial group, the organization is subject to rigorous security and compliance standards. While the bank's global strategy assumes migration to cloud solutions, local operational realities often require maintaining and modernizing specific domestic systems that handle legal and tax regulations unique to a given market.

The legacy trap: Facing the challenges posed by Egeria and Oracle Forms

The operational heart of the organization was the Egeria ERP system. Implemented years ago, this solution handled key business processes, such as calculation of leasing installments, repayment schedule management, contract settlement and invoicing, and fixed assets management.

From a technical perspective, the Egeria instance used by the company was based on Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports technologies, running on the Oracle WebLogic application server. This was a client-server architecture (launched in a browser via Java applets) that dominated Enterprise systems in the 90s and early 2000s. The system was characterized by immense complexity of business logic embedded in the database layer (PL/SQL) and in the presentation layer itself (Forms Triggers).

Due to these outdated technologies, the client company found itself in a classic technological trap. Egeria was too important to turn off, but too outdated to develop effectively. The main problems included:

Vendor Lock-in: Migrating to the latest version of the Egeria system was very costly, which in practice meant the necessity of a re-implementation.
Maintenance Costs: Maintaining the Oracle Forms and WebLogic environment generated millions in annual costs. This resulted from the necessity of paying for expensive middleware licenses (WebLogic) and non-standard maintenance fees (Extended Support) for technology that was entering its decline phase.

Technological Death Clock: The main motivator for the migration was the ending support window. For a financial institution, operating on unsupported software is unacceptable due to KNF (Polish Financial Supervision Authority) regulations and cybersecurity risks. The lack of security patches for the application layer in a system processing leasing transactions posed an existential risk.
Competence Deficit: The job market for Oracle Forms programmers is shrinking dramatically. Specialists are retiring, and young developers don’t want to learn a dead technology, creating operational risk.

Anatomy of previous failures

Before cooperating with Pretius, the organization made two independent attempts to modernize the Egeria system. Unfortunately, both failed. These initiatives lasted a total of 2-3 years, consuming the organization's financial and time resources without delivering a working product in return.

An analysis of these failures points to several key factors:

A

Lack of defined scope

For a long time, the organization could not determine which system components were actually used. Egeria, as an "off-the-shelf" system with years of modifications, contained thousands of screens and reports, many of which were functionally “dead” code. An attempt to rewrite everything "as is" was doomed to failure due to the sheer volume of work.

B

User resistance

Back office employees were accustomed to the specifics of Oracle Forms: keyboard-only operation, keyboard shortcuts (e.g., F8, F10), and the ability to work on multiple windows simultaneously. Previous attempts to implement web interfaces likely ignored these habits, offering a modern but slower-to-use interface (requiring mouse usage), which met with a veto from business users.

The Solution: A modernization instead of a revolution

In the face of these challenges, the client decided to cooperate with Pretius, a certified Oracle Partner that employs several experts with Oracle ACE titles. The proposed solution was not a system replacement, but a modernization through the migration of the presentation layer to Oracle APEX, while maintaining business logic in the database.

Why Oracle APEX?

The choice of Oracle APEX was dictated by economic and technological pragmatism:

Database-centric architecture

Both Oracle Forms and APEX natively use PL/SQL. This allowed for the preservation of a huge part of the business logic (calculation procedures, validations) residing in the database. The team did not have to rewrite complicated leasing mathematics into Java or .NET, drastically reducing the risk of errors.

License cost (TCO)

Oracle APEX is a free feature of the Oracle database. Since the client already held licenses for the database, the license cost for the new platform was zero. The necessity of paying for an expensive WebLogic server was also eliminated, resulting in additional savings.

Rapid low-code development

In the right hands, APEX allows for building applications 10-20 times faster than traditional methods, which was crucial for making up for lost time.

Migration strategy: Gradual change

To avoid the "phantom scope" error from previous attempts, Pretius applied a Data-Driven Scoping approach.

01

Usage technology audit

Mechanisms logging user activity in the old Forms system were implemented, and information was collected for six months.

02

Results analysis

The audit showed that out of thousands of available forms, users actively use only a fraction of the system. This allowed for a precise definition of the migration scope (so-called "critical path"), eliminating the need to migrate dead code. This approach significantly reduced the scope of work and project risk.

03

Gradual migration

Instead of a risky "Big Bang" approach (turning off the old system and turning on the new one over one weekend), an evolutionary strategy was applied. The new APEX system and the old Forms system operated in parallel on the same database. Users could gradually switch to new screens. If a module in APEX caused problems, they could return to Forms, ensuring business continuity.

04

Discipline and cyclical demos

A rigorous schedule and two-week sprints were introduced. Every two weeks, meetings with the business stakeholders were organized to present progress. This allowed for an ongoing collection of additional insightsand building trust. Users saw that their comments were being implemented, which broke down initial resistance.

Biggest challenges: The multi-session conundrum and respect for old habits

The biggest technical and UX challenge was the so-called multi-session capability.

Problem

In Oracle Forms (desktop application/applet), a user could open 5 windows with different leasing contracts, and each window held its independent session state. In web applications (like APEX), the session is typically assigned to the browser (session cookie). Opening a new tab in the browser within the same application shares the session. If a user changed client data in Tab A, then switched to Tab B and saved the form, they could overwrite data from Tab A in the context of Tab B.

Solution

The Pretius team developed a custom session management mechanism in APEX to isolate the state of each tab. Thanks to this, users could safely work on multiple contracts simultaneously in different browser tabs, which was a sine qua non condition for business acceptance of the system.

Another problem was overcoming the client team’s resistance to change.

Due to this, the project was carried out in a unique co-creation model, with Pretius developers and experts cooperating directly with the bank’s internal team. This facilitated knowledge transfer and helped shape the final solution correctly. For example, instead of imposing a "modern" design that requires many clicks, the team created a hybrid interface.

Keyboard support: Support for keyboard shortcuts known from Forms (e.g., F10 to commit, arrows to navigate the grid) was implemented.
High data density: A form layout allowing for quick insight into a large amount of data without scrolling was preserved, which is crucial for operational work efficiency.

Measured outcomes and business impact

The project ended in success and created real, measurable value in several dimensions, including financial and operational.

Financial savings

Elimination of Licensing Costs: Replacing Oracle Forms/WebLogic with APEX (free within the DB) allowed for avoiding costs counted in millions of zlotys annually.
Vendor Upgrade Avoidance: The company did not have to spend money on migrating to a new version of Egeria from the manufacturer, but still maintained full functionality of its customized system.

Operational success and UX

User acceptance: Thanks to the implementation of multi-session support and keyboard shortcuts, the system gradually won over the most demanding power-users.
Business continuity: Preserving the PL/SQL backend guaranteed that key financial algorithms (interest calculation, schedules) remained unchanged and error-free. The risk of calculation errors during migration was reduced to zero.

Stability and security

Compliance: The system was moved to supported technology, eliminating the risk associated with the end of support for Oracle Forms in the coming years.
Modern Architecture: The application became available via a browser, facilitating remote work and computer fleet management.

Strategic system modernization and Oracle Forms to APEX migration for a banking sector's leader

Company

Country

Industry

System

Executive summary: Strategic modernization of an ERP system

01

Client

02

The pressing challenge

03

Pretius's solution