Cloud Software Group cuts license costs by 40% with Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications

Cloud Software Group (CSG) is a private-equity-backed holding company of six enterprise software companies, formed in 2022 after the merger of industry stalwarts Citrix and TIBCO. At the time, CSG inherited 20 years of legacy systems, including multiple Salesforce applications and outdated ERP and supply chain systems. Data silos and manual processes hampered the company’s growth. CSG decided to standardize on Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications across its entire portfolio of companies—which also includes Information Builders, Spotfire, Jaspersoft, and most recently Arctera—using a shared services model. With Oracle, CSG was able to cut its own software licensing costs by 40%, eliminate duplicate customer records, and automate invoice processing, helping it reduce outstanding receivables from $1.3 billion to under $100 million. CSG can now onboard newly acquired companies in three months versus the previous year-long process, accelerating its growth-through-acquisition strategy.

“Oracle gave us the leverage to really view data in a very unified fashion,” said Saikat Pattadar, CIO, Cloud Software Group.

Following CSG’s formation, the disparate legacy business systems it inherited created operational inefficiencies and manual processes. It’s highly customized legacy systems required dedicated IT resources, making upgrades expensive. On top of that, it was difficult to share data across the company. Outstanding accounts receivable and duplicate invoices caused supplier relationship issues.

CSG replaced those systems with an integrated suite of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications: Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),  Enterprise Performance Management (EPM),  Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Customer Experience (CX), the latter including sales, CPQ, and subscription management applications. The company valued Oracle’s unified data model, which provides end-to-end visibility across processes and supports company-wide decision-making. Fusion Applications’ embedded AI capabilities, such as Intelligent Document Recognition for procurement and advanced collections functionality, were also key in its decision. By consolidating its main business applications onto one cloud platform, CSG aims to reduce costs and create a more cohesive operating environment to facilitate cross-selling and upselling.

With its move to the Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications suite, CSG established a shared services model, where all business units use identical processes for quote-to-cash, financial reporting, subscription management, and other functions. This standardization created a reusable template that accelerates the integration of newly acquired companies. For example, CSG says it expects to onboard its recent Arctera (formerly Veritas Technologies) acquisition in just three months, compared to at least a year under the previous environment. The integrated Fusion Applications stack also gives a unified view of customer, employee, and supplier data across business units, helping CSG further execute the shared services model. And by reducing its footprint of customized applications from 50% to less than 5%, the Fusion Applications implementation helped CSG reduce its technical debt.

The Oracle CPQ modules, combined with AI-powered features, such as Intelligent Document Recognition in procurement and accounts receivable processes, eliminated the manual work of spend classification and the duplicate data issues that previously plagued supplier and customer management and invoice processing. Using Oracle's advanced collections module alongside AI-automated invoice processing also automatically resolved invoice-to-purchase order mismatch issues. The combination helped reduce CSG's outstanding receivables by more than $1.2 billion. That automation also improved supplier relationships by helping ensure on-time payments to vendors and creating a cleaner, more efficient supplier ecosystem overall. CSG is also using embedded generative AI features in Oracle CX for account and contact summaries.

Bringing together billing and revenue recognition on the same platform has improved visibility into CSG’s entire revenue cycle. It allows the company to track whether a customer has paid and started using a product and how the customer’s payment schedule aligns with its usage and CSG’s revenue recognition timeline. Revenue can be recognized only when customers actually use the product, while cash collection timing varies based on contract terms. Some customers pay upfront but use products later, creating deferred revenue, while others start using products before payment is due. With Oracle's end-to-end revenue management and billing solution, CSG no longer has to reconcile this data from disparate systems and can now track these timing differences more effectively. This has significantly reduced the manual effort required for reconciliation and improved the accuracy of CSG’s financial reporting.

Oracle Subscription Management integrates with the company’s quote-to-cash process. Once a quote is generated through the Oracle CPQ application, the system handles fulfillment, license rights and access, and ongoing subscription processes using the same approach, regardless of which CSG business unit the customer is buying from. CSG’s use of Oracle Cloud EPM Financial Consolidation and Close supports the company’s private equity holding company model by enabling clean financial reporting at the business unit level.

Cloud Software Group’s six main enterprise software brands help organizations worldwide improve collaboration and store, manage, analyze, and report data.

Learn more about Cloud Software Group