Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

Overview

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) is the local authority serving the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands, England. As one of seven metropolitan district councils in the region, SMBC provides a wide range of vital local services.

An established Oracle customer, SMBC had long used Oracle E-Business Suite. To modernise operations, streamline reporting, and future-proof their systems, the council decided to migrate to Oracle Cloud (Fusion) Applications.

The Challenge

As part of its transformation, SMBC wanted to empower business users across Finance and HCM to create and manage their own reports and dashboards—reducing reliance on the IT department.

The challenges included:

• A mixed-ability cohort of learners, ranging from very experienced to complete beginners.

• A transition of responsibilities from IT to business teams, requiring confidence and practical skills in building and maintaining reports.

• Training running in parallel with data migration activities, making it harder to create and validate training assets while ensuring dashboards populated correctly.

Our Approach

Following consultation with SMBC’s project sponsors, Fudgelearn designed and delivered a blended training and mentoring programme:

1. Initial Familiarisation – Hands-on introduction to Oracle Cloud ERP and HCM, exploring data sets and key reporting requirements.

2. Structured Training Delivery – Sessions spread over time to allow learners to absorb knowledge at a manageable pace.

3. Real Data Context – Using SMBC’s data during training made reports and dashboards directly relevant, ensuring outcomes were practical and clear.

4. Post-Training Mentoring – A dedicated Fudgelearn trainer ran follow-up mentoring sessions, embedding knowledge and answering learner questions.

Training covered:

• BIP (Business Intelligence Publisher) – Finance & HCM

• OTBI (Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence) – Finance & HCM

• FRS (Financial Reporting Centre) & SmartView

Benefits

The tailored training programme brought significant benefits:

• Empowered Business Users – Teams can now build their own reports and dashboards, reducing reliance on IT.

• Faster Decision-Making – Business users can create timely analysis, supporting better-informed decisions.

• Freed-up IT Resources – The IT department can now focus on strategic initiatives rather than routine reporting tasks.

• Collaborative Learning Culture – Training together built peer support, enabling colleagues to help each other beyond the formal sessions.

As a result, SMBC has developed confident, self-sufficient reporting teams who can generate valuable insights for the organisation.