Making a difference with Oracle Academy
Hilda E. Carrillo and Patrick Johnson
The spotlight is on Dr. Hilda E. Carrillo, University of Louisville, United States and Patrick Johnson, Oasis Solutions, United States.
University of Louisville (UofL) in Kentucky was founded in 1798 as one of the nation’s first city-owned, public universities. Today, it is home to 23,000 students, 6,900 faculty and staff, 12 schools and colleges, and several research centers. In the College of Business, 1,800 students are offered both on-campus and online courses in a dozen disciplines. The Master of Accountancy Program consists of nine core courses, including financial accounting, managerial accounting, taxation, accounting information systems, and auditing.
Dr. Carrillo is an Assistant Professor in the School of Accountancy. She earned a PhD from the University of South Florida, an MBA from the University of Dayton, and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Prior to entering academia, she worked as a CPA for both public and private industry clients. She also worked as a corporate accountant for a Fortune 500 company.
She teaches Introduction to Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and collaborates with Patrick Johnson, Chief Operating Officer and partner at Louisville-headquartered Oasis Solutions, to develop a comprehensive curriculum that includes Oracle NetSuite ERP simulation cases. This innovative project provides students with hands-on experience in NetSuite and real-world scenarios from a locally-based leading firm. NetSuite, an industry-leading, cloud-based business management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, equips students with practical skills in accounting, financial management, and ERP. Exposing students to experienced industry leaders help build their knowledge with real-world business scenarios, preparing them to navigate the modern business world and accounting systems with confidence.
Oasis Solutions, which supports hundreds of clients nationwide, brings unique expertise and a strong investment to the initiative. With this collaboration of university, business, and Oracle Academy, Carrillo and Johnson are creating a compelling synergy that prepares students for a variety of high-potential career paths, intersecting technology and accounting.
Oracle Academy: Why did you pick NetSuite for teaching your Accounting Information Systems class?
Hilda Carrillo: I was introduced to the educational potential of NetSuite through Oracle Academy during my time at the University of South Florida (USF). While I was already familiar with the system from my professional experience, USF’s membership in Oracle Academy provided unlimited access to NetSuite for teaching and learning in the accountancy program. As part of my doctoral training, I taught classes in Accounting Information Systems (AIS), which deepened my understanding of the value Oracle Academy and NetSuite bring to education.
So, when I started working at UofL, one of my first questions was: Are we an Oracle Academy member? If not, why not? From my experience at USF, which is renowned for the strength of its AIS program, I knew the value of NetSuite skills in driving career placement success. Many students with NetSuite expertise secure great positions while others find excellent opportunities due to their strong foundation in the system.
I advocated for UofL to join Oracle Academy to gain access to NetSuite and to ensure students are job-ready. It wasn’t difficult to persuade the administration, especially since the software is offered free of charge!
Oracle Academy: How do you use NetSuite in the Accounting Information Systems classes?
Hilda Carrillo: My goal for AIS is to go beyond accounting, encouraging students to think critically about how other parts of an ERP system connect with accounting and ultimately impact the bottom line.
The NetSuite curriculum assets and software accounts we access free through Oracle Academy are invaluable for teaching transaction input, processing, reporting, and data analytics. I introduce the principal transaction cycles week by week, starting with the Order-to-Cash cycle, exposing students to things like customer orders coming in, old orders now ready for shipping and how to invoice those, and pulling reports to see which customers haven’t paid yet. Then I move to Procure-to-Pay, where students learn realities such as identifying what goods are needed, who typically provides them, is there a preferred vendor and if so, why? We go through the many intricacies of these cycles and end by tackling reporting — putting financial statements together and reviewing insights the data is giving us.
Over four weeks, we cover the theory behind each transaction cycle and apply it in a multi-week ERP simulation that highlights how accounting transactions integrate with and are influenced by other organizational business flows. NetSuite is an excellent system for this, with real-world scenarios that bridge the gap between theory and practice — my top priority.
I’m also exploring ways to create a seamless experience in NetSuite that spans multiple courses, allowing students to move from accounting to auditing while maintaining continuity in their learning. Additionally, we’ve started discussions with Oasis Solutions to create a more in-depth student experience where accountancy and technology intersect. Patrick Johnson recently spoke to our students about nontraditional career paths for accountants, and I’ll leave it to him to elaborate on that approach.
Patrick Johnson: Oasis’ relationship with the UofL Business School, specifically with Hilda and the School of Accountancy, has been collaborative since day one. We’ve come up with something with strong mutual benefit. We typically tend to think of accountant career paths in terms of being a tax accountant, auditor, analyst, or some other role along the lines of the typical CPA profile. But there is this whole other career path to consider. Companies are more and more interested in hiring graduates who are knowledgeable about and potentially experienced with ERP systems such as NetSuite, in addition to their accounting education. Oasis is interested in students with these attributes as well... to the extent that we’ve formed Oasis University, an internal initiative charged with curating and implementing training curriculum designed to accelerate the development of talented individuals entering the ERP space. These could be students right out of school, or even someone with an established career wanting to make a change.
In last week’s class meeting, I shared with the students the foundational element of any business system: data. I talked about how a data set is built and accumulated, why it is important, and how it supports records, transactions, and decisions. I outlined the role of relational databases in knitting together all the components of an ERP platform: financials, HR, CRM, supply chain, manufacturing, and so on. The fidelity of data and ultimately, the financial reporting, has little value without attention to accurate data capture, organization, and reporting. This all supports the idea that an ERP system should provide the “single source of truth” for businesses.
I think Dr. Carrillo’s strategy is really important, especially with the continued development of artificial intelligence in the ERP space. There is a definite convergence of technology and accounting happening. The toolsets are getting more and more robust, and people’s understanding of them and ability to leverage them is going to be increasingly important. I think it’s a cool and valuable trajectory.
Hilda Carrillo: Having Patrick share his insights was invaluable. He talked about his journey to becoming COO and the role of a consultant, which was inspiring not just for me, but also for my colleagues and students — both in the classroom and those attending remotely. His presentation sparked excitement, with more students showing interest in career paths that combine technology and accounting rather than sticking to traditional routes. That was the key takeaway.
From my own experience, I understand the importance of seeing the whole picture, not just the individual parts. One example I share with my students as a case study is my involvement in an ERP upgrade. While I wasn’t an IT expert, my accounting expertise filled a critical gap the IT team couldn’t address. I helped ensure that the system components ultimately aligned with and impacted the financial statements accurately. That kind of connection is often hard for IT professionals to fully grasp without an accounting background.
Oracle Academy: Talking of intersections, how do you both define the value proposition in your partnership?
Hilda Carrillo: For the School of Accountancy at UofL, having access to experts from Oasis is super beneficial. We want our students to have successful careers based on their NetSuite skills. The insights Oasis brings through brainstorming, guest lectures, student interactions, and potential subsequent internships benefits faculty and helps students become job ready. In addition, what Oasis brings to the table connects to my goal of creating what’s called IT mindfulness: Where technology users, accountants in our case, focus on the present, pay attention to detail, and express a genuine interest in investigating IT features. They can agilely adjust to a new system or an upgrade, and therefore bring a lot more value to the companies that hire them.
Patrick Johnson: And for Oasis, we can offer potential employment options to graduates and coach them in the multi-threaded profession of consulting in our space. Oasis University can teach them consulting fundamentals, like instilling confidence during an engagement and building trust, and how to organize tasks, set expectations, and handle change management. They will learn how to confidently explain how a NetSuite transaction’s GL underpinnings affect the General Ledger and related Sub Ledgers. That is just the beginning.
The UofL’s use of NetSuite also benefits the NetSuite ecosystem, with Oasis promoting and selling NetSuite into a market where there are more and more people knowledgeable about it and skilled in it. Oasis started with NetSuite in 2012 and we still find it to be a first-rate and innovative application, with an always-expanding feature set. It is the right solution for our customers.
Oracle Academy: So, it’s a win-win match…
Hilda Carrillo: And we’re just at the beginning. My ultimate goal is to develop a brand-new course where the School of Accountancy would partner with organizations like Oasis and work hand in hand on, for instance, a systems implementation, an upgrade, or a consulting engagement. This could be a semester-long learning experience in which we split the class into groups, each of which work on a project with Oasis. Oasis sets the tasks, and at the end of the semester we would invite the C-level folks from Oasis and other interested parties to an event where the student groups present their findings and recommendations. This would give students front line experience.
Oracle Academy: And what are your thoughts on that, Patrick?
Patrick Johnson: I think it’s fantastic. One thing we considered, in terms of structured training — why not encourage students to gain NetSuite industry certification through the appropriate channels, while at the university? A student entering the job market, with the ability to say, "I've graduated with a degree in accounting from the UofL business school and I have earned a NetSuite professional certification" could be quite powerful!
Ultimately, we are joining together to broaden the experience of our students and help them enter the workforce more easily with an advantage, and to bring value to the marketplace.
Oracle Academy: Any final words on Oracle Academy, which would seem to be the lynchpin in this partnership?
Hilda Carrillo: Oracle Academy membership really has allowed so many instructors to bring real-world tools and experience into teaching. Otherwise, you’re left with a bunch of theory, and you don’t know what to do with it. As someone who has been in the industry before, as a CPA, that is the biggest value proposition. So, because of Oracle Academy and NetSuite for my Accounting Information Systems class, I can confidently say that my students will have seen an ERP system, have experience in it, and will not be like a deer in the headlights on their first day at work. That for me is a huge win.
Patrick Johnson: We feel the same. Practical experience has to follow theoretical education to become ingrained, useful and valuable. We see that in our internal development but also when training clients in a new system. NetSuite makes this easy.
Finding practical experiences related to instruction is an ongoing theme in higher education. From that perspective, as an ally and resource to UofL, Oasis Solutions is proud to contribute in any way we can. We are committed to building a business-savvy workforce.
Oracle Academy: It sounds terrific. Tell me, what are your interests outside of the teaching or consulting sphere?
Hilda Carrillo: Right now, I’m in an interesting phase of life as my husband adapts to the retired life after serving 22 years in the US Air Force, and my son is graduating from high school. We’re navigating the changes!
Apart from that, I love dancing, I love music, love karaoke too. There is a full setup at home: lights, speakers, microphones. Any music with rhythm, with beat, especially soul music, gets my body moving.
Patrick Johnson: I’m the same with music and have deep interests in rock, jazz, hip hop, soul and R&B. I play a couple of instruments and have fun jamming on bass guitar with friends. Sports wise, I used to coach American football, and now I practice and train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Otherwise, I chase my 14-year-old son around to his sporting events and practices. I treasure time with my beautiful wife, and love hanging out with family and friends. Life outside of work is awesome!
Thank you, Dr. Hilda Carrillo and Patrick Johnson, for your passion for Oracle Academy and for preparing students to make a positive impact.