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A Balancing Act: Managing Oracle Applications

A Balancing Act: Managing Oracle Applications. Scott Dines Oracle Systems Manager scott.dines@boral.com Boral Bricks Inc. History and Current Operations. About Boral Bricks, Inc. Largest Clay Brick Manufacturer in the USA

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A Balancing Act: Managing Oracle Applications

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  1. A Balancing Act: Managing Oracle Applications Scott Dines Oracle Systems Manager scott.dines@boral.com Boral Bricks Inc.

  2. History and Current Operations

  3. About Boral Bricks, Inc. • Largest Clay Brick Manufacturer in the USA • US Headquarters in Atlanta, GA with administrative offices in Augusta, GA • More than doubled in size since 1995 • 21 Plants in 8 states • 50+ Distribution and sales offices in 11 states • 1.5 billion brick sold FY’03; 1.6 billion brick Budget FY ‘04 • 20% Sales Growth from FY ’03 to Budget FY ’04 (Acquired largest customer Feb ’03) • 1700+ Employees

  4. Current Status – Oracle Deployment • Financials Live on Oracle 11i (11.5.7 plus mini-packs) • General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, & Fixed Assets • Oracle Process Manufacturing (11.5.7 plus mini-pack I) • Production Management, Quality, Inventory, Purchasing, & Order Fulfillment • 71 locations across Southern United States • 21 Manufacturing Plants (Mining to Finished Goods) • 50 Distribution and Sales Sites (23 just implemented in 4 months) • Supporting Boral Industries and it’s subsidiaries(Six Organizations with five Sets of Books) Boral Bricks USTILE Boral Material Technologies Inc Boral Bricks Direct Savannah Classic Stone

  5. Server Hardware: HP / UX Wide Area: Fractional T-1 (>=256kb & >8k Cir) 100 GB Data Area Clients: both NC and PC with Windows Terminal Server for Wide Area 30 GB Sales Reporting Data Warehouse 3+ Test, Training & Acceptance Environments Technical Configuration Node CPUSpeed Memory Database 8 750 MHz 16 GB Middle Tier 8 440 MHz 12 GB

  6. Support for Oracle Applications at Boral Bricks • 2 Database & 1 UNIX Administrators • 8 Developers & Applications Support • 2 1/2 Network, Telecommunications and Other Technical Administration • 2 Help Desk Support (Moving to 3 at Help Desk) • 2 Managers ( SD & TS )

  7. Staffing Levels and Oracle Expertise • Staff Devoted to Oracle Support • 9 System Analysts / Developers / Manager • 2 Database Administrators. • Combined working experience of staff • 74 years with Oracle technology • 49 years with Oracle applications • 157 years with information technology

  8. Management Team Active in IT • Standing IT Steering Committee • Consists of VP and Director level • Meets every 6 - 8 weeks. (During large projects meets every 4 weeks) • Goals and Objectives • track status of current projects • identify key issues facing business • keep management team looking forward with respect to technology

  9. Major Milestones for Oracle at Boral(See Handout) • Financials Fast ForwardOracle 10.7 Prod16.1 SC • AP, GL (Nov 97) AR, FA (May 98) • Additional Sets of Books – BMTI & Boral Industries (July 98)USTile (Feb 99) & Savannah Classic Stone (June 02) • Process Manufacturing (Define, Build and Test)(Sept 99 to May 01) • 10.7 to 11.5.3 upgrade(Apr 01) • Process Manufacturing11.5.3(Live May 01 to Dec 01) • Production Management, Formula Management, Quality, Inventory, Order Entry & Shipping, Purchasing, and Costing (Finished Goods only) • 11.5.3 to 11.5.7 (plus mini-packs) upgrade(Nov 02) • Franklin Brick Acquisition 23 additional sites(Apr 03 to Aug 03)

  10. Use of Consultants at Boral Determination, Management, and Results

  11. Our Goal with Consultants • Only engaged for knowledge transfer and business process improvement • Never used to “do the work” • Used to advise and train Boral staff • Paired one-on-one with Boral staff (IT or key User) • Only use when Boral IT and “business” has committed resources to project (people, time, and money)

  12. Consulting versus Internal Staffing • Large projects; Internal Boral Staff moved out of positions and onto project team • Used Consulting to train and guide Boral Project Team • Project management Boral responsibility assisted by consulting group • Example: Process Manufacturing Project we dedicated 7 people full time (2 yrs)

  13. Boral’s Use of Consultants • Fast Forward Financials: Configuration 1st two sets of books on 10.7 (100 days) – Oracle Consulting • Assist in define and build Process Manufacturing 11.0.3 (200 days) – Oracle Consulting • 23 Reports for Process Manufacturing 11.5.3 (45 days) – Sierra Atlantic (Outsourced: India) • Functional Assistance – 10.7 to 11.5.3 (45 days) – Oracle Consulting

  14. Boral’s Use of Consultants • Purchasing Configuration 11.5.3 (45 days) –SBI & Company • OPM Customization work 11.5.3 (80 days) – Sierra Atlantic • 1st Portal Installation (5 days) – Sierra Atlantic • Tuning Work 11.5.3 (5 days) - Oracle Consulting

  15. Other Lessons Learned • Interview, interview, interview • Be quick to fire • Build relationships with one or two key partners, but keep talking to other vendors • Use internal staff for majority of customization work

  16. The Payoff • 11.5.3 Configuration and Go Live for Process completed internally from 11.0.3 consulting work • 11.5.7 Upgrade completed internally • Support of all custom code internal • Knowledge base of staff of custom code, configurations and business allows us to react to changes in business • KEY: Not dependent on any external parties to run your business

  17. Next Steps

  18. Future Projects • 9i Database upgrade • Personal Web Pages for Executive and Line Managers Containing Both KPI and Business Intelligence Data • New Order Management • CRM & E-commerce (Business to Business)

  19. Everyone is looking for the “wow”. But the “wow” factor comes from doing the basic things right, all the time!

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