Maximize a 24 X 7 Shared Services Global Operation With Oracle E-Business Suite
1 like693 views
Eprentise, led by CEO Helene Abrams, discusses optimizing global operations through the Oracle E-Business Suite, emphasizing benefits like cost reduction, process standardization, and risk management. The document outlines key strategies and lessons learned in scaling operations globally, focusing on the importance of a single instance ERP system, standardized business processes, and governance. It also highlights the use of technology and training for successful globalization in finance and shared services.
Maximize a 24 X 7 Shared Services Global Operation With Oracle E-Business Suite
- 1. Session ID: Prepared by: Maximize a 24 X 7 Shared Services Global Operation With Oracle E-Business Suite #10488 @eprentise Helene Abrams CEO eprentise, LLC
- 2. 2 eprentise Can… …So Our Customers Can: Consolidate Multiple EBS Instances Change Underlying Structures and Configurations Chart of Accounts, Other Flexfields Inventory Organizations Operating Groups, Legal Entities, Ledgers Calendars Costing Methods Resolve Duplicates, Change Sequences, IDs Separate Data for a Divestiture : Transformation Software for E-Business Suite Reduce Operating Costs and Increase Efficiencies Shared Services Data Centers Adapt to Change Align with New Business Initiatives Mergers, Acquisitions, Divestitures Pattern-Based Strategies • Make ERP an Adaptive Technology Avoid a Reimplementation Reduce Complexity and Control Risk Improve Business Continuity, Service Quality and Compliance Establish Data Quality Standards and a Single Source of Truth Company Overview: Established 2007 l Helene Abrams, CEO
- 3. Learning Objectives After this session you will be able to: Objective 1: Explain the mechanics of running a single global instance of Oracle E-Business Suite. Objective 2: Detail the common business processes and how they are implemented. Objective 3: Explain how a global company can apply patches and perform maintenance in a very short cutover window. 3
- 4. Agenda Introduction Globalization Processing • Incentives and Drivers for Corporate Globalization • Challenges Around People, Process, and Technology in a Globalized Environment • Advantages of Single-Instance-Single-COA Globalization Best of Breed – A Case Study on Experian • Global Finance Transformation • Supporting Change with a Global Instance of EBS • Experian’s People, Process, and Technology • Pain Points, Mitigation, and Lessons Learned 4
- 5. Information Systems in a Growing Company • Information (data) follows the fundamental law of entropy • An organization’s complex IT systems like E- Business Suite (EBS) become more complex as a company grows • Companies evolve • The larger the organization, the more likely it is for operational or reporting errors to cause major problems due to a lack of alignment between ERP systems and business process changes that have occurred. 5
- 6. The Problems • Common business functions develop different processes due to heavy corporate growth – Generally due to lack of governance policies and procedures or poor administration of them – Redundant processes and data have high costs in terms of both time and additional people resources – When a company strategically eliminates redundant processes and data, their use of redundant hardware diminishes, the quality and timeliness of business information improves, and its people are able to collaborate in a more streamlined manner • IT has a significant impact on the bottom line because operating, maintaining, and synchronizing an array of E-Business Suite instances, charts of accounts, calendars, and other configuration items is time-consuming, expensive, and error-prone 6
- 7. Global Scaling And Evolution Incentives and drivers for getting to a single, global instance
- 8. Incentives & Drivers of Global Operations • Consolidate repetitive data-centric processes to support migration to a shared services center or a centralized data center • Generate financial reports directly from the system of record • Reduce operating and maintenance costs to improve the bottom line • Create a single source of truth to improve business processes and business intelligence • Enable revenue optimization whenever and wherever possible to improve the top line • Capitalize on enterprise-wide synergies to leverage purchasing and to better understand customers • Obtain access to new markets and the opportunity to scale the business 8
- 9. Business Process Standardization Key components to successfully managing change on a global scale 9
- 10. Governance • Effective management of shared enterprise assets is necessary for an effective global strategy – Collaboration – Implementation of effective controls • Idea of the “benevolent dictatorship” 1) There can be no wavering about where the finish line is placed (a single global instance) 2) Anything less than success or short of completion is not acceptable (no special exceptions) 3) Obstructionism is not tolerated 10
- 11. Training and Communication • Effective globalization training has to take a more personalized approach that seeks buy-in along with providing information – New skills – New processes – New functionality – New regulations • A training manual alone is not enough to be effective 11
- 12. Process Standardization The backbone of a globalization effort is the understanding that business processes are intrinsically linked and not confined to departmental, geographic, or organizational boundaries. • Shared services center as a way to standardize on common “global” processes such as: – Corporate treasury – Invoice processing – Receivables processing – Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance – Account maintenance – Corporate reporting – Expense processing – HR maintenance Costa Mesa Kolkata Nottingham São Paulo 12
- 13. Building a Globalization Strategy • Achieving a global EBS platform relies on: – An ability to access quality information – Recognizing the role of technology in the successful integration of the enterprise – Laying the groundwork for different parts of the business to become integrated with core business processes and decision-making. • Though IT is core to enabling a global ERP, it is the human component – leadership, communication, and governance – that drives its success and delivers results. 13
- 14. Experian Globalization Process Operating Principles of Experian’s Global Financial Shared Services Center (GSSC) • Standard processes and controls will be implemented across the globe • Processes will be consolidated where possible • Local legal requirements will be incorporated to all processes • SSC should undertake as much processing work as possible • Financial models should include the cost of Oracle software and the cost of migrating to the SSC 14
- 15. Experian’s Shared Services Strategy • Reduce costs and improve efficiency – Leveraged low cost locations and standardized on global business processes – Eliminated redundant efforts that were common when many corporate procedures such as month-end close and expense reimbursement were regionalized • Create additional capacity for growth – Reduced operational complexity – Opportunity to capitalize on Experian’s connection to a diminished number of entities (financial institutions, bank accounts, vendors, etc.) – Made the roll out of global process automation a realistic opportunity 15
- 16. • Global coverage of some processes only (AP, Travel expenses etc) • Opportunities to take on similar activities in other countries / regions • Regional delivery of all processes • Opportunities to centralise key processes globally • Scope currently limited to “traditional” routine transaction processing activities • Opportunity to take on additional more complex activities Experian – Global Finance Shared Services Finance Process Kuala Lumpur Nottingham Santiago Accounts payable and travel expenses Accounts receivable and credit collections excl. Norway Costa Mesa General ledger In-country UK only Payroll outsourced UK only Costa Mesa Billing some UK/I Business units Fixed assets and depreciation Intercompany processing and reconciliation Cash management / bank reconciliations Costa Mesa Current Transaction Processing Scope 16
- 17. Experian – Global HCM Services HCM Process Costa Mesa (Americas) Nottingham (UK / EMEA) Other Core Human Resources Employee Self Service OTL UK only Payroll NA Only UK only Outsourced Compensation Work Bench NA Adv Benefits Outsourced Talent Acquisition NA Current Transaction Processing Scope • Global coverage of some processes only (Core HR and Self Service) • Opportunities to take on similar activities in other countries / regions • Regional delivery of all processes • Resources aligned to regional headquarter offices 17
- 18. Technology • Four main technology issues surrounding globalization: – Availability – Access/Security – Performance – Functionality • E-Business Suite Release 12 is designed to support a global enterprise within a single instance, and it has several features that enable sharing of data and facilitate the globalization effort. 18
- 19. A Single, Global Instance • A single global instance means: – Higher volumes – Longer batch processing time windows – More network traffic – Longer backup cycles – Longer test cycles • BUT, having several instances and systems multiplies the cost (licenses, hardware, staff) and introduces a different complexity in reconciling and synthesizing corporate information. Substantial infrastructure expenditures 19
- 20. A Single, Global Chart of Accounts • R12 includes major advances in its accounting engine – Single engine manages all posting activities into GL – Subledger accounting • Other new features provide extended functionality, making it simpler to perform financial consolidation as well as to remain in compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements – Primary and Secondary ledgers – Ledger sets • A single chart of accounts enables companies to take full advantage of these new R12 features. Accounting policies are standardized across the entire enterprise Data remains consistent and has full drill-down and roll-up capability, auditability, and visibility into all of the activity for the entire ledger set Conversions not required for data warehouse queries Facilitates the movement to a shared service center Increases the level of enterprise governance and control of new code combinations 20
- 21. Technology - Availability • Prearranged level of operational performance during a period of time – Service level agreement or “three nines”/”five nines” – To a user, it means the ability of the user community to access the system – Scheduled vs. Unscheduled downtime • Maintenance • Patches, configuration changes, etc. (reboot required) • Hardware/software failure • Environment anomaly 22
- 22. Experian – Three Types of Availability • Support – Break-fix and statutory/critical patches to EBS – 3-tier service level agreement (SLA) • Each tier corresponds to the estimated amount of resources and time required to resolve issue • Pre-determined acceptable amount of scheduled downtime • Change request – Simple change • Requires less than ten support days to implement (e.g. minor functionality modifications) • Included as part of existing SLA, regression testing not required – Planned change • Requires more than ten days (e.g. major development, acquisitions, projects, upgrades, etc.) • Release management – Regular updates to system – Large portion of planned downtime • Better control of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and Regression Test Bed (RTB) cycles to enhance quality and reliability of releases • Optimal use of environment and DBA resources – close coordination with DBA and infrastructure teams • Central coordination of release and environment management activities to improve process efficiency 23
- 23. Technology, Continued • Access/security – Governance and processes • Performance – Higher volumes and processing time windows • Functionality – EBS • Ledgers, ledger sets, MOAC, accounting engine 24
- 24. Experian Technology Issues / Pain Points Issues Faced Mitigations Availability / Support Maintaining 24x7 uptime Global Agreement made to “Planned” hours of operations and set hours for outages Substantive PRODUCTION and DR infrastructure housed / maintained in data centers Global Support / Help Desk Presence (24x7 support) Co-Located regional support teams in major regional centers Follow the sun; Multi-Shore support locations (Americas / Europe / India) Single Global Incident tracking system (USD) Performance: Concurrent Request Monitoring Centralized recurring jobs (interfaces/reports etc…) to a standardized CONCJOB user –monitored by Global Support Support is best qualified to manage ConcMgr usage, capacity, and job conflicts Distribute business critical assignments to key business user Made the business accountable for Goal is to move all to defined Monitoring group, use automated monitoring tool 25
- 25. Experian Technology Issues / Pain Points Issues Faced Mitigations Access / Security Configuration Access: Conflicts occur on what is an “allowable” system change vs. what types may be intrusive, and who can implement Changed evaluated between GPO / SME’s, prioritized and characterized. Potential intrusive change requires UAT and Regression Testing activity (include SM signoff) Created defined EBS “SuperUser” responsibilities for targeted deployment EBS Applications Responsibility Growth (A runaway train): Combination of 30+ countries, 4 languages, and 5 major business threads This is still a Work in Progress Assigned GPO and SME resources to subject areas Leveraging Oracle GRC functionality to identify potential responsibility candidates Retrofitting / consolidating responsibilities based on SCC use or general user designation 26
- 26. Globalization Best-of-breed A Case Study on Global Finance Transformation and Operations at Experian
- 27. Experian – Global Finance Transformation • Single Global Instance of Oracle EBS R12 • Global Chart of Accounts • Standard Finance Processes • Global Finance Shared Services Organisation • Three regional Finance Shared Service Centres • Global Hyperion EPM & OBIEE fully integrated with EBS • Global Finance Center of Excellence (COE) Project Gemstone Goals 28
- 28. Experian – Global Finance Transformation 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 US UK France Ireland Oracle R12 Spain Hong Kong Ireland Australia N.Zealand* Italy Denmark Norway Sweden* Finland* Estonia* India France Japan China Korea Malaysia Singapore US UK S.Africa Russia* Morocco* Netherlands Germany Austria N.Zealand** Sweden** Estonia** Bulgaria Greece Monaco Belgium Brazil Mexico Argentina Turkey UK Instance - Oracle 11i US Instance - Oracle 11i Oracle 11i "UNIFY" Instance Single Global Instance Oracle R12.0.6 US & UK migrated to "UNIFY" instance * GL Module Only ** Additional modules Canada Chile Costa Rica Gemstone Start Gemstone Go-live • 3 EBS instances converged into a Single Global Instance • Global COA / Processes • Regional Shared Service Centers processing • Ongoing global roll out 29
- 29. Experian – Global Finance Transformation Core Financials Other HR & Payroll Purchasing Order Management HRMS I-Procurement Advanced Pricing Self Service HR Payables Service Contracts Passive Payroll Receivables Project Billing Payroll Advanced Collections Time & Labour Advanced Benefits General Ledger AME Absence Management Fixed Assets BRM Billing * I-Recruitment Cash Management Oracle GRC AGIS I-Expenses Note: Not all modules used by all countries Oracle EBS – Modules implemented and planned * 30
- 30. Experian – Global Finance Transformation EPM OBIEE Planned Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) General Ledger Analytics Workforce Planning Hyperion Essbase Payables Analytics CapEx Planning Hyperion Planning Receivables Analytics OBIEE Dashboards Data Relationship Management (DRM) Procurement and Spend Analytics (Purchasing, Requisitions, Internet Expenes) Noetix Financial Data Quality Management (FDQM) Supplier Performance Analytics(Purchasing, AP) Hyperion Shared Services Financial Reporting Studio Smartview Workspace EPM/OBIEE – Modules implemented and planned 31
- 31. GCS Support – Then and Now (an Iterative Process) 3 Regional EBS instances. Two located in UK, one located in USA. 2 Regional support areas Functional / Development teams in each location Break fix team in each location Different support models in place Knowledge base decentralized 3 different EBS infrastructure footprints Duplicated DBA teams Strategy and Support leadership silo’d and duplicated Consolidation project to move from 3 EBS to single global instance, infrastructure located in UK Outsourced Break/Fix support to support partner (TCS) Experian Development FTE’s reduced Support presence included 3rd shore (offshore center in Kolkata, India).of support to a 24x7 model Support management centralized, global incident system implemented Built out EBS Regression Test Bed platform Began formal Release Mgmt process to include instance and DBA resource utilization management Outsourced Support Model transitions to Service Level Agreement (SLA) basis Formal Change Process put into effect – simple change < 10 days, Planned change > 10 days Release Management process furthered Instance refresh policy established Configuration Mgmt process furthered, began use of automation tool (i- setup) EBS Support (Prior to Gemstone) EBS Support (Gemstone Go Live) EBS Support / Strategy (Gemstone 2yrs old) 32
- 32. Global Instance: Business / GCS Interaction Experian Finance COE GPO’s, Finance Process , Acctg Data Governance Experian Business Finance and HR Experian Global HRIS GPO’s, HCM Processes, HR Data Governance GCS SMEs aligned with Business Partners Break / Fix, Statutory or RUPs Small Change ( <10 days effort) Tactical/Strategic Planned Change (Projects >10 day) Flex Delivery Team Release Mgmt Support Corporate Systems Release Cycles Projectized work Regression Testing Incidents Prioritization and Requirement 33
- 33. CR Management Process Business Users Send the CR details to GPO Impact Assessment by SME/Proj Team Effort Approved & Prioritized by GPOs Delivered by SM team (Effort < 10 PD) End GPO raise Change Request in USD Delivered by Project team (Effort > 10 PD) Effort < 10 PD Y N 34
- 34. Process Collaboration – How Do We Work Together? Process Collaboration Matrix Business Partners Global Corporate Systems Business Process Process Owner Process Sponsor GCS Process Partner / SME GCS Technology Partner BusinessIntelligence: DataIntegration/MasterData Management/Middleware: DataWarehouse/DataDesignAuthority: Order to Invoice NA: TBD NA: TBD GCS SME LATAM: TBD LATAM: TBD GCS SME UK&I / EMEA: TBD UK&I / EMEA: TBD GCS SME APAC: TBD APAC: TBD GCS SME Invoice to Cash TBD TBD GCS SME Recruit to Retire NA: TBD TBD GCS SME LATAM: TBD TBD GCS SME UK&I / EMEA: TBD TBD GCS SME APAC: TBD TBD GCS SME Purchase to Pay TBD TBD GCS SME Record to Report TBD TBD GCS SME GRC TBD TBD GCS SME Enterprise Performance Management TBD TBD TBD 35
- 36. THANK YOU Helene Abrams CEO [email protected] eprentise, LLC www.eprentise.com Accelerating the time for change in Oracle E-Business Suite Visit eprentise at booth 1423! 37
- 37. Please complete the session evaluation. Session #10488 We appreciate your feedback and insight. You may complete the session evaluation form on your COLLABORATE 16 agenda builder and networking app!