Consulting Oracle Business Applications Utilities
January 2014
Bold, aggressive aggressive ERP transformation positions a utility utility for growth and reduces risk and cost Client’s challenge A long-standing natural gas distribution distribution utility had a history of serving its customers well for over 100 years. Although the company had been stable for long time, its management team saw an opportunity to grow by transforming its internal operations and pursuing an acquisitions strategy. With multiple, disparate legacy legacy mainframe systems, systems, the company was facing increasing increasing IT costs and inefficient, manual processes. As part of a five-year strategic strategic roadmap for infrastructure improvements improvements and application replacements, the company determined that it wanted to improve its overall b usiness by replacing legacy software and business processes with an integrated, process-based solution. The utility embarked on a bold initiative of operational transformation. It decided to replace 80 percent of its back office systems and processes with new technology in order to put in place a b estin-class foundation and do it in the most thorough way. Additionally, it planned to execute the transformation rapidly in order to start making acquisitions as soon as possible. With such a broad software replacement planned for an extremely rapid timeframe, the company sought a partner to help it achieve a clear return on investment early an d often, while minimizing risk. The company engaged PwC to replace its legacy financials, supply chain/inventory, and c ustomer information and billing systems with Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS), Oracle Customer Care and Billing for Utilities (CC&B), Oracle GRC, and Oracle EPM. PwC was also tasked to update and expand the utility ’s ’s existing Oracle HCM footprint, and deploy and integrate with PowerPlant and IBM Maximo, leveraging an Oracle Fusion integration layer to integrate all the applications seamlessly —and to execute the transformation in an aggressive 24-month timeframe.
P wC’s Advisory solution PwC brought an unmatched combination of utilities industry insight, functional and businessprocess knowledge and insight deep technical knowledge of Oracle EBS and CC&B applications, as well as understanding of utility-specific finance and regulatory requirements, and control needs. Widely recognized as a leader in the industry, our U.S. utilities practice alone consists of over 600 dedicated professionals. Having helped over 80 U.S. gas utilities meet goals across the areas of fiscal integrity, customers, assets, employees, regulatory compliance, and commodities, our deep understanding of the industry —combined with our extensive experience with large-scale transformation projects—uniquely positioned us to lead the organization through every stage of its journey. We assembled a team with experience and qualifications specifically aligned to the client’s needs, with extensive project management skills, technical Oracle EBS and CC&B knowledge, true understanding of the business process and risk management issues that face utilities and specifically gas distribution. The team partnered with the client to replace legacy systems with Oracle EBS R12 (Financials, Supply Chain, GRC, Hyperion, and OBIEE) and Oracle CC&B. In addition, the company expanded its Oracle HCM footprint by deploying Oracle Advanced Benefits, iRecruitment, and Time and Labor. We collaborated with the client to develop a tailored, three-phased approach, architecting the entire solution set before attempting to implement any individual part. Taking into consideration seasonal aspects of the gas utilities business that would add risk to de ploying major applications, but understanding the benefits of bringing value early and often, we designed an approach to capitalize on quick wins—specifically, our ability to implement iRecruitment and Advanced Benefits in six months. The workstreams and deployment include the following:
Workstream 1a - Oracle iRecruitment and Advanced Benefits Workstream 1b - Oracle EBS Finance, Supply Chain, Oracle EPM and GRC, and PowerPlant Workstream 2 - Oracle CC&B Workstream 3.1 - IBM Maximo Workstream 3.2 - IBM Maximo integration with CC&B
We also brought our proven Transform methodology to enable a rapid, comprehensive, and flexible approach to the design, development, testing, and implementation. Developed specifically for business transformation and ERP implementation initiatives, our methodology includes proprietary tools, templates, and accelerators, and promotes knowledge transfer and client selfreliance. The client chose PwC based on our ability to tie utilities industry experience with the Oracle technology, our extensive experience and strong skills around CC&B, finance, supply chain, and HR transformation, as well as our project, change, and risk management capabilities With our knowledge of the natural gas utility industry, we were able to use PwC’s Connected Power and Utility Model reference architecture and adapt it for the client’s purposes, leveraging out-of-the-box functionality across the board with minimal customization if any. © 2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the US member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors.
Impact on client’s business PwC delivered a true end-to-end operational transformation from strategy, to design, to implementation. The client has been able to comprehensively replace its back-office systems with a leading-class, integrated platform that improves efficiency, reduces cost and r isk, provides visibility for decision making, and is scalable to support growth through new acquisitions. We were able to deliver the scope of functionality that the client wanted from a process design within the aggressive timeframe it required. Because we leveraged out-of-the-box functionality, we were able to deliver the entire program on the timeline that we committed to up front. Key business benefits of the overall project include:
Finance Enabling a culture of accountability o Providing timely information for decision making o Realizing process efficiency gains with leading practices o Providing agility for future growth o Human resources Utilizing software to full capability o Increasing employee access to tools and information o Improving customer satisfaction (internal and external) o Building more efficient processes o Supply chain Implementing leading practices o Creating visibility across the supply chain o Developing a scalable system o Reducing inefficiencies o
For more information, please visit www.pwc.com/oracle
Or contact Russell Pearson Principal (415) 717-0929
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© 2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the US member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors.
