Infosys’ blog on industry solutions, trends, business process transformation and global implementation in Oracle.

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December 13, 2008

Integrating EAM applications with ERP applications - The need for it

EAM system has a broader impact apart from its core function of work scheduling and asset management, which includes financial, inventory and workforce management. Since these functions are also covered by ERP applications, there are inefficiencies when EAM and ERP are operated as standalone systems without the ability to share information.

1. How to overcome these efficiencies and what’s the best way to leverage niche functionalities offered by ERP package & EAM packages?

2. What are the options of integrating best of breed ERP application which manages supply chain, human resources, and financials with work asset management functions of EAM based on the merit of the package?

In my opinion to answer the above question we need to understand why EAM applications are of strategic importance to Power Generation utility companies even though they already have an ERP system to manage their back office functions.

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Posted by Ashish Anand at 04:27 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 03, 2008

Large Projects challenges - Beyond applications

Industry challenges

In my earlier blogs, I had briefly touched upon how a project centric approach will facilitate utilities achieving process efficiencies by integrating its various business functions.  We had also seen how Oracle out of the box capabilities can be leveraged.  Whilst the oracle based project centric solution enables utilities, there are some industry wide challenges that cannot be addressed through any system or solution.   Based on our experience the following are the few industry challenges that need to be considered while implementing any transformational solution to such project organisations.

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Posted by Ismail Syed Mohammad at 10:06 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 18, 2008

Providing visibility to your large projects through a Project centric solution

In continuation with the entry here

Standardised project management process
 

Utilities have a trend of growing through acquiring other companies and hence the project management processes are likely to vary within their business.  For e.g., an organisation that took over a contracting company that specialises in executing rechargeable jobs is likely to have its processes and systems for managing rechargeable jobs different form the rest of the business - unless there is a conscious effort to homogenize the processes.  The project centric solution design addresses this by mapping the processes to the job classification available out of the box in Oracle ie., direct and indirect jobs  Also project management templates can be defined to ensure that the projects are defined in a specific way that is aligned with other projects in the organisation. This substantially reduces the time required by the engineers and/or planners to create projects in Oracle.  In some cases (Large capital projects), the project are likely to be created in best of breed project management software like Primavera or MS Projects etc.,.  The out of the box interface available in Oracle eBusiness suite can be used to reduce the need to duplicate effort in entering project data into Oracle.  With this, the process, the resource assignment and budgeting are the only processes that need to be done in Oracle eBusiness suite, whilst the other core project management processes are managed in the actual Project management suite.

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Posted by Ismail Syed Mohammad at 09:24 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 10, 2008

Managing large projects - Do you need a piece of paper or an integrated system?

‘What is the project budget?’, ‘Who approved this capital investment?’, ‘who is monitoring the budget overruns?’, ‘who is tracking the project performance in terms of cost, quality, time and effort?’ and finally ‘Where are we in terms of planned Vs Actuals?’ – These are common questions one will come across, if they have spent some time in utility industries.  Utility industry is one of the very few industries that manage their operations as projects.  Everything they do is managed in their systems as an outcome of a project or a group of projects. Given this challenge, what does one need to manage these projects? Will there be the organization’s ace project manager available to manage all your projects efficiently? – Probably not. !

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Posted by Ismail Syed Mohammad at 10:27 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

September 19, 2008

Managing Indirect Spend? Slash costs and Save upto 20% of indirect cost

Across Industries, specifically utilities and process industries, because of their capital intensive environments, typically spend a substantial amount on indirect procurement, especially services.  Typically services account for more than 60% of the indirect spend for companies in these industries yet this area has remained unexplored for either automation or transformation efforts.
 

The Services Supply Chain comprises of unique and complex activities. This is then the reason why streamlining the process coupled with adequate systems support can lead to a large savings in this area. But how do we really go about it? Our experience tells us that this is definitely possible and is a huge opportunity for savings. Oracle Advanced Procurement Suite with its Services Procurement processes help organizations in streamlining processes in achieving these savings.

 

 

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Posted by Balakrishna Rao at 05:20 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 13, 2008

Improving Package Implementations Estimates using Package Points

Today, ERP is used more to drive business improvements & operational efficiencies and hence, any delays or budget over-runs could impact the business. However, most independent surveys and studies indicate that about 55 percent of ERP Implementation projects incur budget overruns. According to Standish Group, a research firm, the average IT project runs over budget by about 43 percent. Among the litany of reasons quoted (such as excessive focus on technology at the expense of business processes, communication shortfalls, project management and operational issues) estimation & bad planning rank high in the list.

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Posted by Manikandan Munikrishnan at 10:08 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 10, 2008

Thinking of R12? Go for an Enhanced Upgrade

Call it the bane or boon of an ERP system, companies do not have a choice but to upgrade to a higher version. There are various factors which drive the decision to upgrade namely de-support of the current system by the ERP vendor, availability of new features in higher version which have the potential to give a strategic edge. Typically companies choose the upgrade path to avoid the de-support problem and hence what it finally does is a pure as-is technical upgrade. This has multiple benefits in the sense that it is least risky and also can be done in a shorter timeframe. But once in a while it makes sense to have a look at the new features which can bring efficiencies in the process.

 

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Posted by Sandeep Chatterjee at 05:38 AM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

July 11, 2008

Upgrading to Oracle R12? Keep Fusion in mind

R12 is a milestone in Journey to Fusion

Oracle’s E-Business Suite Release 12 is Oracle’s latest version of their business applications with an upgrade path to Oracle Fusion Application. The technology stack is upgraded to Fusion Middleware, the backbone of Fusion Applications.

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Posted by Malay Kumar at 03:03 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

May 26, 2008

SCRUM Methodology: Does the Twenty-Twenty Version of the Waterfall Model Work?

The last month and a half has been exciting! The ardent cricket fan in me has been treated to some rapid fire cricket through the Indian Premier League 20:20 extravaganza. Round about the same time, my project team also started rapid application development using SCRUM, a methodology I would call the 20:20 version of the waterfall model of software development. Interestingly, the word SCRUM also has its origins from the sport of rugby where a “scrum” is a group of people responsible for picking up the ball and moving it forward.

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Posted by Padmini Ramakrishna Talagavaram at 11:29 AM | | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)