The power and water division of a major industrial manufacturer sought to bring sorely needed order and efficiency to a lengthy and chaotic month-end closing process.
Our Client’s Needs
Our client’s four-day month-end closing process required manually running ten to fifteen different programs for each subledger and each general ledger set, for each organizational unit configured in EBS. This meant that all these programs had to be run nearly 150 times for each month-end close. It was a labor-intensive undertaking, driven by phone calls, emails, and trust. The six people required for its completion worked very long hours for several days each month while spending the remainder largely idle. Moreover, a lack of visibility meant that there was no way to identify process bottlenecks or performance issues.
With a plan to roll in additional organizational units, our client was also preparing to add over $10 billion in revenue to their existing $22 billion, which promised to expand an already inefficient process. They wanted to meet that increase without adding personnel, while also shortening the closings from four days to three. They needed a process that would more efficiently coordinate their people and systems, with the visibility necessary to track progress and to pinpoint and resolve issues.
AVIO’s Solution
We used Oracle SOA Suite to create an accurate and reliable process for orchestrating the numerous program executions. We automated most of these, and harnessed Oracle BPM to both route exceptions to the appropriate individuals for resolution and to provide a single location for accessing and addressing them.
We built in broad flexibility for handling exceptions, including the ability to skip over them when deemed appropriate, and provided a deep link from BPM back into EBS to expedite fixes required there.
Using the metrics generated by BPM, we provided dashboard functionality to monitor progress, identify bottlenecks, escalate issues when necessary, and track relative performance across multiple closings.
How AVIO Helped
We dramatically shortened their closings, both through the programs we automated and by providing the ability to identify and escalate delays. The robust exception management and centralization functionality we provided enabled them to further shorten their closings by expediting the handling of errors.
Not only have they been able to accommodate the $10 billion worth of additional business without adding new personnel, they actually reduced the required headcount. And the resulting savings have paid for the project itself.
AVIO Consulting helped make them more efficient and better equipped to focus on the road ahead. We can help you optimize your business engine as well, so you can better respond to the ever-changing landscape.
{{cta(‘633dc9af-14e6-4259-9d61-e0fdacaf51b4′,’justifycenter’)}}