Business Driver

During an impact study initiated by the client and led by Oracle to review the client's Sales & Marketing Reporting Insight initiative, several common business needs were identified across different functional areas such as Operations, Sales & Financial Reporting, Real-Time Reporting, and Supply Chain and Order management.

The high-level pain points:

• Small changes to product plans result in a huge amount of information re-work
• Access to information was inconsistent. This was due to different data sources, different time frames, and different levels of granularity
• Many manual processes needed to be combined to properly run the business

Challenges

• Multi-Currency reporting needed to be streamlined
• Complex Sales reporting based on General Ledger (Changing GL Account Structure)
• Need for real-time data for Inventory/AR/Daily Sales information
• Data Security
• Price list reporting for inventory is complex
• Need for Inventory As-of Aging reports
• Data formatting and data quality issues in JD Edwards ERP systems
  
  

Success Criteria

After evaluating the needs and challenges to be addressed by the client, one of the most important recommendations was to implement Oracle BI Applications. It was projected that Oracle BI Applications could provide harmonization among sales and supply chain information to enable the business users to address questions such as:

• How do I deliver timely, fact-based, customer-specific brand and category growth strategies?
• How can my sales teams spend more time on value-added activities and less time dealing with retail data issues?
  
  

Why Was KPI Partners Chosen?

As Oracle's most experienced systems implementation partner focused on Oracle BI & EPM, KPI partners was chosen because of their expertise within Oracle BI and related technology. KPI Partners has successfully implemented the most complex deployments of Oracle BI in the world and the project at client required in-depth expertise to provide the high level of performance required. KPI Partners offered functional expertise in the high-technology and gaming industry. KPI also offered global delivery capabilities that leverage a blended-shore model with a combination of high-value on-site experts and lower-cost offshore resources

Project Summary

KPI deployed the Finance Analytics (Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, General Ledger) and Supply Chain & Order Management Analytics Modules of Oracle BI Applications Version 7.9.6.3 leveraging Oracle's prebuilt connector for JD Edwards. This project also included building and replacing reports currently provided by a Cognos business intelligence environment. 

The initial launch phase of the project spanned 24 weeks. As the adoption process/business value increased with client users, the overall timeline was increased to accommodate an expanded scope with the release of new content over multiple release cycles.

The project covered both the International and North American business units of the client. Finance Analytics Modules (General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable) and Supply Chain Analytics Modules (Order Management, Order Fulfilment, and Inventory) were deployed.

JD Edwards category code files were configured based on customer requirements subject to the count allowed out-of-the-box. Oracle BI Applications does not store all of the category codes and descriptions for JD Edwards into the Business Analytics Warehouse. KPI provided guidance once requirements were known.

ETL (Extract-Transform-Load)

Columns were added or logic was modified in 60 different areas on data from tables already sourced by Financial and Supply Chain Analytics. Two new facts and 3 new dimensions were sourced from tables in JD Edwards. Three new aggregate tables were created to improve report performance.

Dashboards, Metrics, and Reports

• Fifty metrics were created and modified within Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)
• Fifty OBIEE reports were developed (includes top-level reports and any navigation reports) with leveraging Oracle BI Applications delivered content wherever possible
• Fifteen dashboard pages were developed to leverage Oracle BI Applications delivered content wherever possible
• Forty Oracle BI Publisher reports were modified and 5 Oracle BI Publisher reports were developed to pull real-time data directly from JD Edwards ERP tables and associated dashboards 
• Sixty Oracle BI Applications reports were customized to meet the needs of the client

Results

Business units and functional groups now have the capability to obtain key metrics, harmonized information, and answers to their key business questions in an incremental fashion. The goal for strategic reporting goal was reached: increased efficiency and accuracy, reduction of performance issues, faulty ETL processes, and improved data quality for North American and International business users.

The total cost of ownership (TCO) was improved through user adoption among global business units. The total number of reports requiring ongoing maintenance was reduced.

Executive management is now armed with dashboard views containing customized key performance indicators critical to informed business decisions. Finance and Supply Chain departments within the organization can now define and measure progress toward organizational goals.

Return On Investment

Client shares rose 5% in after-hours trading after the video game publisher swung to a profit on strong sales for the fiscal fourth quarter that followed the system implementation.

Consolidation of Systems

The existing IBM Cognos business intelligence application was decommissioned in place of new reporting capability utilizing Oracle BI Applications. The move was triggered by an increased need for high-performance performance and scalability.

Solution Uniqueness

User Requested Target Reporting Currency

The most unique part of this project was the complexity involved in User Requested Target Reporting currency and the Rate Type combination (Transaction, Month End, Month Avg.) during run-time.

The existing currency exchange rate table was extended and complex logic was added to the business model. Custom-built reporting enables users to select a Reporting Currency and Rate Type.

Complex Sales Reporting

KPI Partners built a very complex sales report based on a general ledger (GL) revenue fact so that minimal steps are needed if GL account is added or changed.

Custom Measures

Over 200 custom measures were built within the Oracle BI Repository and business model so that complex calculations are done on the BI server. 

Special Pivot Tables

A special pivot report format was developed to show data in proper buckets for old and new account structures.

Sales Rep Reports

Sales Reps can now run their own Sales report based on actual sales for their Territory/Company/Business Unit/Platform/Publisher/Title combinations on-demand.

Real-Time Business Intelligence

Oracle BI Publisher was used to achieve the real-time reporting requirement.

Custom JD Edwards Security

A custom security model was built using existing JD Edwards security definitions to get the User -> Role and User -> Company Information.

Advanced Pricing Logic

Custom facts were constructed using JDE advanced pricing tables and were integrated with existing facts. Special logic was implemented based on effective dates and pricing adjustments helped the user to report quickly for a given Product, Customer, or Company/Business unit.