Industry:
Professional Services

Annual Revenue:
$1M-$100M

Employees:
2000-4999

"Oracle gave us important productivity improvements, cost reductions, customer and supplier collaboration, and internet connectivity. In addition, it increased our customers' confidence and created a favorable and reliable environment for the company's growth. Oracle was the catalyst that made it happen." -- Salomón Noble, Chief Engineering Officer, American Industries

Founded in 1976, American Industries (AI) is a private company dedicated to helping international companies establish themselves and operate effectively in Mexico. The Chihuahua-based company has two business units: the Shelter Services unit, which has assisted more than 70 foreign companies establish businesses in Mexico; and the Real Estate unit, which develops and leases top-quality Class A industrial real estate facilities and has a nationwide portfolio of properties.

AI's Shelter program supplies global companies with administrative, accounting, international commerce and human resources services, which helps companies start up product manufacturing operations quickly and lets managers stay focused on their core business.

Before turning to Oracle for its business technology infrastructure, AI had an array of non-integrated systems from different vendors along with homegrown applications. This meant AI had to constantly enter and consolidate data using a cumbersome manual process. "Our information environment was redundant, which created islands of information and fragmented data," said Salomón Noble, chief engineering officer for American Industries. "This way of operating resulted in inefficiencies and made it too costly to run the business."

Attempts to integrate the systems proved difficult and expensive. "We did our best to integrate the systems, but it was painful and time consuming," Noble said. Instead, AI chose to move to single, integrated IT platform utilizing Oracle technology and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. AI was ready to upgrade its computer systems anyway, so it was the perfect time to adopt a new enterprise solution.

Move to Integrated Solution Cuts Operating Costs 33%

AI new platform consists of Oracle E-Business Suite applications for managing the company's essential business processes such as accounting and finance, invoicing, and reporting. At the same time, AI redesigned several internal processes to make operations more efficient. "We used Oracle as a model to redesign our processes," Noble said. "Without the Oracle platform we wouldn't have been able to improve our processes the way we had anticipated." The combination of both initiatives, he added, reduced AI's total operating costs by 33%.

To run the new Oracle system with a minimum of IT staff, AI also chose Oracle On Demand, Oracle's hosted solution. With the On Demand service, AI leaves the job of managing the server, database, and applications to Oracle, and avoids the expense of employing a full-time systems administrator or database administrator. "We incurred no additional costs--either hard or soft expenses--associated with the purchasing of new hardware and learning to use the new applications." Noble said. "After all, who's better than Oracle to manage Oracle products?"

What's more, by cutting out the burden of daily system management, AI's IT department has more time to work on more important projects. "Oracle On Demand allows our IT staff to focus on activities that generate higher strategic value," Noble said.

Productivity up 40%

Oracle Financials, a core set of applications within Oracle Business Suite, enabled AI to integrate the different areas of its financial department, yielding productivity gains of up to 40%. Some of the biggest gains came in processing purchasing orders. For example, when AI's office in Chihuahua generates a purchase order, managers can now approve it online. "Before, this process took several days and required a paper trail with authorization signatures," Noble said. "The online system, with its paperless environment, significantly decreased errors and shortened the processing time."

Today, AI's employees never have to concern themselves with the integrity and accuracy of financial transactions, since the system takes care of this automatically. As a result, AI managers have more time--as well as better tools--to analyze financial reports and trends, and develop more value added recommendations. "Now we can focus on intelligent analysis of the information for smart decision making instead of dedicating a lot of time to validate the integrity of the data contained in reports," Noble said.

The Oracle implementation greatly improved American Industries' invoicing process. Before Oracle, AI processed most customer invoices manually. Now, using Oracle Projects, 95% of the company's invoicing operation is automated. It has also given AI the ability to offer clients Web-based invoicing services in a paperless environment, enhancing customer satisfaction. Noble credits the application's flexibility for bringing about the change. "Oracle Projects' standard practices adjust naturally to the individual requirements of each of our clients," Noble said.

Anytime, Anywhere Access

Because Oracle Financials is Web-based, AI employees can access critical business information any time, any place. "Collaboration over the Internet has brought us benefits we have not even quantified yet," Noble said. "Yet, it has raised the quality of life for our employees. This is most evident during the monthly closings when our employees are now able to work normal hours."

Managers also use Oracle Discoverer to query the database and run reports on their own. "In the past, employees had to call the IT team to run most reports," Noble said. "Discoverer allows key employees to access the database and run all kinds of reports and analysis themselves, in a self-service fashion."

Why Oracle?

Above all, AI wanted a Web-based platform that would integrate all its financial information within an outsourcing model. After AI evaluated several alternatives, Oracle came out on top. "We chose Oracle because of its name and track record" said Roberto Mancera, IT manager of American Industries. "We thought our clients would see this as a competitive advantage. "Oracle's system functionality and solid, long-term software strategy contributed to our decision. We are very pleased we chose Oracle."

Implementation Process

American Industries completed the Oracle implementation in August 2003, less than a year after starting the project. Executives gave the ERP project top priority, assembling a cross-functional team of employees who worked alongside consultants and Oracle experts to design and implement a solution that met AI's needs. Special efforts were made to ensure a seamless transition for AI's customers, while comprehensive training programs were developed for users. Today, American Industries is ready to move to the next challenge: automating its Real Estate division.

American Industries makes it easy for manufacturers of all sizes and stages of technology to experience success in Mexico. By providing critical support, American Industries allows manufacturers to concentrate on their core competencies.