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CFO and CIO of Master Lock Focus on Globalization and Aggressive Growth
Like many line of business executives, CFO Rick Kolaczewski of Master Lock, a division of Fortune Brands, is driving initiatives to expand globally, meet aggressive growth targets, and achieve significant operational efficiencies. He works with CIO Tom Pavlic to determine how best to align IT with these new business imperatives.
Seeing Eye-to-Eye
To meet their goals, says Kolaczewski, the company faced major capital outlays for new hardware to support much-needed software upgrades as well as new, 24/7 operations. The most recent versions of Oracle Configurator and Oracle iStore were particularly essential to meeting their aggressive productivity and quality targets.
As he and Pavlic investigated potential alternatives, they realized Oracle On Demand solutions would do more than just let them avoid new hardware purchases: They would also enhance Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, support expanding Web commerce, provide rapid access to ongoing upgrades, and drive 24/7 operations—while actually shrinking their IT staff.
"We saw [Oracle] On Demand as a solution not just for the short term, but longer term as we grow our business globally and expand into new businesses," says Kolaczewski.
Around the Clock, Around the Globe
Expansion into Asia and Europe is key to Master Lock's growth strategy—and that requires true 24/7 operations. But without Oracle On Demand, such an expansion was a costly proposition.
"I don't have the staff to support 24/7. And I could never spend the money to reproduce the Austin Data Center, with its redundancy and business continuation processes," explains Pavlic.
Kolaczewski adds that Master Lock will actually reduce staffing costs as it moves to round-the-clock operations—thanks to Oracle On Demand.
"We reduced current staffing while also minimizing future staffing needs," he explains.
Software Upgrades
Master Lock has been an Oracle customer for 10 years, but Kolaczewski and Pavlic recognized that in order to meet its ramped-up business objectives, it needed some major software upgrades.
"The current release, [Oracle E-Business Suite] 11.5.10, added features that we needed for [Oracle] iStore and [Oracle] Configurator in order for our business model to move forward," explains Pavlic.
"This was a big strategic move for Master Lock," he adds.
Managing Change, Ensuring Compliance
In addition to financial savings, the Oracle On Demand solution delivers enhanced Sarbanes-Oxley compliance—music to any CFO's ears.
"Historically, we did not have a very formalized change management procedure," says Kolaczewski.
Master Lock had good intentions, he added, but "never really made it happen day-to-day." Now, Oracle On Demand provides proven processes to make it happen on time, every time.
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