Elektroprivreda Crne Gore Standardizes Core Business Processes with Enterprise Applications and Improves Operational Efficiency Across 26 Business Units
 
 

Elektroprivreda Crne Gore Standardizes Core Business Processes with Enterprise Applications and Improves Operational Efficiency Across 26 Business Units

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Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) produces, distributes, and supplies electricity to more than 300,000 business and residential customers in Montenegro. It has an energy production capacity of 868 megawatts of installed power, which it produces via hydropower and thermal power plants. EPCG, Montenegro’s largest corporation, is a joint stock company, owned primarily by the government. The company, preparing for the sale of various business units, looked to improve project costing and inventory control. It also wanted to increase the operational efficiency (including optimizing purchasing) of its 26 business units with an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

EPCG deployed Oracle E-Business Suite to consolidate 26 business units as well as nine instances of Oracle E-Business Suite, running on different hardware platforms, to one instance, reducing overall operating costs and optimizing inventory and subinventory management. The company also accelerated customer bill processing with an e-billing system and automatic meter management solution based on Oracle technology.

With Oracle Project Costing, the company gained visibility into equipment in the field and enabled precise matching of data from asset registers and data collected by field technicians, laying the basis for better planning, improved cost management and higher profitability of maintenance and investment projects.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Elektroprivreda Crne Gore

  • “Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g have changed the working culture in our company. We have been using Oracle technology and applications for less than a year and can already identify substantial efficiency improvements and cost savings.” – Nataša Pavićević, Enterprise Resource Planning Department Chief, Elektroprivreda Crne Gore

  • Enable project costing as well as strict control of inventory and assets to achieve better management of investments, inventories and assets in Montenegro’s largest corporation
  • Standardize business processes and gained greater control over energy production, storage, distribution operations by deploying a single instance of Oracle E-Business Suite across 26 business units, instead of operating nine instances
  • Reduce operating costs by eliminating duplicated purchases of items already inventoried—such as switching equipment or protection and control equipment—and leverage economies of scale through optimized purchasing and procurement
  • Improve decision-making with expanded and more timely data
  • Reduce training costs for new employees by implementing standardized and user-friendly processes and technology

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Deployed a single instance of Oracle E-Business Suite to standardize processes and operations across 26 business units and increased efficiency across inventory management, purchasing, project costing, and accounting—thereby, reducing overall operating costs
  • Consolidated nine instances of Oracle E-Business Suite to one instance, reducing IT complexity, licensing and management costs, and management burden
  • Improved financial management efficiency and accuracy by eliminating the need for multiple general ledgers and gaining real-time data
  • Accelerated customer bill processing by implementing an e-billing and automatic meter management system based on Oracle technology—including Oracle Database, Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, and Oracle Java—and integrated with it with Oracle E-Business Suite to accelerate bill processing after meter reading
  • Standardized and streamlined accounting processes with Oracle Financials, reducing the number of accounting departments and facilitating compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) standards
  • Optimized inventory and subinventory management with Oracle Inventory Management, gaining real-time visibility into items—ranging from spare parts to office equipment—stored in various warehouses and eliminating the need to purchase items already on hand
  • Used Oracle Project Costing to gain real-time information on equipment in the field and enable precise matching of data from asset registers and data collected by field technicians, laying the basis for improved cost management and higher profitability of maintenance and investment projects
  • Enabled more than 200 users to track the progress and cost of each project—such as building medium-voltage power lines, substations, pole-mounted transformers, and low-voltage distribution lines
  • Improved ability to cost-effectively maintain field equipment required for producing and distributing electricity
  • Obtained industry-leading security, high availability, scalability, and a single version of corporate data with Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g
  • Enabled administrators to configure password-protected controls for each user for greater data security
  • Used Oracle User Productivity Kit to accelerate user training from several weeks to one week, while giving employees a resource that they can continue to reference
  • Enabled the company to publish financial statements for fiscal year 2011-2012, on time for the first time in its history

Why Oracle

“We selected Oracle over SAP. In our opinion, Oracle is the superior choice for corporations with multiple organizations and complex business processes. As our deployment has demonstrated, Oracle technology and applications drive rapid return on investment thanks to preconfigured solutions that support best practices,” said Nataša Pavićević, ERP department chief, Elektroprivreda Crne Gore.