Generation-e Closes Month-End Accounts Approximately 60% Faster, Enables Detailed Business Reporting and Analytics
 
 

Generation-e Closes Month-End Accounts Approximately 60% Faster, Enables Detailed Business Reporting and Analytics

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Generation-e is a technology solutions provider specializing in unified communications, systems management, and networking. The company integrates voice, video, and data on a single secure network, allowing businesses to communicate in an effective and timely manner regardless of physical location.

Generation-e was rapidly expanding its staff and customer base. The company needed a scalable, integrated, and accessible financial application to provide managers with greater visibility into the company’s accounts and access to previously unavailable financial data about its unified communications products.

To meet these needs, in July 2010, Generation-e deployed Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials. The company can now close month-end accounts around 60% faster, provide product data and analytics to senior management in less than one day, and it has reduced staff workload by one worker-week per month.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Generation-e

  • “Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials was the only product we assessed that could holistically meet all our business needs. It has improved our overall business efficiency, enabled us to close month-end accounts around 60% faster, and has been fundamental in helping us continue our growth.” – Biagio LaRosa, CEO, Generation-e

  • Meet the needs of a growing, unified, communications organization, including the addition of many new staff
  • Provide scalable capacity to cope with rapid growth in customer data
  • Enable greater visibility into the company’s accounts, to allow managers to analyze product sales, systems management, and networking services
  • Create custom reports to provide financial information not previously available, such as profit-and loss-data related to videoconferencing products, and by branch
  • Improve the limited purchasing and invoicing capacities of an existing enterprise resource planning system

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Closed month-end accounts around 60% faster—within three working days, compared to 1.5 working weeks previously
  • Reduced staff workload by one worker-week per month by replacing manual data analysis on spreadsheets with immediate access to product-line information and analytics
  • Enabled senior management to make informed decisions about the range of technology solutions the company should offer, by providing them with product-line data and analytics in less than one day, rather than weeks
  • Saved four hours a week for sales and technical staff by providing accurate online information on order status and product procurement without relying on time-consuming e-mails
  • Created custom reports showing data—such as profit and loss relating to IP telephony products—which was not possible with the legacy system
  • Increased control of accounting processes and reduced the risk of human error by enabling automatic checking of procedures, such as for ensuring invoices have been signed off by the right authority

Why Oracle

Generation-e chose Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials, as it proved to be a more complete solution than the other products the company reviewed.

“JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials was the only product we assessed that could holistically meet all our business needs,” said Biagio LaRosa, CEO, Generation-e. “Most products from other competitors required additional third-party plug-ins to provide the functionality we needed. We also chose Oracle because it had the scalability we were seeking to ensure we didn’t need to upgrade again, as the company grew in size and complexity.”

Implementation Process

Generation-e worked with Oracle partner MEAC Group to implement Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials. The companies first analyzed the business to establish its system requirements, before finalizing the scope of work. They then negotiated a fixed-price contract to maintain a defined budget throughout the project.

“We roll out IT infrastructure solutions as part of our core business, so we were familiar with the process and heavily involved with the overall project management and timeline,” said LaRosa. “In hindsight, we would have spent more time in the business analysis phase but overall we were very satisfied with the outcome, mainly because of the great work from MEAC.”

Partner

MEAC Group has been involved with the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials project from the initial product demonstrations, and it continues to provide ongoing support.

“We have been very satisfied with MEAC’s overall involvement in the successful solution deployment,” said LaRosa. “We continue to engage MEAC for ongoing support and system enhancements to this day.”

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