Power Design Incorporated Deploys Integrated Application Suite, Improves Visibility into Growing Business
 
 

Power Design Incorporated Deploys Integrated Application Suite, Improves Visibility into Growing Business

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With more than 80 active projects, a 70,000 square foot national headquarter facility in St. Petersburg, Fla., and accumulative revenue exceeding US$1 billion dollars, Power Design is a key player in the electrical contracting industry.

Since it was founded in 1989, Power Design has attracted a best-in-class customer base, performing work for the top 100 general contractors and developers by revenue volume in the country.

When the company experienced rapid growth, increasing revenue by 240% in a four-year time frame, it realized its legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution wouldn’t meet future needs. Power Design required a sophisticated, integrated solution that would scale as it continued to grow, help automate business processes, enhance human resource management, and improve decision-making capabilities. The company selected Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.2 due to the solution’s strength for project-based companies. It also selected Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and worked with Lucidity Consulting on the implementation. 

With Oracle, Power Design enhanced its human resources management processes to manage more than 400 employees in 14 states, working on complex projects that last from one to three years. It also streamlined its procurement and project management processes while providing the management team with access to intelligence that helps them make more informed decisions about the future direction of the company.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Power Design Inc

  • "With Oracle, we now have one single strategic partner for our operating system, database, and application tier. Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.2 and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition provide us with unprecedented visibility into our business, helping us to improve processes, from recruiting and employee training, to inventory and project management." – Raghu Kutty, Director of IT, Power Design Incorporated

  • Replace a legacy ERP system that could not scale to meet Power Design’s data requirements as the company’s revenue increased by 240% in a four-year time frame
  • Implement an integrated application suite that will enable users to access information quickly regardless of their location, as well as allow the electrical contracting company to configure applications as required to meet business needs
  • Accelerate transaction processing and reporting while enhancing security and data integrity
  • Deploy a comprehensive human resources system to track employees, from on-boarding, to training, through promotions
  • Improve inventory management and control, particularly for the company’s 100,000-square-foot lighting distribution center, located in Atlanta, Georgia
  • Enable Power Design to manage material for each electrical project and see scheduled vendor releases in one holistic view
  • Enable the company to track change orders throughout a project lifecycle and examine margins to improve decision-making and planning

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Worked with Oracle Partner Lucidity Consulting to implement Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.2, using Oracle Business Accelerators, and  Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to enable Power Design to scale for continued growth, automate business processes, enhance human resources capabilities, and improve decision-making capabilities
  • Provided flexibility to configure applications to meet its unique needs
  • Leveraged Oracle Human Resources to manage 400 employees in 14 states on projects that last from one to three years—ensuring that Power Design makes the best use of its available resources on each project
  • Used Oracle iRecruitment to place each job posting on multiple job boards, rather than posting each manually while allocating resources to the right location
  • Provided one holistic view to track training accomplishments for each employee—critical for the company’s comprehensive training program
  • Used Oracle Procurement to enable project managers to manage material procurement and releases from one screen—and forecast, plan, schedule, and release materials with a few clicks
  • Built bills of materials to manage material releases for construction projects through a single purchase order instead of having to create multiple purchase orders
  • Leveraged a holistic view to eliminate the need to develop as many as 15 separate purchase orders for each vendor
  • Used Oracle Project Management to track all project costs and change orders, and proactively manage project risks and opportunities
  • Improved insight into distribution, inventory management, and inventory controls for the company’s lighting distribution center
  • Managed contract payments and timing for approximately 2,000 subcontractors
  • Deployed Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to create custom dashboards for project and division managers to manage pertinent key performance indicators
  • Improved data integrity and security by eliminating the need to bolt on additional systems to meet business needs
  • Used Oracle Business Accelerators to configure a baseline instance with Financials, Inventory Management and Projects flows, helping Power Design to meet its eight months implementation time line on budget

Why Oracle

“Oracle is a tier-one solution. As we looked at Oracle and its competitors, including SAP, it became clear that Oracle had the strongest platform for project-based companies. We also spoke to other contractors that had recently migrated to Oracle E-Business Suite, and they were very happy,” said Meredith Zdon, chief operating officer, Power Design.

Implementation Process

In 2008, Power Design realized its legacy Timberline IT system would not meet its needs as it continued to grow. It began to evaluate its options, and, in early 2009, the company selected Oracle. Power Design began working with Oracle Partner Lucidity Consulting on the implementation in December 2009, went live on Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.2 in August 2010, and was live on Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition in March 2011. 

Partner

“Lucidity Consulting had a strong project-based background. The primary project lead, Kalyan Hariharan, was absolutely instrumental in making the implementation a success. He not only had programming and in-depth technical knowledge, but he also really understood the business and our needs,” Said Meredith Zdon, chief operating officer for Power Design.