Challenges

• Scale financial, purchasing, manufacturing, and order management business processes to capitalize on the global growth in demand for industrial, thermal-management solutions, such as heating and air conditioning systems
• Switch production runs cost effectively and rapidly between the bulk manufacture of standard cooling and heating units and much smaller production runs of specialized units that are required to meet custom-order requirements
• Ensure just-in-time delivery for raw materials, such as sheet metal and other components, and maximize forecasting accuracy―essential for an island-based production facility where obtaining parts from the mainland takes days, which significantly impacts production schedules and costs
• Reduce back-office sales support, purchasing, and order-management overhead
• Gain timely insights into key financial and manufacturing performance indicators and track evolving customer trends to be first to market with new innovations, such as energy-saving cooling systems
• Avoid increase in IT cost of ownership, utilizing only two full time IT members while growing revenue

Solutions

• Benefited from Oracle E-Business Suite’s industry-leading business processes and ease of configuration to meet 80% of its requirements, out of the box, using Megabyte’s Oracle Accelerate solution, and manage unique and complex inventory, manufacturing, and order-management needs without software customization
• Managed and scheduled bulk and specialized production runs using Oracle Discrete Manufacturing, which eliminated the time and costs involved in operating and synchronizing two separate production systems
• Optimized scheduling bulk and custom production runs in line with lead times, promise dates, and the availability of raw materials and resources, which maximized output and minimized production line idle time
• Used Oracle Purchasing to ensure just-in-time ordering of sheet metal, sensors, and compressors, which enables the company to meet production schedules without incurring rush charges for components from mainland Europe
• Gained real-time data on the cost of every production run and the ability to calculate the most- and least-profitable products, customers, and geographic regions
• Cut the time needed to prepare order quotes from days to hours by consolidating price information previously held in multiple Excel spreadsheets in Oracle Order Management and making it available to all client-facing staff
• Confirmed delivery date for new orders to customers within two hours, a process that took up to four days using legacy tools and paper processes
• Benefited from automated order-data transfer to manufacturing and financial-management modules to eliminate manual data input, cut back-office administration, and give executives a real-time view of sales performance
• Used Oracle Financials and Oracle Purchasing to enforce commitment accounting, gain a real-time view of items shipped, from machine components through to office stationery, and monitor spend with suppliers
• Began using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to replace reports created in Excel with consistently formatted monthly and quarterly performance reports
• Increased revenue by 20% in the two years following implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, without the need for additional IT or line-of-business staff
• Calculated achieving full return on investment in 36 months

Why Oracle

Seifert rejected upgrading to newer versions of Swan Software and Sage in favor of the seamlessly integrated, real-time business applications offered by Oracle E-Business Suite that enable fully automated materials-requirement planning.

"Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 gives us world-class functionality, scales to our business, and will allow us to upgrade to innovative new technologies and leaner processes rapidly and inexpensively as soon as they come on stream," said Ruben Cuschieri, general manager, Seifert mtm Systems Malta Ltd.

Implementation Process

Seifert used the preconfigured templates offered by partner Megabyte’s Oracle Accelerate solution for general business to complete the implementation in nine months and gain rapid user acceptance, which minimized disruption and mitigated risk of new technology adoption.

"Megabyte’s Oracle Accelerate ERP Solution jump-started the implementation and steered us towards implementing standardized processes. The solution’s preconfigured templates helped us build 80% of our requirements out-of-the-box. Oracle Accelerate solutions make implementing a tier-one solution affordable and risk-free for midsize companies," Cuschieri said.

Partner

Seifert chose Megabyte Limited, an Oracle Gold Partner for its Oracle expertise and reputation in successful Oracle E-Business Suite implementations in Malta. Megabyte configured the software to Seifert’s requirements, built the required customizations, and helped ensure an on-time implementation with rapid time to value. Megabyte’s consultants also transferred knowledge to Seifert’s two-member IT team to help them become self-sufficient in system support.

"Megabyte provided a one-stop shop for all our requirements. Their expertise was fundamental to our successful go-live, and their ongoing support ensures we maximize the benefit of our investment in Oracle technology," Cuschieri said.