SThree Prepares to Triple in Size with a Cloud-Based Architecture and a Consolidated, Stable, and Scalable Global Platform
 
 

SThree Prepares to Triple in Size with a Cloud-Based Architecture and a Consolidated, Stable, and Scalable Global Platform

  • Oracle Customer:  SThree Plc.
    Location:  London, United Kingdom
    Industry:  Professional Services
    Employees:  2,000
    Annual Revenue:  $500 Million to $1 Billion

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SThree Plc. is a specialist recruitment company, operating under four distinct brands—Computer Futures, Progressive Recruitment, Huxley Associates and Real Staffing Group—that focus on specific industry sectors, including accounting and finance, banking, engineering and energy, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and information and communication technology.

SThree aims to triple the size of its business over the next five years through international expansion. To achieve competitive advantage, the company needed to increase the speed and quality of its core business processes. It recognized IT as a strategic differentiator to help its recruitment consultants become more agile in responding to client and candidate needs.

SThree’s legacy IT infrastructure was fragmented, inflexible, and expensive to manage. By consolidating 68 databases into a single Oracle Exadata Database Machine, SThree achieved the stability and scalability it needed to support its growth targets. Further enhancements to the organization’s core systems include a planned upgrade for Siebel Contact Center and improved integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from SThree Plc.

  • "With Exadata Database Machine, we gain stability, scalability, and reliably that supports our five-year growth plan to triple the size of our global business. In addition, our new platform aligns with our strategic direction of adopting cloud-based services." – Lance Fisher, Chief Information Officer, SThree Plc.

  • Ensure 100% availability and fast access to candidate information and client data throughout the global recruitment organization to meet the requirements of multinational clients across the IT, engineering, finance, and pharmaceutical industries
  • Increase speed and quality of core business processes, including client management, advertising roles, and curriculum vitae (CV) search and selection, to help recruitment consultants become more agile in response to client and candidate needs
  • Replace outdated technology and consolidate platforms to improve reliability and scalability, and reduce support and maintenance costs
  • Prepare to move toward a cloud-based architecture to allow greater flexibility and scalability in the future

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Implemented infrastructure, including Oracle Exadata Database Machine to support planned growth from 1,500 recruitment consultants to 5,000 consultants globally with highly available, scalable, multilanguage systems
  • Standardized 68 Oracle databases onto one Oracle Exadata Database Machine to simplify management, reduce costs, and improve performance
  • Migrated core customer management system, the company’s Siebel Contact Center onto Oracle Exadata to improve reliability and triple query speed, enabling continued excellent customer service during a period of rapid growth
  • Reduced maintenance and support requirements, lowered cost of day-to-day management with Oracle Exadata, and enabled a smaller team to manage the databases
  • Converted databases to Unicode to provide competitive differentiation by enabling SThree to receive and process CVs in any language, including Japanese, Chinese, and Russian rather than only Latin-based languages as before
  • Worked with Oracle Advanced Customer Support Services to tune Oracle Exadata to ensure optimum performance
  • Put infrastructure in place to upgrade from Siebel 7.5 to 8.1 and to take advantage of Oracle Fusion Middleware to enable further integration between applications and more collaboration between recruitment consultants, clients, and candidates in future
  • Implemented a consolidated platform to facilitate a move towards cloud-based services to enable SThree to meet its growth goals and react faster to changing business demands

Why Oracle

SThree’s strategic IT policy is to buy best-of-breed technology from trusted partners and to build less in house. SThree considered options from a variety of vendors, including Microsoft, SAP, HP and NetApp. However, following closer discussions with Oracle and further assessment of Oracle Exadata, SThree was convinced of the value the synergies derived from Oracle on Oracle including faster integration and ease of working collaboratively with one supplier.

“Oracle understands our business and recognizes our key drivers for growth. We have established firm foundations for a mutually beneficial, long-term and collaborative relationship,” said Lance Fisher, chief information officer, SThree.

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