Sybron Dental Specialties Automates Business-to-Business Electronic Data Interchange with Service-Oriented Architecture
 
 

Sybron Dental Specialties Automates Business-to-Business Electronic Data Interchange with Service-Oriented Architecture

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Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. is a high technology, dental and infection-prevention product manufacturer. The company develops innovative technologies and manufactures and markets products for the dental and medical professions—serving clinicians worldwide and, ultimately, improving the health and beauty of their patients. In the dental space, Sybron addresses endodontics, restorative dentistry, and orthodontic markets. On the medical side, in conjunction with dental products, Sybron offers high-quality, infection-prevention and magnification/illumination products for healthcare professionals.

When Sybron Dental Specialties used older versions of Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle B2B for EDI, it faced many challenges with supporting its processes. The company wanted to upgrade to a more scalable service-oriented architecture (SOA) environment to integrate with its distributors, ease complexity in tracking sales and shipment data, reduce costs, and support future business growth.

To address these challenges, Sybron Dental Specialties chose Oracle Fusion Middleware components, including Oracle SOA Suite 11g, Oracle BPEL Process Manager, and Oracle WebLogic Server to integrate procure-to-pay processes with Sybron Dental Specialties’ 12 distributors, through electronic data interchange (EDI). The company used Oracle SOA Suite to manage processing its dental and medical product transactions via the company’s Website, and it established plans to develop a mobile application for order processing in the future. It also implemented Oracle BPEL Process Manager to successfully process transactions, and reduced the time needed to complete a business transaction by 25%.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Sybron Dental Specialties Inc.

  • “Oracle SOA Suite 11g enabled us to completely transform the way we do business. The solution has advantages over other middleware offerings, as it can easily integrate with Oracle E-Business Suite and third-party solutions. With accurate and timely access to data, we can work more closely with our distributors, reduce costs, and support future growth.” – Carlos Salazar, IT Director, Software Development, Sybron Dental Specialties

  • Develop IT infrastructure to enable complete information exchange through a Web interface between Sybron Dental Specialties and its distributors
  • Reduce complexity in tracking sales and shipment data for the company’s dental, dental implant, and infection prevention products to ensure on-time deliveries
  • Ensure faster response to customer inquiries
  • Eliminate errors throughout the ordering and production processes
  • Embrace industry standards
  • Shorten sales cycles

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Integrated procure-to-pay processes with Sybron Dental Specialties’ 12 distributors through EDI
  • Built an order management platform on Oracle WebLogic Server to deliver maximum performance, reliability, availability, and scalability, and ensure continuous operation for a business-critical, customer-facing system
  • Integrated the company’s Oracle E-Business Suite modules with Oracle SOA Suite 11g’s business-to-business EDI functionality, eliminating the need to manually place and confirm the receipt of orders via phone, fax, and e-mail when doing business with major distributors, and reducing time needed to complete a business transaction by 25%
  • Used Oracle SOA Suite to manage processing for dental product transactions via Sybron’s Website and established plans to develop a mobile application for order processing in the future
  • Used Oracle BPEL Process Manager to successfully process 7,000 transactions per day
  • Enhanced customer service by shipping products more quickly and gaining the ability to provide accurate and real-time information in response to customers
  • Sent customers their electronic shipping information, enabling them to cut processing time at their receiving warehouses by half, which does not include the time saved through having access to accurate shipment records in the inventory system
  • Reduced IT administration effort by enabling just one, part-time employee to manage the entire infrastructure—enabling valuable resources to focus on higher value activities
  • Eliminated the need to rekey data into various systems, freeing up staff to focus on other projects and reducing errors
  • Created a repeatable standard for communication between internal and external data systems
  • Introduced Oracle Database 11g to store large files for critical human resources, financial, and manufacturing business data
  • Laid the groundwork to extend existing Oracle B2B for EDI integrations to other distributors and develop new EDI document interchanges
  • Worked with Oracle partner Zensar Technologies to establish a service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform to address business and IT structural challenges, progressing toward a centralized, integrated vision in which business and technology work together
  • Positioned the company to take advantage of future application upgrades and mobile capabilities by staying on the most current Oracle technology, including SOA technology

Why Oracle

Previously, Sybron Dental Specialties had multiple, disparate systems in place to process EDI. Eventually, it chose Gentran as its main EDI processor. After some time, the company wanted to consolidate its systems, instead of upgrading, and saw an opportunity to take a step forward with an Oracle-based service-oriented architecture. Sybron decided to replace its Gentran solutions with Oracle Fusion Middleware.

“The Oracle solution provided the greatest flexibility, had proven itself in the market, and required very little maintenance,” said Carlos Salazar, IT director, software development, Sybron Dental Specialties, Inc. “We wanted to open up our back-office, riding on Oracle’s vision for Oracle Fusion Middleware, which we saw as the gate of interoperability for other systems. If I had to use one word to describe our Oracle solution, it would be ‘enabler.’”
Implementation Process – When Sybron Dental Specialties embarked on its Oracle SOA Suite 11g implementation, it had been using 10g for a year, but the company wanted to migrate its existing EDI transactions to the latest version.

From October to December 2010, the company tested the newest version to ensure it fit into its overall IT infrastructure. In the second phase, Sybron migrated all EDI transactions to Oracle SOA Suite 11g, which took an additional six months. By June 2011, the company moved all transactions to the newest version, and completed the project on time and within budget. 

Partner

Zensar Technologies partnered with Sybron Dental Specialties to implement Oracle B2B for EDI to enable the company’s 12 distributors to exchange EDI. Zensar developed a proof of concept, executed an initial investigation into Oracle’s solutions, and proposed Oracle SOA Suite 11g as the best-fitting product that addressed all Sybron Dental Specialties’ business requirements. Sybron also worked with Zensar for its Oracle XML Gateway expertise. Zensar worked closely with Sybron to complete the implementation in record time.

“Zensar is an SOA specialized partner and has extensive experience and industry knowledge in delivering entire SOA solution stacks to customers globally,” Salazar said. “Our engagement with Zensar reiterates the company’s commitment to deliver Oracle solutions to customers in a timely manner thereby giving them a competitive edge.”