Transmed S.A.L Lebanon Increases IT Infrastructure Reliability, Accelerates Sales Order Processing
 
 

Transmed S.A.L Lebanon Increases IT Infrastructure Reliability, Accelerates Sales Order Processing

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Founded in Lebanon in 1946, Transmed S.A.L Lebanon sells and distributes consumer goods, including major brands from Procter & Gamble, Mars, and Clorox. The company has expanded to include operations in the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Jordan, and several African countries. Each subsidiary acts as its own entity, with its own separate IT infrastructure.

Transmed S.A.L Lebanon was using a SQL database in its head office in Lebanon. As the company expanded, the database became unreliable and cumbersome, so it replaced it with Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g with Real Application Clusters 11g Release 2. Transmed S.A.L Lebanon has not experienced a single day of unplanned downtime. As important, IT processes across all departments have become much faster. Further, the new database also enabled Transmed S.A.L Lebanon to establish a disaster recovery site, ensuring business-critical data is secure.

The company also wanted to standardize its IT across all subsidiaries. Because many of the regions it operates in are politically unstable, Transmed S.A.L Lebanon wanted to make sure each subsidiary had its own separate infrastructure, but could also share data easily. It decided to standardize on Oracle’s JD Edwards enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications and upgraded an existing JD Edwards EnterpriseOne deployment to Version 9.0 as part of that standardization.

New online functionality in Version 9.0 has enabled Transmed S.A.L Lebanon to establish a mobile sales system. Key employees, such as sales teams, can now create new sales orders and process delivery payments online.

In addition, the company deployed Oracle WebLogic Server, a scalable, enterprise-ready Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) application server. The WebLogic infrastructure supports deployment of many distributed applications, enabling Transmed to deploy business-critical applications in a robust, secure, highly available, and scalable environment. Transmed also deployed Oracle WebCenter Portal to provide a more dynamic customer service experience and a more productive environment for employees while leveraging IT assets already in place.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Transmed S.A.L Lebanon

  • "The new Oracle Database is fantastic. It’s reliable, and we don’t have to worry about hardware faults because Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Release 2 ensures it stays up and running. We’re also very impressed with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0. Our business processes are much faster post-upgrade, and we’ve been able to establish online features, such as mobile sales." – Said Arnous, Group Financial Controller, Transmed S.A.L Lebanon

  • Replace unreliable SQL database to reduce periods of downtime (sometimes lasting three hours) caused by database errors
  • Accelerate business processes by implementing a more flexible database system and an upgraded ERP system—crucial to a consumer goods company in a competitive market that must deliver products quickly and reliably
  • Increase data accessibility across departments, including logistics, delivery, warehousing, sales, and distribution to improve employee efficiency
  • Establish mobile sales system to enable sales staff to process orders and take payments for goods online
  • Secure critical data in case of power outages, natural disasters, or violence in the region
  • Deploy new database without disruption to the business
  • Simplify storage management to eliminate complexity, increase storage utilization and agility, and maximize administration efficiency
  • Standardize operations in all regions to ensure users can share data more easily

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Increased IT infrastructure stability by deploying Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g and a UNIX operating system
  • Simplified and accelerated supply chain, delivery, and sales order systems by upgrading existing JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications to Version 9.0
  • Eliminated unplanned downtime by deploying Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Release 2
  • Accelerated consumer goods distribution and sales processes across departments, including logistics, delivery, and warehousing, due to increased flexibility and data accessibility from the upgraded database
  • Ensured streamlined storage management for database administrators with Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g feature that eliminates complexity and increases storage utilization and agility)
  • Reduced sales-order processing time from one hour to just seconds due to increased data availability through Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g and improved workflows through JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Sales Order Management 9.0
  • Established online ordering and invoicing, thanks to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 Supply Chain Management’s improved online functionality
  • Ensured security of business-critical data by establishing a high-availability disaster recovery configuration built on Oracle Active Data Guard
  • Protected business from downtime caused by potential dangers, such as unreliable power supply and bomb threats, by implementing responsive backup-and-restore functions at disaster recovery site
  • Standardized entire business across all regions on JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 applications to simplify data sharing and reporting
  • Supported deployment of many distributed applications with Oracle WebLogic Server, ensuring a robust, scalable platform for company growth
  • Deployed Oracle WebCenter Portal for a dynamic customer service experience and a more productive environment for employees
  • Achieved fast, problem-free implementation with support of Oracle Partner Global Technology Solutions

Why Oracle

Based on its past success with Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications, Transmed S.A.L Lebanon wanted to standardize  applications across the entire business. As a growing business, it knew it needed to deploy a new database solution that was reliable and scalable, and the IT team felt Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g was the obvious choice.

Implementation Process

Transmed S.A.L Lebanon, in a particularly competitive environment where fast delivery and reliability is critical, could not afford even a single day of downtime during implementation. Fortunately, Global Technology Solutions was familiar with Transmed S.A.L Lebanon and the Oracle portfolio, so the implementation was smooth and problem-free. The solution went live on time, and Transmed S.A.L Lebanon did not experience any major business disruption.

Partner

Established in 2004, Global Technology Solutions (GTS) operates across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa out of offices in Lebanon and Cyprus. An ERP consulting company, GTS is licensed to sell and implement Oracle application and technology products in the region, with a primary focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus, and North Africa. GTS is a key provider of JD Edwards applications and has established a solid footprint in the Middle East through many successful implementations and affirmative customer feedback, thus achieving Oracle Specialized Partner status in JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.

GTS is Transmed S.A.L’s preferred partner, and the two companies have worked together for many years, culminating in the implementation of a new ERP solution in Jordan.

“GTS is a specialized JD Edwards partner with a proven track record of successful implementations in the EMEA region. Transmed S.A.L selected GTS because of its qualified resources and deep knowledge of Oracle products,” said Said Arnous, group financial controller, Transmed S.A.L.