Westmoreland Coal Company Improves Data Reliability, Provides Employee Self-Service, and Enhances Training Processes
 
 

Westmoreland Coal Company Improves Data Reliability, Provides Employee Self-Service, and Enhances Training Processes

  • Oracle Customer:  Westmoreland Coal
    Location:  Colorado Springs, CO
    Industry:  Natural Resources
    Employees:  1,100
    Annual Revenue:  $500 Million to $1 Billion

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Founded in 1854, Westmoreland Coal Company is a premier U.S. energy company with strong leadership, a solid foundation of tangible assets, and a proven strategy for growth. Having transitioned from predominantly eastern, underground coal production, the company’s current operations include surface coal mining complexes in three western states and power operations in North Carolina. Today, Westmoreland employs approximately 1,100 people in six states, produces approximately 25 million tons of coal, and generates 1.6 million megawatt hours of electric power annually.

Westmoreland Coal’s emphasis is on mine-mouth operations, which positions the company as the lowest-cost fuel supplier to some of the cleanest, most economical and highly utilized coal-fired, utility-owned power plants in the U.S. The company previously developed eight independent power projects, and currently owns 100% of two projects.

Westmoreland Coal needed to ensure that its JD Edwards EnterpriseOne application suite was compatible with third-party systems. The company also wanted to move to the latest version to take advantage of new functionality. Westmoreland Coal worked with Oracle Partners WTS and MSS Technologies to upgrade to Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0. With the new version, the company can more effectively track health and safety incidents and address them quickly.

Westmoreland also offered its employees self-service capabilities, improving employee satisfaction and reducing the burden on the company’s human resources department. In addition, with Oracle User Productivity Kit, Westmoreland Coal has improved training and documentation processes companywide.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Westmoreland Coal

  • "With Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0, we have more confidence in our system and our data. We are able to take advantage of new technologies and offer self-service applications to our employees. It is a foundation on which we can build as a company.” – Jennifer Hill, Vice President, Information Technology, Westmoreland Coal Company

  • Ensure enterprise resource planning (ERP) application compatibility with third-party systems and stay current on latest product version o take advantage of new functionality
  • Maintain legislative and regulatory support for application suite
  • Enhance technical support to free up availability of limited internal resources
  • Implement a training tool for upgrades, script template design, end user training, and documentation
  • Enable the company to more effectively track health and safety incidences across its coal mining and power operations
  • Provide employees with self-service human resources capabilities

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Upgraded to Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 for 250 business users and 675 employee self-service users to remain current on support and take advantage of new functionality
  • Used global health safety capabilities in JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to track citations and incidents across all locations, including mines, enabling Westmoreland Coal to improve reporting capabilities, identify safety issues, and address them quickly
  • Improved asset management by creating and tracking work orders, and providing visibility into scheduled equipment maintenance
  • Leveraged JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Human Resources to track employees, dependents, and retirees—ensuring that the company provides excellent support to each group
  • Used JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Employee Self Service to enable employees to choose and submit for benefits online, minimizing the burden on the human resources department
  • Provided one place to monitor the entire JD Edwards network and environment for greater flexibility in testing and development
  • Leveraged Oracle User Productivity Kit to implement a documentation and training tool for upgrades, script template design, end user training, and training documentation—enabling the company to store all business processes in one place, which will save the company six to eight weeks in its next upgrade

Implementation Process

Westmoreland Coal Company upgraded to Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 in August 2010. The upgrade—including project planning, risk management, project costing, and integration management—took nine months from beginning to end, and it was on time and on budget. Westmoreland Coal worked with WTS (its hosting company) and MSS Technologies on the upgrade. The combined team documented the entire project, including costs, budget, and milestone dates, as well as scripting in Oracle User Productivity Kit.

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