Chicago Public Schools Upgrades to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 to Prepare for Future Growth

Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third largest school district and the second largest employer in Illinois, upgraded to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 to gain new functionality and enable the system to scale for future growth under extreme budgetary and staffing constraints.

By upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1, Chicago Public Schools has been able to reduce the previous systems customizations with minor impact to its 6,000 users – from procurement clerks and budgeting teams to treasury users – in 700 departments. Chicago Public Schools completed the implementation before the start of the school year, avoiding a delay of one year that would have been required if the implementation had taken longer.

A long-standing user of Oracle applications, Chicago Public Schools upgraded to the newest version of Oracle E-Business Suite to take advantage of new functionality in the areas of financial management, procurement, and project management. Using Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1, Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management and Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition in conjunction with one another, Chicago Public Schools can manage performance and maximize efficiency across the school district.

In addition, Chicago Public Schools leveraged Oracle Enterprise Application Documents for Oracle E-Business Suite with Oracle Document Capture, Oracle Imaging and Process Management and Oracle BPEL Process Manager to reduce the cost and time needed to process invoices, employee benefits and payroll paperwork. With Oracle, users can process paper invoices and access invoice images more quickly to accelerate approvals. With a centralized location for all images, Chicago Public Schools has streamlined processes, while minimizing training, support and system maintenance requirements.

The district managed the upgrade internally, but leveraged Oracle Support to reduce IT risk and complete the upgrade on time and on budget. The school district’s IT department also used Oracle User Productivity Kit to quickly train more than 6,000 users at all levels on the new software features.

This upgrade set the stage for Chicago Public Schools to implement additional applications and technology such as Oracle Project Costing, Oracle's Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, Oracle Imaging and Process Management, Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition, Oracle Business Process Management, Oracle Sourcing, Oracle Procurement Contracts and Oracle Enterprise Asset Management. By deploying the Oracle solutions, Chicago Public Schools will be able to streamline construction bidding, project management processes and tracking and management of more than $500 million capital annually. Additionally, Chicago Public Schools will be better able to track warranties and maintenance for building equipment at more than 700 locations, enabling better preventative maintenance and a reduction in reactionary spending.

Finally, the district is deploying Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition along with Oracle Business Applications for financials, procurement, projects and human resources. The district also plans to use Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition as an enterprise reporting tool for its more than 40 applications and across all 700 departments. With the implementation, all users will be able to access a single data source and to create and run their own reports.

“We went live with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 on time and on budget. The new features will enable us to better manage our multi-billion dollar, 700-department business, including budgeting, procurement and capital construction. In short, the Oracle solution is helping us get our arms around the business,“ said Prasad Nettem, director for enterprise financial systems, Chicago Public Schools.

“Oracle is committed to helping schools address today’s challenging educational environment with solutions that help educators and administrators to improve teaching and learning, enhance student and teacher success and support data-driven decision-making and transparency. Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 will help Chicago Public Schools cut costs and improve operational performance,” said Mark Johnson, senior vice president, Oracle Public Sector.