Oracle Customer Success — Al Jaber Group

Al Jaber Group Reduces System Response Time by 40%, Boosts DBA Productivity by 40%, and Cuts Period Close to 30 Minutes

The flexibility and resilience provided by Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Release 9.1 running on Oracle WebLogic Server enables us to meet the constantly changing demands of our diversified businesses while strengthening our leadership position.

— Wissam Stouhi, Group IT Director, Al Jaber Group

Al Jaber Group (AJC) is a privately owned, multifaceted group of companies based in Abu Dhabi, and it is one of the largest diversified groups of companies in the Middle East. The company constructs and develops some of the most important infrastructures, buildings, and industrial sites and owns and operates some of the largest businesses that span several industries in the Middle East. AJC also operates some of the largest fleets of equipment, cranes, and ships, and hosts a multifaceted portfolio of leading brands.

Challenges

Improve availability and performance of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management used by 420 employees in Al Jaber’s contracting, logistics, infrastructure, construction, industrial, and trading businesses
Cut system response times and ensure 24/7 availability for staff in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Singapore while reducing IT support and maintenance costs

Scale infrastructure to capitalize on new opportunities, extend into new markets, and innovate and enhance AJC’s large product portfolio to maintain market leadership
Reduce cost of technology ownership and cut customizations needed to adapt JD Edwards EnterpriseOne version 8.11 to the needs of AJC’s diverse range of businesses

Improved user response times by 40% for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications by upgrading to version 9.1 in addition to upgrading Oracle Real Application Clusters, and migrating from a legacy application server running on Windows to Oracle WebLogic Server running on Oracle Linux
Increased efficiency of DBAs by 40% using Oracle Enterprise Manager’s automated processes to monitor, diagnose, and resolve problems across the Oracle-solution stack before they impact user productivity and day-to-day business operations

Shorten period close from two to four hours to just 30 minutes using Oracle Real Application Clusters and Oracle WebLogic Server to create a high availability, load-balanced environment that can scale to accommodate demand peaks at month-end without loss of performance to nonfinance users
Reduced batch processing time by 20%, which enabled faster reporting
Used Oracle WebLogic Server clusters to increase application reliability and speed by running several server instances together, which also eliminated idle resources and avoided the risk of unplanned downtime
Gained scalability to accommodate additional users or applications in line with changing business needs or acquisitions rapidly and inexpensively with the ability to add new server instances to the cluster
Increased system stability and resilience by migrating from a Windows to Linux operating system that is optimized for Oracle software and delivers unrivalled performance and scalability for enterprise workloads
Automated, streamlined, and enhanced ERP processes with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.1, improving user satisfaction with personalized interfaces and productivity enhancement features, such as predictive search and query refinement
Reduced customizations significantly by using the industry-specific applications for construction, engineering, and professional services sectors to meet most requirements with standard, out-of-the-box functionality
Benefited from My Oracle Support to log service requests online, track progress, access expertise across Oracle, share intelligence with other users, and resolve problems faster

Why Oracle

Al Jaber Group upgraded to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Release 9.1 to capitalize on Oracle’s new industry-specific applications, which reduce customizations and increase user productivity with intuitive functionality. The group chose Oracle WebLogic Server for its integration with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.1 and to provide the most robust, high-performance, scalable platform for its critical business systems.

Running JD Edwards on Oracle’s pre-optimized middleware platform and Oracle Real Application Clusters gives us high availability with no single points of failure, as well as seamless linear scalability to manage business expansion.

— Wissam Stouhi, Group IT Director, Al Jaber Group

Execution

Al Jaber’s in house IT team completed a trial upgrade on the whole infrastructure prior to the final upgrade. This allowed the team to test and estimate retrofitting and get familiar with the new applications. It helped Al Jaber identify and allocate the resources required for each stage of the project.

Al Jaber drafted the project plan with its implementation partner Global Technology Solutions (GTS) to ensure a smooth upgrade of JD Edwards Enterprise One and migration to Oracle WebLogic Server running on Oracle Linux. Al Jaber’s IT team carried out the end-to-end functional testing on the production and nonproduction environments. GTS managed the technical installation with Al Jaber’s IT team.

“The close coordination and attention to detail helped Al Jaber and GTS complete the application upgrade and platform migration in a record 73 working days,” Stouhi said.

About Al Jaber Group

Headquarters

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Employees

40,000

Al Jaber Group

Partners

Al Jaber chose Oracle Specialized Partner Global Technology Solutions (GTS) for its knowledge of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and a successful track record of partnering with the group for previous implementations.

“GTS has unrivalled experience in implementing complex JDE upgrade projects and is committed to providing best-of-breed solutions that maximize return on investment,”Stouhi said. “Its consultants’ expertise helped ensure a smooth transition to the new environment. We will continue to rely on GTS in the future as we explore the full functionality of JD Edwards Enterprise One to support our continued growth.”