How we’re revolutionising our own operations with Oracle technology
- Industry Information technology
- Capability Oracle, Enterprise Applications
- Customer NRI
We provide transformative digital solutions for businesses and government who are looking to change the game.
We’re part of the global powerhouse – Nomura Research Institute Ltd – which is founded on a 60-year history of success in consulting and technology solutions. But we haven’t always been known as NRI. We got our start here in Australia as ASG Group – and in 2016 we were acquired by Nomura Research Institute. It was a step that equipped us with global reach, financial strength, and the capabilities to offer our clients complete digital transformation.
As NRI, we operate under local leadership, with local decision-making authority across Australia and New Zealand. Our services and solutions provide a full end-to-end offering, from IT consulting, right through to infrastructure, Managed Services – and everything in between.
Opportunity
At NRI, we were using Oracle EBS 11i as our core Enterprise Resource Planning solution.
However, it was a series of acquisitions that spurred us to evaluate our strategic direction
and the suitability of our on-premise software for a growth-focused agenda.
As a result, we embarked on a transformation journey of our own, with a decision to
upgrade and migrate to Oracle Fusion ERP and Human Capital Management, with an
accelerated deployment using the Oracle Unified Methodology (OUM). In the process, we
retired multiple disparate satellite systems which had become part of our technology
landscape through acquisition activity.
“Our growth strategy within the ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) market has previously
been centred around expansion through strategic acquisitions,” says Jodie Meadows, Chief
Financial Officer of NRI Australia and New Zealand.
“Over the years, a series of acquisitions resulted in the incorporation of multiple disparate
systems and a considerable degree of complexity, leading to process inefficiencies
hindering our further growth.”
An earlier acquisition was the flashpoint, Jodie notes. “As we needed to integrate and
consolidate the financials, HR and operations, we opted to invest in a modern cloud-based
ERP solution.”
Added impetus came from Oracle 11i moving towards end of support, ageing on-premises
infrastructure, and the limited scalability of the older ERP solution.
Solution
With a lot at stake – Jodie describes the selection as “among the most strategic operational decisions we’ve ever made” – following a comprehensive assessment of several leading cloud-based SaaS solutions for ERP and HCM functions. The eventual selection of Oracle Fusion ERP and HCM was made with the goal of establishing a scalable, unified platform aligned to our overarching strategic objectives.
Along with implementing Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, HCM and EPM (Enterprise Performance Management), business processes were standardised on those within the Oracle Fusion Cloud. Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) took care of integrations with multiple third-party applications including Savicom, creating a single solution across the entirety of NRI.
An accelerated deployment commenced with the implementation of Oracle Fusion Financials, followed by various HCM modules, integrations, and then EPM. With the Oracle Unified Methodology, applications rapidly progressed through the phases of design, configure, validate, transition and realisation, with the entire solution live within 6 months.
Careful attention to change management and a desire for standardisation included multiple stakeholder workshops establishing and reviewing requirements, and mapping to standard Oracle Fusion Cloud processes. The result is an integrated system with no customisations, capable of scaling to meet our continued growth ambitions.
Outcomes
It’s a case of out with the old and in with the new, with multiple benefits rapidly becoming clear as the Oracle Fusion Cloud deployment matures. Headline improvements in eliminating the complexity of multiple disparate systems feeding into an ageing on-premises ERP include significantly reduced resource requirements as information is no longer manually keyed from one system to another.
“We have successfully achieved standardisation across our end-to-end business processes, leading to substantial operational efficiencies across our organisation,” says Jodie.
These improvements include month end closings coming down from a previously fraught 10 days of stressful and error-prone manual work to a single day.
Other functional improvements extend to standardised and enhanced functionality across the Finance and Human Resources departments. With our people working on the move, secure ‘anywhere’ access improves convenience and productivity for a satisfying user experience.
Meanwhile, Oracle Enterprise Performance Management delivers financial and management reporting, underpinning data-driven insights for a digitally transformed company. Better access to consolidated data also means eased and reliably accurate compliance and audit functions.
“We’ve automated the entire Accounts Payable process, and greatly improved reporting and analytics capabilities which supports decision-making ranging from tactical to strategic, and improved billing, boosting our revenue generation process,” enthuses Jodie.
And, for an organisation like ours which is steering strongly towards growth, the presence of Oracle Integration Cloud is comforting, providing multiple pathways for integrations as they crop up.
Finally, among the many advantages of the cloud is the elimination of infrastructure; dissolving the headache of ageing on-premises servers and other infrastructure.
We’ve automated the entire Accounts Payable process, and greatly improved reporting and analytics capabilities which supports decision-making ranging from tactical to strategic, and improved billing, boosting our revenue generation process.”
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