Oracle South Africa (OSA) and Arthur Andersen Business Consulting partnered in the successful implementation of an information management solution for Nabisco South Africa. Arthur Andersen Business Consulting, a full Oracle data warehouse partner, completed the project in a record time. "The information we needed to manage our business better, from a commercial point of view, was not readily available," explains Andrew Smith, commercial management accountant at Nabisco South Africa, manufacturer of well-known brands like Royal Baking Powder, Beechies and Super Cs. "Our previous system didn`t allow for efficient reporting and was not user-defined. Staff were spending up to two days compiling certain information, which Oracle`s solution now gives us in minutes," adds Smith. Nabisco`s previous reports were all programmer-based so there was no flexibility in the information being supplied. Nabisco selected Oracle Express database with Sales Analyzer as the front-end tool after evaluating various other tools. Sales Analyzer is a complete application for decision support, assisting business users to analyse sales and marketing data. It combines a central, integrated information source with on-line analytical processing capabilities, enabling users to access, analyse and distribute information efficiently. The product`s ability to seamlessly access practically any data source allows end users to focus on the analysis, rather than the gathering, of corporate data. The project began in September 1997 with Arthur Andersen identifying critical areas, what information was required, where it resided and how best to access it via the Oracle database. The solution was up and running by January of this year, providing significant value adding information to the export sales, local sales, marketing and key accounts departments. A 10-user licence is currently in place, with three of the 10 users currently reside in a user library to evaluate the user acceptance of the solution. "The project was regarded as a pilot for Nabisco to determine the benefits of the Oracle solution, so we expect the licences and scope of information covered to be expanded soon," says Hannelie Krause, Arthur Andersen Business Consulting project manager. Smith says there is already a marked improvement in the availability of information. "It`s like day and night between the old and the new system," he says. Reports on customer reviews and ranking of products in sales terms used to take at least a day to compile whereas now they take considerably less time. "The other major benefit is that we can analyse information better," explains Smith. "We now have the facility to look at, for example, products within a particular value range, to rank them from top to bottom and to select export customers together." The Oracle system has proved exceptionally user-friendly, with only a day`s formal user training needed. During the course of the implementation the Arthur Andersen team successfully overcome difficulties in the extraction of data from the AS/400 legacy system and re-scoping of the hardware requirements in line with the growth in the scope of Nabisco`s information requirements. Oracle assisted Arthur Andersen in the provision of technical support, specifically relating to product issues. "The partnership with Arthur Andersen Business Consulting is in line with Oracle`s worldwide partner programme," explains Jaco Hattingh, DSS product manager at Oracle. "By 2000, we want 50% of our business to come to us through our partners." Says Krause: "Arthur Andersen, as an international company, evaluated many products and Oracle OLAP tools are definitely seen as a leader in the Decision Support arena.
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