Sun City, Sun International`s kingdom of pleasure, has taken another step forward in its bid for complete Year 2000 compliance with the implementation of the Oracle Financials solution.
Oracle SA account manager Hans Ziemkendorf says Sun City`s previous financial technology did not link into all the systems in the complex - such as food & beverage, the casino and the various hotels.
"The Oracle solution, on the other hand, has solved this problem and made integration among the various systems much easier and quicker."
Ian Trigger, the complex`s chief financial officer, says the Oracle solution has taken Sun City "into the 21st century" with its fully integrated interfaces.
"We want our guests` lives to be as easy as possible, so we were looking for a standardised platform and a fully integrated solution that would enable the computer to do all the work and allow our users to interpret the information and make decisions," Trigger explains.
"In the past, from an accounting point of view, when a guest signed for a purchase, we had to extract reports, type up a journal and enter that journal. Now we simply extract the information electronically and dump it into the accounting system.
"This saves time as well as potential inaccuracies," he says.
The entertainment complex purchased Oracle General Ledger, Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables, Oracle Cash Management, Oracle Fixed Assets, Oracle Express Server, Oracle Financial Analyzer and Oracle Alert. It runs on a Unix Sun Solaris platform to integrate the various systems which were in place throughout the complex.
Oracle South Africa`s implementation partner was Arthur Andersen, with Pedro Viudez as the partner and Clinton Giltrow the account manager.
Sun City opted for Oracle because of its openness, flexibility, functionality, integration, good reporting tools and strong networking capabilities.
Sham Waja, IT manager at Sun City says: "I chose Sun Microsystems as the hardware platform is because Oracle and Sun have a proven track record and strong alliances.
"It was also a highly recommended combination from other IT shops in the market. With Sun City being in such a remote location, we could not afford to go with a solution that did not have a low risk factor."
Commenting for Sun Microsystems, Rodney Smith the Industry Executive at Sun Microsystems said: "This is yet another fine example of the teamwork and collaboration from Arthur Andersen, Oracle, Ariel Enterprise Systems and Sun Microsystems, which I deem critical to the success of any `best of breed` implementation."
Sun International`s IT director, Bob Barrowman, says his company has an enterprise-wide agreement with Oracle.
"Oracle Financials was chosen for Sun City because all our systems, including the central reservation system, the property management system and the casino management system are all Oracle-based.
"In addition, Oracle is the database of choice with Sun International," he says.
Arthur Andersen`s Viudez is proud of the quick implementation of the Oracle solution - three months from start to finish.
"We used our new rapid implementation methodology - only the second time it has been used in this country - which sped up the process enormously," he says.
"The strong relationships built between Arthur Andersen and Sun City, as well as the commitment to success of both parties contributed to the rapid implementation. "This is one of the most successful implementations we have done in South Africa, considering the number of modules and interfaces involved."
Sun City has purchased Bronze Support from Oracle which entitles them to telephone assistance provided by Local Support Centres (LSCs), protection of their investment in Oracle licences and technology through ongoing product upgrades and maintenance releases. Electronic services, which offer a quick and easy way to log and manage Technical Assistance Requests (TARs), locate workarounds, download patches, and review technical and product documentation, are also included in Bronze Support.
Although patches and telephonic support was provided by Oracle Support Services, Arthur Andersen was responsible for the onsite consultancy, implementation, integration and customisation of the technology. The consulting firm also did extensive training to get all the new users up to speed on the Oracle technology.
Trigger says that soon all the complex`s major purveyors will migrate to an Oracle database. Sun International as a group has also chosen Oracle as its preferred database platform.
According to Ziemkendorf, Oracle is becoming popular in the hospitality industry, with the Hilton and Sun International groups running extensive Oracle applications.
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