HCL White Paper: Accelerated Oracle Demantra implementation with Oracle E-Business Suite versions 11.5.9/11.5.10
Abstract
With the financial markets meltdown around the world resulting into
Global recession, sustainability has become an important aspect of
every type of business. Many companies are adopting to Demand
Driven supply chain solutions to sail through this economical
turbulence. However , implementation of such solutions calls for heavy
investment. This white paper provides details on how HCL is on
boarding companies with Demantra Demand Management solution
with it's AID frame work (prebuilt configuration and integration
accelerators) and reducing the cost of implementations.This white
paper mainly addresses companies running on Oracle E business
Suite versions 11.5.9/11.510.
1. Challenges & Business Drivers in the Supply Chain Space
Supply Chain agility is becoming critical for businesses that want to
rapidly transform into global enterprises. Operational excellence,
growth through innovation, and risk and compliance management
seem to be the key imperatives driving this need.
Manufacturers are focusing on implementing better demand planning,
manufacturing scheduling, inventory management and S&OP planning
cross-functionally to deliver against demand through better inventory
management. Businesses are investing heavily on supply chain
management and analytics, manufacturing scheduling, S&OP and
demand planning.
HCL helps clients improve forecasting accuracy through Demantra
demand-driven business solutions [having predictable costs and
timelines], while leveraging its AID (Accelerated Implementation of
Demantra) solution.
2. Why Demand Management
Markets are becoming increasingly complex. Predicting what
customers will buy and acting accordingly is critical to a company's
profitability. Therefore, Demand management is of paramount
importance to improve both speed and effectiveness of response.
Aberdeen, a leading research and analysis company defines Best in
Class companies in demand management as those with product family
forecast accuracy of 60% or greater and customer service levels of
90% or greater. Best in Class companies have obtained greater
improvements in performance over their peers in the last 4 years
?Are more than twice as likely to have increased market share as
their peers
?Are 56% more likely to have improved gross profit margins
?Are 1.5 times more likely to have improved order fulfillment
performance.
Having an Integrated technology to enable demand management
inititatives will help bridge the gaps in planning and enable a complete
visibility across the supply chain. According to Aberdeen, Companies
using best of breed demand forecasting systems are three times more
likely than other companies to have forecast accuracy above 70%.
Companies using best of breed demand--shaping (promotion
optimization) solutions are twice as likely as other companies to have
had increased promotion/trade-fund effectiveness over the last two
3
4
years.
Companies using best of breed pricing solutions are twice as likely as
other companies to have had improved gross margins over the last two
years.
3. Demand Management Phases
Depending on the evolution stage of the company, there are various
needs of demand management which a company will have to fulfill. A
broad classification of the demand management phases can be listed
as,
?Entry
?Evolving
?Established
?Evolved
In the first phase of the company, Entry phase, most of the demand
management interms of forecasting needs would be handled in a
company typically in a Worksheet. This is the most basic form and most
companies which start of using this would have to switch to a dedicated
demand management tool in a short to medium time horizon
The second phase of the company, termed as Evolving stage would
require companies to Mange rolling forecasts; use basic statistics,
alerts and seeded worksheets; etc. This is a slightly more evolved
stage than the Entry phase and there are many companies which try to
achieve all these functionality using complex formulae in the
worksheets. Some companies would also have tailor made worksheets
for individual users. The companies in this stage would in most cases
require a demand management tool in the short time horizon itself.
The third phase is the Established phase where companies start
leveraging more and more of the POS/Channel data, forecast on new
product introductions, follow a collaborative forecast model with the
customers, etc. These needs can be best met by a dedicated demand
management tool which not only meets the needs of demand
management of this phase and also takes the company to the next
stage of evolution
The ultimate phase is the Evolved phase where companies use
Assumption based forecasting and forecasts based on
attributes/product characteristics. These aspects of demand management are best controlled using dedicated software like
Demantra, Demand management. The subsequent sections in this
white paper lists the benefits of using Demantra
4. Oracle Demantra : Leader in Demand Management Applications
Oracle Demantra Demand Management manages the visibility of and
response to demand across the entire value chain. Even if you start
with just one demand stream (source of demand information), this
flexible solution lets you add demand streams, channels, and accounts
incrementally, all operating on the same platform and data model.
The Demantra Planning Platform, the basis of all Demantra Demand
Driven Planning solutions, is an object-oriented, standards-based
platform that ensures flexibility, scalability, and extensibility as your
organization's needs evolve. With this platform, you can tailor the
Demantra applications to your specific requirements.
The Demantra Planning Platform enables you to extend your first
option, Demantra Demand Management, through configuration to
create unique demand driven solutions like Demand Driven
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) and
Demand Driven Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) etc.
Not all forecasts can be generated completely based on statistical
models. Market experts, analysts, and user experts often have insights
that can be harnessed to improve an initial forecast from a statistical
model. These inputs are the basis for qualitative assumption-based
planning.
The Assumption-Based Planning configuration looks for current and
5
6
anticipated situations and patterns, and incorporates this information
into the forecast. These situations include external conditions such as
market factors, contract changes, political influences, changes in
culture, and geopolitical and social factors.
5. Oracle Demantra and APS (Advanced Planning Suite) Applications Architecture
Oracle Demantra has standard integration with Oracle ASCP
(Advanced Supply Chain Planning) Suite of applications as depicted
above.
6. Accelerated Implementation of Demantra with Oracle E-business Suite versions 11.5.9/11.5.10
Around This time, though Most of the Oracle applications companies
using Oracle E-Business suite of applications are on Version either
11.5.9 or 11.5.10. Oracle Demantra has no standard integration with
Oracle E-Business Suite for versions 11.5.9 and 11.5.10 for Demantra
generated forecast to feed into Ebusiness applications. Also, the
standard collection process that is used to collect the Sales Order
history has limitations.
To address the above gaps, HCL has built interfaces between Oracle
EBS and Demantra as shown below.
HCL has captured the implementation challenges for typical customers
and arrived at an accelerated implementation framework for the same.
The typical phases in the Implementation of Demantra for your
enterprise are discussed below, along with the accelerators that will
shorten each of these stages.
HCL has developed these accelerators based on a combination of our
extensive expertise across industries and our experience
implementing Demantra.
7
Implementation Phase HCL Accelerators
Implementation Checklists
Tools to use Hardware Estimator effectively
Requirement Gathering Checklist
Preconfigured System for Quick Demo
Configuration Checklist
Sales History/Forecast Interface
Custom Extensions for Batch Scheduling
Testing Documents
Cutover Task List
Training Documents
Project Scoping
Hardware Sizing
Scope/Hardware Sizing
Configuration Checklist
Sales History/Forecast Interface
Custom Extensions for Batch Scheduling
Requirement Analysis Design
Systems Configuration
Develop Extensions
Build
Unit Test End to End Testing
Production Cutover
User Training
Transition/ Production Phase
Ac
ce
lera
ted
Imp
lem
en
tatio
n
7. In Summary
Oracle Demantra Demand management Application would play vital
role in improving the forecast. However, the companies running the
EBS versions 11.5.9 /11.5.10 would need several interfaces and API s
that are required to build as part of implementation program, resulting
into extended project timelines and higher cost of implementation. HCL
AID frame work with it’s pre built implementation accelerators can
significantly lower both time and cost of Oracle Demantra
implementation.
8
The accelerators that HCL now has for implementations of Demantra
will help in providing faster and more efficient implementation. The
accelerators are explained below:
Custom APIsto execute
Demantra jobsfrom Oracle EBS
?Purpose : Automate extracts and Forecast Generation in Demantra
?Features : Custom APIs to call programs, Workflow etc in Demantra from a job scheduler
Interfaces between
Oracle EBS &Demantra
?Purpose : Interfaces to/from Demantra?Features : Upload Sales History and forecast to Demantra
and publish Forecast to Oracle EBS instead of ASCP?Benefits : With minimum changes, this program can be used
based on the requirement instead of starting from the scratch
EstimatingHardware
Requirements
?Features : Scripts to extract information required for the estimator
?Benefits : More accurate Hardware Sizing which saves cost and time Less distraction on the Project schedule incase of any improper Hardware decisions.
8. About the Authors
Suneel Podduturi
Suneel is a Practice Director with HCL technologies
and is responsible for its Oracle Supply Chain
Practice. He has over 15 years of experience as a
Supply Chain solution provider in the Energy,
Automotive, and Hi-Tech Manufacturing, Life
Sciences, Retail and CPG industries. Suneel has worked in world class
manufacturing companies like Reliance in Production, Projects,
Technical Services and Supply Chain Planning functions.
Chetan Babu S V
Chetan is a Manager with HCL technologies and is
responsible for business development of Supply
Chain products in Oracle Practice. He has a diverse
experience around supply chain in leading
manufacturing and IT companies. He also has a
specialized MBA in 'Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management'
from SP Jain.
Narayanan P C
Narayanan is a Global Executive Manager at HCL
Technologies and is working in a SCM sales
enablement role with the Oracle Practice.He has
earlier worked in one of the largest automotive
companies in the world, Tata Motors in Sales ,before
doing an MBA in Marketing and Operations from XLRI Jamshedpur.
9
Hello there. I am from HCL Technologies. We work behind the scenes, helping our customers to shift paradigms and start revolutions. We use digital engineering to build superhuman capabilities. We make sure that the rate of progress far exceeds the price. And right now, 56000 of us bright sparks are busy developing solutions for 500 customers in 19 countries across the world.
How can I help you?