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Cox's multi-year project to improve financial, supply chain, and capital management tools. Supports strategic objectives and delivers profitability analysis and streamlined reporting.
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Project CornerStoneAtlanta OAUGNovember 18, 2005 Kriss Poll, Director, ERP Development Nancy Patin, Director, Enterprise Resource Planning David Fearnley, Director, IT Operations Erik Mogelgaard, Director, Data Center Operations
About Cox • Multi-service broadband communications company with approximately 6.6 million total customers in 23 regional markets • The nation’s third-largest cable television provider • High-speed Internet • Digital Telephone service • Cox Business Services offers commercial voice and data services • New Wireless product line
Free-Cash-Flow growth Sustaining Strategies Source: Cox Long Range Plan – Corp. Base Case (11/02)
The first phase of a multi-year program focusing on improving our financial, supply chain, and capital management tools. Cornerstone – Supporting our Strategies
Benefits Identified Sarbanes-Oxley Makes regulatory compliance more manageable Strategic Objectives Enables a variety of initiatives such as the retail distribution strategy Critical Management Information Delivers profitability analysis, Streamlined Capital Project Tracking, and more accurate and timely revenue reporting Delivers significant financial benefits: We expect this program to deliver nearly $130 million in cash flow improvement over a four year period
Wave 1 Goals • Establish foundation for future business operations • Integrated technology applications for finance, accounting, supply chain management and capital management • New reporting capability that will leverage the strength of Oracle as well as existing reporting methods • Oracle enabled process improvements inherent in the software - Off the Shelf Version of Oracle • Future stability and flexibility of CCI’s technical infrastructure
Project Scope Supply Chain FP & A/ Accounting Capital Planning • Purchasing • Inventory • Item master standardization • Warehouse mgmt • GL, AP, AR • Program cost • Tax management • Fixed assets • Capital project tracking Short- term Wave 1: Technology • CPE process standardization • Sourcing & contract compliance • Demand & supply planning • 404/SOX Compliance • Workflow • Financial analysis • Financial budgeting & forecasting • Capital transparency • Budget Integration Wave 2: Process Optimization • Regional planning • Supplier collaboration • Strategic sourcing • Long term planning • Income tax planning • ROI Measurement Long- term Wave 3: Strategy/ Transformation
Wave 1 Schedule • March 2004 - Selected Capgemini • May 2004 – Selected Oracle • January 1, 2005 – Three locations and Corporate Live • April 1, 2005 – Nine systems converted • July 1, 2005 – Final seven systems All milestones on-time, on-budget
eBusiness Suite • Assets • General Ledger • Inventory • iProc • Incentive Compensation • Payables • Purchasing • Receivables • Warehouse Management • Projects
Third-party applications • Vertex – sales and use tax • More4Apps – capital projects workbench • Noetix views – packaged Discoverer views • Applimation – Configuration management • Kintana – Migration control
Challenges • Linux • Decision Made in August 2004 • Timing, not the decision slowed development • Hurricane Ivan • Impacted one of our ‘pilot’ cable systems • New Data Center • Migration in November and December 2004 • Privatization • Selling 15% of our subscribers • 4 Markets announced on eve of April go-live
Challenges (cont.) • Incentive Compensation • Used for Programming Cost Calculations, not sale commissions • Orphaned project team • Conflicting milestones • Did not engage Oracle Consulting Services enough for overall design • Good tool, hampered by unevenly applied project management principles
Success Factors –Governance • Strong Sponsor and Active Executive Steering Committee • Defined Guiding Principles • Define Decision Process, most resided in the teams • Strong PMO team • Team Mix • Over 120 full- and part-time members • Team Leads were all Cox Employees • Shadowed with senior Capgemini consultants • OCS SMEs on each team
Success Factors –Vanilla • Well defined criteria and approval process • 16 customizations • Excluding reporting • Less than 1000 hours of development • Did not budget for customizations • Required steering committee budget approval
Success Factors – End User Focus • Originally our major roadblock • Did not want to repeat previous experience • Genuine inclusion of the users • Field focused, not a corporate application • Change Ambassador Program • Primary contact for all local activities and communications • Field Training resources • Local Users comprised 70% of training resources
Motivation for Linux Decision • Why Consider Linux • Control and reduce escalating costs associated with I.T. • Continuous availability and increased resource utilization • Initial Steps • Redhat Study - position Intel/Redhat • Everything Microsoft - In depth analysis & options for application migration to Intel/Microsoft/l Platform • Review SUN Roadmap • Review ORACLE Roadmap
Approach for Linux • Action • Initial Steps – triggered hybrid direction. • Breakdown financial cost allocation. • Stimulated a focus on portability of Oracle • ORACLE Corporation • Commitment to Linux • GRID Computing, Real Application Cluster • Implemented RAC/Solaris 2003 for High availability. • Lower risk Application migration • Oracle/Linux (vs) Microsoft Conversion. • Minimal retraining of staff. • Successfully migrated Operational Infrastructure to Linux for validation. • Vendor Alignment, Consolidation • Industry Performance benchmarks
Infrastructure • Oracle Applications 11.5.9 • Oracle Discoverer 10g (9.0.4) • Oracle Database Server 9.2.0.5 • Oracle Forms/Reports 6i with Patch set 16 • Oracle J-initiator 1.3.1.9 • Oracle ADI • Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10g • Oracle Clustered File System • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3
Technical Architecture OID Prod Environment DB Server Apps Server 10g OID DB Server Apps Server 10g 11.5.9 Production Environment Custom Interface Concurrent Managers Inbound and outbound interfaces Load Balancer Dell 2650 catlmsxp85 Dell 2650 catlmsxp86 Dell 2650 catlmsxp87 Dell 2650 catlmsxp88 Discoverer 10g and 11.5.9 Services • 11.5.9 Services • Forms 6i, Report 6i, • Jserv, Portal, MWA, • http/https • Concurrent Managers • OEM 10g Agent • J2EE services for Vertex • Identity Management Services (10g): • - Oracle Internet Directory • - Oracle Directory Integration and Provisioning • - Oracle Delegated Administration Services • OracleAS Single Sign-On • OracleAS Certificate Authority • RMAN Catalog • OEM Grid Control • OEM 10g Agent Dell 6650 catlmsxp82 Dell 6650 catlmsxp83 Dell 6650 catlmsxp84 Database Servers 9.2.0.5 RAC Database Cluster Manager Vertex data OEM 10g Agent PERP
Linux Conclusion • Results • Oracle Financials on Intel/Redhat successful • Implementation costs for hardware and software reduced over 50% • Server infrastructure 50% idle during peak usage • Additional Benefits • Oracle Internet Directory OID – Active Directory • SOX Compliance • Expanded usage OID • Oracle GRID Continuation • Linux facilitates hardware portability
Future In Motion • Acknowledge • Increased Care & Feeding for Linux environment • Downgrading from 64-bit to 32-bit architecture • People overhead - 15% due to reduced ease of management. • Boost in Intel capacity – Overcompensated for less mature software. • Reintroduce 64-bit when needed. • Foundation built for Horizontal Scalability & GRID computing • Guarantee efficiency and utilization of hardware. • Commitment • Billing System • PeopleSoft 8.9 • Oracle Database Applications
Cornerstone Service Reliability Logical Diagram Return to Presentation
Contacts • Kriss Poll • Director, ERP Development • kriss.poll@cox.com • 404-269-8747 • Nancy Patin • Director, ERP Systems • nancy.patin@cox.com • 404-269-7295 • David Fearnley • Director, IT Operations • david.fearnley@cox.com • 404-269-8244 • Erik Mogelgaard • Director, Data Center Operations • erik.mogelgaard@cox.com • 404-269-8441