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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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