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by Diane Himes, MA Editorial Staff   | Abstract: | The global manufacturer came up with a low-cost, out-of-the-box solution for deploying a standard ERP system in smaller, remote plants with no local IT support. |
| Keywords: | high achiever, business model mastery, progressive manufacturing |
Like a lot of manufacturers, Emerson Electric, a global, $20 billion-plus diversified maker of electrical and power products and systems, continues to expand both its locations and product scope. As it does so, the company has found itself increasingly reliant on the functionality and process standardization offered by a large-scale ERP package. The need to standardize on a common ERP platform is particularly acute in smaller or remote locations that typically rely on manual processes or PC-based applications, which Emerson has found can introduce control issues and inhibit revenue growth.
Late in 2005, the company launched an initiative intended to create a repeatable, low-cost model for deploying Oracle's E-Business Suite ERP system in pre-packaged, hosted applications designed specifically for smaller divisions with no local IT support. The goals for the project, dubbed Oracle-in-a-Box, included reductions in implementation costs, time to deploy, and support costs.
Emerson worked with RapidSOLUTIONS, a Thailand-based software and consulting firm, as well as IBM Global Services, to develop Oracle-in-a-Box. RapidSOLUTIONS software tools were used to automate the Oracle configuration process, while IBM provided the multi-lingual integrator skills and experience that the project required for rapid deployment of the applications, says project leader Jim Southwick.
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