One System to Rule Them All: Why Unifying Your Oracle Software is Essential

You may have heard the old saying that the “sum is greater than the parts.” While the concept applies to many scenarios, it’s especially true when it comes to unifying Oracle software systems across an organization. For example, we recently worked with a global poultry and pet food manufacturer. The company has multiple business lines, but we discovered early on that they all operated independently of each other on legacy, on-premise Oracle ERP and SCM systems. 

The siloed data meant that one part of the organization often didn’t know what the other was doing. The company missed opportunities to leverage efficiencies in its supply chain, find easy cost savings, and increase visibility across business lines. Now, we’re working with the company to unify its systems under a cloud-based solution that meets its financial and supply chain needs. 

The result streamlines business processes and provides a host of data that will inform and improve the company’s future decisions. Consider these seven ways a unified, cloud-based solution will benefit this company—and could improve yours: 

1. Improved cost controls. With a unified system, you have better visibility into your spending, where you’re making purchases, and opportunities for economies of scale. For instance, the pet food manufacturer relied on by-product from their poultry business line to make the pet products. Without insight, they’d often have to purchase that same by-product from a competitor. A unified system has allowed them to better plan for those needs, and reduce the need and cost of extra purchases along the way. 

2. Increased customer satisfaction. Visibility improves planning—and planning ensures you can meet customer demand as quickly as possible. With siloed systems, customers would make an order, and the pet food company would update the delivery date three or four times as it received new information. A unified system offers a holistic view of the supply chain and inventory, providing the data you need to respond to orders promptly, speed up the fulfillment process, and reduce the cost of doing so. 

3. Improved reporting. With a unified, cloud-based system, you have access to data across businesses and business lines. The result is improved reporting that allows you to create benchmarks and more easily measure future performance regarding everything from material and labor costs to outsourced services spend to existing vendor contracts. 

4. Better product traceability. Improving the traceability of products through your supply chain is vital for multiple reasons. For example, in the unlikely event of a product recall, you need to be able to quickly trace the source of your products, provide information to regulators and customers, and most importantly, ensure the problem doesn’t occur again. The pet manufacturer experienced the pain of a recall firsthand. Because its systems were disconnected and siloed, rooting out the source of the issue was exceptionally expensive and time-consuming. 

5. Access to actionable data. In an ideal world, data generated by your business processes informs your decision-making—and makes it that much more effective. In reality, many organizations struggle to capture data in near-real-time or make connections between business units that highlight areas of improvement or potential for additional revenue. With a unified system, the data can drive behavior, enabling proactive decision-making that improves your overall competitiveness. 

6. Updating and automating business processes. Moving to a cloud-based system provides the opportunity to modernize your existing business processes. If you’ve been on a legacy system for years, your financial processes may be outdated. For instance, the poultry and pet food company still relied on manual invoicing. A unified system can not only help connect and update business processes, but it can also automate previously manual and cumbersome processes. 

7. Improved forecasting. From supply chain planning to budgets, better forecasts can be game-changing. A unified system improves your reporting and data, creates a more current, accurate picture of what’s happening, and helps prepare for the future. This is especially essential for companies with seasonal business fluctuations—you can plan for spikes in demand, keeping costs in control and customers happy. 

For our poultry and pet food manufacturer, unifying software systems under a cloud-based solution created a powerful sum that’s truly greater than each individual system. The result for this client—and for others considering the same—is a fast, modern, efficient, data-informed organization that’s ready for success.

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