KSA Delivers The Goods For Russ Berrie
Global gift company Russ Berrie, based here, asked Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA) to help it design and build just such a system to connect the suppliers, plants and distributors of its teddy bears, toys and other products.
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KSA's Bob Copeland says 'deeper functionality in product sourcing' was key.
Over a two-month period, Russ Berrie and KSA evaluated software from Oracle and PeopleSoft before determining that J.D. Edwards' software was the best platform for manufacturing and buying finished goods, said Bob Copeland, a principal at KSA's Atlanta office.
The chosen package also "has a little bit deeper functionality in product sourcing," Copeland said. "The far-flung nature of Russ Berrie's [operations was one of the reasons we had a requirement around a Web-based solution."
KSA, a management consulting and systems integration firm, specializes in the retail and consumer packaged goods industries, but while the solution provider has worked with J.D. Edwards before, and also with most of the major supply chain players out there, it has few formalized vendor relationships, Copeland said.
Why?
"Most of those [partnerships are press releases," Copeland said. "If we see a [potential relationship with a software vendor where they have something unique in the marketplace, then we may partner with them opportunistically. But our main benefit to our clients is knowing what [products are out there."
ANATOMY OF A SOLUTION
>> COMPANY: Kurt Salmon Associates
>> FOCUS: Supply chain management and other e-business applications for clients in the retail and consumer packaged goods industries.>> PROBLEM and SOLUTION: Toy and gift maker Russ Berrie needed a better way to link its worldwide plants, warehouses and offices. KSA developed a supply chain management system that made processing purchase orders and deliveries easier and less time-consuming.
>> PRODUCT and SERVICES USED: J.D. Edwards' OneWorld Xe, Oracle database, Sun Solaris
>> LESSONS LEARNED:
• Consult with your client's power users to find out essential application requirements.
• Roll out the solution in manageable phases.
• Consider a Web-based solution that will make time zones irrelevant and process transactions in multiple currencies and multiple lanaguages.
One of the key issues that Russ Berrie hoped to address in its revamped supply chain was paring down the number of days a plant needed to process an order, according to Alan Heger, the company's vice president of information systems.
"We are cutting out a number of handoff steps we have in our legacy systems," Heger said. "[In the past, we would create a requisition [for a supplier, and they would tell us whether they could deliver on that date. Then they would send us an e-mail and tell us, 'Here are the changes to the req,' and someone here would enter it manually."
After phase one of the new system,connecting Russ Berrie's home office here with a plant in Korea,went live July 1, the arduous process was reduced by two days. Once the system is complete, the company could save almost 14 days,instead of the initial estimate of 10,in the life cycle of an order from initial placement to arrival in a warehouse, Heger said.
Russ Berrie is planning to use the finance, sales order, human resources and other modules of J.D. Edwards' ERP product, OneWorld Xe. Technology that J.D. Edwards acquired in the purchase of CRM vendor YouCentric will also figure in the Russ Berrie solution, but Copeland said adding the CRM capabilities is "pretty far down the pike."
Heger said the final decision to go with J.D. Edwards was made by the business users, but the Russ Berrie IT staff's "minimal requests" to run on Unix and use the Oracle database were also addressed. "It had to [support transactions in multiple currencies and multiple languages," he said.
Copeland said the next phase of the rollout,which incorporates support for financial transaction processing and order management,is expected near the end of 2002. Facilities in the United States, Asia and Europe will be linked in four phases throughout the coming year.