USCI Chooses Open Text for Accounts Payable Integration with Oracle® E-Business Suite
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Solutions Will Save Time and Money, Eliminate Paper-based Processes and Add Value to USCI's Investment In Oracle Solutions; Web Services Bridge the Gap Between Structured and Unstructured Content
Chicago - 2008-01-09 - Getting more control over thousands of invoices can save money for any company, but Utility Service Company, Inc (USCI) has found a way to deliver far more benefits in cost savings and efficiencies with a software solution from Open Text(TM) (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC), a global leader in enterprise content management (ECM).
USCI selected Open Text's Livelink ECM - Accounts Payable solution to add ECM capabilities to its Oracle E-Business Suite implementation. The solution will eliminate paper processes and manual data entry to improve accounts payable efficiency and reduce costs. But USCI's solution will also help the company provide more complete views of customer or project information across systems and help the company manage business and compliance rules.
Based near Atlanta, Georgia, USCI is a leading provider of services that help cities, counties and other government organizations purchase and manage water tanks. USCI maintains thousands of elevated tanks under full-service maintenance contracts throughout the U.S. and also provides a full-range of integrated water tank services, including sales and leasing of new tanks, cellular antenna site marketing and management, and communication site construction.
USCI chose the Oracle E-Business Suite for its core ERP solution to drive centralization of its accounts payable processes. To go with its new Oracle solution, the company began looking at ECM solutions to help manage a fast-growing volume of documents from accounts payable, which had become increasingly difficult to manage with the company's rapid growth. At the top of USCI's shopping list was a solution that could eliminate paper, manage documents efficiently online, and work seamlessly with the company's new Oracle E-Business Suite implementation.
USCI chose Open Text's solution because of its ability to manage all accounts payable documents and document processes, plus archiving and storage. A major driver for USCI's decision was that Open Text's solution utilizes Web services to manage and provide access to content in multiple systems, allowing USCI to connect structured content in Oracle to related unstructured content, such as email and other information, stored in other systems. This allows USCI staff to view content in the context of a specific customer account or project, regardless of the system where the content is stored. It also help's USCI manage business and compliance rules for content consistently across systems.
"The Oracle E-Business Suite has been a powerful solution to help us reduce costs and increase productivity," said David Al-Khazraji, IT Director at USCI. "But to help us get a handle on documents, in particular the 40,000+ invoices we have to process every year, we needed an ECM solution that could tie in tightly with Oracle. Open Text offered all the expertise and capabilities we needed, with the added plus of a Web services-based solution that will allow us to provide a unique 360-degree view of each customer. This means managers working with a customer have access to all relevant information, without having to log in to different systems. This saves time and improves productivity, while helping staff make the best decisions with all the information at hand."
"USCI is a clear example of how companies can take a strategic approach to a difficult challenge like accounts payable and not only improve the way they handle invoices, but also deliver broader benefits that can improve their business and their bottomline," said Ron Vangell, Vice President and General Manager of Open Text's Oracle Solutions Group. Longer term, according to USCI's Al-Khazraji, the company will look for ways to extend its Open Text solution. One area of interest involves contract governance: Ensuring that USCI consultants are staying within the scope of work defined by contracts, and that the company's project teams are managing milestones and change orders properly to avoid penalties and delays. "Managing contract details is critical. We think Open Text's solution working with Oracle's can help us manage these details more efficiently, so that we can reduce these risks and, more importantly, improve services to customers," said Al-Khazraji.
For more information on Open Text's Livelink ECM - Accounts Payable for Oracle E-Business Suite, go to: www.opentext.com/2/sol-products/sol-pro-extensions-oracle/pro-ll-ap-oracle-ebusiness-suite.htm
Open Text is Certified Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork.
About Open Text
Open Text, an enterprise software company and leader in enterprise content management, helps organizations manage and gain the true value of their business content. Open Text brings two decades of expertise supporting 46,000 customers and millions of users in 114 countries. Working with our customers and partners, we bring together leading Content Experts(TM) to help organizations capture and preserve corporate memory, increase brand equity, automate processes, mitigate risk, manage compliance and improve competitiveness. For more information, visit www.opentext.com.
For more information, please contact
Richard Maganini
Director, Media Relations
Open Text Corporation
+1-847-267-9330 ext.4266
rmaganin@opentext.com
Brian Edwards
McKenzie Worldwide
+1-503-577-4583
briane@mckenzieworldwide.com
