Consumer Products Leader Upgrades Oracle's Demantra to Better Manage Sales Planning Activities and Promotion Analysis

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

-- Welch's (http://www.welchs.com/), the world's leading producer of juice, jam and jelly products made from Concord and Niagara grapes, has standardized its business operations on the Oracle(R) E-Business Suite (http://www.oracle.com/applications/e-business-suite.html), Oracle today announced.

-- The Oracle E-Business Suite replaces Welch's disparate legacy systems that lacked scalability, did not support the company's enterprise-wide business processes and failed to provide reliable information.

-- Relying on Oracle, the consumer products leader has streamlined and integrated enterprise business processes to improve decision-making, support growth and achieve competitive advantages.

-- With the Oracle E-Business Suite, and a simultaneous upgrade of existing implementations of Oracle's Demantra (http://www.oracle.com/applications/scm/demantra/index.html), Welch's now has a single platform that integrates and automates best-practices to provide timely, relevant information to help improve forecasting accuracy, reduce inventory levels and strengthen relations with customers and suppliers.

    -- Welch's has selected Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise
Edition Plus (http://tinyurl.com/5ut7et) and Oracle Business Intelligence
Applications
(http://www.oracle.com/appserver/business-intelligence/bi-applications.html),
components of Oracle Fusion Middleware
(http://www.oracle.com/products/middleware/index.html), to provide role-based
intelligence throughout the organization, leveraging a wide range of data
sources including the Oracle E-Business Suite.  The company also recently
selected Oracle SOA Suite
(http://www.oracle.com/technologies/soa/soa-suite.html).

-- Additionally, the consumer products leader utilizes Oracle Database 10g (http://www.oracle.com/database/index.html) and Oracle Real Application Clusters (http://www.oracle.com/database/rac_home.html) to further optimize performance and reliability and benefit from improved scalability. And, Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g (http://www.oracle.com/enterprise_manager/index.html) has been deployed to provide visibility for proactive management of its infrastructure and environments.

Rapid Deployment and Results

-- Welch's two-phase deployment of the Oracle E-Business Suite was conducted in two phases, and involved very few customizations in order to accelerate the roll out and enable Welch's to optimize future IT management and upgrade costs.

-- In phase one, Welch's implemented Oracle Financial Management and Oracle Human Resources Management System as well as Oracle's Demantra Predictive Trade Planning to support sales planning activities and promotion analysis.

-- In phase two, the company implemented 21 additional applications from the Oracle E-Business Suite to automate and streamline business processes across the order management lifecycle including Order to Cash, Plan to Produce and Procure to Pay. This phase of the implementation included supply chain planning, procurement, process manufacturing, demand management, order management and transportation management applications.

-- For Welch's, Oracle's Demantra provides the foundation for an effective sales and operations planning process that connects front office sales and promotion planning with the supply chain operations to help ensure profitable promotions, high customer service levels and reduced volatility in demand and supply.

-- Welch's replaced its legacy deductions management system with Oracle's Demantra Deductions and Settlement Management. During this phase, Welch's also integrated the system with other third-party applications.

-- As a result of relying on Oracle, Welch's has been able to streamline and automate open enrollment to provide better human resource support to employees. The company will gain a more accurate and comprehensive snapshot of its financial position. Welch's is also leveraging improved demand planning and costing capabilities to help reduce working capital and improve customer and product profitability.

-- Welch's deployment of the Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle's Demantra supports more than 1300 users, including an average of 450 daily users at Welch's headquarters, manufacturing sites, distribution facilities and remote sales offices. With a service, the Welch's system is also linked with customers and suppliers via EDI and Welch's is currently in the process of integrating co-manufacturers and distributors via EDI.

Supporting Quotes

-- 'Oracle enables Welch's to improve our business performance, streamlining and maximizing the value of information flowing in and out of our enterprise,' said Welch's CIO, Ray Gosselin.

-- Gosselin also stated, 'We have been able to implement standard, enterprise-wide business processes from the front office through distribution, and now look to leverage the visibility and insight across our enterprise to make informed business decisions that benefit both Welch's and our business partners.'

Supporting Resources

    -- Oracle Application Strategy Podcast
(http://streaming.oracle.com/ebn/podcasts/applications/6344699_Ed_Abbo.mp3)
    -- About the Oracle E-Business Suite
(http://www.oracle.com/applications/e-business-suite.html)
    -- Oracle's Demantra Homepage
(http://www.oracle.com/applications/scm/demantra/index.html)

-- Oracle's Offerings for Consumer Goods Companies (http://www.oracle.com/industries/consumer/index.html)

-- About Oracle Enterprise Performance Management and Business Intelligence (http://www.oracle.com/solutions/business_intelligence/index.html)

    -- About Oracle SOA Suite
(http://www.oracle.com/technologies/soa/soa-suite.html)

About Oracle

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SOURCE Oracle