Analytic Vision

Case Study - Download

Company Background

Glen Raven is a manufacturer of a variety of specialized fabrics used for a diverse group of applications.  Through their Sunbrella and Dickson brands, they are a global presence in the manufacturing of high-performance fabric for various uses including commercial and residential awnings, marine exterior and interior fabrics, convertible car tops, casual and residential furniture, and market umbrellas.

Business Challenges

Glen Ravens Corporate and North American operations run on Oracle EBS financials and have been using the Oracle Financial Analyzer (OFA) reporting tool for all of their general ledger reporting.  While this approach provided nice static financial reports, there were several shortcomings that caused them to look for an enhanced financial reporting solution.

• This reporting solution did not integrate their non-Oracle EBS business units.
• They could not drill down into lower level account detail for standard P&L line items like Gross Margin and Operating Income because they had to be calculated fields in OFA.
• They could not drill down to journal entry detail.
• This reporting solution was limited to GL data, and did not offer AR or AP analysis.
• They had no forecasting capability and their budget process was a limited once a year, quarter level budget.
• The report format options were very limited, and did not include charts.
• Oracle announced that they were dropping support for OFA.
• Glen Raven wanted to change their fiscal year end, which meant restating their reporting history outside of Oracle EBS; and changing their current OFA model.

All of these points together led Glen Raven to make the decision to assess alternatives to their current reporting environment.

Solution Implemented

To meet their needs, Glen Raven decided to implement a combination of leading Oracle Business Intelligence and Performance Management products.

• Oracle Business Intelligence OBIEE and the pre-built financial applications:
• Informatica process to extract Oracle EBS financial data and load it into the prebuilt Business Analytics Data Warehouse BAW
• Prebuilt BI Server repository for AR, AP, and GL subject areas
• Prebuilt Dashboards for AR, AP, and GL reporting and analysis
• Oracle-Hyperion Essbase to handle the specific needs for their GL reporting, including rolling 12 period analyses, cash flow, and planning integration
• Oracle-Hyperion Planning to implement a new budget and forecast solution

Business Benefits

• Having Informatica in house, along with a world class designed data warehouse (the BAW), has set the foundation for easily integrating non-Oracle EBS data from their business units around the world.
• Users can access both Dashboards and Essbase driven reports via the Hyperion Workspace, providing a single interface for all reporting.
• They can now report in both their old and new fiscal calendars.
• They can now drilldown on any P&L line item, all the way into the supporting JE level detail.
• They now have a variety of AR and AP reporting and analysis capabilities.
• They’ve implemented Oracle’s leading BI and EPM solutions, which Oracle will continually enhance as their flagship offerings