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Customer challenge
Solution
Key Benefits
Lafarge Cement UK (LCUK) is the UK’s leading cement manufacturer, supplying around 50 per cent of the market with its famous Blue Circle brand. The company changed its name from Blue Circle Cement after merging with the Lafarge Group in 2001. With 77,000 employees in 75 countries, the Lafarge Group holds top ranking positions in each of its four divisions: Cement, Aggregates & Concrete, Roofing and Gypsum.
At the time of the merger, the company was implementing the Oracle E-Business Suite, including Oracle Financials and Oracle Order Management. The applications required a large amount of customisation to meet business requirements and this was achieved with the help of Oracle consultants and third-party contractors.
Looking for a cost-effective support solution
Once its implementation was complete, LCUK wanted to maintain its Oracle Applications as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.
“Our customisation posed numerous issues, but at the time we had no alternative,” says John Drabble, IT Manager at LCUK. “Often the solution to an IT problem is to apply a patch but, because of our customisation, this is a dangerous route for us to take as it could have many consequences.”
With a small internal IT team, LCUK looked externally for support. It wasn’t practical to retain expensive contract staff to maintain the Oracle E-Business Suite, particularly as they would be under-utilized most of the time.
A further challenge occurred when Blue Circle merged with the Lafarge Group. The Group uses JD Edwards as its standard ERP solution and would like the entire Cement Division to adopt this system. With the migration planned within the next few years, it does not make good business sense for LCUK to upgrade its Oracle E-Business Suite as new versions become available. The only practical option is to keep the existing version operating effectively until the move to JD Edwards is complete.
Choosing a partner that provides flexibility
After exploring the marketplace, LCUK short-listed four companies that provide Oracle support solutions and examined which proposal best fitted their requirements.
“What particularly appealed to us about Mokum was that we could commit to a relatively low level of support over a 12-month period but supplement this on a case by case basis as and when required,” explains Drabble. “We can call on Mokum to help with application developments or enhancements if we need to, without being committed to large annual support costs. Working with Mokum gives us flexibility as we can adjust the service to match our needs.”
LCUK signed an initial 12-month contract for Mokum’s Applications Management Support Service which is backed up by a Service Level Agreement detailing exactly what is provided under the contract.
With an average of 10 to 20 support calls a month, the volume of requests for help from LCUK is not high, but the calls cover complex issues that cannot be resolved in-house. Around 95 per cent of calls relate to Oracle Order Management, the most heavily customised part of LCUK’s implementation, and often Mokum liaises with Oracle on Lafarge’s behalf.
Reduced risk – comprehensive service
“I was concerned when we lost our specialist contract support because we had some highly skilled people who knew Oracle Applications well and had carried out the significant customisations we needed,” adds Drabble.
“However, thanks to Mokum, we have maintained performance at a very competitive cost.”
One of the biggest benefits LCUK gains from Mokum’s support service is a reduction in the risks associated with staying on heavily customised and now out-of-date versions of software, which will soon no longer be supported by Oracle.
Added to this, the company has seen its costs reduce significantly since it stopped using contract staff. The cost of Mokum’s service is also significantly less than employing extra in-house staff as the Applications Management Support Service covers three quite different skill sets: functional areas requiring business knowledge; development or customisation of Oracle Applications; and database administration
Talking the same language
“The people we work with at Mokum understand our systems and the customisations we have carried out, plus they have some understanding of our business and can relate to us on that level,” says Mark Armstrong, IT Commercial Systems Manager at LCUK. “Mokum provides a bridge between ourselves and Oracle, helping us understand what we need to do in order to achieve our business goals.”
LCUK’s original support contract with Mokum has already been extended for a second year and is working well: “In the next year or so we will need to spend more time gaining an appreciation of JD Edwards. It’s extremely helpful that we feel confident in pushing more support work to Mokum as this happens. We will have time to focus on our migration because we have Mokum’s support to ensure our Oracle Applications run efficiently,” concluded Armstrong.