Case Study:

Beckman Coulter

Beckman Coulter’s Challenges

Beckman Coulter tried to find outside help for solving its process and system issues for the month-end and year-end cost accounting close, with limited success.  Inventory to G/L and Legacy to Oracle Transfers took too long to reconcile, Inventory A/P Accruals programs & reports were failing, visibility for stuck material transactions prevented a timely close and the multi-org period open and close processes were not in use. With over 20 inventory organizations and multiple operating units, Beckman Coulter required a more efficient operation.

Multiple Legacy Systems

Like many other firms using Oracle, Beckman Coulter has numerous non-Oracle systems feeding into the Oracle Applications. This can give rise to inventory reconciliation, standard cost inconsistencies, internal order fulfillment and other cross-system challenges.

Solution

Using experience from over 100 implementations, Douglas Volz Consulting quickly identified a short list of reports to streamline the month-end cost accounting close, speed inventory to G/L reconciliation and identify issues between Legacy and Oracle transfers. Doug led international meetings to resolve complex RMA procedural issues; in addition Doug wrote over 50 ad-hoc multi-org SQL reports, such as identifying late intransit transfers, open sales orders, RMAs, and stuck transactions in the top 20 Oracle open interfaces.

Results

These Multi-Org Inventory Value, Period Close Status, Material Distribution and Stuck Transaction Reports saved valuable time over running the standard Oracle reports. Doug resolved outstanding process and system issues with the Inventory A/P accruals, multi-org inventory period open and close, as well as developed new reports and tools to help manage the Global Standard Cost Revaluation for Year-End.

Timeframe: 15 months