From Stand-Alone to Integrated Applications

YIOULA Group is the largest glass manufacturer in the Balkans, producing over 625,000 glass containers annually as well as over 30,000 tons of tableware. Starting in the 1990s in Greece, the company expanded by acquiring other glassmaking firms in Romania, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. The company has seven factories in four countries, about 2,100 employees, and net annual sales of about €180 million (about U.S. $240 million).

As a result of its growth through acquisition, YIOULA Group found itself with a confusing variety of information systems. The group was unable to compare production costs for the same item across factories, could not improve efficiencies by coordinating purchasing and financial management across all its plants, and was not positioned for continued growth or expansion into new market areas. Clearly, its legacy stand-alone applications needed to be replaced

YIOULA Group CIO Zacharias Maridakis had previous experience using integrated enterprise software when he worked at Mobil Oil's Greek subsidiary, Mobil Oil Hellas S.A., in the 1990s. Therefore, he was well acquainted with the advantages of such software. Under his direction, YIOULA Group investigated various software packages. They selected JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, named for a company that had become part of Oracle Corporation in 2005. Part of the reason for this choice was that most other ERP packages, including the SAP software with which Maridakis had worked at Mobil, are designed primarily for much larger organizations. EnterpriseOne was always intended for medium-sized firms

Because YIOULA Group had little experience with EnterpriseOne, it enlisted the help of Oracle partner Softecon to help configure the software to the company's needs, meet the legal requirements of each region in which it operates, and manage implementation in each area. Support for the Greek language (as well as English and eighteen others) is a standard JD Edwards EnterpriseOne capability available from Oracle; Softecon added the other languages that YIOULA Group needed to the user interface. YIOULA Group also added a specialized cost comparison module from Softecon to the basic EnterpriseOne package. This module helps the group choose the lowest-cost facility to manufacture a product.

The conversion to a single enterprise package gave YIOULA Group the expected benefits. Time from order to invoice, delivery time, and cash collection have all been accelerated. Financial data is now available two weeks after the end of a period versus one month previously. A consolidated view of inventory across all plants has enabled the group to manage inventory more efficiently and comprehensively and to use just-in-time purchasing methods.

Perhaps even more importantly, YIOULA Group is now positioned to grow. As Maridakis puts it, "Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne is a key enabler of our strategy to enhance market leadership in the Balkans, grow our business in the Ukraine, and continue to improve productivity, efficiency, and profitability as we expand into new markets."

Discussion Questions
1. What problems had the YIOULA Group's stand-alone legacy software created for the company?

2. What are the advantages of ERP systems over standalone software packages?

Critical Thinking Questions

1. What immediate and long-term needs did EnterpriseOne fill for the YIOULA Group?

2. The YIOULA group adopted a general ERP system that was not industry specific. What are the advantages and disadvantages of general ERP systems and industryspecific systems?