Each plant maintained its own parts list within the central QAD database, but plants couldn't share data, says Tony Parziale, vice president of IT and chief technical officer of Maxxim, a $500 million medical products maker. Some of the plants' QAD systems used different reference numbers for the components--sutures, gowns and syringes, for instance--that constitute a Maxxim surgery tray. Some sites were still running older, homegrown production and inventory systems.
Now Maxxim is starting all over again, replacing the QAD and homegrown applications and databases with Oracle's 11i ERP and CRM (customer-relationship management) applications.
The integrated ERP/CRM system will give Maxxim a single database with consistent sales, distribution and accounting information.
"In our current database, the same customer appears multiple times," Parziale says. The CRM implementation will also give Maxxim's sales force its first-ever tools for managing customer orders and sales leads.
The changeover started last fall, when Maxxim centralized its IT organization and replaced its frame relay WAN with an outsourced IP VPN service from WorldCom. Maxxim hired Appshop, a Fremont-based ASP (application service provider), to host, manage and handle the upgrades for the Oracle applications and servers so the IT department could focus more on the company's strategic use of the applications. Maxxim already had farmed out its Microsoft Exchange applications to eDeltacom, an ASP in Atlanta. "IT had to be a corporate function serving business units," Parziale says.
Outsourcing was the quickest and least expensive way for Maxxim to update its applications and WAN. "We didn't have the IT talent in-house," says Wes Thurmond, director of enterprise networks and computing for Maxxim, who like Parziale joined the Waltham, Mass.-based company in late 2000.
Maxxim's Oracle ERP and CRM project should be complete by the first quarter of next year, with the first plant going live in July. Parziale and his team, with some help from Arthur Andersen Consulting, are still working off the QAD database until Oracle's integrated ERP/CRM customer database is ready in July. Even when Maxxim shifts its customer information to the Oracle database and tools, it will still use the older database for manufacturing until all the plants are cut over. Maxxim will write temporary interfaces to transfer data during the conversion.
After the customization fiasco with QAD, Maxxim isn't taking any chances with the Oracle applications. "We were revision-locked with QAD, so we're implementing Oracle in pure vanilla without customization," Parziale says. "Then we can easily migrate to new versions of Oracle as they roll out." Version updates and other patches are Appshop's responsibility, so the Maxxim team can concentrate on making sure the company is getting the most out of the new applications.
Still, the Oracle ERP and CRM packages don't cover all of Maxxim's operations, especially niche medical processes, like validation and complaint tracking for the Food & Drug Administration. Maxxim had to buy a separate Windows NT-based application for that function as well as for a rebate application it needs that the Oracle software doesn't support.
Once the Oracle applications are in place, Maxxim plans to provide single sign-on capabilities, so when users log on to their Windows 2000 workstations, the application checks the company's Active Directory server for their privileges. Eventually, Maxxim hopes to let its hospital clients place their own surgical tray orders directly online. "Part of the Oracle project," says Thurmond, "is to bring in electronic commerce."
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On the Job
- Parziale's Biggest challenges with the Oracle project: Keeping senior management focused and engaged, promoting the benefits of an integrated ERP/CRM system, and keeping business owners from adding or customizing software functionality.
- Best part about outsourcing ERP/CRM: Not having to approach my CFO and ask for another server or a database administrator or systems administrator.
- Worst part about outsourcing ERP/CRM: Having to explain to users why they can't see and touch the box that runs their data.
- Next time i build an erp/CRM infrastructure: I'll make sure the project starts on time or I'll bring the vendor in again to demo it. Maxxim had planned to start its Oracle project last June, but funding issues delayed it until January. In the interim, some of the business owners changed and some of the remaining forgot what they had committed to.
- My next career: The CEO role has always interested me--the ability to lead an entire organization and shape business functions across the enterprise. But I would probably take some time to fish in the Florida Keys and recharge my batteries before my next career move.
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