Making Oracle applications easier
When British Telecommunications PLC decided last year to upgrade to a newer version of Oracle Applications, Oracle Corp.'s suite of back-end business management software, the London-based communications company faced an expensive "wither and die" migration process for its data, says systems development accountant Chris Lacey.
That approach would create two diverging Oracle Applications implementations: one with several instances of the old version containing the historical data collected before the change, and another running on the new software version that combined invoice and ordering information from departments within the company's wireless division.
Then, at an Oracle user's conference last spring, Lacey came across Crystallize Inc. in Ann Arbor, Mich. The start-up's software automates the process of merging different implementations of Oracle Applications, changing the underlying database fields and restructuring financial systems.
What previously required custom scripts, a raft of consultants and a brute-force approach can be done in-house within a few months, claims Joshua Greenbaum, a principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting in Daly City, Calif. "Crystallize is trying to solve an age-old problem that has typically been solved the hard way," he says.
Using Crystallize's software, British Telecom was able to combine its multiple instances of Oracle Applications before its planned upgrade. The process took five months instead of the year or more that Lacey predicted, and he estimates the company will save as much as 1 million pounds because of the unified data stores. In addition, he says, historical data can migrate into the new software, allowing the company to provide better customer service because of that integrated database.
At the center of Crystallize's software is a patented rules engine developed by CEO and former Oracle consultant Helene Abrams. The rules describe patterns common to most implementations of Oracle Applications, she says.
The engine focuses on many areas, including undocumented Oracle processes, like the sequence of loading relational databases, and
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