Plumbers opt for Oracle’s ERP system

EnterpriseOne picked as part of business transformation project

New Zealand Plumbing Merchants (NZPM) has picked Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne system as its ERP system, as a part of the plumbing co-operative’s business transformation initiative.

NZPM would not disclose the expected cost for implementing the Oracle product but said it will be a seven figure sum.

NZPM is based in New Zealand with branches in four countries. It operates a total of 50 retail stores including the Plumbing World chain and employs more than 500 staff. Its major customers are its plumber-shareholders, retailers, and retail customers.

Currently the different branches and stores use disparate systems which are difficult to manage, says COO Tofigh Alizadeh.

Overall financial data is not accurate, and getting a real-time view of business assets and financial figures is not possible.

“We’re using a mix of systems. Plumbing World, which is one of our companies, is using a 15-year old green screen system, and there are others running on spreadsheets,” says Alizadeh.

In 2010 NZPM started an internal requirements documentation initiative. Alizadeh says key stakeholders from different areas of the business were seconded to the project, with their roles backfilled until the business transformation was achieved.

Mid-last year NZPM conducted a nine month long RFP process, which was won by Oracle partner Fusion5.

“We picked this system because it could support what we needed out of the box in most instances. We wanted to do as little customisation as possible,” says Alizadeh.

NZPM expects the core system to go live in January 2013. Alizadeh says once the core system is in place, additional components will be activated in a staggered approach.