Textron Moves ERP to the Cloud Chapter 13 Building Information Systems 523 CASE STUDY H eadquartered in Providence Rhode Island, Textron started out in 1923 as a small New England textile business. It has grown into Fortune 500 company, with subsidiaries and operat ing companies spanning many industries. Leading products include aircraft, helicopters, armored ve hicles, electrical vehicles, and automotive systems, including Cessna and Beechcraft aircraft lines, COMMANDO Elite armored vehicles, Bell vertical lift products, and E-Z-GO golf carts. Textron now Las 35,000 employees, facilities in 25 countries and revenues (in 2019) of $13.6 billion. For over 20 years, Textron has billed itself as the world's oldest Throughout its history. Textron has been the source of ground-breaking technologies and numer cos industry-firsts. Many major steps in the evolu- tion of aircraft, rotorcraft, armored vehicles, electri- cal vehicles, and automotive systems have emerged from its product development labs. Textron has been consistently growing, with am bitious plans to expand further internationally in East, and Central and South America. Until recently, however, the company had been constrained by aging systems, including a 25-year-old ERP system based on Infor and Lawson Software, that was highly deployments as well and private cloud versions and supports hybrid cloud customized with company-specific features and had Oracle Integration Cloud Services is a tool for an antiquated IT infrastructure. These systems did achieving simple, lightweight integrations between not provide enough flexibility and up-to-the-minute SaaS applications that do not require much com- information for the company to grow its business plexity Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence and coordinate an enterprise that spanned many in- (OT BI) provides a flexible and easy-to-use analysis dustries and locations. The company tried to upgrade tool that helps business users gain real-time insight its existing systems, but these systems had too many into transactional data and understand data patterns customizations that would have to be made again This tool has capabilities for robust ad hoc reporting whenever these systems were upgraded role-based dashboards, data visualization, and self- Textron business and IT specialists both agreed that service information delivery this level of customization was unnecessary. For ex- Textron had been experimenting with cloud com ample, the old ERP system had been heavily modified puting for a while and had started to use cloud Suas for some of its nonessential systems. Textron had and customized, even though the company was using chosen to keep more critical applications, including standard software modules for accounts payable, gen. ERP and finance, on premises, because of the regio eral ledger, cash management, and fixed assets. latory limitations it faced as a global company and Continually planning, installing, and testing soft hesitation to entrust core applications to cloud soft ware upgrades and patches required large capital ware providers. Textron's financial professionals who expenditures because all the customized parts of are heavy users of these systems were also reluctant the software had to be identified, tested, and rein- stalled. Such extra work tied up IT staff and resources to embrace change. that could be better allocated to more productive work. Kell Gude, Textron's Senior Finance Systems Manager wanted a system where her team would not have to work on remediating the vulnerabilities of the company's on-premises systems every few months Textron selected Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning Cloud (including Rental ledger accounts payable and fixed assets module) in combination with Oracle Integration Cloud Services, and Onde Transactional Business Intelligence as the best soli tion that had the requisite functionality to meet Information requirements, case of use, and the flex fbility to support future growth. Switching to clood software services would also avoid the large capital expenditures required by constant software upgrades and patches Planning, installing, and testing up grades every few months had taken away time and Tesources the IT staff could have otherwise spent on projects to help grow the business Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning Cload is a cloud-based software application suite that manages enterprise functions such as accounting, financial Central and Eastern Europa, India, China, the Middle management, project management and precum ment and runs in Oracle's doud computing centers Oracle ERP Cloud is accessible through both public conglomerate 124 Part Four med Panda och det wanden wenn ben we wipe den mode time wicht - of en and the sting with me waar heb On The TO that in January plans 4 yep of the mahabharatham cridal patet Morowe Theron www oral coure used this un person chalet and withomation or chatante na intelle alogam nilaa desire , of tech and they done of the occurred at a healthy they hate Me OF C has made who wa TANGO Sonyapan vinced that of the fachangan me da feing the that they will no longer need to content with the They will be able to appone disruption of major parades meny few year Grade version of PC 20 mola 12, quring a ukuta the con latively any fun, but the way "The timing could have been beet Text underestimated the anal me work required to convert the data from old OOO w doud-based em. The old Lawson mom and the new Ondead CASE STUDY QUESTIONS den model depicting the flow and 13-14 What was the company Interationships among alleen data cleme anlation and technology Transforming the data structure from the old sem buted to the problem. Wha to the structure in Orade ERP oud way the impact of this problem! Scule en Chapter 6) Gude commended that any 13-15 and describe the normation organization moving to the Onde ERP Cloud look for Tron's Sew EAP closely at how Information in the ERP Chad map 13-16 de cada pod Its information in einem to Explain your awet To was able to Oracle Consulting Services 13-17 What to make to deal with these problems as well as help with sy molt tem contrations and learning how to use they 13-18 What we hebt of the LA tem's now cloud-based functionality. Once con ins provided configuration specialist who focused om w yo a 524 Part Textron spent 2016 and 2017 preparing for its on the conversion and initial setup of the software move to cloud ERP and financials and hoping to put environment, technical specialists who developed a new system in place by the end of 2017. Its project Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher reports, and team defined information requirements, determined Oracle Integration Cloud Service developmentre how to optimize processes, and provided a detailed sources, who provided guidance on tax and fixed set of system specifications Solution objectives asset setups Textron project team members were Included finding a modern alternative to Textron's thus able to start with a new set of processes to test aging systems, providing better analytics for decision and review support, replacing laborIntensive manual processes Oracle Consulting spent time learning about with automated ones incorporating best practices, Textron's business processes and information re and ensuring users could tailor operational reports quirements including unique customer reporting to their specific requirements. Textron also wanted The consultants provided guidance to help Textron's some means of integrating with the external systems team adopt the modern best business practices to use of suppliers and other business partners in its new system and also to tailor out-of-the-box re- Textron went live on Oracle ERP Financials Cloud ports. Working with Oracle Consultants, Textron was on January 1, 2018. Textron's cloud ERP project able to roll out a reliable system that has been widely was completed on time and under budget within 14 accepted months, much less than management had antici Involving business users at every step of the mi pated. Moreover, Textron was able to maintain its gration to the new system was critical to ensuring normal course of business despite this ambitious users would understand the new Suas ERP system system implementation schedule. But there were and do more with the information provided by the challenges, Finance users initially resisted the new system on their own without depending so heavily system, arguing that the numbers wouldn't change regardless of technology and that they relied on the on the IT department. User adoption and accep- same reports they had always gotten Milce Skibo, tance of the system has occurred at a healthy rate. who was Textron's CIO at that time, eventually con- Implementing Oracle ERP Cloud has made it pos vinced them of the need for change, and promised sible for Textron to eliminate costly upgrades and that they would no longer need to contend with the see more reliable real-time data flowing through the disruption of major ERP upgrades overy few years. company. The system will be able to support future Oracle also released version 13 of its ERP Cloud growth less than one month after Textron had gone live on Source Learn Boes. "Textron Hits Cruising Altitude with release 12, requiring additional work. Fortunately, Oracle Consulting Oracle.com accessed February 7, 2020; www. the transition was relatively easy for Textron, but the totron.com accessed January 3, 2020; www.oracle.com, ac cessed January 4 2020; Jurgen Lindner, "Textron Soars High in timing could have been better. the Oracle Cloud www.oracle.com, accessed February 7 2020 Textron underestimated the amount of additional Margaret Lindquist, Flying High." Profit Magazine, Fall 2019, and work required to convert the data from its old sys- Tory Kontaer 'Cautious About Saas, Textron Came Around to Orade ERP Cloud. Search ERP.com, October 25, 2018 tem to its new cloud-based system. The old Infor- Lawson system and the new Oracle ERP system had CASE STUDY QUESTIONS different data models depicting the data flow and interrelationships among different data elements. 13-14 What problem was the company facing? What management, organization and technology Transforming the data structure from the old system factors contributed to the problem? What was to the structure in Oracle ERP Cloud was very dif- the business impact of this problem? ficult (see Chapter 6). Gudz recommended that any 13-15 List and describe the major information re- organization moving to the Oracle ERP Cloud look quirements for Textron's new ERP system. closely at how information in the ERP Cloud maps to 13-16 Was Oracle Enterprise Cloud a good solution its information in existing systems. for Textron? Explain your answer. Textron was able to use Oracle Consulting Services 13-17 What steps did Textron take to make sure its to deal with these problems as well as help with sys- new ERP system was successful? tem configurations and learning how to use the sys- 13-18 What were the benefits of the new ERP sys- tem's new cloud-based functionality. Oracle consult- tem? How did it change operations and deci- ing provided configuration specialists who focused sion making