Clients challenge

A long-standing natural gas distribution utility had a history of serving its customers well for over
100 years. Although the company had been stable for long time, its management team saw an
opportunity to grow by transforming its internal operations and pursuing an acquisitions strategy.
With multiple, disparate legacy mainframe systems, the company was facing increasing IT costs
and inefficient, manual processes.
As part of a five-year strategic roadmap for infrastructure improvements and application
replacements, the company determined that it wanted to improve its overall business by replacing
legacy software and business processes with an integrated, process-based solution.
The utility embarked on a bold initiative of operational transformation. It decided to replace 80
percent of its back office systems and processes with new technology in order to put in place a best-
in-class foundation and do it in the most thorough way. Additionally, it planned to execute the
transformation rapidly in order to start making acquisitions as soon as possible. With such a broad
software replacement planned for an extremely rapid timeframe, the company sought a partner to
help it achieve a clear return on investment early and often, while minimizing risk.
The company engaged PwC to replace its legacy financials, supply chain/inventory, and customer
information and billing systems with Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS), Oracle Customer Care and
Billing for Utilities (CC&B), Oracle GRC, and Oracle EPM. PwC was also tasked to update and
expand the utilitys existing Oracle HCM footprint, and deploy and integrate with PowerPlant and
IBM Maximo, leveraging an Oracle Fusion integration layer to integrate all the applications
seamlesslyand to execute the transformation in an aggressive 24-month timeframe.






Bold, aggressive ERP
transformation
positions a utility for
growth and reduces
risk and cost
Consulting
Oracle Business Applications
Utilities

January 2014


2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. All rights reserved.
PwC refers to the US member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a
separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.
This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation
with professional advisors.
PwCs Advisory solution
PwC brought an unmatched combination of utilities industry insight, functional and business-
process knowledge and insight deep technical knowledge of Oracle EBS and CC&B applications, as
well as understanding of utility-specific finance and regulatory requirements, and control needs.
Widely recognized as a leader in the industry, our U.S. utilities practice alone consists of over 600
dedicated professionals. Having helped over 80 U.S. gas utilities meet goals across the areas of
fiscal integrity, customers, assets, employees, regulatory compliance, and commodities, our deep
understanding of the industrycombined with our extensive experience with large-scale
transformation projectsuniquely positioned us to lead the organization through every stage of its
journey.
We assembled a team with experience and qualifications specifically aligned to the clients needs,
with extensive project management skills, technical Oracle EBS and CC&B knowledge, true
understanding of the business process and risk management issues that face utilities and
specifically gas distribution. The team partnered with the client to replace legacy systems with
Oracle EBS R12 (Financials, Supply Chain, GRC, Hyperion, and OBIEE) and Oracle CC&B. In
addition, the company expanded its Oracle HCM footprint by deploying Oracle Advanced Benefits,
iRecruitment, and Time and Labor.
We collaborated with the client to develop a tailored, three-phased approach, architecting the entire
solution set before attempting to implement any individual part. Taking into consideration seasonal
aspects of the gas utilities business that would add risk to deploying major applications, but
understanding the benefits of bringing value early and often, we designed an approach to capitalize
on quick winsspecifically, our ability to implement iRecruitment and Advanced Benefits in six
months. The workstreams and deployment include the following:
Workstream 1a - Oracle iRecruitment and Advanced Benefits
Workstream 1b - Oracle EBS Finance, Supply Chain, Oracle EPM and GRC, and
PowerPlant
Workstream 2 - Oracle CC&B
Workstream 3.1 - IBM Maximo
Workstream 3.2 - IBM Maximo integration with CC&B
We also brought our proven Transform methodology to enable a rapid, comprehensive, and flexible
approach to the design, development, testing, and implementation. Developed specifically for
business transformation and ERP implementation initiatives, our methodology includes
proprietary tools, templates, and accelerators, and promotes knowledge transfer and client self-
reliance.
The client chose PwC based on our ability to tie utilities industry experience with the Oracle
technology, our extensive experience and strong skills around CC&B, finance, supply chain, and HR
transformation, as well as our project, change, and risk management capabilities With our
knowledge of the natural gas utility industry, we were able to use PwCs Connected Power and
Utility Model reference architecture and adapt it for the clients purposes, leveraging out-of-the-box
functionality across the board with minimal customization if any.
2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. All rights reserved.
PwC refers to the US member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a
separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.
This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation
with professional advisors.

Impact on clients business
PwC delivered a true end-to-end operational transformation from strategy, to design, to
implementation. The client has been able to comprehensively replace its back-office systems with a
leading-class, integrated platform that improves efficiency, reduces cost and risk, provides visibility
for decision making, and is scalable to support growth through new acquisitions. We were able to
deliver the scope of functionality that the client wanted from a process design within the aggressive
timeframe it required. Because we leveraged out-of-the-box functionality, we were able to deliver
the entire program on the timeline that we committed to up front.
Key business benefits of the overall project include:
Finance
o Enabling a culture of accountability
o Providing timely information for decision making
o Realizing process efficiency gains with leading practices
o Providing agility for future growth

Human resources
o Utilizing software to full capability
o Increasing employee access to tools and information
o Improving customer satisfaction (internal and external)
o Building more efficient processes

Supply chain
o Implementing leading practices
o Creating visibility across the supply chain
o Developing a scalable system
o Reducing inefficiencies
For more information, please visit
www.pwc.com/oracle

Or contact
Russell Pearson
Principal
(415) 717-0929
russell.pearson@us.pwc.com