Alpine Electronics

Alpine Electronics scales new heights with Web-enabled Oracle

When Alpine Electronics of Canada, Inc. decided to take advantage of new web-enabled technology as a pilot project for the corporate enterprise, CGI helped the company get its financial applications on stream and online, paving the way for Alpine’s North American operations to enjoy the benefits of many web-enabled applications and functions.

The Challenge
As the premium mobile multi-media wholesale distributor of car audio and car navigation products, Alpine Electronics of Canada, Inc. and Alpine Electronics of America, Inc. were familiar with pushing the envelope from a technology standpoint. When Alpine in Canada had to realign their IT strategy in order to move forward on newer technology, the company was willing to serve as a pilot project for what could eventually become a corporate-wide application. Although the Canadian operation is autonomous, the technical support was provided from corporate Alpine in California in order to reduce computing costs and minimize technical support on all Oracle applications wherever located. Centralizing support meant the project had split responsibilities between the technical team in California and the implementation team in Canada. Priorities were not always aligned between the two companies.

There was also a time zone problem that would delay progress at the Ontario operations should a problem arise in the morning, or delay the Canadian response to a California issue until the next day. Another challenge was that the NCA Web version was unfamiliar to Alpine’s Oracle support staff in California who were running a character-based version of Oracle Applications. Additionally there were cross-border issues like taxation that required a different set up in Canada. At that time, Oracle support would come from whatever country the company held the license, whether or not the implementation was in that country. That caused certain challenges to get country-specific support. Finally, as this was Oracle’s first net-enabled version, it was not as stable or as well supported as were subsequent releases.

The Strategy
CGI brought high-level consulting expertise in project management, multiple organization setup, security and constraint considerations as well as distributed inventory management functionality.

CGI assigned a project team through its dedicated ERP practice to ensure team members were well-versed in implementing Oracle and skilled at dealing with Alpine’s challenges. The CGI project team leader’s 14 years of manufacturing supply chain experience included addressing country-specific issues, having implemented Oracle in Thailand. The team also had accounting business knowledge. CGI performed project management, implementation consulting, functional consulting and application set up, training and implementation.

At times CGI worked to twelve-hour days to accommodate the three-hour time difference. CGI worked with Oracle and the Alpine technical team to tailor the application to Canadian issues and
develop direct deposit interfaces to Canadian banks. An HP Gateway server and router were set up in Canada to reduce overall computer operating costs.

CGI modified the Oracle implementation methodology by setting up a prototyping pilot, during which time CGI trained the key users while Alpine made decisions on the solution features. CGI also provided documentation for future problem-solving and new staff training.

CGI worked closely with Oracle to resolve country-specific issues and ensure the software’s stability.

The Technology

• Server: UNIX running Oracle Applications 10.7/NCA
  
• Client: HP Gateway running Web-based NCA
  
• Oracle’s tool set.

The Results
Within six months, Alpine of Canada was operational with web-enabled Oracle General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Inventory and Order Entry modules.
The Canadian implementation served as a successful pilot and foundation for migrating Alpine in California to Oracle Applications version 10.7/NCA. Both companies enjoy the anticipated cost reductions from the centralized support as well as the many advantages of being web-enabled.

Being directly connected with the U.S. server, Alpine of Canada’s authorized users have ready access to the information system whether traveling or at the Canadian office. Alpine can also piggyback other functions on top of the Oracle, and move back and forth between other web-enabled programs and functions such as supply chain management (SCM), electronic data interchange (EDI) and various e-business initiatives required by the automakers.

“CGI worked hand in hand with our IS dept in California and together they did a great job in solving all the technical issues as they were discovered,” says Alpine of Canada controller Mark Hirowatari. “The three parties -- Oracle, our IS department and CGI -- all contributed to a fairly smooth technical implementation.