Outokumpu – from many dialects to one common language
The global steel group Outokumpu has teamed up with e-man for the integration of Financial information and Order placement. From using individual systems in all the various Outokumpu subsidiaries around the wold for accounting and finance, and order placement, Outokumpu now has one common system. Many different dialects has become one common language.
Thanks to the powerful and user friendly solution, Outokumpu is gaining alot of time when transfering financial reporting and placement of orders from the various mills and production units.
Outokumpu is one of the worlds leading groups for stainless steel manufacturing. As the company has grown, the need for systems integration has grown drastically. All subsidiaries were previously using their own it-systems for accounting, finance and production. It was inefficient in the long run, and e-man received the prestigious contract of integrating the global accounting and financial system with each subsidiaries it-systems.
Step one ment that using SOA principles (Service Oriented Architecture) establishing best practices - determining and proving how integration should be kept most efficient, while being highly flexible and keeping maintenance costs at an absolute minimum.
Step two was rolled out using the help of systems integration software from TIBCO, translating the communication language of the various subsidiaries into one neutral language for the entire group. The solution has become a great success. Today, all mills are integrationed, and can troublefree and easy send invoices, salaries and accounting records to the central financial reporting system.
In the ongoing new large integration project, E-man has the assignment to also integrate the order placement system. It is about streamlining the entire order placement process for all subsidiaries; sales organizations and production units. The challenge is complex, considering there are thousands of variants of steel, each of which had its own product name and description throughout the organization - depending on where the order originated. In the new integration platform, all mills can speak the same language in regards to, for example, the name of the various stainless steel types. Using the TIBCO-platform as the heart and powerful engine in the system, the integration is on its route to becoming another success story.