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- SOLUTION: Oracle E-Business Suite

- SECTOR: Manufacturing & Services

 

"Innova's experience proved very significant for us at this stage."

Ali Akbay 
Karbosan Planning Manager

Karbosan ERP Project


Karbosan decided to use Oracle E-Business Suite Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in 2004.

Karbosan, which was founded in 1967 in İstanbul, was the first company in Turkey to produce abrasive products. The company, which operates in a 41,000 square meter facility with 450 employees, is an industry leader in the Turkish market. Karbosan, which recently began to focus on exports, is currently exporting to many countries in five continents with its most prominent customers being in Europe. Approximately 22 percent of the company's turnover is composed of export revenues. Karbosan decided to use Oracle E-Business Suite Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in 2004 when their IT systems became insufficient.

 

Karbosan Planning Manager Ali Akbay explains the reasons behind their decision as follows: "When I started working for Karbosan in 1997, they were using software developed specially for Karbosan by an IT company. That software was initially able to manage all of our inventory movements and meet our accounting, sales and production needs. However, as the company grew over time, it could no longer meet our needs. This situation was naturally conveyed to senior management. It is senior management's duty to make strategic decisions for the future of the company. They have to have the most updated and correct information at hand while making strategic decisions. We could not attain certain level of up-to-date and accurate information with the old system. We considered whether changing our infrastructure and began looking for solutions."

Karbosan ERP Project

Oracle was chosen as a result of this search. Akbay states that Oracle's flexibility was crucial in this decision: "We wanted to see the support of a world-famous company in the program we would buy. At the same time, the software had to be flexible in order to meet our needs. After a thorough period of research, we decided on Oracle ERP systems, believing that it would meet our needs and started the project."

 

Habits have changed

After choosing the system, Karbosan decided to work with Innova in order to implement the Oracle ERP system. Akbay explains that Innova's significant experience with Oracle and strong references from the manufacturing industry played a role in their decision. Saying that they had difficulties during the process; but were able to overcome them thanks to Innova's support, Akbay describes the project process as follows: "We experienced serious difficulties. We did not know how we could part ways with a system that we had been used to for more than 30 years and move on to a new one. Innova's experience proved very significant for us at this stage. The Innova team helped us tremendously at every stage of this transition process to ERP. We overcame our  

 

Another advantage of the system is that top management can access the reports whenever and wherever they wish. Management has access to the screen display of any report, can make the necessary decisions and can share these decisions with the lower management. In addition, the information is now 100 percent consistent. Akbay states that the data obtained from different sources on the same topic for a report previously may have contradicted one another, whereas now this is no longer a problem.

 

Akbay maintains that the acquired speed and productivity are reflected in business results, yielding a significant growth performance in 2006 and 2007: "While Karbosan usually grew a few points annually, we showed a double digit growth performance for the two years following our implementation of the ERP system. We began driving a faster car so we accelerated as well. In short, we are very pleased with the advantages that the new infrastructure has provided us with."