The Client

Elektra Noreste S.A. started operations in Panama on November 1st, 1998 as part of a privatization process with the purpose of optimizing and modernizing the Energy Distribution Service in the country. This process included the privatization of several government public services institutions such as the “Instituto de Recursos Hidráulicos y Electrificación (IRHE)”, among others. Initially Elektra Noreste S.A. served 173,700 users and today it has incorporated more than 126,000 additional users resulting in a customer base of more than 300,000 users among several provinces such as Colon, Darien, Kuna Yala, and the eastern sector of the province of Panama as well as some Pacific Ocean Islands.

The Challenge

Elektra Noreste S.A. was in need of an accounting system that could manage all administrative, financial, and investment portfolio processes in an integrated fashion. There were too many manual and isolated processes that hinder the flow of information for decision making purposes. The company was looking for a way to integrate and automate all processes and eliminate the silos of information and barriers among the different departments. Elektra Noreste decided to evaluate several world class ERP solutions as a result of a study and thorough analysis that concluded that an ERP could integrate and automate key processes throughout the organization and allow for more accurate decision making at the operational, financial, and strategic levels of the organization.

The Solution

The response to the needs of Elektra Noreste S.A. was to implement the Oracle Financials Suite in addition to the Procurement, Inventory, and Projects modules. These set of modules are all part of the Oracle E-Business Suite ERP solution. The Solusoft consulting team started with the implementation of the Financials Suite, then the Procurement and Inventory modules in a period of five (5) months. Soon after, a second phase was initiated with the implementation of the Oracle Projects module for costing and investment portfolio management, as well as Oracle Discoverer for generating end user reports.

The Results

With the Oracle E-Business Suite implementation Elektra Noreste S.A. managed to automate key business processes and at the same time achieve a high degree or level of Security and Control across the entire operation. The company was able to reduce the accounting period closing time, as well automate the procurement process and inventory management. Finally, the project costing and capitalization and reporting for decision making was integrated with the rest of the business processes, thus serving as the platform for supporting the continuous growth and improvement of the organization.