Falken Tire Gains Business Value With Oracle(R) E-Business Suite Release 12

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

-- Falken Tire Corporation (http://www.falkentire.com/), the global distributor of high performance tires, has standardized on the Oracle(R) E-Business Suite Release 12 (http://www.oracle.com/applications/e-business-suite-release.html) to streamline its supply chain in order to manage compliance requirements and effectively predict demand globally, Oracle today announced.

-- The fast-growing company, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Rubber, leveraged Oracle Accelerate (http://www.oracle.com/accelerate), pre-packaged application bundles and the services of DAZ Systems (http://solutions.oracle.com/partners/dazsi), a Certified Advantage Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork to go live on the Oracle E-Business Suite in less than 5 months. Falken Tire chose the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 for its ease-of-use, flexibility to support future growth and robust industry- specific functionality.

-- Oracle replaced an existing Lawson Software implementation that lacked scalability and restricted business processes, creating barriers to the company's fast growth.

-- With the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, Falken Tire has reduced costs and improved profitability while gaining the ability to predict demand across its global supply chain. The company is now relying on a solid and efficient foundation to support future growth.

Tangible Business Benefits Achieved with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

-- Falken Tire's implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 supports 90 users across 3 locations and relies on Oracle Database 10g (http://www.oracle.com/database/index.html) and components of Oracle Fusion Middleware (http://www.oracle.com/products/middleware/index.html).

-- The company deployed Oracle Applications including supply chain planning, warehouse management, order management, advanced pricing, inventory management, procurement, purchasing, financials, human resources and Oracle's Demantra (http://www.oracle.com/applications/scm/demantra/index.html). Additionally, Oracle Business Accelerators (http://www.oracle.com/solutions/mid/accelerator-business.html) were used to ensure a rapid implementation, and Oracle University helped to train employees.

-- Since implementing Oracle, Falken Tire has achieved business value across its organization, including:

-- Supply Chain Efficiencies -- Heightened visibility into the supply chain and better predictions of customer demand have enabled the company to identify efficiencies and better manage inventory to reduce costs and improve profits.

-- Streamlined Financial Operations -- By streamlining workflow and financial processes, the company has reduced the time required to close financials each month from 17 days to less than a week.

-- Improved Decision Making -- With a single, reliable source of data, the company has better insight into business conditions to make informed decisions faster.

-- More Effective Customer Service -- Accurate, efficient customer service reports and intuitive system navigation have enabled the company's customer service representatives to reduce customer call times, increase call volume and enter customer orders more quickly, increasing the number of customer calls served by 35-percent and decreasing on hold times by 15 percent.

-- Global Compliance Support -- With controls to implement workflows, exception reporting, audit trails and security measures the company has helped ensure compliance with both SOX in the United States and J-SOX in Japan.

-- Solid Platform for Future Growth -- With multi-currency and multi-regulatory capabilities, the company can now more easily integrate into additional organizations and locations as the company expands.

-- Improved Promotions Management -- By gaining control of discount programs with better reporting, the company is now able to implement new promotions faster and more effectively.

Supporting Quotes

-- "Our existing system offered limited capabilities and scalability, and couldn't support our aggressive expansion," said Falken Tire Corporation Director of IT, Carlos Prieto. "With a lightning-fast implementation driven by DAZ, Falken Tire was able to quickly standardize on the Oracle E-Business Suite and immediately see measurable business results. The global capabilities and enterprise functionalities of Release 12 help support our organization today, and also provide the flexibility we need to support our future growth."

-- "Oracle Business Accelerators significantly speed up deployments so our clients can quickly start benefiting from Oracle Applications," said Walt Zipperman, CEO, DAZ Systems. "DAZ Systems is committed to empowering midsize businesses with the industry-specific expertise and deep knowledge of the Oracle E-Business Suite to help ensure our clients' success."

    Supporting Resources
    -- Oracle Accelerate (http://www.oracle.com/accelerate)
    -- Oracle Midsize Customer Success Stories (http://tinyurl.com/3zn5fx)
    -- Tony Kender's Oracle Accelerate Blog
       (http://blogs.oracle.com/accelerate/)
    -- Next Release of the Oracle(R) E-Business Suite Previewed at Oracle
       OpenWorld 2008
       (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/017519_EN?rssid=rss_ocom_pr)
    -- Oracle Achieves Milestone with Availability of 200 Oracle Accelerate
       Partner Solutions (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/017604_EN)
    -- Oracle PartnerNetwork (http://www.oracle.com/partners/index.html)

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