S U C C E S S S T O R Y

E N T E R P R I S E I N F O R M A T I O N M A N A G E M E N T

INDUSTRY

Power

CUSTOMER

Alstom Power TSNA Boiler Service Group

CHALLENGES

• Harmonizing business processes and tools globally

• Multi-language support to scale globally

• Maintain existing productivity and customer satisfaction

SOLUTION

• OpenText™ Active Orders

• OpenText™ B2B Managed Services

BENEFITS

• Fast compliance with customer requests for EDI

• Automation of procure-to-pay business processes with small and medium-size suppliers

• 98% transactional success rate over six months

• Increased productivity and reduced paper waste

Alstom Power TSNA Boiler Service Group Harmonizes B2B Platform and Business Processes to Scale GloballyLeading energy company increases productivity with a 98% procure-to-pay transaction success rate using OpenText solutions

Approximately 25 percent of the world’s power production capacity depends on Alstom technology and services. They deliver critical equipment for one of every two U.S. power plants, supply one in five of the country’s metropolitan subway systems, and install technology that manages 40 percent of the country’s electrical grid. Alstom’s clean technologies generate electricity equivalent to the needs of around 1.2 billion homes.

Alstom Power provides equipment and services for power generation, transmission, and rail transportation to over 90,000 people in over 100 countries. This requires them to have fast, transparent, and efficient communication with all their global suppliers—large and small—in order to optimize their mutual procure-to-pay processes.

B2B Environment

In order to comply with their customer requests for the exchange of electronic data interchange (EDI) ordering and shipping documents, Alstom Thermal Service North America (TSNA) Boiler Service Group, based in Windsor, Connecticut, used an in-house EDI translator that was integrated with their legacy ERP system for conversion between their in-house and EDI formats. They exchanged these documents with their customers via a value-added network (VAN). Being able to reply quickly to such customer requests was critical to Alstom.

Alstom Power Inc. has been setting the benchmark in clean, efficient, flexible and integrated power generation solutions for over a century. In West Virginia, Alstom installed the world’s first facility to both capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) from a coal-fired power plant at the American Electric Power station Mountaineer. Committed to helping their customers contribute to the global need for greater energy sustainability, Alstom provides high-quality solutions for power generation. Every day around the world, they are working to make sustainable energy a reality by providing clear solutions that deliver clean power.

E N T E R P R I S E I N F O R M A T I O N M A N A G E M E N T

S U C C E S S S T O R Y

In addition, as part of a program to improve their purchasing processes with suppliers, they leveraged a web portal that enabled some of their suppliers to receive Alstom’s purchase orders.

ChallengesModernize and Standardize Technology and Processes to Reduce Business Risk

Although Alstom’s current ERP and EDI systems sufficed for their U.S. operations, the technology was outdated, could not be extended globally, and therefore, posed significant business risk for global expansion plans. Efficient communications and harmonized business processes with their customers and suppliers around the world became more critical than ever, and their current systems had to be modernized.

They had already decided to upgrade and standardize their ERP system globally, but Alstom realized they also needed a modern B2B platform that would provide:

• Tight integration between the B2B platform and the new ERP system to minimize manual intervention

• A single method of integrating with all their suppliers, regardless of the B2B communication option selected by the supplier – whether EDI, XML, or web-forms based

• A replacement for the current web-based solution used by their small-and medium-size suppliers who were not currently using a fully integrated B2B process. It needed to be easy-to-use while ensuring that suppliers complied with Alstom-specific business processes. Alstom expects that such features could eliminate up to 70% of their paper documents and manual processes

Complete the Technology Upgrade without Impacting Customers or Adding Resources

The technology upgrade would help Alstom standardize their processes, increase their productivity, and minimize paper waste. Alstom, however, was very concerned about how upgrading to a new B2B platform would affect their customer service levels. “We knew that a new platform would later enable us to increase the number of suppliers and transactions flowing through, but on day one that wasn’t the goal,” says Kevin Hulse, Head of Information Systems. Rather, their highest priority was to find a solution that could seamlessly manage the processes and integration between

“We have a 98% success rate for transactions, averaged over six months. Because of this success, our productivity is increasing; less time is needed to troubleshoot and fix transactions. We can really depend on OpenText Active Orders.”DANIELLE CORMIER, BUSINESS APPLICATION ANALYST, ALSTOM POWER TSNA WINDSOR, CT US

their new platform and ERP system without any negative impact to their business.

Furthermore, Alstom did not have sufficient resources to apply to both the ERP upgrade and the B2B platform modernization. Alstom was concerned that current IT staff levels would not be able to support an in-house B2B solution across multiple time zones and languages.

Alstom decided to seek an alternative to an in-house approach. They decided to outsource their B2B program to a cloud-based B2B managed services provider that has a track record of high availability and solid performance.

SolutionOpenText B2B Managed Services with Active Orders

When searching for the right solution, Alstom knew they wanted to outsource their B2B platform to a managed services provider that could eliminate risks to their customer service levels, as well as provide the 24/7, multi-language support they needed in a single cloud-based platform. A clear choice was OpenText™ B2B Managed Services as it provides a cloud-based B2B platform that shields Alstom from the increasing complexities of their global B2B program—such as supporting global trading partners, staying up-to-date with the latest technology and standards, and ensuring the high service availability that minimizes Alstom’s business risk. In addition, the OpenText platform has a proven track record for high availability, high performance, and security.

“It was very important that we were able to review security controls, KPIs and the SLAs with our potential managed services supplier. When you’re rolling out a global platform you want to ask yourself, ‘Do I have the right service management controls in place? Do I have the right KPIs and reporting in place with my supplier?’ That was incredibly important to us and one of the key differentiators for us in choosing OpenText as our global B2B platform,” says Hulse.

Alstom also selected OpenText™ Active Orders, a hosted application that provides an easy-to-use web forms service that automates procure-to-pay processes with non-EDI suppliers. It provides the ability to simultaneously deliver visibility into supply chain transactions and processes for all their suppliers, whether EDI or web forms-based. Active Orders also provides Alstom the configuration and customization flexibility they need to ensure that suppliers comply with their specific business process rules.

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S U C C E S S S T O R Y

Alstom is able to quickly access information to help them identify potential problems within the supply chain, provide a rapid response, and monitor supplier performance.

“Active Orders provides a great option for our suppliers that are not ready or able to implement traditional EDI. It’s more than EDI however – it is designed as a Supply Chain process automation solution too; we love it and our suppliers love it,” says Hulse.

Alstom Power is now doing business electronically with suppliers and customers of their TSNA Boiler Service Group using the combi-nation of B2B Managed Services and Active Orders. OpenText configured the web forms interface for Alstom’s small and medium-sized suppliers to ensure compliance with Alstom’s specific business processes.

BenefitsIncreased Productivity

After implementing the OpenText solutions, Alstom Power was not only able to maintain their existing productivity and customer satisfaction levels, but improve them. With their small and medium-size suppliers using Active Orders, Alstom exchanges approximately 2,000 transactions a month, including original orders, changes, incoming goods received, deliveries, shipment notifications, invoices and acknowledgments. “We have a 98% success rate for transactions, averaged over six months. Because of this success, our productivity is increasing; less time is needed to troubleshoot and fix transactions. We can really depend on OpenText Active Orders,” says Danielle Cormier, Business Application Analyst at Alstom Power.

“OpenText B2B Managed Services and OpenText Active Orders have performed solidly, meeting all KPI’s for service delivery and uptime availability. OpenText has diligently worked to meet our needs over the past two years, listening to all feedback and addressing all issues in a timely manner,” adds Hulse.

Improving Customer Relations

For Alstom Power TSNA Boiler Service Group, being able to offer their suppliers with an option between web-based and traditional EDI enables them to onboard more suppliers. This in turn enables them to be better equipped to meet customer expectations across the business. Cormier works closely with internal Alstom Windsor supply chain managers to identify additional suppliers that would be good candidates for process automation via Active Orders. “I have gone to the business, explained the benefits and reviewed the web interface. It is a constant goal to recruit more suppliers. We’ve been able to bring on several new suppliers since inception in 2013, in addition to our many established EDI suppliers. The new suppliers are interested in using EDI with us because it is so much simpler,” says Cormier.

They’ve also initiated training sessions and are working closely to make sure that their suppliers are using the B2B option they’re

most comfortable with. “Suppliers find it much easier to go in and update orders in the system rather than having to fill out Excel spreadsheets at the beginning of the week. This ensures us that they are still able to meet the requirements that they’ve previously committed to,” says Cormier. This has given Alstom more time to spend following up with customers instead of having to track down orders.

Future Plans

Now that they have completed their upgrade, Alstom Power TSNA Boiler Service Group will aggressively promote more supplier participation in their B2B program. “We currently have a third of our top suppliers in North America integrated with our B2B program, and so our vision is to get all our suppliers in North America on board. There is a plan in place, an organized approach with demonstrations of the product and a close partnership with supply chain to reach that goal,” says Cormier.

As Alstom’s B2B procure-to-pay needs grow on a global basis, OpenText will continue to work closely with them to help optimize their processes.

“OpenText Managed Cloud Services and Active Orders have performed solidly, meeting all KPI’s for service delivery and uptime availability.” KEVIN HULSE HEAD OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS, ALSTOM POWER NORTH AMERICA

(07/2015)03654EN