Navita Tecnology

DUKE ENERGY

World leader in energy

Energy company mobilizes access to Oracle's Helpdesk and ERP for smartphones through applications developed by Navita.

The Challenge

Executives from the multinational are constantly on trips, not only because of the eight Brazilian hydroelectric plants, but also due to projects and meetings in other Latin American plants of Duke Holding International (division responsible for the company's global investments), that are set up in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala. To provide greater security and speed in communication via email, 50 professionals in the company have been using BlackBerry® smartphones, from RIM - Research in Motion, for the last four years.

The IT department of Duke Energy sought to amplify mobility benefits by using applications that ensure access, even outside the office, to the normal systems of the company's operational routine.

The Solution

Initially, Navita promoted a pilot project to mobilize the Automidia system, used to manage the internal helpdesk at Duke Energy. An application was developed that enabled IT analysts and managers to accelerate request approvals, such as for installing new software or loaning laptops to any employee of the company.
Completed in 2008, and after having streamlined and improved helpdesk processes, the solution served as the starting point for negotiating the delivery of four additional applications, this time seeking to mobilize different features of PeopleSoft Enterprise ERP, from Oracle. As a result, between 2009 and 2010, executives from Duke Energy also began to directly access, via their BlackBerrys, three ERP features geared towards purchase approvals – involving minor services, payments pre-specified in contracts and exceptional payments, such as taxes and urgent expenses – and a feature intended to approve travel expense reimbursements.

The solution was considered ideal because 70% of their RIM smartphone users are authorized to approve purchase and service requests. To put the project into practice, the multinational opted for Navita services – which specialize in applications for BlackBerry smartphones and Mobile solutions.

Benefits

Besides providing permanent access to the ERP system and speed in approvals, the systems manager of Duke Energy, Airton Ferreira Filho, said that mobility brought to an end bottlenecks that generated delays in internal procedures.

“Requests sent to a manager on vacation, for example, had to be redirected to the purchases department who in turn had to look for another available manager to make the approval. This problem was virtually eliminated with BlackBerry smartphones, since the applications are able to manage, in real time, requests that have been handled and are still pending between all the approvers,” said Airton.

The Future

The applications mobilize purchase and reimbursement approvals by 70% of the RIM smartphone users in the multinational that is also considering expanding mobility to plants in five more Latin American countries.

The manager says that in the future Duke Energy intends to make use of new applications to extend mobile access to systems used internally. “Starting from 2011, we want to mobilize ERP approvals that are related to payroll, as well as IBM's Maximo system, which manages purchase requests for office supplies and computers.” The idea is that during the 2011-2012 biennium, the mobilization of systems will be expanded to other plants of the multinational in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“Even with a complex structure, consisting of eight plants and an administrative headquarters, Duke Energy has been very successful in taking advantage of mobility to make their internal processes more efficient, generating many benefits for the entire Brazilian operation of the multinational. The BlackBerry smartphone option also provides the company with strong security features that guarantee protection of strategic data that circulates between devices,” says Roberto Dariva, CEO of Navita. “As each day passes, we see more companies from different segments channeling part of their investments into mobile technologies, with applications that enable seamless integration with ERPs, BIs and other management systems,” he concludes.

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Duke Energy