1. 2006 Oracle Applications User Group Collaborate ‘06 April 23-27 Nashville, Tennessee OAUG Multi-National SIG Group Multinational Customizations for Global Implementation Patty McGrath BT Americas - CSCpmcgrath2@csc.com

2. BT Americas - Company Profile BT Americas is a $10B telecoms provider to major global corporations and other telecoms carriers BT Corporate has a goal of consolidating 17 Oracle Financials instances into one Current BT Americas instance, based in Reston, Virginia, has been multinational since inception in 1994 – with multiple Shared Service Centers (Atlanta, Manchester) 94 Sets of Books, 160 Legal Entities on BT Americas platform Challenges: – Develop uniform procedures, limit customizations, discover actual statutory versus perceived requirements – Network Inventory is held in non-ERP systems

3. Customizations and Rationale Ability to order and ship from anywhere to anywhere Purchase and pay from the correct Legal Entity based on ship to address Electronic approval regardless of geography Manage projects across countries

4. Web Based Purchasing Web Purchase Order Requisitioning (since 1997) – Single global user sign on – Automatic PO generation into the correct set of books and legal entity – Single set of authority levels based on type of purchase and amount – Authorization electronically based on PeopleSoft management hierarchy

5. Web Purchase Order Requisitioning – Budgetary controls linked to Project Accounting – Global management of Locations and Suppliers – Purchase Order Control – key role in quality management – Multiple Shared Service Centers supported

6. Global Project Accounting FinApps Multinational Project Accounting Solution - Kiran Mundy (since 2000) – Creates a consolidated ‘Management’ set of transactions for all project transactions – Requires structured naming convention for SOB/LE identification – Consolidated financials are available in real time based on the SOB of the Management view

7. Global Project Accounting FinApps Multinational Project Accounting Solution – Posts costed labor to the Management entity and then pushes them to the correct Set of Books (SOB)/Legal Entity (LE) – Accounts payable invoices flow from the default SOB/LE to the Management tables, and then to the default PA tables – Employee expense claims, if Project related, flow to the Project/Task in the Management view, and then to the default SOB/LE.

8. Global Reporting on Customizations Web POR features intuitive reporting – open to all, history by vendor, requestor, dates, etc. Project Accounting Reporting in custom web app – no Oracle access or expertise required, incorporates AP transaction status

9. Lessons Learned Impacts of beginning IT development before business processes standardized Requirement for global standards for procedures, naming conventions, etc. Organizational changes necessary to support transition to Shared Service Centers Hardware infrastructure necessary for extremely large consolidation Necessity to plan for acquisitions, patches, upgrades

10. 2006 Oracle Applications User Group Collaborate ‘06 April 23-27 Nashville, Tennessee OAUG Multi-National SIG Group Multinational Implementation Challenges - Panel Language and Culture Markus Hentschel BearingPoint Inc.Markus.Hentschel@bearingpoint.com

11. Language and Culture A Language for the Team Cultures – and what that mean

12. Language As long as the key team members speak English, there wasn't a problem. It's important to allow them to have time away from the second language - if you go with an English speaking deployment in another country. Body language support the speech of the team member Make sure the answers make sense helps to guarantee to understand. Sometimes it is even unacceptable for a team member or Project Manager not to speak the native language of the country where the rollout is.

13. The polite Britian - British Coded Speech - What is saidWhat is meant Hm….interesting idea You could say that We must have a meeting about your idea We shall certainly consider it I’m not quite with you on that one I agree, up to a point What a stupid suggestion I wouldn’t Forget it We won’t do it That is totally unacceptable I disagree

14. Language and Culture The Language is not the biggest barrier. The culture is the biggest

15. What is Culture ? Please define Culture !!! American Heritage English Dictionary: "The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions and all other products of human work and thought."

16. Culture What is true meaning of a “Yes” – Yes may only mean 'I don't understand so I agree' – When they say "yes" it doesn't really mean "yes" If you are not the direct supervisor, the person will check with him/her before doing anything and may come back with the opposite of what you requested – A “No” is for some cultures an unacceptable answer What means time? – "Tomorrow" doesn't really mean "tomorrow", it could mean "in two days", or even "next week“. Punctuality is not a common concept. Prepare to be patient. – Be on time for a meeting or better use the academic quarter ; Punctually are not only an adornment, but an indication of professionalism.

17. Culture Lunch and Dinner – In some culture folks expect that time as “personal” time, especially in countries where lunch time lasts for over an hour. (Typical Latin American and Southern European Countries) – Usually people are really looking forward to those couple of hours to just relax, socialize, and do anything except for work related activities. Others – The “rollout countries” feels “colonized” or “not at ease” with folks from overseas calling the shots – August was a short project month, as most people took off (minimum) two weeks in August. A lot of European countries take off a month in the summer time.

18. Lewis Model of Cultural Classification Richard Lewis Communication

19. Lewis Model of Cultural Classification

20. 2006 Oracle Applications User Group Collaborate ‘06 April 23-27 Nashville, Tennessee OAUG Multi-National SIG Group Compliance Initiative Mohan Iyer FSCP Solutions Inc.mohan@fscpsolutions.com

21. ? Compliance ? Sarbanes Oxley (SoX) – Act of 2002 Mostly due to the Enron and MCI fiasco Has crept into every task – manual and system related Systems are not yet upto mark for adapting and managing compliance requirements

22. ? Compliance ? Main features – Segregation of duties – System controls – Manual compensating controls – Process narratives – Spot audits – CFO and CEO accountabilty

23. ? Compliance ? Directed at addressing needs for SoX – Mainly US centric International Standards (IASB) – Europe – Asia – Australia Specific fiscal reporting and other concerns

24. ? Compliance ? Typical Implementation – Corporate HQ in US – US centric processes – Overseas subsidiary offices Smaller headcount in overseas offices Segregation of duties issues Process driven issues with differences in narratives and practicality Specific fiscal reporting Other regional requirement concerns

25. ? Compliance ? Solutions (?) – Many software companies in the US market products to monitor changes – Some of these packages also perform additional tasks to manage segregation of duties needs – Copious documentation is needed to track changes (depending upon your narrative) – Change management is time consuming and laborious – in most cases

26. ? Compliance ? Lessons Learnt (?) Impact – Time and resource intensive – Process changes needed in most cases – Understanding the risk matrix is important – Understanding the solutions All need not be systematic, many can be compensating or manual controls – Frustration with auditors who are not knowledgeable about the system