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CASE STUDY ON KLUWER’S DYNAMIC WORK SPACE NETWORK RAIL’S ERP SYSTEM IS FIT FOR THE FUTURE Network Rail’s ERP system underpins business operations across the financial, logistics, CRM, recruitment and other domains. To ensure the high levels of performance and availability it needs, and get the best value from its ERP investment, Network Rail worked with CSC and Oracle to overhaul the underlying infrastructure, optimise the system itself, and get on the right track for a major ERP upgrade. A SYSTEM RELIED UPON BY As part of an enterprise operations THOUSANDS OF USERS agreement, CSC manages Network Rail’s ‘Business critical’ can be a rather overused infrastructure and database that support term, but it’s an accurate description the Oracle EBS system. CSC worked of the Oracle E Business Suite (EBS) closely with Network Rail and Oracle on a enterprise resource planning (ERP) proposal to redesign and re-platform theCLIENT: Network Rail, owner system at Network Rail, the owner and infrastructure and optimise the ERP systemand operator of Britain’s rail operator of Britain’s rail infrastructure. ready for upgrade to R12.infrastructure. Every year the system processes £5.5CHALLENGE: Assure the billion of supplier payments, £2.5 billion A ROBUST AND SCALABLEperformance of Network Rail’s ERP of track access payments from train and PLATFORM FOR THE FUTUREsystem—one of the largest and freight operating companies, a payroll The prior infrastructure consisted ofmost complex Oracle E-Business of £1 billion, and £3.5 billion of project a small number of large, powerfulSuite implementations in Europe— financing. The system is also used to servers: an inflexible architecture thatand prepare it for a major upgrade. run other functions as diverse as order was expensive to expand. CSC took a management, logistics planning, expenses, completely different approach—basedSOLUTION: An ERP optimisation customer relationship management (CRM) on industry best practice and Oracle’sproject to clear out redundant and online learning modules; and to maximum-availability architecturecustomisations, implement a provide an online recruitment portal that’s principles for Oracle EBS—and built abusiness-driven governance used by up to 80,000 applicants annually. new platform comprising a larger numberframework, and deliver a Within Network Rail alone, 30,000 users of smaller servers, which improvesrobust and scalable supporting rely on it, as do a further 2,000 across technical and financial flexibility as wellinfrastructure. their supply chain. as efficiency.RESULTS: A successfultransformation of the ERP system It’s now much easier and more cost- ACTION REQUIRED TO ASSUREand its infrastructure that laid effective for Network Rail to expand PERFORMANCEthe foundations for a smoothly capacity by adding one or more extra Network Rail determined that, as partdelivered Release 12 upgrade servers to the platform. Disaster recovery of its overall IT refresh programme, theand closer alignment of future provisions are also much improved: if underpinning ERP system infrastructuredevelopments with business needs. one server should fail, there are plenty needed to be refreshed and set plans in of others to take the load and minimise motion accordingly, it couldn’t risk any the potential risk of data loss. Capacity failure or downtime. An additional driver for specific activities at times of heavy was the pressing need to upgrade to demand, such as year-end reporting, could Oracle EBS Release 12 (R12)—an upgrade be expanded in a similar way. the existing infrastructure couldn’t support. The platform is robust, scalable and easier As well as moving to the latest supported to manage. It provides a much improved version, Network Rail wanted to take monitoring capability that enables the opportunity to review its business Network Rail to investigate and resolve processes, eliminate the number rogue processes faster and better manage of customisations, and exploit new capacity in line with the performance functionality. It also needed to reduce the levels expected by the business. support and administration overhead and overall total cost of ownership.

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NETWORK RAIL’S ERP SYSTEM IS FIT FOR THE FUTUREBUSINESS NEEDS DRIVE SYSTEM Network Rail and CSC. Some were as trivialUPGRADES as changing the colour or a screen or theA key aspect of the ERP optimisation position of a button; overall about a thirdproject was implementation of a new of the customisations were removed.governance framework and control system. The remaining two-thirds were genuinelyIn the past, Network Rail’s Oracle projects needed to provide functionality notwere often led by technical updates to present in the ERP system as standard—the tool. The new governance model now such as allowing for the additional levelsensures that it is business needs that drive of payment authorisation required byupgrades and changes. Network Rail’s oversight obligationsUnder the new framework, Network Rail as a regulated body. These were fullycreates roadmaps for each business area’s documented in preparation for the R12strategic direction, decides what changes upgrade and to enable their effectiveneed to be achieved during each funding management over the longer term.period, and looks at the impact each onewill have on other business areas. READY FOR UPGRADENetwork Rail also now has a structured With the new infrastructure in place andprogram of new feature releases every the ERP system optimised, Network Railtwo months. Changes that deliver was ready to upgrade to Oracle EBS R12, abusiness benefits or help meet regulatory project that was awarded to CSC followingrequirements are prioritised, and Network a highly competitive tender process.Rail has much tighter control over the The ERP optimisation project gaveentire change process. Network Rail direct sight of the required transformation journey and laid theREDUCING CUSTOMISATIONS AND technical foundations for a much easierCOMPLEXITY R12 upgrade process. In addition, CSCA pillar of the new governance framework worked with Network Rail to run anis the centralised configuration tool intensive communications programmethat holds details of the ERP system’s to gain organisation-wide buy-in to thecustomisations. Over the years, project, engaged closely with the businessdocumentation for many customisations to understand requirements, and plannedand non-standard additions hadn’t been for in-depth testing by system users.centrally stored or controlled, making them Throughout the entire process Networkdifficult to manage—an impossible starting Rail’s application services team togetherpoint for a major upgrade like R12. with CSC, formed a very strong projectCSC and Network Rail worked team that demonstrated the high levels ofcollaboratively to identify a significant commitment necessary to ensure the ERPvolume of non-standard items in Network optimisation and R12 upgrade projectsRail’s ERP environment. The majority were were successfully delivered. Over a three-cleared efficiently as part of housekeeping and-a-half year period, Network Rail’sactivities which contributed to de-clutter entire ERP estate was transformed andthe system prior to upgrade. The 6,000 a major upgrade delivered without anycustomisations were investigated by disruption to business operations.WORLDWIDE CSC HEADQUARTERSThe Americas Europe, Middle East, Africa Australia/New Zealand Asia3170 Fairview Park Drive Royal Pavilion 26 Talavera Road 20 Anson RoadFalls Church Wellesley Road Macquarie Park #11-0 Twenty AnsonVA. 22042 Aldershot, Hampshire NSW 2113 Singapore 079912United States GU11 1PZ, United Kingdom Australia Republic of Singapore+1.703.876.1000 +44(0)1252.534000 +61(0)2.9034.3000 +65.6221.9095Produced by CSC’s Marketing & Communications department.© 2012 CSC. Printed in the UK 08/2012. All rights reserved.