Saudi's Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) selects Oracle E-Business Suite to boost privatization efforts

As part of its privatisation efforts, SWCC will initially utilize applications including Oracle Financials, Oracle Human Resources Management System (HRMS) and Oracle Procurement to streamline and integrate its business processes from 27 desalination plants and 3 separate IT sites into a single, online environment.

The impetus for the SWCC's major Oracle project is to centralize financial management and create a supply chain foundation to connect its desalination plant production, maintenance and procurement operations to the organization's Riyadh headquarters. The major benefits that SWCC anticipates are greater control over its procurement and supply chain functions, lower operational costs, better insight into financial performance through daily business intelligence, and more advanced forecasting and analysis of production and supply chain.

"SWCC has two key initiatives running in tandem - our privatisation efforts, which will gain momentum over the next few years, as well as far-reaching growth targets, which include the construction of three more plants, each costing around US $1 billion. In order to administer these programmes professionally and according to a set timeline and budget, we need to run more like a private organization, with our core business processes managed centrally, and an increased focus on efficiency and the level of service we provide to suppliers and customers," stated Loay Musalem Director of IT, SWCC.

"Following an exhaustive market review, we selected Oracle as a long-term technology partner based on the integrated and complete nature of the Oracle E-Business Suite, as well as the strength and market reach of Oracle's operations in Saudi Arabia," he continued.

SWCC also expects that its new business infrastructure will address a number of challenges within the organization, including automating the inter-plant transfer process, better management and deployment of human resources, and integrating project expenditure with the overall procurement cycle.

"As Saudi's population grows, the demand for a professionally-managed, efficient desalination organization also increases. With its new infrastructure in place, the SWCC also has the ability to export its expertise to other markets, and create a culture of customer service that will help it maintain market leadership should other utility companies enter the Saudi market at some juncture," commented Abdulrahman al Dosary - Managing Director Oracle Saudi

The Oracle implementation at the SWCC has already commenced, with Oracle partner Ernst & Young providing on-site consulting expertise. SWCC's partnership with Oracle delivers a significant foothold for the software provider in the Middle East's increasingly privatised utility sector.