News

Embry-Riddle Taps Oracle for AP Process Improvement

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/15/09

In an effort to improve integration with its Oracle E-Business Suite, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has migrated its financial process performance system over to Oracle Imaging and Process Management. The application is used to manage 300 different types of student documents.

In a statement, the university said that by switching to Oracle Imaging and Process Management in its accounts payable office, it consolidated multiple steps in its AP processes. The change also eliminated the need to do software customizations that became necessary with its previous system when the institution upgraded its Oracle E-Business Suite to version 12.

"Transitioning to Oracle ... was a strategic decision driven by a desire to reduce costs, simplify processes, and improve our IT infrastructure," said Cindy Bixler, CIO.

The implementation tightened integration with the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, enabling users to do work involving expenses, invoices, and discrepancy reports within interfaces they were already familiar with. The university has estimated that the new deployment has helped reduce its annual paper usage from 140 tons to 70 tons by converting student forms to Web-based formats and using automated workflow to deliver them to recipients.

Embry-Riddle worked with consultants from Oracle Consulting to deploy and integrate the new application, getting to full production in about six months.

The university, which specializes in aviation and aerospace, has about 34,000 students in programs at its main campus in Daytona Beach, FL and a residential campus in Prescott, AZ, as well as in 130 other educational centers around the world and its online classes.