BLUE BELL CREAMERIES Leading Ice Cream Brand Hosting & Managed Services

ABOUT EMTEC ® FIRM PROFILE

Emtec is the right size provider of technology-empowered Blue Bell Creameries is ranked in the top three best-selling ice cream business solutions for world class brands in the United States with the majority of sales in 22 states. organizations. Our local offices, highly-skilled associates, and Founded in 1907, Blue Bell’s Headquarters is in Brenham, Texas and global delivery capabilities ensure the accessibility and scale to align operates manufacturing facilities in Brenham, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, technology solutions with your and Sylacauga, Alabama. business needs. Our collective focus is to continue to build clients for life: long-term enterprise relationships THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE that deliver rapid, meaningful, and lasting business value. Blue Bell has been an Oracle user since 1997. qualified, in-house resources that would drive Years ago, Blue Bell decided to outsource their the upgrade project, but needed Emtec’s Oracle DBA responsibilities and the hosting ClearCARE team to offset missing skill sets APPLICATION SERVICES of their Oracle environments to a third party and serve as an extension of their existing Emtec provides support and provider. They pursued a partner who could team. expertise throughout the entire provide comprehensive hosting, database and application lifecycle. application support services. By engaging RESULTS Oracle On-Demand, Blue Bell selected Emtec We help clients reduce costs, Blue Bell has utilized Emtec’s hosting and to provide hosting and DBA managed services. streamline processes and gain database administration services for over six efficiencies through better utilization THE SOLUTION years. Blue Bell has also expanded its use of of their applications. ClearCARE for additional application functional When Blue Bell began to assess the feasibility and development support as needed. Our application expertise includes: of upgrading their EBS 11i to R12, the decision • ERP Emtec has employed a unique, predominantly was not an easy one due to the changes remote delivery model, supporting Blue Bell’s • HCM taking place in OPM inventory. However, core internal team with highly experienced the upgrade was necessary because of • CRM project management, OPM, ASCP, and DBA requirements around HR/Payroll support resources. Key project milestones were • EPM levels. Blue Bell had concerns on the OPM achieved and user training was performed with side because they knew the upgrade was both teams onsite. It was beneficial that Blue • BI going to be complex with numerous table Bell already had experience with the upgrade changes and the merging of OPM Inventory • Planning process. with Discrete Inventory. To complicate • Collaboration matters even more, OPM Manufacturing • Emtec assisted with report remediation of 60 Planning was not supported in R12. The legacy Oracle reports. • Financial Management project also included the implementation of • Several data conversion processes were • Application Development & the Advanced Supply Chain Planning (ASCP) performed in 11i in areas where the standard Testing module to enable unconstrained planning upgrade process did not convert data to models, third party interfaces, Discoverer, • ClearCARE Managed Services work properly within the R12 environment. and Oracle reports. Custom interfaces for the automation of transfers between manufacturing • The payment process was created for facilities, distribution centers and OPM batch payables based on the new procedures in transactions had to be developed. A new third R12. party ‘mobile supply chain’ implementation was also part of the plan. Blue Bell had BLUE BELL CREAMERIES Leading Ice Cream Brand Hosting & Managed Services

ClearCARE SERVICES • Several unique forms personalizations were • Application & Database Hosting developed in the inventory module including the ability to display item supply demand for • DBA & Infrastructure Managed OPM batches and blanket purchase order Services releases.

• Application Functional & • Additional forms personalizations were created Technical Support for payables and receivables.

• Application Enhancements Once Emtec performed several iterations of the • Client Specific Application upgrade process and conducted substantial Training testing, a ‘go live’ date was determined. Blue Bell selected a three day weekend that did not include a holiday and payroll would not be due the following week. Blue Bell successfully went live with no business disruption and the ClearCARE team continues to provide them with reliable, worry free hosting and managed services support.

PEACE OF MIND

“Several years ago, we researched the idea of outsourcing DBA responsibilities for our Oracle EBS system. When evaluating the pros and cons of outsourcing, it became very clear that hosting was the way to go for Blue Bell. We started with Oracle On-Demand, but then started looking at third party providers as a cost effective alternative. We knew what to look for and what we needed in a hosting partner and decided Emtec could best meet that need. We were mainly looking at DBA and hardware hosting solutions, but the fact that Emtec had a strong application support model was also a benefit to us.

We have been with Emtec for over six years and are very satisfied with their team and service capabilities. We are not a 24x7 operation, but they are. We do not have to worry about application availability or critical support, which allows our Oracle team to focus on what’s important - making ice cream. We have been utilizing Emtec more and more on the application and functional side of Oracle with positive results. In addition, we engaged the ClearCARE team to conduct training courses on BI Publisher and EBTax onsite at our offices. As a result, I can attest that my team has a better understanding of and comfort level with those tools/modules and our team’s productivity was enhanced.”

– Vickie Monk, Systems Manager, Blue Bell Creameries