AST Press Release

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Martin Small Vice President, Business Development Applications Software Technology Corporation, (AST Corporation) 1755 Park Street – Suite 100 Naperville, IL 60563 Toll Free: 888-AST-0002 Fax: 630-778-1179 Email: info@astcorporation.com www.astcorporation.com
DATE: September 5, 2005
HEADLINE: Chicago Public Schools (CPS) , Paper transactions were reduced significantly with Oracle E-Business Suite while getting Position Control, "under control".
Naperville, IL – The 3rd largest school district in the United States, and a client of AST Corporation since early 2004 was faced with a huge challenge of preparing and approving a budget for over 600 schools and 100 City/Central Office locations in a timely manner with complex routing and approvals process. CPS’ stakeholders were assessing the implementation of Oracle’s Position Control Budgeting application but the concern was that Oracle’s Public Sector Budgeting could not achieve their objectives out-of-the-box. Due to the burden of paper transactions which were becoming increasingly daunting, the stakeholders were apprehensive and CPS considered deploying a third-party budgeting solution. Added pitfalls required major customizations as well and would have negated several of the benefits of standardizing the Oracle E-Business Suite across the CPS enterprise. CPS knew that AST had provided unique solutions with respect to other Oracle functional applications, and their concern to avoid the purchase and long-term maintenance cost of a third-party software was paramount. With guidance from the “Hands on Steering” committee, AST Consultants configured some automated workflows and approval processes that targeted maximizing the utility of Oracle PSB, and defined and supported customization techniques and tools for the Oracle E-Business Suite. The end result helped maintain the integrity of the customization and simplified any future maintenance and/or updates. With fewer transaction submission errors resulting in fewer transactions being rejected, higher user satisfaction was almost instantaneous. The self-service application enabled the users to obtain status and activity with ease. Approval routing and notification aided in transactions getting approved sooner because the transaction was pre-validated to conform to custom rules. The large transaction volume no longer overwhelmed the CPS budget approvers and HR department. Data security and privacy was maintained with appropriate exceptions for Super Users. Now, all custom data is captured in the standard HR Position tables for ease of reporting and standardization. CPS gained from an application that validates user data entry upfront. Much like related Oracle implementation services provided, this solution was successfully implemented on time and under budget to CPS’ complete satisfaction. With the successful go-live, AST successfully provided the solution to CPS that allowed them the paperless position control process so that Schools/Departments can immediately ascertain whether the requested position change would pass budgetary funds checks, resulting in an immense savings of the users’ time and efficiency. Further more, the solution supports CPS in automated budgeting, approval routing, funds check encumbrance and position control creation which has effectively assisted CPS to focus on its primary responsibility – “educating our young citizens”. About AST Corporation Established in 1995, Applications Software Technology (AST) Corporation, is an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner, an Oracle University training and delivery partner, and a certified Oracle On-Demand implementation provider. AST offers professional consulting services to Oracle Applications users and serves industry-leading organizations in manufacturing, transportation, insurance, retailing, telecommunications and the public sector. Clients look to AST Corporation for assistance in business process redesign, project management, systems integration, systems administration and training. For more information about AST Corporation please visit our web site at www.astcorporation.com.