At Jollibee Food Corp., information technology plays a significant role in increasing savings and improving productivity. In fact, the country?s leading fast-food chain has invested P115 million (US$2 million) since 2002 to build a shared services center where key IT-enabled support functions of Jollibee, Greenwich, Chowking and Delifrance are co-located.
After having established the shared services center, the company is preparing to enter the second phase of its IT project which is the implementation of a business intelligence system developed by Oracle Corp. Jollibee actually runs 90 percent of its systems on Oracle?s E-Business Suite, an integrated applications and technology platform that includes financials, human resource management, purchasing, and administrative inquiry.
According to Jollibee?s vice president for Shared Services Paul Zaldarriaga, shifting to Oracle software from Baan?s enterprise resource planning system has resulted in greater savings and improved productivity for the company.
?We are very happy with Oracle because it really works,? Zaldarriaga said in an interview. ?By fully utilizing the system, we?re able to improve productivity by more than 10 percent over the past two years.?
The move to create a shared services center has allowed the automation and consolidation of key backroom functions of all its 1,072 stores, including Jollibee, Greenwich Pizza, Chowking, and Delifrance.
The financial, human resources, administrative inquiry, and purchasing processes of all its stores are presently being managed under the shared services model.
?We were able to cut down the number of our data centers from six to two,? noted Zaldarriaga. The two data centers are now located at the Jollibee main office in Pasig and in Canlubang, Laguna.
Zaldarriaga noted that part of Jollibee?s success in implementing its IT initiative was its firm decision to stick with packaged software offered by Oracle instead of having its system customized.
He explained that the major pitfall for most organizations that have implemented their systems is the point when they have become too engrossed in trying to fully satisfy their needs and begin customizing everything.
?Jollibee, on the other hand, has decided that if a package suits even only about 80 percent of its needs, then that?s good enough already,? said Yashi Kant, managing director of Oracle (Philippines) Corp.
?Customization may seem like a great privilege but it can turn into a great expense,? Zaldarriaga added. ?A new release comes along, but you can?t use it. Once you start customizing software, it?s never-ending.?
The most difficult challenge Jollibee has encountered during the whole process of implementing the Oracle platform was actually getting started, knowing what the exact requirements were, and translating them into specific forms of technologies.
?It was not a walk in the park, but Oracle works for Jollibee and so far, we plan to go Oracle all the way,? said Zaldarriaga.
Prior to the implementation, the company used different business software brands across the entire group -- often resulting in fragmented systems and data duplication.
After the success of its shared-services center, the next step for Jollibee is to begin defining and developing its business intelligence system. The company intends to purchase Oracle?s business intelligence software by the end of 2005, and if not, by the first quarter of 2006. Implementation is expected to immediately follow after the software purchase.
Seen as another million-peso investment, the application is expected to help the company in understanding its purchasing patterns, ensuring that it gets the best value for its spending, and boost the level of efficiency in the purchasing process.
By knowing exactly how much a certain product Jollibee purchases in huge bulk and which particular large-scale suppliers they get these items from, then the fast-food chain will be able to haggle for the best prices and request large discounts. All items in its commissary will be tracked including rice, chicken, beef, and vegetables.