About Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., also known as Take 2, is an American multi-national publisher, developer, and distributor of video games and video game peripherals. Take-Two wholly owns Rockstar Games and 2K Games.
Customer Need / Business Driver
During an impact study initiated by Take-Two and led by Oracle to review Take-Two's Sales & Marketing Reporting Insight initiative, several common business needs were identified across different functional areas such as Operations, Sales & Financial Reporting, Real Time Reporting and Supply Chain and Order management.
The high level pain points:
- Small changes to product plans result in a huge amount of information re-work.
- Access to information was inconsistent. This was due to different data sources, different time frames, and different levels of granularity.
- Many manual processes needed to be combined to properly run the business.
Challenges
- Multi-Currency reporting needed to be streamlined
- Complex Sales reporting based on General Ledger (Changing GL Account Structure)
- Need for real-time data for Inventory/AR/Daily Sales information.
- Data Security
- Price list reporting for inventory is complex
- Need for Inventory As-of Aging reports
- Data formatting and data quality issues in JD Edwards ERP systems.
Success Criteria
After evaluating the needs and challenges to be addressed by Take-Two, one of the most important recommendations was to implement Oracle BI Applications. It was projected that Oracle BI Applications could provide harmonization among sales and supply chain information to enable the business users to address questions such as:
- How do I deliver timely, fact-based, customer-specific brand and category growth strategies?
- How can my sales teams spend more time on value added activities and less time dealing with retail data issues?
Why Was KPI Partners Chosen?
As Oracle's most experienced systems implementation partner focused on Oracle BI & EPM, KPI partners was chosen because of their expertise within Oracle BI and related technology. KPI Partners has successfully implemented the most complex deployments of Oracle BI in the world and the project at Take-Two Interactive required in-depth expertise to provide the high-level of performance required. KPI Partners offered functional expertise in the high-technology and gaming industry. KPI also offered global delivery capabilities that leverage a blended-shore model with a combination of high-value on-site experts and lower cost offshore resources
Project Summary
KPI deployed the Finance Analytics (Accounts Receivable, Acounts Payable, General Ledger) and Supply Chain & Order Management Analytics Modules of Oracle BI Applications Version 7.9.6.3 leveraging Oracle’s prebuilt connector for JD Edwards. This project also included building and replacing reports currently provided by a Cognos business intelligence environment.
The initial launch phase of the project spanned 24 weeks. As the adoption process / business value increased with Take-Two business users, the overall timeline was increased to accomodate an expanded scope with the release of new content over multiple release cycles.
The project covered both International and North America business units of Take-Two. Finance Analytics Modules (General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable) and Supply Chain Analytics Modules (Order Management, Order Fulfilment and Inventory) were deployed.
JD Edwards category code files were configured based on customer requirements subject to the count allowed out-of-the-box. Oracle BI Applications does not store all of the category codes and descriptions for JD Edwards into the Business Analytics Warehouse. KPI provided guidance once requirements were known.
ETL (Extract-Transform-Load)
Columns were added or logic was modified in 60 different areas on data from tables already sourced by Financial and Supply Chain Analytics. Two new facts and 3 new dimensions were sourced from tables in JD Edwards. Three new aggregate tables were created to improve report performance.
Dashboards, Metrics, and Reports
- Fifty metrics were created and modified within Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE).
- Fifty OBIEE reports were developed (includes top level reports and any navigation reports) with leveraging Oracle BI Applications delivered content wherever possible.
- Fifteen dashboard pages were developed to leverage Oracle BI Applications delivered content wherever possible.
- Forty Oracle BI Publisher reports were modified and 5 Oracle BI Publisher reports were developed to pull real-time data directly from JD Edwards ERP tables and associated dashboards.
- Sixty Oracle BI Applications reports were customized to meet the needs of Take-Two.
Results
Business units and functional groups now have the capability to obtain key metrics, harmonized information, and answers to their key business questions in incremental fashion. The goal for strategic reporting goal was reached: increased efficiency and accuracy, reduction of performance issues, faulty ETL processes, and improved data quality for North American and International business users.
The total cost of ownership (TCO) was improved through the user adoption among global business units. The total number of reports requiring on-going maintenance was reduced.
Executive management is now armed with dashboard views containing customized key performance indicators critical to informed business decisions. Finance and Supply Chain departments within the organization can now define and measure progress toward organizational goals.
Return On Investment
Take-Two shares rose 5% in after-hours trading after the video game publisher swung to a profit on strong sales for the fiscal fourth quarter that followed the system implementation.
Consolidation of Systems
The existing IBM Cognos business intelligence application was decomminsioned in place of new reporting capability utilizing Oracle BI Applications. The move was triggered by an increased need for high-performance and performance and scalability.
Solution Uniqueness
User Requested Target Reporting Currency
The most unique part of this project was the complexity involved in User Requested Target Reporting currency and the Rate Type combination (Transaction, Month End, Month Avg.) during run-time.
The existing currency exchange rate table was extended and complex logic was added in the business model. Custom-built reporting enables users to select a Reporting Currency and Rate Type.
Complex Sales Reporting
KPI Partners built a very complex sales report based on a general ledger (GL) revenue fact so that minimal steps are needed if GL account is added or changed.
Custom Measures
Over 200 custom measures were built within the Oracle BI Repository and business model so that complex calculations are done on the BI server.
Special Pivot Tables
A special pivot report format was developed to show data in proper buckets for old and new account structures.
Sales Rep Reports
Sales Reps can now run their own Sales report based on actual sales for their Territory/Company/Business Unit/Platform/Publisher/Title combinations on-demand.
Real-Time Business Intelligence
Oracle BI Publisher was used to acheive the real-time reporting requirement.
Custom JD Edwards Security
A custom security model was built using existing JD Edwards security definitions to get the User -> Role and User -> Company Information.
Advanced Pricing Logic
Custom facts were constructed using JDE advanced pricing tables and were integrated with existing facts. Special logic was implemented based on effective dates and pricing adjustments helped the user to report quickly for a given Product or Customer or Company/Business unit.
