ORACLE OPENWORLD, SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nucor Steel Decatur, LLC, a division of Nucor Corporation, America's largest recycler and a leading manufacturer of steel products, is using Oracle(R) BPEL Process Manager, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, to build a Service- Oriented Architecture (SOA) that enables streamlined invoice processing and help desk automation across heterogeneous applications.

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Specialists in the production of carbon and alloy steel products, Nucor Steel Decatur wanted to improve business agility and deliver outstanding customer service with automated, repeatable processes. Through its use of Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Nucor Steel Decatur integrated its IFS Application with Microsoft's Great Plains Financials. Within the SOA environment, the system uses Web services to send XML-based vouchers from IFS to Great Plains. Once the vouchers are transmitted to Great Plains, the business application automatically generates an invoice. The automated process has improved customer service and streamlined the company's order-to- cash cycle.

To make it easier for users to submit and track the status of help desk tickets, Nucor Steel Decatur designed its SOA to automate help desk processes. During this phase of the project, the company generated business process flows, via Oracle BPEL Process Manager, that connect its Microsoft SharePoint Portal with IFS Applications. The automated process now allows users to submit a help desk ticket request and receive a confirmation receipt along with a help desk ticket number - a process that previously took hours now takes seconds. Additionally, the SOA-based process requires less intervention from the IT team.

"As a result of our diverse IT environment, performance, scalability and interoperability were of paramount importance," said Bert Wilkes, IT supervisor, Nucor Steel Decatur. "Oracle Fusion Middleware's BPEL Process Manager met these requirements and serves as the backbone for our enterprise- wide SOA by integrating more than seven various applications and processes."

Oracle Partner Uses Oracle Fusion Middleware to Create SOA in Five Weeks

Nucor Steel Decatur worked with BIAS Corporation, a Certified Advantage Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork, to architect and implement the SOA-based project in five weeks. Utilizing Oracle BPEL Process Manager's hot-pluggable architecture, BIAS Corporation created business processes that integrate Nucor Steel Decatur's non-Oracle business applications.

"Oracle Fusion Middleware's hot-pluggable architecture continues to play a critical role in our successful SOA implementations," said John Ezzell, vice president, BIAS Corporation. "Our close work with Nucor Steel Decatur to understand its business goals and IT infrastructure coupled with our expertise with Oracle Fusion Middleware, enabled us to launch the company's first business process in five weeks."

Additional information about BIAS Corporation can be found at http://www.biascorp.com/.

Expanding the Oracle Footprint

In addition to its use of Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Nucor Steel Decatur is also using Oracle Database, Oracle Real Application Clusters and Oracle Enterprise Manager.

About Oracle Fusion Middleware: Leader in Middleware

The company's comprehensive, standards-based family of middleware products, Oracle Fusion Middleware software spans portals and process managers to application infrastructure, developer tools, enterprise content management and business intelligence. Oracle Fusion Middleware enables organizations to increase their capacity for growth and change; improve insight into business operations; mitigate risk and drive compliance; and connect with customers, partners, and workers. More than 50,000 customers now use Oracle Fusion Middleware and include leading organizations in the Financial Services, Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Health Care and Public Sector industries. Oracle Fusion Middleware is also supported by 9,000 partners, including market-leading independent software vendors, value-added resellers and system integrators. For additional information visit: http://www.oracle.com/middleware.

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