Catholic Relief Services optimizes finance and HR globally with Oracle Cloud
The humanitarian organization uses Oracle Cloud ERP, EPM, and HCM to manage finance and HR, increase cash flow, and optimize planning.
“Every dollar that we spend doing something other than our mission is a missed opportunity to improve the lives of people around the world. We want that money to go toward our mission, not into data centers, backups, and recovery. With the cloud, Oracle takes care of all of that for us. They’ve been a trusted, flexible partner for us through the entire process.”
Business challenges
Since 1943, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has carried out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. The organization’s mission is to promote human development by responding to major emergencies, fighting disease and poverty, and nurturing peaceful and just societies. CRS reaches more than 130 million people in over 100 countries on five continents with a workforce representing a diverse mix of race, nationalities, and religions.
With most of its workforce is abroad, CRS programs are carried out across geographies suffering from civil unrest, war, and devastation resulting from climate or natural disaster. However, close to 95% of this workforce was unaccounted for prior to implementing Oracle Cloud HCM.
CRS programs are funded through donations, however, the organization had difficulty differentiating whether it was using its own cash or donor money for expenditures. CRS also had limited visibility between US operations and ground-level country operations, which hindered its ability to manage resources and deliver relief missions.
We use Oracle HCM to help us find more talent locally in-country. It is less costly than bringing in workers from overseas while building both the capabilities of our global team and trust in the communities we serve.
Why Catholic Relief Services chose Oracle
CRS retired its JD Edwards system after 18 years and chose to move to Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Oracle Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) to eliminate the expense of data centers, data backup, and recovery. CRS also implemented Oracle Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM).
Oracle Cloud ERP makes it easier to allocate donations, as donors are eager to see their contributions making an impact.
Results
Oracle Cloud HCM and EPM provides CRS with the tools to manage its global HR and finance functions. With Oracle Cloud HCM, the organization is now able to use data-driven insights for improved decision-making to meet its workforce diversity and inclusion goals. Using Oracle Recruiting within Oracle Cloud HCM, CRS can cost effectively recruit and hire top talent located within each country. In addition, CRS is using Oracle Cloud EPM to manage planning and budgeting, which helps the organization more accurately plan across lines of business.
From a financial perspective, CRS can manage cash flows and personnel resourcing down to the project level in each country where it operates, which provides the agility and speed to adjust project teams based on local conditions and circumstances. Oracle Cloud ERP also empowers CRS with information to make smarter business decisions.
