Arab Potash Company establishes 5-year plan for software investments with Oracle
The Arab world’s sole potash producer optimizes its licensing investments through an audit by Oracle License Management Services.
“A company of our size needs a solid, experienced solution partner. We were confident Oracle could provide the insights we needed to get the greatest benefits from our licensing agreements.”
Business challenges
The Jordan-based company extracts salts and minerals from the Dead Sea to manufacture and distribute potash, which is used mainly in fertilizer for soils. It is the world’s eighth-largest potash producer by volume.
The Arab Potash Company was feeling pressure from escalating requests from its business units to increase the use of Oracle E-Business Suite, while adding more users with different levels of responsibilities. Licensing was one of the company’s largest IT costs. It wanted to build a complete register of its IT tools, monitor usage to optimize business value, and enforce best-practice governance and controls to ensure licensing compliance going into the future.
The company needed to make sure that it was protecting and efficiently using its assets, complying with all licensing policies, and paying only for licenses it was actually using. Because of the complexity of its licensed environment, getting the perspective it needed was very challenging for the company to accomplish on its own. Arab Potash Company seized the opportunity for a comprehensive audit by Oracle License Management Services.
While many companies might consider an audit an intrusive or punitive undertaking, given the customer-centric approach of Oracle LMS it was actually a great experience. The Oracle LMS team was very considerate, knowledgeable, and cooperative. They did a great job while explaining and clarifying everything to us all along the way.
Why Arab Potash Company Chose Oracle
The potash manufacturer has a relationship with Oracle that spans almost two decades. It considers Oracle to be a trusted advisor and highly experienced solution provider. The company had the confidence that Oracle experts would not only maintain compliance but also provide the 360-degree view of the company’s licensing investments that it needed to make the right decisions, without exposing any information to third parties or requiring Arab Potash to settle hefty bills associated with the licensing service.
Results
After a straightforward assessment and reconciliation process, Oracle LMS was able to help Arab Potash Company gain insights into its software license inventory and schema.
In addition, with easy access to its digital data, Arab Potash now has better control over users, roles, and permissions, which has also improved security. Oracle LMS also helped the company understand how to plan for and properly implement additional licenses for each technology as demand increases.
All of this was accomplished without any access to or breach of confidential data, which was a crucial requirement. The company is now able to plan its licensing investment five years out.