Improved Printing for Remote Users in Oracle EBS with Centralized Printer Management

The Company

Flowserve Corporation, a global leader in fluid motion and control solutions, operates in over 55 countries, delivering engineered pumps, seals, valves, and flow management services. Flowserve relies on five Oracle E-Business Suite instances to streamline operations.

The Problem

The need to accommodate printing services for Flowserve associates worldwide resulted in numerous printers created solely for a small site or a remote user. The many steps required to set up printers weighed heavily on the workload of the IT organization. “Even though our technical teams involved have these processes down to a science, the process of setting up print queues on the right servers can be quite laborious,” says Malcolm Jowett, an IT manager at Flowserve.

First, a user would submit a request to add a new printer. Once the request identified the printer’s make, model, and IP address, the Flowserve database team could coordinate with the operating system team. The operating system team would then set up the UNIX queue and register the printer in Oracle. From there, the users had to test the printers and ensure their printed documents maintained proper formatting. Finally, the printer moved into production. According to Jowett, “creating a new printer would take days due to all the technical resources required for that process, and because it is not considered an urgent job.”

Jowett believes the setup process became most problematic when teams forgot to test with users or excluded information such as the printer’s IP address. These types of errors required all the original resources to determine what was missed and to repeat their effort to fill in the necessary information. The re-work would set everyone back due to the difficulty in coordinating schedules between the database team, operating system team, and end users.

The heavy demand for resources to manage printers on UNIX queues inside Oracle prompted a Flowserve initiative to reduce the number of UNIX print queues. The biggest obstacle in these efforts was fulfilling the remote and traveling user requirements to print Oracle reports at home or at another office without a UNIX queue to facilitate the report’s printing.

The Solution

Flowserve chose the AventX for Oracle EBS Windows Print Module to simplify the IT organization’s management of printers inside Oracle E-Business Suite. The AventX for Oracle EBS Windows Print Module eliminates configuring individual printers on the UNIX print queue and inside Oracle. Additionally, AventX allows users to print Oracle reports to any printer available on their computer.

Flowserve introduced AventX to a system with over 1,000 users, using a one-page flyer describing the new print options. All users quickly understood the solution and began using it on the fly. Almost 60 percent of Flowserve users have a printer preference in Oracle featuring AventX as their default. “It’s really easy for people to use AventX because there is a separate window that indicates if the client is running,” says Jowett. “The users know they have AventX and know they can print anywhere.”

AventX for Oracle EBS Windows Print Module is mutually beneficial for the Flowserve manufacturing department and the IT organization when printing reports on the shop floor. The AventX Local Print option allows manufacturing staff to print reports to any number of printers on the shop floor without asking IT to set up and maintain the many shop floor printers on the UNIX queue or inside Oracle. Also, remote and traveling Flowserve associates can now print to a local printer, which provides much easier access to printing.

After two weeks, Flowserve reported that about 3,000 purchase orders, pick slips, shipping labels, and bills of lading were processed using AventX. In addition, Jowett is impressed that AventX is supported by a team of engineers well-versed in Oracle configuration and functionality. “We’ve been really happy with the support we’ve had and the care we’ve seen in STR software’s work. It’s been the best, really.”

Jowett is confident about the decision made by Flowserve to partner with STR Software, and he sees a bright future for Flowserve’s use of AventX. AventX for Oracle EBS Windows Print Module is just one member of the AventX product family, which also features modules that automate the emailing, faxing, and archiving of Oracle E-Business Suite reports and attachments. “The other compatible products in the AventX Suite added interest toward AventX,” Jowett says. “We feel we could grow into other AventX product modules in the future.”