The Macerich Company -- Utilizing Document Management to Gain Efficiencies and Cost Savings

As a fast-growing and decentralized real estate company, Macerich needed a scalable enterprise system to eliminate inefficiencies and reduce costs. The audience will learn how Macerich achieved these goals by combining Oracle Applications with document management throughout the enterprise.

Corporate Background
The Macerich Company is a Real Estate Investment Trust listed on the NYSE under the symbol of MAC and is one of the largest owners/operators of regional shopping malls in the United States. The portfolio consists of 56 regional malls and 21 community centers in 21 states aggregating approximately 58 million square feet of gross leasable area. Macerich is involved in the acquisition, development, redevelopment, management, and leasing of owned and managed properties.

History and Integration with Oracle Applications
In late 2001, Macerich began exploring Oracle as an enterprise solution. Macerich went live on HR on January 1, 2002 and Portal and a custom leasing application in mid 2002. On January 1, 2003 Macerich implemented GL, AP, AR, FA, Projects, Cash Management, and some self-service applications and will be implementing Property Manager in 2003.

As part of the AP implementation, Macerich employed Oracle Approval Manager (OAM), an invoice approval workflow whereby all invoices are approved by functional managers on-line. While the prospect of on-line invoice approvals was very appealing, Macerich realized that approvers needed visibility to invoice documents. Having many locations throughout the country, Macerich needed to address the challenge of distributing documents to the appropriate managers.

Therefore, Macerich implemented a document management solution that allows approvers to view the invoice image from their Oracle invoice approval notification via a link. The flow of paper invoices is limited to the vendor mailing the invoice to AP; the paper flow within Macerich has been eliminated. Managers have access to source documents at their desktops and accountants have general ledger drilldown capability to invoice documents.

Download the full Macerich Company - OAUG Presentation (PDF, 125 KB)