Anthony Kosturos
Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians Establishes Foundations for Future Generational Success with Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, a Native American Tribe in Southern California, has standardized its growing business and government operations on Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite to support its mission of being a self-sustaining, independent Tribe. With a single integrated applications suite to manage its finance, HR, and supply chain processes, the Tribe has been able to redesign operations to support its rapid growth and multiple new ventures, increase visibility across the organization, and improve decision making for current and future generations.
Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians has established business and governmental operations on its sovereign lands in Southern California, including Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella California, Tortoise Rock Casino, adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park and its Tribal Government Offices. To support the growing and unique needs of its business and government operations, Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians needed to replace numerous existing accounting, HR, inventory, and procurement systems which were creating time-consuming, manual processes and making it difficult to scale. After careful evaluation, the Tribe selected Oracle Fusion Applications to improve the efficiency of its operations and support the Tribe’s long-term vision. The Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians is one of the first casino-based businesses outside of Las Vegas to engage with Oracle on this potent operating system.
“Operating as a sovereign nation first and a business second, we always take a forward-thinking approach to every decision we make, planning for seven generations ahead. When thinking about the future success of our Tribe, we knew we needed to have a strong foundation, not just in our leadership and vision, but with our technology as well. Our decision to implement Oracle Fusion Applications was one that we believe will not only help us achieve short-term success but will also solidify our future success 150+ years down the road,” said Darrell Mike, Tribal Chairman, Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians.
With Oracle Fusion Applications, the Tribe has leveraged the cloud to break down organizational silos, standardize and automate processes, and manage finance, HR, and supply chain data on a single integrated cloud platform. With quarterly update cycles, the Tribe has access to new features that are added every 90 days without business disruption.
“We have a complex business model that involves administration and management of Tribal services and utilities, gaming and future hospitality ventures including hotels, and will eventually diversify further in support of our vision for growth. With Oracle Fusion Applications, we consolidated 12 different business systems on a single integrated cloud platform, which has significantly improved insights and how we run our organization. With Oracle’s strong track record in gaming and hospitality, we knew we were getting a system that would cover everything we needed now and will continue to evolve with our organization as we further diversify and grow in the future,” said Anthony Kosturos, chief financial officer, Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians.
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has enabled the Tribe to increase the speed and accuracy of financial processes, improve business visibility, and enhance controls. For example, intelligent document recognition capabilities have tripled the number of transactions it can process each day. Additionally, by consolidating more than six different HR systems with Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), the Tribe has been able to centralize HR operations, simplify complex processes, and generate better workforce insights. Finally, Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) has helped Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians manage the complete source-to-settle cycle to minimize costs and risk and simplify supplier management.
The Tribe is also expanding into new modules and capabilities within Oracle Cloud ERP. The organization is currently implementing Project Management and Grant Management modules to help increase productivity, tighten financial controls, and improve compliance.
“Government, gaming, and hospitality operating models are very different and have unique complexities. For Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, and other Native American Tribes that operate across all three areas, these challenges are compounded. By standardizing processes across its operations with Oracle Fusion Applications, the Tribe has been able to increase efficiencies, ensure access to the latest innovations, and establish a strong foundation for future generations to build from,” said Steve Miranda, executive vice president of applications development, Oracle.