Customer Solution Case Study
/ Pharma company implements user-friendly and maintenance-free ERP solution
Overview
Country or Region:India
Industry:Pharmaceutical
Customer Profile
The Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection Ltd (PCCPL) was started in 1975 and manufactures agro-based herbicides. Today it is a U.S $50 million company with two manufacturing plants and many offices.
Business Situation
Problems with maintaining master information across three different systems led to the need for an enterprise resource planning system.
Solution
PCCPL selected Microsoft® Business Solutions–Navision® with general ledger, sales and receivables, fixed assets, purchase and payable modules.
Benefits
Faster adoption due to user-friendly interface
Easy to maintain
Custom reports ensure compliance / “Adoption by users was rapid, painless and required very little training. This saved us a lot of time.”
Rajesh Kondal, Sr. Manager-Information Systems, Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection Ltd.
The Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection Ltd. (PCCPL) was started in 1975 and manufactures agro-based herbicides. PCCPL was initially using FACT and other custom FoxPro scripts for its inventory, finance and purchase systems. The biggest drawback was maintaining distinct master information for part numbers and suppliers across all the processes. Initial experiments with a desktop application proved unmanageable, and PCCPL realized the need for a centrally hosted Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. Oracle Financials and ICICI Enterprise suite were evaluated, but a key selection criterion was that of user-friendliness with the least maintenance. This led to the selection of Microsoft® Business Solutions–Navision® (now part of Microsoft Dynamics™). With its familiar Windows operating system idioms, users at PCCPL find Microsoft Navision extremely easy to use, and are happy that the robust architecture allows for simplified maintenance.
Situation
The Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection Ltd. (PCCPL), one of three companies of the Mumbai-based Shroff Group, was started in 1975 and manufactures agro-based herbicides. PCCPL today has a turnover of over US $5 million. The Shroff Group have two modern manufacturing units, one at Dera Bassi, 18 kilometers from Chandigarh, and a second about 30 kilometers from Chandigarh,plus offices in Mumbai and Delhi.
PCCPL’s drive towards automation began in the early 1990s. Financial accounting, inventory and purchase were managed with a local package, FACT, and a large number of small custom-developed FoxPro applications. However, as the organization grew, both in operational volume and de-centralization, the limitations of what were essentially single-user solutions began to affect operations.
“Maintenance of master information between three increasingly operationally independent locations began to be a problem,” says Rajesh Kondal, information systemsSr. manager at PCCPL.“Supplier and client details, product details, part numbers and descriptions as well as different data structures related to taxes and commissions had to be coordinated manually between three locations and sometimes even between computers located at the same location.”
The initial solutions centered around an effort to migrate individual components to a desktop application. After the induction of a new technology head, data management operations moved to Chandigarh and the management and synchronization of master information was centralized and coordinated from there. Application development testing and deployment was undertaken. But the small development teamsoon ran into problems as it simultaneouslyattempted to developnew modules, maintain approved components and extendthemto satisfy user feedback, which came in throughout the process. As the application grew in scope, the team was overwhelmed by maintenance and extension activities, leaving them without sufficient resources to devote time to porting and integrating the large body of custom FoxPro applications.
Unequal rates of development on different modules meant the system during this period was a troubling mix of old and new applications at different stages of completion.This caused problems, as the accounting, inventory and purchase modules needed to interact with each other at different points. It was at this time that PCCPL decided to halt all in-house development and make a new start with an ERP solution.
Solution
PCCPL evaluated several solutions such as Oracle Financials, ICICI Enterprise Suite and a few locally developed solutions. The key features that PCCPL wanted were:
A solution that would capture all financial and inventory processes and reporting in local statutory formats
Integration with manufacturing and warehousing
Low maintenance, since technology manpower in Chandigarh would be limited and worse, transitory
Manageability with a small technical team
Ability to manage the processes of multiple organization entities while providing an integrated view of the group as a whole
Reasonable cost to offset the resources dissipated during initial development
Fast turn-around time and painless incorporation of legacy data
After a 10-week evaluation exercise, PCCPL chose Microsoft Navision. They planned to initially deploy the General Ledger, Fixed Assets, Sales and Receivables, Purchase and Payables and Inventory modules and later on deploy the manufacturing and HR modulesin a second phase. An initial study estimated30 application touch points, later extended to 45 license points. Trisoft was chosen as the implementation partner for their proximity and ability to provide faster responses to service requests.
The implementation phase began by estimating the amount of reports and data Microsoft Navision would be required to handle. On the basis of this preliminary study, the base product was extended by 100 reports and 10 tables, to deal with key differences in inventory and purchase and to ensure smoother integration with the manufacturing module when it was deployed in the second phase.
The customization and implementation exercise began in June 2005. Two Trisoft experts, one functional and one technical, were stationed at Chandigarh and all customization work was done on-site. The network and hardware deployment was also initiated early. The two manufacturing units around Chandigarh were connected by point-to-point RF links and the branches at Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh were connected via a Tulip VPN built over a mixed (ground and VSAT) set of physical links. Care was taken to ensure that the Microsoft Navision interfaces reflected the native work-flow as well as ensured compliance with all statutory information reports. With much of the customization complete, PCCPL went live on May 1, 2006.
Benefits
Familiarity speeds up Adoption
A key benefit to PCCPL was that Microsoft Navision uses standard Windows operating system controls and interface idioms. “Adoption by users was rapid, painless and required very little training. This saved us a lot of time,” says Kondal.
Popular programming paradigm provides development flexibility
Since the programming framework for Microsoft Navision is based on the popular Windows operating system modular COM architecture, the small in-house development team is able to make interface and business logic changes quickly. For a business organization not located in a metropolitan city, this is a big advantage. The robust architecture of Microsoft Navision means that even young programmers can contribute to the solution without fear of disturbing day-to-day functioning.
Improved compliance with custom reports
The base reports and forms were customized to take account of local statutory requirements. These customizations give PCCPL greater flexibility in information detail,hence improving operational efficiency.
About Trisoft Systems
Trisoft Systems is a software services company that offers solutions exclusively on the Microsoft®platform to customers
worldwide. Trisoft Systems, founded in 1996, is today a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner and has implemented over 300 projects.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your colleagues to make business decisions with greater confidence. MicrosoftDynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your company has already implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to: