Implementing ERP: Niaz Malik Gives the Insights by RABIA GARIB on NOVEMBER 13, 2010 in ARTICLES Dont you

u wish you had a guidebook to ensure a smooth ERP implementation for your organization? When the head of Technology shares critical insights and experience, people stop to take notes because this is the kind of stuff that will be invaluable during the planning and deployment phase.

PTCL has the largest IT Infrastructure to settle into the SAP platform across a brief period of 18 months. This includes the deployment of 16 major different SAP modules across PTCL and its subsidiaries. The move resulted in a cost saving of Rs.2 billion from the implementation of Material Management module alone. This was, as they say, the proverbial silver lining for moving onto ERP and convinced critics that this was the right move to make.

In todays increasingly competitive business environment, companies want to increase their efficiency and stay ahead of the curve. Thats why organizations look at investing into an ERP solution. While the selection and adoption of any new technology is always an exigent task, the gap between system design expectations and organization realities prior to implementation can make the difference between success and failure.

ERP systems seek to make significant changes within client organizations that may be culturally resistant to change. Such situations require a great deal of planning and mobilization of resources across the enterprise in order to evaluate the solution and assess how closely it meets the companys demands. A deep understanding of every module of the ERP in conjunction with the stakeholders requirements becomes a critical aspect of the selection criteria.

In the case of PTCL, a lot of these processes were challenging, since we deviated from the parent companys ERP of choice. The strategic decision required all the stakeholders across the enterprise to be fully engaged in the process of selecting the right solution for their needs. Each business unit needed to make its assessment and analyses of which solution would best serve its needs.

Bringing PTCL onto ERP

The current implementation was carried through a phased approach:

All HR processes were automated including HR policies, retention programs, employee benefits, salary disbursement, employee self services portal, hiring processes, work force management and employee life cycle management within the organization. This enabled the organization to implement a comprehensive and fully automated HR function; Administration, Fleet Maintenance, Travel Management, and Transport Management are some of the critical areas affected by the implementation. Post implementation potential savings were realized by negating the redundant elements in the legacy processes; Implementing Analytics to better understand Strategic Enterprise Management, Financial Analytics, Operational Analytics and Workforce Analytics; Financials, Procurement, Quality Management and Enterprise Asset Management areas were also identified to go live onto the ERP; The module in the Network Life Cycle Management that enables going down to the level of card management within our exchanges so we are able to keep tab at costing to the lowest level of consumption within the exchanges enabling better and more efficient performance and better accountability.

Aligning People and Processes In any major implementation, commitment from the top management is what gets a project rolling. Engagement and involvement from the stakeholders, which is essentially everyone in the management food chain, had to be taken into confidence. Candid discussions and endless debates ensured that everyone was heard and was in consensus for the way forward. It is important for all department heads to be comfortable with the idea of moving onto one integrated ERP system as opposed to conducting business across scattered legacy applications.

In the post implementation phase, closing of accounts which previously required 45 days for end-to-end-adjustment entries were now being closed in just 4 days. PTCL has the largest IT Infrastructure to settle into the SAP platform across a brief period of 18 months. This includes the deployment of 16 major different SAP modules across PTCL and its subsidiaries. The move resulted in a cost saving of Rs.2 billion from the implementation of Material Management module alone. This was, as they say, the proverbial silver lining for moving onto ERP and convinced critics that this was the right move to make.

The Implementation Phase The ERP has to be marketed to all levels of management. For the top management, it was the benefit of having a seamless integration and efficiency of business operations objective, where having ERP skills, was added motivation for the rest of the team to be part of the implementation.

Despite numerous challenges, PTCL decided to go live with the Procurement, HCM, FICO, Network Lifecycle Management, BI, Project Systems, Exchanges, Material Management. There are a number of learnings that made so many simultaneous implementations successful:

Daily Meetings In order to avoid conflicts, daily meetings were mandated for stakeholders to voice concerns and share their issues.

Inclusion of the Whole Management ERP Implementation isnt an IT project its something that requires ownership from the business, hence it was important to position the implementation as a business enabler and not an IT initiative.

Quick Wins The approach of quick wins helped highlighting key successes that were achieved early on and ensured that the business was realizing a tangible benefit. Highlighting these successes helped users realize how much more efficient even their daily routines were becoming.

Celebrating Diversity The ERP implementation is successful when you hire the best talent from each department within the organization and align new hiring to the talent pool. Keeping engagement and a fluid information exchange in mind, the entire team was seated in a single hall.

Implementing Best Practices It was crucial that SAP Best Practices were in alignment with existing organizational processes.

Consolidation Charter Aggregation of data is always an elaborate exercise considering it is asset of the organization which is scattered across various departments of the enterprise. A comprehensive data strategy was designed in consultation with data teams and dispatched to various organization units to gather pivotal data. To give you an idea of the magnitude of data, PTCLs various departments produced one million data records within a period of 6 months.

Inspiring Change The best way to induce change is by aligning personal gain alongside the organizational growth. To ensure coordination amongst all stakeholders, it helped to have an in-house SAP magazine was developed to help maintain yet another avenue of communication amongst all departments.

Key Learnings ERP is nothing more than an amalgamation of common sense practices across verticals of an organization. Making sure that everything comes together intelligently, mobilizing the teams, planning impeccably, assessing and executing each phase and creating the right expectations and managing the change is all part of the job portfolio of the Business-Technology enablers.

It is critical to the success of a successful ERP implementation that the entire organization understands their role in the historic timeline which will change a collective destiny.

Niaz Malik is the Vice President for Technology at PTCL