Cover Story | Project Management

Going It
A lone In the treacherous waters of ERP upgrades, consultants are viewed as guides
and often safety nets, without which few enterprise dare go. But they come
at a significant cost. Ranbaxy decided to go without one and saved
costs, increased project control and delivered business results with minimal
challenges. Here’s how. By Gunjan Trivedi

Rabindranath Tagore said

it best in his poem Êkla Chôlo Re: have the conviction to walk alone. It’s a lesson that David
Reader ROI:
Briskman, VP and CIO of Ranbaxy Laboratories, takes to heart.
Going solo: David Last year, Briskman found himself staring at an ERP system that was creaking under
What to watch out for
Briskman, VP and CIO, when going solo the weight of a fast-growing enterprise and decided something needed to be done. Multiple
Ranbaxy Laboratories,
Where to get help from acquisitions and seven years of double-digit growth had pushed Ranbaxy’s hardware needle

Imag ing by ANIL T

undertook an ERP upgrade
without the safety net of
a consultant and found
multiple benefits.
How a DIY approach can into the red. He had an ERP upgrade in mind, but from experience he knew it was a decision
build loyalty
that couldn’t be taken lightly. The task was huge and considering Ranbaxy’s size, it was
The increased
importance of testing complex as hell — and he wanted to simultaneously refresh the company’s hardware.

Vol/4 | ISSUE/18 REAL CIO WORLD | a u g u s t 1 , 2 0 0 9 19

Cover Story | Project Management Cover Story | Project Management

But the project itself isn’t what separates Briskman from one screen changes to another is an indicator of a system’s few could have blamed Briskman for
your average CIO. He decided that the task would be done
in-house. By any standards, it was a bold decision. An ERP
health) logged each day, servers began to hit maximum
CPU utilization. The result? According to Ranbaxy’s Head
of Global Infra-Structure, Rajan Bir Singh, the average
the added expense. The other, more
risky, proposition was to trust that Performance Monitor
upgrade on this scale would have left most organizations he could lead his team to take on the Before the ERP ecosystem upgrade and hardware refresh,
scampering to find the closest consultant, and hordes of response time for a dialog task took a painful 1,200 Goliath of enterprise software. Ranbaxy’s systems were fighting to deliver. That changed
subject matter experts — immaterial of the price. milliseconds on the ERP and about 1,000 milliseconds at Briskman chose the latter. around August of 2008.
“When organizations enlist consultants for such high- the database. It became worse when in January 2007, CPU “It was a simple decision to take.
level projects, the cost of consultancy usually makes up 60 utilization at the database server hit 52 percent, and tipped I know organizations generally
to 70 percent of the total cost of the project. The rest largely 100 percent by December of the same year. avoid taking risks with a project 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3
90
goes in procuring hardware and software,” says Briskman. “We applied plenty of band-aids but systems began to of such magnitude, but we were a 1.2
1.17
By taking a D-I-Y approach, Ranbaxy lowered the total crawl and impact the business. And if wasn’t bad enough tad different. I’ve always strongly
price of the project and reversed that ratio. “In our case, 70 that our hardware was hitting its physical limitations. Worse, believed in nurturing a skilled team 1.1
80 80
percent of the costs we incurred on the upgrade were billed our SAP instance was already in its extended maintenance on the systems we work on. We have 78
for hardware and software. That gives you a sense of how period and SAP announced that it would discontinue its maintained an internal SAP center 74 74 74
little consulting we used. With our internal team we carried 32-bit platform,” recalls Briskman. of excellence and have consistently
out the upgrade quite cost effectively,” says Briskman. Evidently, the situation called for drastic measures. delivered on SAP for several years.
The question is: how did he do it? Briskman and team decided to overhaul the entire ecosystem We have been doing rollouts and 61
by upgrading not only their hardware but also the software upgrades without any consulting help
Health Check landscape including the operating system, the database and decided that this project should
0.52
India’s largest pharmaceutical company, the Rs 4,400- and the ERP platform. “We simply went to the business be no different,” says Briskman. 48
odd crore Ranbaxy has a complex IT fabric with a global and made this declaration ‘you have a crisis, your systems Typically, this is not the sort of
presence across 125 countries. It has ground operations are going to die and we are going to upgrade them’,” he says decision that IT departments can 0.35
in 49 countries including India, the US, France, South with a smile. take on their own — not on a project Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08 Aug-08 Sep-08

Africa, Romania and China, besides manufacturing
locations in 11 countries.
Most of those locations run on a single instance of SAP.
Their 4.6c version of SAP R/3 ran on a 32-bit environment
of Windows 2003 and SQL 2000 with database of about 2.25
terabytes, growing at about 45 GB a month. As the business
grew manifold, the number of users and transactions
skyrocketed, putting a huge amount of pressure on the ERP
system. By 2008, 1,300 out of 1,900 users — or about 70
percent of the people with access to the system — were using
the ERP concurrently.
The company’s global footprint added to their ERP
woes. For example, the system needed to run in six
different languages including Chinese, which required
double-byte fonts. All that activity bore down heavily on
the system. Ranbaxy recorded about 2,500 custom-built
programs and about 900 types of transactions. At over 13
lakh dialog steps (these are screen changes in a sequence of
steps during a transaction in an application. How quickly
Management got the point quickly. They cleared the
upgrade project that would introduce a 64-bit platform for
Windows 2003, push the database onto the newer SQL 2005
and make way for the next SAP avatar: SAP ECC6 running
on more efficient servers from a new vendor.
But Briskman was not only aiming to address the
company’s immediate performance issues, he also wanted to
enable new SAP functionalities and prepare the foundation
for SOA.
It was a great idea, but pinning down the dream would
be a challenge.
David vs. Goliath
With the decision to refresh and upgrade out of the way,
a tougher question presented itself before Briskman: how
were they going to do it? There was the tried-and-tested —
but expensive — approach of hiring consultants. It was the
solution most CIOs would take and is generally considered
the safe route. And given Ranbaxy’s complex ERP fabric,
of such proportions and one which Legend:
exposed the organization to huge Average response time for a dialog task in seconds.
risks. This is where Ranbaxy’s IT Maximum CPU utilization at database servers
department’s track record stepped
in. “There’s no confidence-builder
like good, consistent delivery. Our
management has always had faith in our IT group and has
always expected us to tackle problems,” says Briskman. In
fact, he adds, management would have probably questioned
a need for consultants.
The IT team planned a two-phase attack. In the first phase
led by Singh, they would move their current ERP to the new
servers. The 32-bit instance of Windows Server 2003 would
also be scaled up to a 64-bit environment and SQL 2005
would replace the earlier version of the database.
The second phase, led by the SAP COE Head, Neeraj
Kukreti, would involve a combined upgrade of SAP
environment and migration of the data code pages based on
MDMP in earlier SAP R/3 to Unicode on the newer ECC6.
During the process of upgrading the ecosystem, which
started in February 2008, there were several sub-projects
that the Ranbaxy SAP team also undertook. While Windows
Source: Ranbaxy
September 2008, bringing life back to the sluggish servers.
Similarly, the maximum RAM utilization level at the
server slid from 74 percent to 48 percent, and the average
response time for an application to respond with a dialog
step jumped: from about 1,000 milliseconds to just about
350 milliseconds. According to Singh, “the system was
meticulously sized with the help of our vendor, to deliver
sub-second response time. Which it did!”
Look! No Consultants
Although Briskman had complete faith in the skills of his
20 plus-member SAP team, he felt that there were several
ways the upgrade exercise could be derailed. Not getting
these right made the proposition much riskier. “Expectation
management, change management, human resource
management and project management all demanded

Typically, the decision to go it alone — especially on high-risk, large- and SQL were moved to the 64-bit platform and SAP R/3
made way for SAP ECC6, business warehouse and APO
impact projects — isn't taken by just IT. This is where Ranbaxy’s IT were integrated. Several interfaces and products were also
introduced, such as Solution Manager, .Net/Java connector-
department’s track record stepped in. “There’s no confidence- based applications, Readsoft, Newgen, a procurement portal,
attention if we wanted to run this show. When you build
confidence by delivering consistently, you are not asked a
lot of questions. I wasn’t keen on changing this equation,”
he says.
Briskman began by defining the results that were

builder like good, consistent delivery," says Briskman. SAP XI and Webmethods.
By August 2008, results became apparent. The maximum
CPU utilization level at the database server dipped from
about 100 percent in January 2008 to about 40 percent in
expected from the upgrade. Too many IT leaders, he
says, dig themselves in a hole by guaranteeing capability
enhancements as part of an upgrade. A lot of the time it is
difficult to stay true to such promises because of the many

20 a u g u s t 1 , 2 0 0 9 | REAL CIO WORLD Vol/4 | ISSUE/18 Vol/4 | ISSUE/18 REAL CIO WORLD | a u g u s t 1 , 2 0 0 9 21
Cover Story | Project Management
variables involved in an upgrade project. “My experience has
been that as soon as you step out of the realms of technical
upgrades and move into functional upgrades, I have rarely
seen benefit projections that are met easily,” he says.
So, Briskman started by tempering unrealistic business
expectations from the upgrade to avoid undue pressure on
his team. It formed part of his initial conversation with the
business. “We told the business that the systems were dying
and needed an upgrade just to keep the lights on. That’s it.
As a team, IT focused on incrementally delivering benefits to
the organization at practically no extra cost. We pay constant
attention to continual improvement as opposed to chasing
benefits that have been promised up front,” he says.
The second thing that needed to be done was to identify
areas in which the internal IT team had expertise and that
could therefore be tackled without much issue. They also
marked out areas where they would need assistance. The
idea, he says, was to keep the number of surprises low.
In the meanwhile, he put his in-house team through all
the appropriate SAP training so that they could understand
the new aspects that ECC6 would bring. Briskman figured
that this would be easier than bringing in a consultant and
then training them on Ranbaxy’s business, their system
landscape, and various configurations and modifications.
“Post training, the team was better equipped to support the
environment they themselves had modified. This ensured
that we weren’t doing anything that could surprise us
later,” he says. “Failure on any major step of the project
was not an option.”
D.I.Y. Checklist
If you’re planning to go solo, ensure you
have these before you leave.
Credibility with management
A project everyone believes is needed
A clear outline of the benefits of the project
A center of excellence
A self-reliant team that is both mature and
business-oriented
A list of your team’s strengths and weaknesses
The knowledge of where to get the expertise to
fill in those skill gaps
The ability to rope in OEMs
An extremely detailed plan
The knack for staying ahead of your team to
clear the way
A propensity for testing and rehearsals
22 a u g u s t 1 , 2 0 0 9 | REAL CIO WORLD
Despite this preparation, there were technological issues
that went beyond the team. These were identified and
addressed by ushering in specific expertise from their
solution providers. SAP Safeguarding, for instance, was
called to ensure the technical robustness of SAP solutions.
And domain experts from Microsoft were roped in to address
key issues such as running SQL in an SAP landscape.
With some assistance from HP and working with existing
partners Religare Technova and Zensar-OBT.
“India is predominantly a SAP-Oracle market. So,
finding an advanced level of expertise in SAP-SQL can
become a problem and then you have technical issues
that stump an otherwise skilled team. My philosophy to
tackle this is simple: don’t let the OEM get off the hook.
From experience, it’s important to involve the strategic
and original partners. It is up to them to make sure that
the right skills are engaged and point out if you are doing
anything that is wrong,” he says.
By bringing his experience to bear, Briskman ensured that
hurdles the team faced with SQL were handled by Microsoft.
He also got people at SAP’s office in Germany to look over
some of their work. “We found that it was advantageous
to spend a little more and ensure that even when you have
internal expertise, OEMs are involved,” he says.
Briskman, Singh, Kukreti, and the rest of the team
spent three months planning the entire upgrade exercise
in conjunction with SAP, Microsoft and HP, before they
embarked on the actual execution. “Our approach was clear:
make a plan, work the plan and live the plan. We ensured
that we rehearsed thoroughly. Using an internal team is no
excuse for a lack of precision,” he says.
D.I.Y. Strategy:
Test, Test, and Test Again
The team undertook a detailed pre-upgrade analysis starting
with a hardware sizing exercise in conjunction with the
server vendors. A functional upgrade check for ERP was
leveraged to identify hardware and performance capabilities
before and after the upgrade. The team also took advantage
of application specific upgrade tools from SAP to outline
problems with the corresponding solutions involved in the
new SAP environment and figure out the tools built into
ECC6 to correct the known problems.
As they worked towards the actual upgrade, Briskman
and his team undertook testing and carried out dry runs like
a religion. “With any kind of upgrade and implementation,
you test the hell out of it. We did at least three dry runs of
major steps in the development environment. When you
take systems down in a planned manner, you can cover
things for a few days in terms of moving materials, placing
purchase orders and putting work orders in place. But not
succeeding to bring these systems up again can seriously
hit the business’ bottom-line. So, we put in place several
additional dry runs to ensure success,” he says.
Vol/4 | ISSUE/18
Cover Story | Project Management
Yet all the testing did little to relax Briskman — especially
if they went too well. “I’ve been in too many projects to
know that nothing ever goes perfectly,” he says. But that’s
exactly what happened in one instance when his team
Would You Go Solo?
did dry runs of a database upgrade. Everything, he says, Large ERP installation upgrades can be
went smoothly and ahead of the schedule. “This had me daunting propositions. We asked some of
worried because I knew that Murphy’s Law was going to your peers to find out how they would go
visit us soon. Then on the Saturday afternoon of the cut- about it. Here’s what they said:
over, we had a major crisis which took about four hours
to resolve. While my team was stressed out, I heaved a
sigh of relief because our bump had occurred before the
go-live,” he says. “It depends entirely on the
Testing played a more crucial role at Ranbaxy’s upgrade skill-set maintained within an
because compliance is key to the pharmaceutical major. It organization and the maturity
created an enormous amount of testing and documentation for of business’s approach to IT.
the internal team. “To a certain extent the rigid requirements Since we maintain a strong
of CSV (computer systems validation) of a system forces a team with SAP expertise, I’d
level of precision not only in the execution but in planning go completely in-house — without third-
and testing too. It enables you to safeguard your environment party consultants.”
against potential mishap,” says Briskman. —Satish Pendse
In fact, to strengthen the validation process, the CIO, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC)
corporate quality team and a third-party quality expert
were roped in. The specialist was engaged for a fortnight
to independently review the internal team’s validation
and testing approaches. “One of the ways to be efficient
“Without the well-rounded
in any project is to engage the right expertise at just the
experience of consultants,
right time. That’s another problem with working with large
undertaking an ERP project
consultants. They want people on the ground and available
could become an exercise in trial
the whole time and I only need them at testing and during
and error. While the technical
the go-live as a QA check,” Briskman points out.
nitty-gritty can be handled by
The extensive testing and dry runs enabled the team to iron
the team, the planning and direction should
out all the possible issues and alleviate most of the pain-points
come from consultants. And they should
before the go-live process. Briskman says his team had the
have a minimum of five similar-sized ERP
whole process detailed down to the minute. If a scheduled task
projects under their belt.”
within a process was slotted to take 15 minutes but gobbled up
—Anil Khopkar
three additional minutes, they could immediately pinpoint a
GM (MIS), Bajaj Auto
new timeline for the rest of the process.
All the rehearsals helped shave off hours from their
timing. While their first dry run took about five days, the
final go-live for the upgrade took under 50 hours, including
“In a greenfield project it
a 10-hour slab for final testing. “We had earmarked 72
may make sense to involve
hours for the process but saved time. It goes back into
consultants. But, for a large
having a combination of planning and on-bolt technical
upgrade project, I would rely
and functional upgrade processes executed by in-house
on in-house expertise because
skill-sets,” says Singh.
the internal team already
As the in-house team took on the giant project head on,
understands our business processes. Without
Briskman ensured that they were not outflanked by several
in-house experts, going ahead without external
possible complications. Among other things, he knew that
consultant support can pose a high risk.”
the project needed a high degree of senior management
—M.D.Agrawal
endorsement. At a more tactical level he reviewed previous
CM-IT (Refinery Systems), BPCL.
customizations to the ERP to find out if there was still
a practical need for them and whether functions in the
upgraded SAP could replace them. By reconnoitering ahead
of his team and clearing away potential sand traps, “We
Vol/4 | ISSUE/18 REAL CIO WORLD | a u g u s t 1 , 2 0 0 9 23
Cover Story | Project Management
“The cost of consulting for high-
level projects usually makes
up about 70 percent of its total
cost. With our internal team we
carried out the upgrade quite cost
effectively and reversed that ratio.”
— David Briskman
VP and CIO, Ranbaxy Laboratories
were able to reduce the complexities of implementation and
customization by about 50 percent,” he says.
He also dislodged user reservations by proactively
seeking out users. Since many on the core IT team originated
from various functions at Ranbaxy, he initiated peer-level
conversations with users from functions that would be most
affected by the upgrade. “I am aware of many an upgrade
projects of this size have crashed and burnt because of
change management issues. I always say that the software
works. Success is getting people to use it,” says Briskman.
Labor of Love
Builds Love for Labor
If the project brought up some people’s hackles, it worked
wonders for the IT team. It challenged and motivated them, a
benefit CIOs who play it safe miss out on. A team, Briskman
says, operates best at full throttle. “We strive to ensure
that 50 percent of a person’s work is on new projects, new
technologies and new functionalities. But we also work hard
to provide a balanced work-life environment,” he says.
That approach makes them choosy about the people
they invite on the team. “People with just a couple of years
of experience do not get past the first round of interviews
because we are very picky. In fact, we have developed a
lot of people in-house from within business functions,”
says Kukreti.
24 a u g u s t 1 , 2 0 0 9 | REAL CIO WORLD
Cover Story | ERP
The numbers bear him out. About 30 percent of his core
SAP team started off in business functions. It helps with
attrition because people who are invited to join the team
already have strong bonds with the company. “Being able
to provide work-life balance and technological challenges
attracts people,” he says.
The strategy seems to work. “Attrition in the core team
this year has been zero. Last year two people left and two
years ago only three left,” he says.
Briskman now plans to leverage his team to implement
a large number of productivity enhancements based on
the new capabilities of ECC6. The team will stretch the use
of NetWeaver from an integration standpoint across the
platform, and focus on introducing business intelligence
capabilities and information dashboards. Additionally, the
core team will roll out other major sub-entities within the
SAP ecosystem including financial, and governance, risk
and compliance (GRC) tools, among others.
“This year is probably the most aggressive that we have had
in terms of planning to deploy a range of new functionalities,
capabilities and executing geographic expansion. This should
keep the team engaged and busy,” he smiles.
It’s been a good year. CIO
Gunjan Trivedi is assistant editor. Send feedback on this feature to
gunjan_t@cio.in
Vol/4 | ISSUE/18 Vol/4 | ISSUE/18 REAL CIO WORLD | a u g u s t 1 , 2 0 0 9 25