IT in the automotive sector is not just a useful design tool. At Honda Siel Cars India, IT helps achieve business goals too, whether by managing the dealer network or security or storage. Gaurav Patra has more details

Honda Siel Cars India, a joint venture between Honda Motors, Japan, and Siel, is one of the leading passenger car manufacturers in the B-segment. The company was established in 1995 and production commenced in 1997. At present it manufactures two models, Honda City and Honda Accord. The company employs 810 people across its manufacturing unit, marketing office, and corporate office at Noida, near New Delhi.

Ultimately Honda Siel has plans to connect all its dealers to the corporate network, and the dealer management system will help in connecting them, says Hilal Isar Khan

Today, communication is the key for any business. Efficient and faster information exchange is the most critical aspect of surviving in this highly competitive world. Keeping this in mind, Honda Siel has opted for an efficient and reliable IT set-up. “IT is a tool to achieve the business objectives of a company. We should not invest in IT only for the sake of investment. Rather, one should invest whenever it is required. IT is more like a catalyst, a key business tool,” says Hilal Isar Khan, Honda Siel’s IT manager. The company has already made an investment of more than Rs 16 crore in IT; its MIS department is divided into four groups: software applications, hardware, networking and communications.

Applications running on the network
Among all the enterprise applications, ERP is the most talked about, and Honda Siel is no exception to the wave of large firms adopting ERP. The company has a basic ERP software called HIPAC (Honda Integrated Package). It’s a proprietary product of Honda, and runs on IBM’s AS/400. The company has been using this package from the beginning of its Indian operations. “None of the existing ERP solutions—SAP, JD Edwards, People-Soft—cover the Indian taxation module in a better way. Indian taxation laws are very complicated. That’s why we decided to implement our in-house package which suits our needs,” informs Khan. Payroll, HR, original equipment procurement, production planning, and after-sales are some of the functional areas covered by the package.

Apart from this, the company is using a financial accounting package from Vishesh Infotech called Business Soft. This is a locally developed ERP package that runs according to the requirements of Indian taxation law. “Financial accounting is the heart of any transaction system, so it has to talk to the original equipment and other functional areas. Apart from our in-house package, this is another major area of integration at Honda Siel,” says Khan.

The company has recently started upgrading its ERP set-up, especially the HR and payroll modules. Explains Khan, “We were looking for a system under which we could cover training programmes, salaries, the appraisal system and leave encashment system. To implement this new package we have hired a company called Shasun Consultancy, who are good at implementing payroll packages.” The company has started implementation of this package on a platform called Magic, a programme language tool which also works like a database. However, the company is still using its in-house package.

An application partly developed by the in-house team is the inventory control system. This is a critical application for a car manufacturer like Honda Siel. “Until and unless we know the cost of carrying inventory, how can we maintain low inventory costs?” asks Khan.

A good and reliable messaging system was a long-standing need at Honda Siel. This it achieved by implementing Lotus Notes. The company uses it primarily for mailing and also for some other workflow applications. It also has an intranet set-up which runs on Windows NT Server. The company now has plans to create an extranet; this will connect other locations with the corporate office. WinProxy is being used for mail exchange, which is being used by around 200 people.

Customer care is the most critical aspect of Honda’s culture. Keeping this in mind, the company has gone in for a package called Honda Technical Report, which was developed in-house by the MIS team. The package maintains records of all customers, including complaints and feedback.

To manage the dealer network across the country, Honda Siel uses a software tool called Dealer Management System. This package was developed to keep all its dealers on the same platform. “Ultimately we have plans to connect all our dealers to the corporate network, and this uniformity will help us in connecting them,” says Khan. While the package is currently running on Microsoft Access, the company is in the process of shifting to Microsoft SQL Server.

Designing work at Honda Siel has been taken care of by a software package called MyCatia. Honda is considered to be one of the biggest users of MyCatia worldwide, and also in India. To implement this package the company has invested around Rs 1 crore. Honda Siel basically uses the MyCatia package to design engines for both its models.

Honda International Training & Education Centre focuses on dealers. Here, it files data on each of its dealers, like the potential of the dealer in terms of the number of cars that can be sold, and the quality of service the dealer provides; it even keeps track of the manpower available with dealers. And of course, provides training to dealers and to their workforce at this centre. (The MIS department maintains a record of all the activities taking place at the centre.)

Hardware infrastructure
Honda Siel is considered to be an IBM stronghold. Right from the desktops to the laptops to high-end servers—it uses IBM products. But now, other vendors are also being considered. Reveals Khan, “Keeping in mind market dynamics, we are trying to create a situation where we will have some other vendors with us.”

At present Honda Siel has around 12 servers; the company is considered to be a heavy user of AS/400 servers. Recently, it went in for an AS/400 iSeries server to upgrade its infrastructure with an investment of around Rs 1 crore for the installation. Apart from this, the company also has two RS/6000 servers for the MyCatia package. In addition, it has a few IBM Netfinity servers and around five Windows NT servers. This shows that the IT set-up at Honda Siel is a hybrid environment.

The company has multiple operating systems, database server systems, RDBMS and multiple front-end systems. “In terms of hardware we are more like an IBM client. However, in the case of software, the dynamics change very fast. It is not created intentionally. Rather, it is the need of the organisation to go in for different software from different vendors. We always wanted to go in for the optimum solution that was available to meet our need,” explains Khan.

“In today’s world, storage is considered to be an integral part of any enterprise. We have gone in for a Direct Attached Storage (DAS)-based system,” says Khan. The DAS system is running on another RS/6000. For the AS/400 servers, Honda Siel has an Ultrium and DAT as the back-up; for emergency situations it has kept all relevant data in a fireproof cabinet at another location.

To support its hardware infrastructure, the company has recently signed an AMC contract with HP.

For security, the car major has decided to go in for a firewall solution. It is in the process of implementing the e-Trust application from Computer Associates. The company is also using a Cisco Catalyst 400 switch on this network. Other Cisco products the company uses are routers and hubs. All these machines are connected through a Cat5 structured cabling solution, which was designed by HP.

The communications network consists of a 64 Kbps IPLC (International Private Leased Circuit) connectivity from VSNL, which is connected to the Honda headquarters in Japan. It plans to upgrade this network to 128 Kbps.

Through this connectivity, the Indian arm of Honda Motors is also connected to all other locations where Honda operates.

The company also has 64 Kbps radio link connectivity, which is primarily for the Internet and mailing requirements of the Indian operation; this too the company plans to upgrade to 128 Kbps capacity. Through this radio link, Honda Siel is evaluating the implementation of a VoIP (Voice over IP) service. “Once this is in place we will connect all dealers to the corporate office. This will help us keep track of dealers more efficiently,” says Khan.

At a later stage, Honda Siel plans to put in a wireless network within the main facility at Noida. This network will connect all remote locations within the facility, as cabling is not a viable and cost-effective solution. The company is also trying to create a WAN within the LAN. To achieve this, it is going to put IBM routers and modems at all remote locations. (Since the company manages all its activities from one location, it doesn’t need a proper WAN set-up in place.)

Till date, the IT department of Honda Siel has not faced any major bottleneck. Khan opines that implementation of ideas in a planned manner has helped the company in achieving this. The work culture at Honda has made the implementation of different IT projects easier. At the concept level, IT projects are discussed with department heads, functional heads and the management; at the user level different kinds of technical training is also carried out. The company also invites some IT companies to share their thoughts about the benefits of IT with certain users.

The result of all this is that IT at Honda Siel has helped the company cut costs and save on manpower. Or as Khan put it, “Technology helps in achieving the business goal.”