MetaFrame brings Ujala to Jyothy Labs

Jyothy Laboratories' recent implementation of Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server has helped it deploy ERP with centralised control and a lower price tag

A visit to Automotive Axles convinced B V DINESH about the virtues of the Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server

JYOTHY Laboratories (JLL) has been producing and marketing Ujala, a popular fabric whitener, since 1983. The company identified high-growth product areas and wanted to leverage its IT infrastructure to cut operational costs and increase efficiency. For this it needed robust IT infrastructure, and to this end it recently went live with Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server (CMPS). JLL used CMPS to roll out its home-grown ERP software from its head office in Mumbai. By doing this, JLL has avoided provisioning branch offices and manufacturing facilities one at a time.

Challenges

JLL has operations in 65 locations. IT consultant B V Dinesh of Nucleus Software was responsible for setting up JLL's IT infrastructure. Says he, “Designing and developing an ERP application, implementing it, training users and designing a network architecture that was cost-effective, user-friendly, highly-scalable and easy to maintain was a daunting task.”
Some of the challenges were the distributed computing environment, connecting remote users and reducing the TCO.

Implementation

Of the six modules, procurement and finance & accounting were picked for the first phase in February 2002. The ERP application was written using Delphi 5.0 for Windows 2000. Oracle 8i was the database used. Phase One went live in April 2002 on CMPS XPs. Later, JLL upgraded to the next version of CMPS, XPa. Says M L Bansal, vice president, Finance, JLL, “It was a high-quality development and implementation effort. The solution has proved cost-effective and exceeded our expectations.”

Management console

The Citrix management console provides single-point command and control of the entire CMPS XP set-up. "The access management console lets us monitor and manage servers, applications, licences and users," says Dinesh. "We can provide support for 300 users with only nine technical and functional IT staff at the Bangalore centre." When a user faces a problem or an error message crop up, the IT team in Bangalore shadows the remote user's screen and rectifies it instantaneously. Says Dinesh, "The beauty of the Citrix solution is that it does not require a separate management tool; it uses the Citrix management console for managing remote users' problems."

Plans

After going live with the procurement, inventory management and finance & accounting modules of enterprise application, the company is now planning to implement the remaining modules-sales & distribution, HR management and payroll accounting. It plans to go live with these in September 2004. JLL also intends to connect its supply chain consisting of 35 distributors and 2,600 stockists using CMPS.