Peer-to-Peer

Vernacular ERP

Saddled with an inefficient IT infrastructure and faced with the task of consolidating its data spread across various locations, the Sakaal group deployed an ERP solution and overcame all its problems. By Tanu Talwar

"We needed an ERP solution that could bring in efficient and contemporary work practices, optimise workflow, provide timely information and streamline processes" - Bhausaheb Patil Director, Technology Sakaal group

The Sakaal group is a leading publishing house in the state of Maharashtra. It had plans for a major facelift which involved expanding its list of offerings to its readers. However, the inefficient and cumbersome IT infrastructure that was in place at that point was like a boulder on the company’s metaphorical back. The legacy system was a combination of Oracle and Foxpro deployed across the company’s Indian offices. The company deployed Oracle in 1997 at its headquarters in Pune. The Foxpro application had been rolled out earlier in 1992 and was running across branch offices supporting advertising, finance and circulation. As both these applications were standalone ones, a key hurdle encountered by the publication was that of integrating its various offices. Bhausaheb Patil, Director, Technology, Sakaal group explains, “All our offices had customised standalone applications that were decentralised and not integrated. The lack of integration was a cause for concern.”

Sakaal had huge volumes of data to be stored and records to be maintained. With no proper IT infrastructure in place the media house maintained its data manually on physical files containing documents, proposals, and vendor accounts on age-old servers at different locations. “Due to the manual handling and maintenance of records at several locations consolidated data was not available and whenever a query was generated to fetch information, a lot of time was spent on the search,” says Patil.

It became imperative for Sakaal to overcome these difficulties. After much deliberation, it decided to go for an internal assessment of its existing IT infrastructure and the group decided that it needed a solution that would offer centralised control by integrating all its offices.

Patil says, “We needed an ERP solution that could bring in efficient and contemporary work practices, optimise workflow, provide timely information and streamline processes by enabling comprehensive information on business activities.”

To achieve these goals, Sakaal was required to upgrade to an IT framework that could meet the needs of an Indian regional publishing house. Keeping these aspects in mind Sakaal decided to implement SAP 4.6C.

Few options

When Sakaal went searching for an ERP system, it realised that there were few options in terms of readymade solutions for a media house. Not many IT companies cover the media industry in detail; fewer look at providing regional language media solutions.

“The initial findings were not encouraging as most IT packages were geared towards the manufacturing and services industry. Within media too, the focus was more on advertising agency-elated solutions,” says Patil.

A team of senior personnel examined a number of solutions and checked them out against the specific needs of their respective groups. Though Sakaal had been considering other options namely Oracle Apps, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Baan, the team finally decided to adopt SAP 4.6c. From among the various solutions SAP 4.6c was the only one that incorporated the regional language interface being used by the company.

Patil states, “Being in the media industry we needed to go in for the latest IS media version available. The main focus was upon having strong online automatic business integration with all our functions mainly with FI to avail of daily updated MIS reports that were imperative in order to achieve smoother business administration.” Another key point in SAP’s favour was the compatibility of its software with the group’s Six Sigma processes.

The implementation

Once decided, the solution was implemented by SISL over a period of one year in the advertising, production, circulation, finance, materials and the HR departments across multiple locations. A 30-member team from SISL worked closely with the IT team at Sakaal to update the system and provide comprehensive training. Besides SISL, Sakaal also kept its own team of 50 people on standby to be called upon in times of crisis. During the first few months of implementation the team was faced with three challenges:

• Availability of quality master data: As an old media company, Sakaal was not rigorous and systematic in its documentation. To shift to a new platform it was now necessary to collate as much data as was humanly possible to ensure that, in the future, these processes would not be porous and ineffective.
• Upgradation of data: The team realised that for the SAP 4.6c solution to be effective, it was important that the data being used was regularly updated and seamlessly integrated into the system.
• Raising IT maturity levels: At the personnel level, the difficulty was in breaking down mindsets. Initially many employees found it a nuisance to comply with the requirements of SAP 4.6c as they were more comfortable and familiar with the manual handling of data. This initial inhibition slowed down the execution process.

However these challenges were tackled with regular training and awareness workshops organised both before and after the implementation. The combination of in-depth training and a clear roadmap that laid out the steps to be undertaken to become a well connected and IT-savvy organisation worked.

RoI in six months

Sakaal gained from more efficient operations immediately. The first concrete RoI however took six months when the group launched an online edition of its Marathi and English newspapers. The success of the solution can be gauged from the fact that Sakaal has been able expand its reach by opening branch offices at three locations. Patil states, “The earlier integration anomalies that the company faced generated huge information gaps which acted as a constraint to our development. With the SAP 4.6c offering smooth automatic online integration we have been able to operate in Goa, Nagpur and Jalgaon.” One of the immediate and visible benefits of implementing SAP4.6c was the integration of regional interfaces with the company’s online editions. It helped Sakaal expand and strengthen its position as a serious player in the regional language newspaper business.

Further, the earlier data discrepancies that led to faulty analysis and inaccurate decision-making have now been eliminated and the company is able to take well informed and analysed decisions. The SAP4.6c platform has enabled Sakaal to exploit new opportunities and carve a niche for itself by expanding its product portfolio. It has given the company the leeway to experiment with diverse delivery systems and develop a flexible content creation mechanism to not only have an active online presence but also to venture into providing mobile phone content. “With the Weblog we are able to regularly interact with our readers and incorporate their suggestions on a daily basis,” asserts Patil.

The company is keen on implementing MySAP to improve linkages with end-users and has already committed itself to deploying the solution by January 2007.