Challenges

• Consolidate business-critical ERP information from two machinery manufacturing facilities and seven sales and services centers
• Replace a legacy finance system that had reached its end-of-life and automate the manual recording of inventory, purchasing, and manufacturing data
• Manage sales and marketing information about more than 10,000 machinery products in an integrated system, rather than on disparate spreadsheets
• Ensure ERP, sales, and customer data is consistent, to eliminate disagreements about which data source is the most accurate
• Implement international best practices for ERP and CRM processes

Solutions

• Reduced the time taken to review and approve invoices from suppliers
• Cut time to ship construction components and machinery from the warehouse
• Eliminated inconsistencies in shipment information, with ability to check purchase orders and delivery notes automatically, online
• Removed the need for a separate sales-order checklist by ensuring every detail about an order is included in the integrated system
• Enhanced outsourced, manufacturing management by recording more details about the products manufactured by each vendor, such as exactly when the product was sent for manufacturing and when it is expected back
• Increased details in bills of material for finished products imported from China for resale —such as rack and pinions— by enabling staff to record product components as separate inventory, rather than recording the completed product as a whole
• Responded to customer-service requests for construction equipment significantly faster, by integrating customers’ contact, purchasing, and service histories, eliminating the need to call customers for more information
• Enhanced managers’ decision-making by providing a consolidated view of sales cycles, including the status of each sale and the performance of individual employees
• Improved ERP and CRM processes across multiple locations by adopting Oracle’s international best practices
• Reduced implementation time by around three months by using Oracle Business Accelerators
• Expected to complete month-end financial processes in 24 hours, rather than spending at least a week consolidating and checking disparate accounting information

Why Oracle

Spartan Engineering considered several vendors for its ERP and CRM projects, including SAP, 3i Infotech, Microsoft, and Oracle. The company chose Oracle E-Business Suite, as it had a strong reputation in the Indian manufacturing industry, and was the best fit for the company’s business needs.

“Based on our requirements for the next five-years, we could see that Oracle’s applications were a better choice for infrastructure, scalability, costs, and vendor support,” said Kamran Moosa, business application controls, Spartan Engineering Industries Pvt. Ltd.

Implementation Process

Spartan Engineering initially contracted management consulting organization Nishnaat Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd. to develop a long-term roadmap for the Oracle E-Business Suite project. The organization also helped with process reengineering, project coordination, and project management, to address various issues that could be encountered in the implementation process.

In September 2011, Spartan Engineering engaged Oracle Specialized Partner Chain-Sys to implement Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.

Using Oracle Business Accelerators, the company completed the implementation within five months, rather than an anticipated eight months. The Oracle products went live in March 2012.

Partner

Chain-Sys helped Spartan Engineering implement Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 and provided post-implementation support. The partner also deployed Oracle Business Accelerators to reduce the applications’ implementation time, and conducted a conference-room pilot and user acceptance testing.

“Chain-Sys is a highly regarded Oracle implementation partner in India and is known for its knowledge and extensive implementation experience in the manufacturing and construction sectors,” said Moosa. “The company demonstrated great leadership, commitment, and drive throughout the project. It went the extra mile to ensure the implementation was a success.”

Resources

• More Reference Assets About Oracle E-Business Suite and Industrial Manufacturing