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Patni helps Global IT manufacturer reduce
operational costs through process automation |
By partnering with
Patni, a large manufacturer of computing products achieved end-to-end
automation of the order-to-invoice process.
The Client
The client is an $80 billion Fortune 10 company whose offerings
span IT infrastructure, personal computing, imaging, printing
and IT services.
The Challenge
The Procurement Services division of the client procures components
from the suppliers, which are then shipped to the Original Design
Manufacturers (ODMs) and Contract Manufactures (CMs). ODMs and
CMs assemble finished goods and the client procures finished
goods back from these manufacturers. The procurement division
uses Baan ERP primarily for order management and warehousing.
As the client operated in an environment that was subject to
competitive global pricing trends and dynamic market forces,
it was looking at ways to optimize the existing ERP system to
reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies.
The Solution
After analyzing the client's existing business processes, Patni
proposed a detailed plan for helping the client achieve its
objective. Initially, individual business processes were taken
up based on the productivity gains they would provide. Subsequently,
processes were analyzed by conducting time analysis. This included
analyzing the number of clicks, number of data entries, and
number of sessions navigated for a business process in Baan.
Opportunities for major efficiency gains were analyzed and a
development plan was prepared. Technology solutions were then
devised for each of these opportunities.
These individual solution stacks were later integrated with
each other to achieve end-to-end automation.
Automation solution highlights include:
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Integration with other systems and databases with automatic
interfaces. These interfaces which were SOX compliant
helped in completely removing user intervention and manual
work |
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Implementation and deployment of EDI messages. EDI deployment
was first targeted at high volume business partners |
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Development of Web portal for customers and suppliers
with advanced features such as forecasting, order placement,
shipment information and reporting |
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Usage of latest Baan techniques such as AFS (Active
Function Server) and BOI (Baan Object Interface) were
deployed to automate processes such as PO creation, receipt,
shipment, and invoicing |
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Patni developed tools such as Quick SO tool, SO to PO
automation, reverse transaction automation and Quick PO.
These tools had the ability to load various transactions |
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Generation of automatic e-mails for sending routine
communication and reminders to the customers and the suppliers.
These e-mails pertained to cases such as acknowledgement
to the Customer, PO copies to the Supplier, Customs invoice
to the Customer or LSP and acknowledgement reminders to
the Suppliers. |
For achieving end-to-end automation of the order-to-invoice
process, Patni used a combination of multiple technologies such
as ASP, EDI, AFS, BOI and MS Excel VBA.
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The Technology
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ASP, EDI, AFS, MS Excel VBA |
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Baan. |
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The Benefits
The entire solution was developed in a record timeframe of only
two months using an offshore model. This enabled the client
to drastically reduce development and deployment costs.
Other significant benefits include:
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The end-to-end automation of the buy-sell process reduced
the processing time by one third. This also subsequently
reduced the operational costs |
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Improved resource utilization through the capability
to handle increase in business without subsequent increase
in manpower |
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Substantial improvement in customer experience and turn
around time |
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Standardization and automation in business processes
helped the client in shifting its business across global
locations |
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Improvement in user comfort and system usage time. Users
can now devote more time for improving the business than
managing the system. |
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