McCormick partners with Patni in scripting its global ERP success story

The Challenge The Solution The Benefits

The Client

The Challenge

	Need for focussed domain knowledge and expertise in a specialized application.
	Lack of specialized technical expertise for complex business transactions, and support for varied SAP needs.
	Requirement of implementation support spanning more than six manufacturing locations and sales offices across the USA, to scale up at a very short notice.

	Open, transparent and collaborative approach.
	Stringent quality control parameters.
	Effective delivery processes with appropriate coordination.
	Right mix of resources required as a consulting partner.
	Flexibility in scaling resources up and down.
	Scalable, operational infrastructure with local engagement teams to ensure strong customer focus and speed of delivery.

	McCormick wanted to move towards an integrated landscape, that is to have a homogenous ERP (SAP) across all the business groups to build strong processes, integrated with state-of-theart products like APO, SEM and BW.
	A modestly successful offshoring engagement, with a global consulting firm, confirmed the benefits of a global delivery model. This led McCormick to look for a worldwide, dependable and reliable partner. A successful pilot and positive feedback from the line managers on the engagement model helped them identify Patni as a partner of choice.

The Solution

	With its diverse talent pool, Patni provided McCormick strategic and tactical support in the following: - Support for SAP modules, including R/3, APO, and SEM - Support for the trade promotion application - Process diagnosis consulting - Application development.
	The diversified service requirements included application development, implementation and customization, maintenance, data migration projects, APO support, BW development and support, specialized CPG application support. Applications involved SAP technologies from simple reporting, highly complex transactions and table controls, user interface applications, and design of workflow process.
	Patni deployed a cross-functional team aligning with McCormick's business model leading to seamless transition of knowledge. The roll out team was in sync with key process groups and was thus empowered to resolve issues immediately.
	The development of functional/technical specifications, regression and integration testing was carried out onsite, while effort estimation, technical analysis, test plan, development and testing were carried out offshore.
	Patni adopted best practices, methodologies and a highly collaborative service delivery framework.

The Technology

	ERP: SAP R/3 4.6c APO - Advanced Planning and Organization BIW 3.1 Business Intelligence and Warehousing HR- Human Resources SD Sales and Distribution PP Production Planning
	Third Party Application Products: Winchem-Formula and Regulatory Management Software Vista-Sales Promotion tool
	Client Server: Oracle 8i, Citrix.

The Benefits

	Offshore leverage: Patni's cross-functional teams mapping directly to the business model of McCormick ensured seamless transition of knowledge offshore, and absolute coherence between the roll out team and key process groups, thus providing an offshore leverage of about 65-70 % maintained during key business rollouts.
	'On time go live':Patni's unique model, mapping to McCormick's business model facilitated an 'on time go live' in spite of aggressive schedules. - Reusable components improved productivity and helped reduce delivery and testing time by 50-100 % in advanced stages of the project. - Resolution of queries by an in-house functional team reduced the query resolution time significantly, thereby speeding up the development activity offshore. - A template developed offshore to incorporate all validation and error-handling routines resulted in a reduction in coding and testing efforts by 25-30%.
	High quality: - Complex transactions and user interface reports had minimal issues during the major rollouts. - Differentiated processes for regression testing and special focus on offshore QA for medium / complex tasks were ensured. - Quality Probe on critical deliverables by technical experts from other Patni teams ensured that defects were captured offshore and not passed on to the client.
	Increased IT capability: This is achieved through access to a diverse resource pool with deep technology expertise and vast experience of large-scale application development and maintenance projects.
	Global Partner: In Patni, McCormick found a single vendor with experience to support IT initiatives across the globe.

Client Testimonial