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Asian Paints operates manufacturing facilities in 22 countries around the
world, and is the largest paint company in 10 overseas markets.
The subsidiaries that were started by Asian Paints—and also acquired—each used
different systems and solutions, leading to issues such as high IT
administrative costs and duplicated efforts in reporting. The company's
executives saw a critical need to standardize operations in the international
markets.
With this objective in mind, the company chose Microsoft® Dynamics–Nav®, now part of Microsoft Dynamics™. This has helped the
company reduce IT administration and improve access to relevant data in real
time. Microsoft Nav will eliminate the need for double reporting to the
regional and corporate offices, while providing consistent, streamlined, and
integrated business processes across all Asian Paints offices.
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| Situation |
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The Asian Paints company has an enviable reputation in the corporate world
for professionalism, fast-track growth, and building shareholder equity. Asian
Paints operates in 22 countries and has 29 paint manufacturing facilities in the
world, serving consumers in over 65 countries.
Asian Paints operates in five worldwide regions, including South Asia, Southeast
Asia, South Pacific, Middle East, and the Caribbean. The company markets five
corporate brands, namely Asian Paints, Berger International, SCIB Paints, Apco
Coatings, and Taubmans. In 10 markets it operates through its subsidiary, Berger
International Limited; in Egypt through SCIB Chemical SAE; in the South Pacific
as Apco Coatings; and in Fiji and Samoa as Taubmans.
Asian Paints has deployed an extensive IT infrastructure to help increase and
generate profits. The parent company has used an integrated supply chain
management solution from i2 Technologies, and an enterprise resource planning (ERP)
solution from SAP. With these IT tools firmly in place, the parent company runs
a well-organized, efficient, and structured organization.
To ensure that its international business keeps pace with the parent company, it
was important that each subsidiary also have a well-managed business solution.
But the subsidiaries were at different stages of growth and maturity, and
possessed a variety of existing systems. Some subsidiaries were small, with
revenues of U.S.$ less than one million and only manual processes, while some of
the larger subsidiaries were using legacy transaction systems that were deployed
before the subsidiary was acquired.
The Asian Paints IT team realized that it would need to find a business solution
that could match the pace of each of its international businesses, while
creating a uniform technology platform across all of the company's subsidiaries.
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Our key objective was to standardize technology platforms and business processes across subsidiaries and regions. Microsoft Navision has helped us achieve this objective quickly, efficiently, and cost effectively.
Aashish Kshetry
Systems Development Manager, Asian Paints
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| Solution |
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Evaluation Process
While the parent company uses SAP’s ERP solution, Asian Paints executives felt
that the subsidiaries were not mature enough to use the SAP solution
effectively, and that the cost of acquisition and deployment of the SAP solution
throughout the enterprise would not be justified.
The key objectives in deploying a business solution were to:
• Create a stable transaction system across all subsidiaries that would last at
least 7 to 10 years.
• Implement a solution that had built-in international modules on taxation and
multilingual support, as the company has operations in Bangladesh, Nepal, India
and Sri Lanka; China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand; Egypt,
Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago; Bahrain, Dubai, and Oman; Fiji, Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa Islands, and Australia.
Therefore, over a six-month evaluation period, Asian Paints decided to implement
Microsoft® Business Solutions Nav® software version 3.7 for its
subsidiaries. “We chose Microsoft Nav because it was a solution with
international modules for 40 countries, and it supports languages such as
Chinese, Thai, and Arabic among others,” explains Aashish Kshetry, Systems
Development Manager, Asian Paints.
Additionally, Microsoft Nav offered a hub-and-spoke model which was ideal
for Asian Paints. The hub-and-spoke concept refers to a parent or holding
company that uses one business software system (the hub), which is integrated
with the systems used by its individual subsidiaries or divisions (the spokes).
It was decided: While the parent company was running SAP, the subsidiaries would
be standardized on Microsoft Dynamics Nav.
Implementation Process
Once the decision to implement Microsoft Navision was made, the Microsoft local
sales team brought in All e Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to
help with the implementation process. Microsoft continued to support All e
Technologies and Asian Paints throughout the implementation cycle.
Prior to beginning implementation, the company created a central team consisting
of All e Technologies, the in-house Asian Paints IT team, business managers, and
process leads to help create a global business template. This was validated with
chief executive officers at the subsidiaries to get their buy-in. Assembling the
team, obtaining commitments, and implementing the first Microsoft Navision
installation lasted approximately four months, at the end of which the first
subsidiary Berger Paints Bahrain W.L.L. went live.
At this juncture, the company saw an opportune time to evaluate the
implementation and make necessary changes before beginning any new
implementations. Therefore, over the next four months, the company stabilized
the implementation, customizing the solution according to its needs.
One of the key customizations built by All e Technologies was the treatment of
delivery costs in purchase transactions. The solution has been customized to
load the delivery costs to the materials module at the time of receiving the
material itself. This ensures that material valuation and provisioning is
online. The customization also allows users to enter these costs at the time of
receiving the material rather than at the time of creating the purchase order
from the supplier. All delivery costs such as freight, custom duties, and other
levies are entered in local currency and can be allocated to materials in the
purchase order, either on the value of materials received or on the weight of
the materials received.
Suitable customizations have also been done to ensure that the follow-on
activities, such as booking invoices, reverse the earlier provision and pass the
necessary accounting and value entries to Microsoft Navision—without human
intervention.
Asian Paints has several complicated schemes and discounts in its sales pricing.
All e Technologies has also modeled these schemes and line-item discounts in the
Microsoft Navision sales order module. Some of these discounts are applied
before the value-added tax, while some are applied after calculating the tax.
Schemes also involve discounts by way of purchases of bulk packs, certain
product categories, or certain pack categories, etc.
Each country's implementation is on a separate Microsoft Navision installation
on its own server. This is typically installed in the factory, where there is a
large concentration of users. In the typical Asian Paints operation, remote
sales offices also connect to the Microsoft Navision system.
Once the initial installation was completed according to its requirements, the
company set an aggressive plan of implementing Microsoft Dynamics Navision in ten countries in just eight months. These included Egypt,
Dubai, Oman, Fiji, Samoa, Trinidad, Jamaica, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
At each subsidiary, a centralized implementation process is followed. The team
installs Microsoft Navision, as with the pilot implementation, in the factory
where there is a large number of users and where remote sales offices can
connect to the server hosting Microsoft Navision.
The company continues to deploy Microsoft Navision at new locations, as per its
requirements, with Nepal being the thirteenth subsidiary going live in January
2006.
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| Benefits |
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The hub-and-spoke model has enabled Asian Paints subsidiaries to interact
with the parent organization easily and effectively, removing the need for
generating multiple reports.
Standardized Technology Platform
“Our key objective was to standardize technology platforms and business
processes across our subsidiaries and regions. Microsoft Navision has helped us
achieve this objective quickly, efficiently, and cost effectively,” observes
Kshetry.
With a worldwide edition of Microsoft Navision that supports multiple languages
and tax and legal structures of various countries, Asian Paints did not have to
implement local solutions to support local taxation and legal requirements. All
the functionality was readily available in the Microsoft Navision software.
Reduces IT Administration
In its previous infrastructure, the corporate IT team was constantly extending
support services and looking for solutions to integrate disparate and
heterogeneous IT environments. This required highly skilled staff members to be
available not just at the subsidiary region but also at the corporate level.
With the implementation of Microsoft Navision, the subsidiaries are all on a
single platform using the same applications, and processes. This uniformity
greatly reduces the IT intervention that was required earlier.
Faster, Quicker, Improved Data Flow to Parent Company and Regional Teams
The Microsoft Navision solution has benefited the Asian Paints corporate office,
regional offices, as well as its subsidiaries. The SAP-Navision hub-and-spoke
model will ensure that information is shared in a consistent manner across the
organization.
The consolidated financial statements from the subsidiaries can now be
transferred from different accounting structures into the standard requirements
of the parent organization.
“With Microsoft Navision, the financial information is entered just once at the
local subsidiary level, and the same information is easily reproduced as a
printed financial statement or in any specialized format as per our corporate
requirements,” adds Kshetry.
No More Double Reporting
Before implementing Microsoft Navision, each month the subsidiaries spent
several unproductive hours creating reports showing activity at the country,
regional, as well as corporate levels. This unproductive time will be completely
eliminated with the implementation of Microsoft Navision. This is primarily
because the reports will be generated as per the required guidelines once in
Microsoft Navision and then sent in the format required by the regional offices
as well as the corporate office.
What’s more, with each subsidiary on the same technology platform, the same
business processes are being followed globally. This removes redundancies and
improves business processes that have benefited all.
All e Technologies
All e Technologies is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that focuses on
deploying Microsoft Dynamics™–based solutions for its customers. The company has
offices in India, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, Mauritius, and New
Zealand. The Indian operations provide the backbone for global fulfillment and
technology competence. The ISO 9001:2000–certified offshore development and
services center in India forms an integral part of its offerings—enabling All e
Technologies to offer compelling advantages of high-quality global fulfillment
with reduced costs to its customers.
About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics, a division of Microsoft, offers a wide range of integrated,
end-to-end business applications and services designed to help small, midsize,
and corporate businesses become more connected with customers, employees,
partners, and suppliers. Microsoft Dynamics applications optimize strategic
business processes across financial management, analytics, human resources
management, project management, customer relationship management, field service
management, supply chain management, e-commerce, manufacturing, and retail
management.
More information about Microsoft Dynamics can be found at:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics
Contact Microsoft
Dynamics India
Call : +91 99999 09 654
SMS "DYNAMICS" to 8243
or e-mail at
connect@microsoft.com |
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For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada
Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing
can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the
United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about All e Technologies products and services, call (91)
(120) 2588 6567 or visit the Web site at:
www.alletec.com
For more information about Asian Paints products and services, call (91) (22)
5695 8000 or visit the Web site at: www.asianpaints.com
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| Solution Overview |
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| Company |
| Asian Paints
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| Industry |
| Manufacturing |
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| Industry Size |
| Large |
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| Customer Profile |
| Asian Paints is India's largest paint company and ranks among the top ten decorative coatings companies in the world today, with revenues of INR 25.6 billion (approximately U.S.$585 million) in 2004-05 financial year. |
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| Business Situation |
| Asian Paints expanded its business around the globe, in some cases acquiring companies. Each one of these subsidiaries had its own IT infrastructure, maintenance of which was a big issue with the corporate IT team. Supporting this diverse infrastructure required IT staff time and skills in multiple technologies and platforms. |
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| Solution |
| Asian Paints executives decided to standardize on one platform, Microsoft® Dynamics Nav® version 3.7, for its operations in 22 countries outside of India. |
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| Benefits |
• Standardized technology platform reduces IT administration.
• Faster, quicker, improved data flow to parent company and regional teams.
• Removes the need for double reporting.
• Multilingual software integrates companies across the globe.
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| Software and Services |
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| Partner |
| All e Technologies |
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| "We chose Microsoft Nav because it was a solution with international modules for 40 countries, and it supports languages such as Chinese, Thai, and Arabic, among others."
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Aashish Kshetry
Systems Development Manager, Asian Paints
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