Peer-to-Peer

HeroITES automates its business operations

Deploying Microsoft Axapta has helped HeroITES link its applications to a single database. This has reduced the time spent on administrative activities, says Atanu Kumar Das.

HeroITES is part of Hero Corporate Service, the services arm of the $2.2 billion Hero Group. The company required a business solution to integrate information within the company and streamline critical ongoing business processes for optimum productivity.

A detailed study was carried out and solutions available were evaluated. Finally, HeroITES decided to implement Microsoft Business Solution—Axapta, as it ensured the integration of data within the organisation in a simpler and efficient manner. The implementation partner was Munjal e-Systems, a sister concern of the company.

Munjal e-Systems, a Microsoft Certified Business Solutions partner, customised and implemented Axapta. The solution has been deployed with five concurrent users.

Due to the ease of customisation and flexibility, Axapta was implemented in just two months. According to Padma Singh, Vice-president, HR, HeroITES, “When we decided to implement the solution, we wanted to ensure minimal disruption and the shortest deployment cycle. In a short span of time, we have started reaping the benefits of implementing Axapta for our routine operations.”

“Once we were appointed as the preferred vendor to deploy the solutions in HeroITES, we ensured that we integrated various platforms together and streamlined their business processes. The company has started seeing results immediately after the deployment. Moreover, HeroITES is now implementing additional modules such as the complete finance module, as well as the payroll and project modules,” says a Microsoft official.

According to Shefali Munjal, Business Head, Munjal e-Systems, “The primary concern for any BPO is to address retention as attrition is too high in this industry. We ensured that HeroITES was able to address this issue better by customising solutions that were available within Axapta and enabled them to be more productive when it comes to addressing such issues and also reduce the administrative time spent on this issue. This deployment helped the company address issues ranging from employee grievances to medical records.”

In order to standardise its business processes, HeroITES required a solution that would integrate various processes and departments into a cohesive whole and Microsoft’s Axapta turned out to be the apt platform for the same.

Then...

In the past, the company had experimented with other solutions including, among others, a Customer Relationship Management solution and Tally for finance. The human resources side was managed using an Excel-based solution along with a few in-house applications to manage food, transportation and other issues. These solutions, however, led to the creation of islands of information. The applications did not talk to each other and did not share data leading to the duplication of effort and errors in accounts reconciliation. The challenges were to conduct effective resource planning of more than 1,000 employees, to effectively manage duty rosters as well as to monitor ongoing business operations and projects.

...and now

Axapta—a customisable, scalable Enterprise Resource Planning solution helped HeroITES streamline its business processes. All applications are now linked to a single database, which has helped reduce administrative time. It has also enabled the management to keep track of business indicators such as attrition rate, conversion rates etc.

The solution allows HeroITES to allocate resources accurately, plan for additional resources and share this information with the concerned departments. This has led to the synchronised flow of employee information within the business environment.

Axapta has enabled the management to get a complete overview of multiple projects and financial information within the company. This helps gain greater insight over processes with a detailed MIS in progress to make the right decisions.

Microsoft Axapta Financial Management has helped HeroITES improve the efficiency of existing accounting processes. The business solution has also helped automate the process of invoicing as per the contract details. This function has enabled an easy process workflow with automated and timely billing, which allows accurate scheduling and cost allocation to processes.

“One should understand that in a BPO environment there are two most important parts that an employer has to deal with. The first is payroll and the second operations (task workforce management). Presently, we are deploying the former in HeroITES and we expect to deploy the latter in the coming fiscal,” Munjal mentions.

Plans

Buoyed by the success of the Axapta implementation, HeroITES has decided to implement additional modules such as the complete finance module, as well as the payroll and projects modules. Currently, Munjal e-Systems, is in the process of customising and deploying the resource management module, which is expected to go live in the next month. Moreover, it will also deploy processes to customise its task workforce management, which would ensure greater productivity.

“BPO is a growing sector in the services industry and to compete, one needs to have the best of software solutions. I am sure two years down the line we can compare and see what benefits we are reaping by deploying the varied suites of Axapta in HeroITES,” Munjal sums up.

atanu@expresscomputeronline.com