SHV Energy India Implements SAP
By Sonal Desai
Mumbai, Sep 05, 2008 1150 hrs IST

About the company

SHV Energy India is a fully owned subsidiary of the $ 20 billion SHV Holdings N.V, a Fortune 500 Dutch multinational that specializes in providing energy solutions. Established in 1996, its infrastructure includes liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) import terminals, LPG filling plants, and a distribution network to service its industrial, commercial, and other customers globally. In India, the company is spread over 25 locations with offices at Hyderabad and Ahmedabad and, staff strength of close to 300 employees. Some of their larger customers include ITC, Hero Honda, etc.

SHV Energy India includes the brands Super Gas and HiDrive.

Need for a solution

SHV s legacy infrastructure consisted of Oracle 91 database, IBM P series servers running UNIX and AIX 5.3 operating system. The legacy IT systems were causing delays in decision making due to a lack of timely data and this was affecting Super Gas productivity. We were bogged down by the manual processes and we could not focus on other important aspects of the business , says Ajay Kumar, CEO. In addition, a major portion of the company s processes were manual-based which resulted in duplication of data and work. We wanted to improve our internal efficiency and serve our customers better.

Objective

The challenge before the company was to automate processes, increase productivity, and efficiency; add value to internal and external customers

Solution

SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) 5.0. The modules implemented included financial accounting, controlling, sales & distribution, materials management, production planning, project systems, plant maintenance, customer service and payroll.

The company said it selected SAP since it was a user-friendly solution and had rich functional capabilities. SAP s track record in the Indian market also made it more attractive to SHV.

The implementation process

V N Diwakar, VP (business development and special projects) of SHV Energy India who headed the project team said that the decision to roll out the solution across 25 locations simultaneously proved to be one of the biggest challenges for Super Gas. This hurdle was overcome by implementing a dedicated VPN network and conducting over 10,000 man hours of structured training which had to be done along with the day-to-day business activities.

We were working with different software packages. We could not build reports the way we wanted it. By the time we could get and collate data, a fortnight would pass. We also generated a lot of duplicate data and there were delays in transactions, said he. Business processes had to be re-aligned as part of the company s drive to automate processes with SAP ECC.

It was difficult for the 100 users to adapt to, but they knew realized the system would reduce the complexity of processes and reduce the cost of operating multiple systems.

After a six-month implementation period by Intelligroup, all the 25 locations of Super Gas simultaneously went live on SAP ECC within six months on August 1, 2006.

The industry perspective

The industry is facing challenges of rising hydrocarbon prices and pressure from customers on rising energy costs. This is prompting players to simplify management of multiple systems and better manage their business processes. Many of the bigger players have opted for a single enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Diwakar said most of the players have an IT architecture in place. We understand that IT can help us grow. But large gas distributors especially in the government sector face hurdles. Since they are also very large organizations, their IT architecture is in bits and pieces. Any new deployment takes time. There are lot more challenges.

Benefits

Availability of data in real-time aids strategic and tactical decision making, enhanced monitoring and control, improvement in overall efficiency, productivity and more time to invest in value added tasks and activities.

Business visibility has improved and we now have better control across all our business units. We are also more confident in our decision making because of the availability of timely, consistent, and accurate data, said Kumar.

SAP has streamlined the entire process of order processing to delivery to customers, says Diwakar. Various core modules are also helping increase customer satisfaction. For instance, with the help of project systems module, the company is able to execute projects at the customer s locations quickly and efficiently. Actual performance can be measured against what had been originally planned as well. The plant maintenance and customer service modules will enable us to respond better to customer s calls and provide better service to our customers. Payroll and other aspects in the HR module have streamlined a lot of activity in the HR department.

We have started implementing value added services in the form of features. We never looked at the implementation as an IT implementation, but more as a business solution, said Diwakar. Now our in-house process innovation team is developing improvised modules every month or two. We are adding more value in terms of customer service, automated workflow, etc.

The company is looking at implementing the solution manager, and other modules in material management in order to visualize how contracts can be activated, build warranties around products, etc.