Qatalys’ Client is an auto-ancillary unit of an award winning $1 Billion industrial group with a large presence in the Indian automobile market. The Client, a partner to General Motors, is a manufacturer and supplier of high tensile fasteners, cold extruded parts and powder metal parts to global clients in the automobile industry.
Situation Presented to Qatalys
Qatalys’ Client, the principal supplier to many of its global clients, has put in motion an ambitious program to widen the customer base and expand the product range. To satisfy the just-in-time requirements, they have established warehousing arrangements throughout the USA. A comprehensive system which can facilitate easy Order Tracking and Distribution Management is much in need.
The Client’s existing systems are disparate, ranging from Unix based Oracle applications, to FoxPro based single user systems, and Excel based analytical reports. What’s missing is the ability to accumulate information about shipping and receiving processes, aggregate information for the day-to-day operations, and generate reports needed by the senior management.
Key Challenges
Qatalys has to create a brand new system which will have a tremendous impact on the people in the organization, the company, its suppliers and even its customers.
This system will need to:
- Track goods through the complete cycle, i.e. from the time they are shipped to the various worldwide customers, till the payment is received form the customers or their banks
- Generate reports to be provided to the central apex bank and other government agencies- such as the stock monitoring reports generate foreign exchange related reports and various other financial reports
and facilitate forward trading
The Qatalys Solution
A team of Qatalys business analysts carried out a series of discussions with the Auto group’s management and operational users. Qatalys carefully analyzed the whole scenario, interviewed the top management and prioritized the expectations & deliverables.
Qatalys then came up with a solution- a mini ERP that can help the Client manage and monitor all the activities ranging from procurement to production, from marketing to sales, and accounting to warehouse. The proposed system aimed to seamlessly integrate the Auto group’s global clients, suppliers and various departments. The Mini-ERP would be scalable, flexible and would smoothly integrate with the company-wide ERP.
The Qatalys Advantage
- Qatalys developed a 3 Tier ERP system where the Application layer and Business components were physically separate from the database server and the Client’s overall ERP system.
- Even though .NET technology had just released, Qatalys took advantage of the new technology and used .NET Remoting for successful interaction between the 3 layers of the ERP system
- Qatalys took the Application live without disturbing the ongoing ERP initiative, thereby enabling the Client unhindered customer service.
- Qatalys’ Mini ERP crunched cycle times significantly, resulting in tremendous cost savings
Industry: Automobile
Project Size: 110 Person Months
Delivery model: Offsite
