FOCUS ERP Value Realization for a manufacturer of Speciality Oils & Fats

Challenge
The customer is India's leading manufacturer of Speciality Oils & Fat products with a strong focus on delivering Health & Taste. Customer had implemented an ERP solution - 'FOCUS' by FOCUS Softnet Ltd. in 2003. The customer's Business and complexity of its Business processes had grown substantially since then and thus they were facing challenges with FOCUS. Customer engaged SAINATH Solutions to critically review 'FOCUS' implementation. We were mandated to critically validate FOCUS with respect to Robustness, stability and user documentation and review FOCUS from a technology perspective and its capability to address the emerging trends with respect to Mobility, Analytics and the cloud.

'FOCUS ERP Value Realization' - Our Observations

SAINATH Solutions executed an 'ERP Value Realization' assignment for the customer. The customer had embarked on a company-wide ERP implementation exercise without establishing a dedicated I.T. organization to drive this initiative. The company wide perception for use of FOCUS was 'To remain accountable' rather than use FOCUS to meet and drive their Business needs. FOCUS was a standalone deployment with no integrations. The current chaotic state at the customer organization was a result of lack of internal discipline and lack of clarity in defining the organization's expectation leading to its inability to demand committed performance from the vendor (FOCUS Softnet) who in turn were unable to enforce engagement rules and guidelines. There were multiple communication channels with FOCUS Softnet that led to lack of accountability within the customer organization and also gave room to the vendor to escape. The communication of requirements by the customer was not as per I.T. standards that gave room to disputes. There was pre-dominant use of Excel by the users to deal with any Business situation.

'FOCUS ERP Value Realization' - Our Conclusions

The above observations resulted in the following conclusion. FOCUS ERP coverage and its implementation was below acceptable standards. Manual records and Excel fill in the gaps completely defeating the 'integration of processes and systems through the use of I.T.' Reporting does not flow from the ERP directly. There were serious concerns on the way FOCUS was deployed and its ongoing efforts to meet the customer's requirements. There was collective failure on the part of the customer organization as well as FOCUS Softnet. Vendor did not make a concerted effort to deal with the company-wide dissatisfaction with FOCUS.

'FOCUS ERP Value Realization' - Our Roadmap

SAINATH Solutions recommended to the customer to go for a company-wide fresh deployment of FOCUS. We recommended to the customer to re-negotiate with FOCUS Softnet the product version and modules required. FOCUS per se as a product was capable of meeting the customer's current and short-term requirements. Fault was in FOCUS deployment. We advised to migrate to a more sophisticated ERP after FOCUS re-deployment reaches a mature state in 2-3 years time.