Shriram Ramakrishnan, MD and CEO, Consul Neowatt:

Consul Neowatt today is the number one Indian power Electronics Company and we manufacture power backup and power conditioning products like UPS, stabilizers, inverters, solar inverters, active harmonic filters.

Actually our journey with Birlasoft started a little over three years ago when we were looking to migrate from our legacy ERP systems. We were actually evaluating many ERP systems but we did end up choosing SAP and the journey started after we evaluated multiple vendors for our implementation and we chose Birlasoft as our implementation partner.

Vijayakrishna KS, General Manager – IT, Consul Neowatt:

Business challenges before the solutions we implemented were, like it was an individual silos of information. Also we had challenges like controlling, having a single process across the industries, across the companies, we had multiple companies before the merger and also, various geographies, like sales office, so each was having its own deviation process and all. There was no uniformity in the process, there was silos of information and it wa not actionable information also.

Vijayakrishna KS:

We wanted a good solution, so we finalized with SAP as the ERP and CRM solution for us, using HANA as our database, suite as HANA. Based on our feedback and the expertise owned by the Birlasoft team in manufacturing domain, we have chosen Birlasoft to as our implementation partner, to implement SAP ERP, SAP CRM on using suite on HANA and we are the first company in APJ to do so, way back in 2013.

We have taken the help of Birlasoft to implement SAP ERP covering the FI, MM, PP, SD, CO, QM, Human Capital with India payroll and also funds management, all these modules in ERP side. Also, we have taken the help for implementing the SAP CRM for Sales, Service and Marketing.

It is a tightly integrated system, with data flows from CRM to ERP and vice versa and is a one big system we have taken into. And also, we will be implementing the SAP BI later on.

Shriram Ramakrishnan:

One of the basic reason we decided to implement SAP was that we were in the growth mode, in fact we were acquiring two more companies during this journey of building up our Consul Neowatt as the number one Indian power electronics company and the legacy ERP systems that we had were not sufficient in terms of their ability to scale up.

The other big factors for us when you look at my business here the front-end sales to customers as well as the ability to support the product through the life cycle that the customer buys our products was very important. So we were looking at the solution where we could have a complete integration from enquiry generation all the way to warranty and AMC support for our products.

So it was very important for me personally that we implemented a system where there was a lot of emphasis on the CRM aspects, one for the front end sales portion, the other one for the back-end service portion and that had to be very tightly integrated with the ERP portion which is really focused from order entry to invoicing dispatching collection so I think that is what we were able to achieve with the SAP implementation of course with Birlasoft being our implementation partner in that.

Vijayakrishna KS:

Birlasoft is definitely innovative. We were actually very creative when it comes to customizing the solutions. Actually for ERP and CRM, what we actually achieved is much more complex because of the level of customization we made. Many ideas we collaborated with Birlasoft and made innovative things which was very unique to the project.

Vijayakrishna KS:

We chose Birlasoft based upon the expertise in the manufacturing industry segment, based on the past projects done, and the expertise of the consultants for the ERP side, particularly to our power electronics industry. It was more of a co-innovation I would say. Birlasoft has expertise in manufacturing, we brought in our experience and our needs in power electronics, so both together we are able to successfully complete the project.

Shriram Ramakrishnan:

Sure, like I said implementation of SAP has made a very big difference for us as the company. We've been able to scale the business over three times in the last three years post SAP implementation. And in fact we went through quite a bit of due diligence before we chose Birlasoft.

Vijayakrishna KS:

The success factors of this project - One is the top leadership's role here. We spent four months here for the ERP implementation. We spent quality time in this blueprint. Top leadership sit down in each and everything, even in the very decisions, they support everything.

So it was very easy and smooth transition and we did it in a better way, so overall that satisfaction is very well and it is well received by the users also.

So yes, I would like to recommend Birlasoft when it comes to, it because the way it's been the challenges what we thrown to them, most of them is well received and reciprocated actually. so I would say yes its innovative company and people-friendly so yes we can do that we will definitely recommend and also, in fact, I shared our success to other place also, even in Indus groups and we have discussed and they are also asking who is our implementation partner so yes we recommended Birlasoft many times..

Apart from all these things we are also contemplating going for next version of SAP HANA in near future so we'll explore that possibility also.

Shriram Ramakrishnan:

I think the one thing we saw with Birlasoft was that ability to step up, when we got into a jam or when there were hurdles in the implementation process. And today, I'm really thrilled at the benefits we are realizing out of the implementation of both CRM and ERP and it was also gratifying that we were recognized in an independent forum by SAP, where we received the SAP ACE awards, both for ERP and for CRM. I think that was a proud moment for us and the fact that we were recognized for our implementation, I think a lot of this credit should go to our implementation partner. And, one of the things I am proud about of, is, we were one of the first companies, if not the first company to implement SAP HANA and I think it was great that we had Birlasoft walk us through this journey of not just being a TEST company, but actually successfully implementing SAP HANA for both our ERP and CRM systems.