As we enter the sprawling campus in Sahibabad, a small temple to the left
catches your eye. Despite being a bigger player in the mundane business of
cement and construction, which most often than not is perceived as a
non-happening one, there is an overt attempt to invoke the blessings of the
deity for luck and prosperity. So, is it just divine intervention that keeps
Jaypee Industries rich and bountiful throughout the year?
Circa 2000: The occupants of the upper floors at Jayprakash Industries
realized the truth that only the use of IT as an enabler could keep them ahead
in the rat race. That decision, though slightly late in the day, reaped benefits
that they had not foreseen. With the idea of getting the entire team connected
for increased efficiency, and as a means of decreasing downtime, they settled
for an ERP solution that would help generate group reports and double up as a
medium for making information available online. Another reason that necessitated
this step was the inherent need for video conferencing that would make life
easier for team members who were involved in large construction projects and
were dependent on the mercies of the postal departments in remote locations. To
achieve this, 20-member in-house EDP team was created, which was later spun off
as a separate entity within the same management as JIL Information Technology (JILIT).
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The first obstacle during the course of implementation came in the form of a
policy clause, which prohibited the use of video conferencing with the help of
VSAT connectivity. This hurdle was crossed when the policy was opened in June
2001 and they collected on their order for 17 VSATs. Since Aug 2001 they have
actively integrated ERP into their business for which the codification part was
outsourced to Maars International and the functional aspect was taken care of by
the in-house team. The functional aspects involved two levels of programs namely
accounts and finance, and store and inventory. Since an ERP solution relating to
construction work was nonexistent then, they had to develop a solution from
scratch.
Till Aug 2001 they were on a SAP and Oracle based solution, which did not
provide a comprehensive answer to their bandwidth problem. Then Citrix was
called in after being shunned for a long time. They implemented Citrix MetaFrame
Xpa, which was then used for six months against the original agreement of a
three months trial period. It helped to deal with the bandwidth problem by
allowing more users to use the network at the same time. From one or two users
initially now more than eight people could work at the same time without any
network glitches. What this did for Jaypee was to create an ideal solution
wherein the team at different construction sites like Dulasti in Jammu and
Kashmir, Baspa hydroelectric project near the China border, and their new
project in Uttaranchal to stay connected with the designers at Sahibabad to make
the necessary corrections in the plan online instead of resorting to snail mail,
which was the original method of communicating data and drawings.
Considering the size and importance of these projects this also helps
centralize control by concentrating power at their center in Sahibabad, which
also avoids lower level mishaps. The next logical step was to put in place an
internal mailing system. The choice was between Lotus and MS Exchange. Till date
they were utilizing the official domain or transferring mail via the public
domain. So the development process is on fast forward mode as of now. But one
thing that JIL Information Technology director Sunil Joshi is very clear about
is that, "No Internet facility will be made available to the
employees." Even R & D for their numerous projects worth Rs 1,000 crore
and more are done over the network.
And they don’t rule out a possibility of foraying into web-based business
in the future.
The biggest advantage has been that the ERP solution of the construction
magnate could become web enabled with the help of Citrix and they are in touch
with their site even in Bhutan where the government regulations and the
available bandwidth have been the only obstacles. Now the situation as Sunil
describes it is, "Computers have become a necessity instead of a luxury for
the entire group." The basic idea is to come up with an ERP solution for
their cement business as soon as they have perfected it for the construction
wing. A sales auto system has also been put in place to be integrated with the
ERP solution. They are close to achieving their dream of going completely live
in their construction business. They also have a WAN solution in place to make
the entire set up a single network based program. In fact the entire equipment
they needed for setting up WAN had been ordered before the formulation of the
government policy. The only problem they had was the delivery of the same had to
be delayed due to the changes in technology. They went live on ERP on April 1,
2002.
The effort that went into video conferencing has also helped accrue large
benefits top down. The usage of the facility has gone up tremendously with it
becoming the most effective tool for discussion between those on the field and
those conceptualizing the project behind desks in Sahibabad. The ERP solution
has made possible an individual style of functioning with the front-end or user
interface changed and procedural patterns also undergoing a variation as a
result.
The JILIT center has become a software hub with many projects on hand. The
CAD/CAM complex in JILIT has come up with innovative aids for teaching in
schools. Their idea was to introduce a solution that would reinforce teaching
instead of helping to replace the teacher and making it a virtual classroom. The
solution called BharatiVidya empowers a teacher while teaching topics that are
conceptually difficult to explain and understand. It supports the teacher when
conventional methods like the blackboard, chalk and talk fail to drive home the
concept that needs a three dimensional perspective for proper explanation of an
abstraction or movement or phenomena.
It includes a computer fixed above the black board with simple modules for
difficult topics created by the professionals in collaboration with the subject
experts. This adds value to blackboard teaching and allows the teacher to decide
the pace of the lesson. The content of the modules is curriculum specific and is
designed for use within the typical teaching period of 30-45 minutes. The
deployment of this project in a school can follow any pattern for example, in
one room per school, one room per subject, one section per class or all sections
of a class. The tool has been successfully implemented in more than 64 schools
covering the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Shimla, Nainital, etc. They are
also considering other schemes to empower students as education is given very
high priority in JILIT. The team claims that the experiments with classroom
teaching proves a big challenge to them and in some manner proves a better
learning experience by drilling home the concepts they once dreaded as students.
Having come this far, the propagators of IT in Jaypee look back and remember
the trouble they had in educating and implementing their outlandish idea among
the remaining employees. The pre-implementation period as Sunil recalls was one
of Herculean efforts. Since the expectations were high and hard to meet over a
short period they had to overcome many a bottleneck. But going through all that
has paid off and now they are branching out into the cement business with ERP.
But how they cement bonds with ERP remains to be seen!
DHANYA KRISHNAKUMAR in New Delhi