ENTERPRISE 2004 ROUND UP: UB to Implement ERP

United Breweries (UB) group has decided to double its IT expenditure. Reason-

implementation of ERP.

The company is planning an ERP system by April this year, though the vendor

has not been finalized as yet.S Ramakrishnan, controller-IT, Breweries Division said, "We are in the

process of identifying the right ERP system. It is being evaluated."

The company currently has nine factories, 15 contract factories, 30 depots

and sales offices, and all are connected through WLAN. It intends to cut down cost on various in-house functions and has decided to

implement ERP. The company had invested around Rs 3 crores in various IT

implementations and has plans to double it this year.

The company is also evaluating to deploy Linux on proxy servers and is

planning to introduce mobile applications to enhance productivity.UB had done some major IT implementations last year including development of

number of portals for employees that include employee self-service portal, sales

promotion portal and knowledge-based portal.

Some other applications implemented were data warehousing and tracking of

retail sales through SMS. The portals were basically designed to enhance

employee productivity and making office paperless.

Most of the company’s activities are outsourced; prominent among them are

facility management and core software development.

The company believes in the philosophy of making relationship with a vendor

for a long term as it ensures better quality service.