GMR Group : Building Blocks

With businesses spread across diverse fields like airports, energy, highways,

and urban infrastructure (including SEZ), GMR Groups business units were using

several standalone systems running disparate processes; resulting in lack of

real-time information availability, vulnerability to inaccuracies, and lack of

reliable and meaningful information structure.

Headed by GM Rao, GMR is engaged in modernization and restructuring of the

Delhi airport, and development of greenfield airport in Hyderabad. The group was

looking for a common scalable platform, in order to provide disruptive growth in

existing business verticals. "With entry into new businesses and locations,

there was a need for seamless flow of information across the group, and

mitigation of operational risks. Moreover, there was provision of an

infrastructure to business, so we could capitalize on the immense

opportunities," says Johny Paramian, CIO, GMR Group.

Roadblocks



The absence of a holistic view of business across verticals translated into

no seamless information flow for the business units. Keeping in consideration

expanse of GMRs business interests, the groups then technological base was

incapable of keeping pace with the growth, since operational complexities

increased manifold.

"A combination of reasons were acting as impediments in the groups growth;

namely continuous and reliable information; absence of uniform MIS and

operational reporting based on integrated system; standardized policies and

procedures, with defined roles and responsibilities, and embedded controls, with

emphasis on company-wide risk management," adds Paramian.

Going Live



GMR went in for SAP ERP, and went ahead with SAP as its implementation partner.
Kick-started in July 2007, during the implementation stage, building the team

was a major concern, as it not only involved hiring people externally with

expertise in enterprise resource management, but also borrowing employees

internally from business units.

"With nine business units and varied information and access control

requirements, it meant that there were diverse practices and processes; making

it challenging to define common process, across the entities and sectors," says

Paramian.

The project management team finally came out to be a hybrida mix of 120

people chosen internally and externally. Change management includedsetting up a

dedicated training center, where people were trained in three stagesLevel 1 and

2 before Go Llive, and Level 3 after Go Live.

Factors like weekly meetings to address every day issues, flawless

coordination between the team and involvement of top management meant that the

deployment proceeded smoothly; aided by mock live sessions, revealing a number

of loopholes. In fact, the number of days in between account closing and Go Live

was brought down from eighteen days during the trial run to just three and a

half days during the final run. This was a great achievement, as the lesser the

number of days for cut-over, lesser is the amount of data to be managed manually

during the cut-over period, and the easier is the transition. Therefore, during

the actual cut-over, account closing took place on the January 31, 2008, and the

system was in place by February 4; but the final Go Live took place on the

February 5, 2008.

Thereafter, Go Live for fourteen more entities took place on March 17; and

for twenty-three more entities in April, using the same operational guidelines.

In the phase II of implementation, GMR would be implementing new generation

modules, covering BIW, SRM, CRM, and SEM; along with real estate and EHS.

Stuti Das



stutid@cybermedia.co.in