IT Also Makes Steel

Tata Steel Processing & Distribution is one of the early adopters of new age
technology. It was in 1997 when the company had implemented SAP and leveraged on
its scalability and reliability. The company aligned its IT infrastructure along
with its business processes from the beginning and with time it has only matured
to give TSPDL better productivity and performance.

Solid as Steel

Starting with two, SAP now runs at five locations and has given an
integrated platform for all the processes running in TSPDL through six modules.
SAP is the core and only business application that runs and takes care of entire
business needs.

The company has also created a seamless and integrated network infrastructure
through WAN, VPN, point-to-point leased circuits and ISDN connectivity.
Importance of connectivity and integrity with suppliers and customers is managed
completely through the MPLS VPN service provided by Tata Communications. The
system ensures availability of higher uptime and is designed with 100%
redundancy to enable business continuity.

"The business that we are into demands a flexible and agile IT
infrastructure. Realizing the impact technology can have over business
performance, TSPDL is one of the pioneers to have established a scalable and
reliable IT system based on cutting edge technology," says Tushar Banerjea, CIO,
Tata Steel Processing & Distribution. "The order processing needed to be
executed seamlessly and efficiently since we sit in the middle of the value
chain (the supplier like Tata Steel and the customer like Tata Motors and its
vendors)," explains Banerjea.

Within the next one year, Escorts will be ready to deploy a full-fledged CRM solution	Tushar Banerjea, CIO, Tata Steel Processing & Distribution

TSPDL has recently implemented an MRP (material resource planning)
application that compliments the deployment of MRP2 (manufacturing, resource
planning). The two commissioned applications provide an integrated view of how
the company carries out sales order processing, production planning &
scheduling, management of inventories and distribution. "The need for this
robust infrastructure was required since it has to support just-of-time mode of
operation," says Banerjea. "Naturally it called for a very efficient mechanism
of order processing, inventory management & procurement, operation &
distribution across seven manufacturing units spread across the country," he
adds.

For a Better Tomorrow

"Our entire IT establishment has been designed strategically around business
requirement. The internal IT team thus plays a very important and strategic role
to obtain better value for today and tomorrow rather than the role of a
techie," says Banerjea. TSPL has thus outsourced its managed IT infrastructure
to Wipro.

On the technical front, SAP runs on HP servers and Intel platform while the
storage runs on SAN and NAS platforms. A pseudo DR site has been developed in
Kolkata and a proper DR site has been planned in Chennai within a year. The data
center is based out of Kolkata. The company is also planning to deploy a BI
solution along with CRM to be completed within a year.

Piyali Guha

piyalig@cybermedia.co.in