Tailored for The Modern Farm

Grouping

efficiency



While the business processes are based on Baan, Lotus Notes is being
used for basic information sharing. The company is consciously promoting

the culture of using information in the most effective way. "We

started using groupware across all locations to be able to conduct

virtual meetings," says Kharbanda.

The company

wants to exploit the entire groupware suite of Lotus Notes for its

day-to-day functions. It is presently using emails, discussion database

and workflow applications. It has developed and installed about

12 groupware applications designed for specific operations. For

instance, a product-related database application has been devised

to solve problems that crop up while designing products.

The company

wants to extend the workflow systems in three main areas and administrative

procedures are being developed within these areas, namely:

• Manufacturing.
  
  
  
  
• Supply chain
  
  with dealers and suppliers.
  
  
  
  
• Office Automation
  
  for administrative functions like travel bookings, purchases,
  
  personnel management. For instance, when a new employee joins,
  
  all the formalities are taken care of by the workflow management
  
  system.
  
  
  
  

According to

Kharbanda, this year the company has been busy streamlining its

ERP applications, but next year, the emphasis will be on groupware.

Kharbanda says, "This set-up offers tremendous support to allow

people in different locations to work as a team."

Besides the

local area network for each location, the company is also connected

to all its twenty three worldwide locations through a WAN, which

was being managed by IBM and has now been sold to AT&T. This

total connectivity promotes the information-sharing culture that

forms the basis of this company. It allows them to respond to market

needs in a much better manner.

Value-added

products



Although the entire business and IT plan has been designed to cater
to the Indian agriculture industry, localization was brought in

only gradually. The first product was launched mainly to introduce

the technology and to inform the farmers that Ford is back in the

country, so the scope of localization was very limited only to 10-15%.

But it increased to about 60% with the second product. While the

70 HP tractor was priced at Rs 5.75 lakh, the 50 HP comes at Rs

3.8 lakh.

When the company

talks of keeping the product affordable and relevant to the Indian

market, one wonders whether the poor farmer can really afford this

price. Palani Kumar says, "The price of products may be higher

than competitors, but the additional features justify the costs.

Although the Indian customer is quite conscious of price, we want

to make him conscious of the value-added services of our product."

The fact that

the company decided to set up an R&D center in the country even

when it had 12 centers around the world does indicate that the company

is well aware and focussed on the local needs. The design department

has incorporated various features specifically for India. For instance,

water-proof tractors had to be developed keeping in mind the style

of rice cultivation here. Palani Kumar says, "In India, we

had to remove some sophisticated parts because they are not required

here. Moreover, maintenance would be such a problem because you

depend mainly on the roadside mechanic."

The design department,

which is working on CADDS 5 software based on Sun Workstations is

now planning to shift to Parmetric Technology.

Towards

a new era



From a small make-shift arrangement in a corner of the office to
a fully-equipped development center, the company has come a long

way. Ranging from infrastructure bottlenecks to cultural changes,

it has encountered and solved a number of implementation hurdles.

And adaptation is the key word. "The biggest problem of implementing

any technology is with the human interface. No technology can be

utilized up to its optimum level if the people are not ready for

it. The companies that are very old and have many senior people

usually face a problem in adapting to new technology," says

Palani Kumar.

Being a start-up,

adaptation to the latest business practices was not too difficult.

As the company moves up on the maturity curve, people's knowledge

and understanding of the applications would also improve. Its future

plans include data mining, data warehousing and further optimization

of the present infrastructure. Although it has made an ambitious

beginning, New Holland now has to live up to the challenges ahead.

It has to cut across the monopoly of existing tractor makers to

create room for its niche product. With knowledge management and

information systems as foundation, New Holland is certainly gunning

ahead to usher in a new era in Indian farming.

SHWETA

VERMA



in New Delhi