House of Pearl Sparkles With SAP

It was in 2007 that House of Pearl decided to go public. The company aspired to grow big and leave its footprints around the world. In its endeavour to do so, it went on an acquisition spree, and acquired close to 10 companies in the subsequent months.

So many acquisitions, the improbability of recession and the passion to grow, were posing as a huge challenge. House of Pearl knew that the only thing that can help them climb the rope of success, at this critical stage was a proper regulation process and transparency across the organisation. “We knew that ambiguity of any sorts at this time would be damaging for us,” says M. Srivenkatesa, CIO House of Pearl.

To meet this aim of a proper process and clarity at all levels, House of Pearl decided to opt for SAP ERP application, SAP Best Practices for Apparel and Footwear package and Collaboration Folders application.

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Standardisation was a Major Challenge

House of Pearl brought SAP into the organisation, for standardisation on an integrated software solution, which support operations after rapid growth. House of Pearl also hoped to increase visibility and efficiency across entire supply chain, including international manufacturing and warehouse locations, while also controlling sales order processes, and inventory management with precise insight into critical-path order changes.

One of the major challenges that House of Pearl was facing, was that of cultural differences between the companies acquired by it. “We had people coming in from Asia to the US, hence, their backgrounds and working style differed a lot. We now had to make sure that all these differences fade in the background, and we are all on the same page with a single culture of our own,” says Srivenkatesha.

It was in 2007 that House of Pearl decided to go public. The company aspired to grow big and leave its footprints around the world. In its endeavour to do so, it went on an acquisition spree, and acquired close to 10 companies in the subsequent months.

So many acquisitions, the improbability of recession and the passion to grow, were posing as a huge challenge. House of Pearl knew that the only thing that can help them climb the rope of success, at this critical stage was a proper regulation process and transparency across the organisation. “We knew that ambiguity of any sorts at this time would be damaging for us,” says M. Srivenkatesa, CIO House of Pearl.

To meet this aim of a proper process and clarity at all levels, House of Pearl decided to opt for SAP ERP application, SAP Best Practices for Apparel and Footwear package and Collaboration Folders application.

Standardisation was a Major Challenge

House of Pearl brought SAP into the organisation, for standardisation on an integrated software solution, which support operations after rapid growth. House of Pearl also hoped to increase visibility and efficiency across entire supply chain, including international manufacturing and warehouse locations, while also controlling sales order processes, and inventory management with precise insight into critical-path order changes.

One of the major challenges that House of Pearl was facing, was that of cultural differences between the companies acquired by it. “We had people coming in from Asia to the US, hence, their backgrounds and working style differed a lot. We now had to make sure that all these differences fade in the background, and we are all on the same page with a single culture of our own,” says Srivenkatesha.

Implementation Phase

The implementation started towards the end of 2007. The first phase took care of brand distribution and logistics, while the second took care of the manufacturing end of things.

“We got people from all the different regions, on board and asked for their suggestions for a smooth implementaion. Once we had all the suggestions, we took the best and took that forward with SAP on that format,” says Srivenkatesha.

With a company like House of Pearls, where every new trend or season is a probable project, customisation was the need of the hour. Aligning the manufacturing language of raw materials, and the like, with the technology in place was extremely critical for the business process. “What we did was, we created small internal technology modules according to our own business needs, keeping the raw materials in mind. These we integrated with the standard SAP ERP system,” adds Srivenkatesha.

Earlier, House of Peral had no pre-costing tool, but one was developed by the company’s internal team and included in the SAP implementation.

Benefits

According to Srivenkatesha, if not for this implementation, there would have been confusion all around. “The integration helped us bring everyone together, and make them feel like a part of the family, despite the cultural differences.” Talking about the ROI, from the implementation, Srivenkatesha confidently proclaims that two or three years from now, they can easily write off the expenses made on this technology.