Multivista Global Deploying SAP B1For Easy IT

Multivista Global, a Chennai-based company operating in printing, shoe manufacturing and industrial distribution services space is in the process of deploying SAP Business One (B1) solution across two of its business divisions.

Touted as one of the biggest B1 deployments in the country, the implementation of SAP’s low end ERP offering at Multivista’s printing and industrial distribution services division is intended to streamline company operations and provide business users with a real-time, unified view of all mission critical processes.

Difficulty maintaining Oracle and VB-based systems

Multivista currently runs Oracle and Visual Basics (VB) based systems across majority of its processes. Though these systems have been working satisfactorily for the company, it’s often a tough job maintaining them. It is for this reason that Multivista sought a solution that could supplement its current IT set up.

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

According to Deepak Subramaniam, VP, Multivista Global, “Earlier, we had a team of IT personnel who would look after our systems. However, around two years back we decide to cut back on our IT staff, which made it increasingly difficult for us to manage our old systems. In addition to this, the current systems do provide the desired flexibility, especially when it comes to extracting data from the disparate systems and creating reports and dashboards for various business purposes.”

Enter SAP B1

In light of these issues, the company started to look for a business management solution fit for its needs. When Chennai-based IT consulting and services provider, TVS Infotech approached Multivista with its SAP B1 offering, it scored a major win as Multivista decided to deploy B1 across two of its businesses viz. printing solutions and industrial distribution services.

Multivista chose B1 for its wide array of capabilities that are offered through a single integrated software system. Designed specifically for organisations with limited IT resources, the solution is said to be easily manageable and one that provides users with quick access to critical data for real-time business transactions.

Implementation by TVS Infotech

Kicked off in late January ’07, the initiative is expected to take an approximate six months for completion with TVS Infotech as the implementer. In the project preparation phase, TVS Infotech assigned a consultant to map out the various business needs the company. He also assessed and reviewed the existing IT set up at Multivista to ensure that the technological requirements pertaining to the project were in place.

To be deployed at Multivista’s corporate office, industrial distribution services and printing solutions units, the solution is to include pretty much every SAP B1 module including financials and accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), operations, administration and reporting.

Elaborating on the implementation, Hanumantha Rao, AVP, Business Development, TVS Infotech said, “As part of the deployment, we are also going to pull out critical financial data from all the three business divisions including the shoe manufacturing division and move it to the new SAP system for Multivista to create financial statements and intuitive reports. The reason why Multivista has insisted on this is because they want to increase financial visibility at the corporate level.”

Explaining as to why the company is not deploying the B1 across its shoe manufacturing facility, Rao informed that Multivista has a system which has been designed specifically to work with its foreign partners and hence it does not want to disrupt it.

As far as customisation and add-on modules are concerned, TVS Infotech is going to plug-in a payroll package across the group and special manufacturing and quality management tools for the print division.

From the hardware perspective, Multivista may not have much spending to do as its current hardware set up is said to be suffice, informed Rao.

The company’s systems run windows OS which is extremely accommodating for the SAP B1 offering. On the database side, TVS Infotech is planning to use Microsoft SQL. There are about 50 users expected to use the systems.

Multivista has two individuals who are being trained for the new SAP system and who will look after the system post implementation.

Rajendra Chaudhary