NAGARJUNA Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd.(NFCL) is the flagship company of Nagarjuna Group. It has an asset base of $2.5 billion. Nagarjuna's Micro Irrigation (MI) business started in the year 1993, with a vision to address the irrigation problems of farmers living in water and energy scarce regions, and also in regions where water, energy and agricultural input (labor, nutrition and plant protection) supplies are expensive. The main project objectives for NFCL are to bring the existing SAPR/3 system from the current 4.0B version to the 4.7 Enterprise version to make use of the advanced features of the version. It wants to set up a proper information and control systems for its Micro Irrigation business and a remedy to the present system in MI, as it is not an integrated package and is not helping the management in taking timely decisions & also to assess the accuracy of the information.

The company is looking at avoiding redundancy of data, as there is lot of duplication of data processing across departments leading to piling up of silos of redundant data. Further the data needs to be standardized across business processes to achieve real-timeintegration of all functions across the Micro irrigation business and align the same with NFCL processes. This is to bring the Micro irrigation business under NFCL by keeping a separate identity for MI and without disturbing its existing processes and structure. Other objectives need introduction standards such as a common chart of accounts, separate master data group, bring about transparency in business transactions and be able to provide online information to business partners, enhance management control on various business functions and operations, prompt decision-making through qualitative information at the right time and the right place, simple and shortened month and year-end closing procedures, leveraging all costs and overheads increase in, among others besides an increase in the operational expenditure of Ml.

Intelligroup, the experts assigned the job by NFC, have used ASAP rapid implementation methodology for Upgrade and Implementation of Micro Irrigation. Accelerated SAP (ASAP) is SAP's comprehensive implementation solution to streamline R/3 projects. Training for team members covered the areas of functional project and change management to obtain the required SAP functional and technical knowledge. This training enables the functional project team to match the system requirements with SAP functions during the Business blueprint phase and acquire SAP system functional and technical knowledge during the Realization phase. For the change team, this training caters to the basic understanding of functional and technical issues needed to enhance their credibility as they support the SAP implementation.

The business benefits include
a)Up-to-date information to NFCL's management team,
b) Integration of all applications for precise decision,
c)Bringing on board the VAT implementation on time,
d)Streamlined and automated processes,
e)Best business practices,
f)Measurements for Financial and Operational efficiencies &
g)Efficient handling of 'all documents.

The case study describes two ERP implementation projects at Nagarjuna Group of Companies:
The first is an ERP upgrade project, and the second a new ERP implemen-tation. The two projects, however, are not entirely independent, because the two implementations took place in two related companies. The first project is concerned with Nagarjuna Fertilizers and ChemicaIs Limited (NFCL), which has already been using SAP R/3 release 4.0B, and was ready for an upgrade. Another company of the same group, the Micro Irrigation Business CMT, was using multiple isolated systems, and felt the necessity of going in for an ERP to solve the problem of redundancy, and inefficiency in its transaction processing. Both the companies chose the same release of SAP, SAP R/3 release 4.7E, as their ERP Both the above projects, the implementation NFCL was facing the challenges which are common to the com-panies of that size and growth. These issues were more because of the lack of proper information system in its Micro Irrigation unit (MI). MI also had the processes interfacing with processes which were already SAP based. Also there was a need to upgrade the ERP version to add addi¬tional features in NFCL which implies graduation and maturity in using systems.

MI had developed silos of systems and needed an enterprise wise resource management system which takes care of integration with rest Of 4.7E in MI, and upgrading 4.0B to 4.7E in NFCL were handled together as one single project by Intelligroup, an ERP implementation partner.
As MI was getting integrated with NFCL, the processes in both the companies needed to be standardized and made uniform. Otherwise, exchanging information between the two companies would be a problem. Introduing the sarne ERP package in both the companies, therefore , makes information sharing simple and easy, and leads to effi¬cient transaction processing. Furthermore, in the above case, both die companies can use the same chart of accounts, especially if they are sharing some customers, and consol ■ idated financial statements can be without compromise of process decision space and freedom in Ml. They faced typical problems like data redundancy, less or improper data for decision making, alignment with other parts of the organisation etc. All this calls for a mapped and rapid implementation of an ERP system which is compatible to that prevalent in the rest of the organisation.

The required visibility and deci¬sion making support in MI was achieved through SAL/R3 imple¬mentation. Since SAP R3 was already implemented in NFCL which needed to be upgraded, compatible product implementation i.e., SAP in prepared easily. Training the differ¬ent users and knowledge manage¬ment also would become simple. As NFCL was al ready using a pre¬vious version of SAP, it could have waited for some more time before undertaking the upgrade project. However, if it had delayed the upgrade,
Ml, makes logical sense which has been implemented by Intelligroup in a sys-tematic way.One can safely assume the higher capability within NFCL about selection of products, partners and agreements on processes. They have been successful in their implementation which is reflected through the newer needs about upgradation of SAP and seal abi K ty across the units.

Pinakiranjan Mishra,
Partner, Ernst & Young

Upgrade couldn't have come sooner

The implementation of SAP in the MI business along with the up-grade of the NFCL business was a prudent decision to synergize the benefits. This coupled with the fan that the project was viewed as the ERP enablement of a new business and modification/standardization of existing business processes has helped in leveraging the investment they have made. The ASAP methodology is a standard SAP methodology that was rightfully utilized to deliver the business benefits.

The implementation strategy involved adequate focus on success imperatives such as "Change Management1, Risk Management1 and Knowledge transfer. The dedicated involvement of the key core team members and their blending with the implementation partner helped teaming and obtain synergy. Getting the key individuals to repeat key configuration steps, in order to transmit knowledge for better understanding and appreciation of SAP steps was a commendable feat.

Few additional leading practices that may be adopted are:
a) Adequate emphasis should be placed on Quality adherence of the entire project. This is largely achieved through a quality management plan and includes such activities as independent quality assessments and reviews,
b) Involve the "Governance agenda" in the normal course of project activities with adequate focus on controls, data integrity and user authorisations.

Such upgrade projects provide an opportunity to the organization to:
a) Define KPI's aimed at improving the operational efficiency;
b)Review and reengineer business process for standardization, adoption of leading practices &
c)Design appropriate Grants of Authority; ensuring segregation of duties.