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Impact ERP Case Study / Success Story: Kitchen Equipment Manufacturing Company |
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At a time when not many in the country thought of venturing into the manufacture of kitchen equipment, there was one man who dared to think differently. And he went on to lay the foundation of his company, Porus Equipments, on the pillars of technology—which made all the difference!
Vandana Sharma
BenefIT Bureau |
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“If you do things well, do them
better. Be daring, be first, be different...”
—Anita Roddick, the UK-based
founder of the BodyShop, a human
rights activist and environmental
campaigner
In 2000, when George Thomas
laid the foundation of Porus
Equipments, there were not
many efficient manufacturers of
kitchen equipment in the country.
Most equipment were imported;
the limited range available was
substandard in quality, compared to
similar products available abroad.
Thomas identified this void in the
market and decided to start Porus
Equipments—a company into
the manufacture of stainless steel
equipment for the food service, food
handling and trading industry.
The business took off with a
modest investment of Rs 18 lakhs.
But within a short span of less than a
decade, the company scaled-up well,
recording a turnover of Rs 7 crores
in the last financial year. Apart from
its head office in Bangalore and a
presence in the major cities of the
country, the company has also set up
a branch office in Nigeria. To diversify,
Porus has also entered into alliances
with various international kitchen
equipment companies.
“With brands like Porus and
Sabor, which are now well recognised
in the market, Porus currently has
its customer base spread across
industrial canteens, hotels and
restaurants, commercial caterers, inflight
caterers, super markets, and so
on,” says George Thomas, managing
director, Porus Equipments. |
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IT’s a passion... and a
business need!
Porus is a company that relies a great
deal on technology. This is largely
because of its founder’s passion for
technology. This love for technology,
especially IT, originated during
the period when he was working
for a multi-national company. As
he narrates it: “The experience
introduced me to the scope and
benefits of IT solutions, especially
in integrating different operational
processes.” So, when he started his
own business, he naturally chose
technology as his ally.
Apart from this, there was a strong
business requirement for IT. Thomas
reports: “The kitchen equipment
industry, unlike others, has largely
remained very unorganised and
rigid, offering very little flexibility
to customers in terms of levels of
customisation, as well as standard
products.”
The Porus management, thus,
set an agenda to address these
customer-level requirements. The
company realised that to achieve the
quality standards and growth rate
to establish itself as a leader in the
kitchen equipment market, required
incorporating international best
practices into its operations.
Apart from this, the company
was diversifying—venturing into
new associated business verticals.
To manage competition and its own
presence across various cities was
also emerging as a concern.
The systems that the company |
used were either manual or semi
automated. As Thomas explains:
“We were using spreadsheets and
packaged software for accounting.
We faced all kinds of issues, such
as the lack of data integration, data
duplication, lack of departmentand
employee-wise performance
indicators or alerts, etc, all of which
are necessary to take timely decisions
while running a business.” Managing
stake holders, customers and vendors,
managing appropriate inventory
positions, controlling manufacturing,
leading sales people, combating
frequent change of personnel, were
all becoming difficult, he adds.
The company thus felt the need
to migrate all its manual processes
to computerised systems in order to
achieve better operational coherence
and transparency. “Having an ERP
“We faced issues,
such as the lack of
data integration, and
lack of employee-wise
performance indicators,
etc. Having an ERP
system seemed to be
the only solution.”
George Thomas, managing director,
Porus Equipments
system seemed to be the only solution
for business management and
process integration,” says Thomas.
Planning for the transition
On an average, the company spends
about Rs 6 to 8 lakhs every year on
IT. But in the last financial year,
the company invested around Rs
2.5 crores for a major technology
upgradation.
The company chose Impact—an
ERP system provided by Netsoft |
| Solutions to achieve this goal.
Thomas shares the reasons for the
selection: “We came across various |
| vendors and explored
many customised
packages, but nothing
seemed to suit our
requirements. Impact
seemed attractive
compared to other
available options,
mainly because it is
a business-processdriven
solution, |
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suitable for a small and midsized
business. We felt that it could be
very well configured and customised
to meet our specific requirements
related to kitchen equipment
manufacturing.
“Also, since it bundles additional
management-related modules
or functionalities (like customer
relationship management (CRM) /
human resource management (HRM),
etc), it seemed like a perfect solution
offering the flexibility for expansion
required to scale up in the future.
The cost was also comparatively
attractive. Besides, Netsoft promised
to be a single vendor solution for
most of our IT needs, whether related
to connecting the ERP system with
our organisational network across
branches, or integrating it with our
website, and so on.
”
The pre-implementation phase
Once the ERP solution was selected,
the company started making pre-
 |
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implementation
preparations.
Netsoft helped
a great deal
in this phase,
Thomas
recalls. “The team
suggested that we opt for a modular
implementation approach so that the
financial implications also get spread
out, module-wise,” he adds.
The implementation started
with the inventory module. When
one module was successfully
implemented, more modules were
added. This helped the employees to
easily get accustomed to the change.
The implementation happened
smoothly, due to the cooperation
extended by Netsoft, tells Thomas.
R M Sudhakar, Director, Netsoft
Solutions, shares more: Adoption |
“Adoption of industry
best practices and clear
mapping of business
requirements, in
consultation with the
Porus team, enabled us
to configure the ERP
system appropriately.”
of industry best practices and clear
mapping of business requirements, |
in consultation with the Porus team,
enabled us to configure the ERP
system appropriately.”
As part of the implementation
process, all the legacy data was
imported into the new ERP system,
so that end-to-end integration and |
| automation could take
place, he adds. Since
Porus was using
Tally software for
accounting, Netsoft
also created an
interface/connect
in the ERP system
to communicate with it. |
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The ‘Impact’
“We’ve seen a whole lot of changes
after implementing the ERP system,”
affirms Thomas. He enumerates the
key benefits: “Handling suppliers |
|
and streamlining inventory was a
huge task earlier, which has become
smooth now. There is also better
control on the sales force. We had
huge piles of product drawings/
designs and yet, most of the time
the drawings had to be redone, since
designers kept changing and the
new designer had no way of knowing
if a particular product drawing
already existed in the document
repository. With Impact’s document
management system, this issue
has also got eliminated as now all
documents can be quickly accessed.”
Besides, since the system has
been implemented across all Porus’
branches, being connected with the
organisational network enables all
employees access to organisational
information. This has enhanced
business efficiency, Thomas adds.
On the subject of ROI, Thomas
says: “Considering that the total
investment, including the hardware
costs, for this comprehensive ERP
system was around 10 lakhs, we are
experiencing good productivity and
savings in various departments and
we are optimistic that in the coming
years this investment will pay back
even more.”
A few best practices that have
paid off
The success of any ERP deployment
depends on many factors—both,
tangible and intangible. In the case
of Porus’ deployment too, a few best
practices proved quite helpful in
ensuring a smooth implementation |
and later on, the successful adoption of
the new system by Porus’ employees.
Transforming users into super
users: Netsoft’s suggestion to identify
the core user team as well as super
users from each department really
proved very fruitful, says Thomas.
“These super users were well trained
in the use of the software so that they
could take the ownership of training
the other users in their individual
teams,” reports Sudhakar.
Addressing training needs, 24x7: Thomas also appreciates Netsoft’s
Internet-based training facility,
which users can avail any time. He
elaborates: “Netsoft has recorded and
uploaded videos on its website, to
train new or existing users. The firm
also conducts on-demand, online
training through mediums like Webconferencing.
This not only saves
travel costs and time, but also makes
it possible for users to access training
help, 24x7,” says Thomas.
Customer support, through the
website: Another interesting move
was to integrate ERP’s sales force
automation module with the website.
As a result of this, the enquiries raised
from the Web are diverted to the ERP
system, and are directly handled by
the Porus team. “This has enhanced
the customer service/support
capability,” says Thomas.
Alerts to ensure efficient
performance: Apart from this,
intelligent alerts are generated from
the ERP system regarding individual
responsibilities. The information
regarding an employee’s failure to
meet with certain responsibilities
gets escalated up to the CEO level,
explains Thomas.
A mixed bag of technologies
Besides the ERP system, Porus
makes use of an interesting mix
of technology tools for different |
purposes. It has an automated
manufacturing unit that’s equipped
with state-of-the art machines like
a laser precision cutting machine, a
CNC (computer numerical control)
bending machine, a component
centre and spot welding machine, an
assembly centre, etc.
Apart from this, the company
also uses many modern day IT tools.
Thomas shares more details: “We
use Skype to communicate with
our sales team; we also connect
with distant clients and customers
through Web conferences. Biometric
devices and CCTV (closed circuit
television) cameras are being used
to ensure security. ”
Early on, the company also
realised the potential of having a
searchable website. That’s the reason
it invested on the prime domain
name, www.kitchenequipments.
com. “The website name has virtually
become our brand name and making
the site search engine optimised
has resulted in various partnerships
across the globe. The website is also
helping us in generating new leads.
The website too has been developed
and optimised by Netsoft.” Porus
is also registered with the online
marketplace, Alibaba.com.
Going ahead, Porus plans to scale
up even further by continuing its
journey with IT. A plan to integrate
the ERP system with an SMS
gateway to generate quick alerts and
reminders, is in the pipeline. With
the help of Netsoft, the company
also aims to explore various digital
marketing and social media tools to
take the Porus brand and its products
to more and more customers, across
the World Wide Web.
For a company that is completely
driven by passion and technology,
reaching across the world shouldn’t
be difficult!  |
| January 2010 / BenefIT |
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Kitchen Equipments Manufacturing Company.
Read, how they were able to do?
Giving Indian Kitchens the Global Touch With Impact ERP
Published in Electronics For you’s BenefIT Magazine
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- January 2010 Indian Edition |
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| # 2448, 5th Main and # 2453, 9th Main, 17th 'E' Cross, Banashankari Second Stage,
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