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High Impact Staffing Trends to Watch for in 2019
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Over 20 years of Business Management and Operations experience with multi-national IT consulting firms. Strong experience of working in almost all the areas of IT consulting services starting from providing Client Solutions, Office Management, Recruiting, Accounting, HR and Vendor Management.
She possesses a strong background in Finance and facilitating management alignment. She has a bachelor degree in Finance and Diploma in Business Management.
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city has a population of over 205,000 residents and has a City Manager and a Mayor. The City of Tacoma owns electric, water, and cable utilities and a regional railroad. IT and the SAP ERP system are shared serviced used by the city government, railroad, and the utilities.
The utilities and city government staff have a very low regard for SAP and there are many business needs that are not being adequately met by the SAP solution. Under a previous IT director two strategic studies were commissioned with big six consulting firms and both studies indicated that the SAP implementation was fatally flawed, with an extraordinary number of custom developments and non-standard configurations. Both studies recommended that the implementation be scrapped and a new implementation be initiated. Neither recommendation was followed and the acting director who was tasked with coming up with a strategic plan for the next 5 years.
Sage Group Technologies was retained by the City of Tacoma to assist the City with an SAP Strategic Assessment. The assessment included reviews of the ERP infrastructure, IT operations & administration, and business processes for the City, Railroad, and Utility. The goal of the assessment was to identify opportunities to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. Sage was asked to make recommendations that will provide business value and align with management priorities. A key deliverable from this assessment was a prioritized roadmap of enhancement initiatives that the City can use as input to their planning process.
The scope of this engagement included defining an end-state for all business processes and the related SAP components for all functionality that could be supported by SAP. The end state vision for the infrastructure architecture required to support the end-state vision for SAP was also be included in the scope of this assessment. A roadmap was developed based on the dependencies amongst all the identified initiatives. Each initiative in the roadmap was supported by high level business cases, with estimated cost of implementation, estimated benefits, potential risks, and an estimate of the project duration. The key deliverable from this assessment was a report that addresses all of the following considerations for evaluating and prioritizing the initiatives of the roadmap:
Sage Group Technologies completed the project and after reviewing their findings with the senior management team of the City, Railroad, Utilities, and IT, they were asked to present the results of their work to the City Manager and a special committee composed of the Mayor and several key city council members.
Unlike previous strategic studies, Sage Group was able to show Tacoma that their SAP solution was not fatally flawed, but that it had not been functionally upgraded for 7 years, even though the IT team had performed technical upgrades on a regular basis.
The acting director of IT was given the job on a permanent basis, the City Manager, and the City’s Technology Committee agreed to support and fund the solution provided by the Sage Group Technologies Team.
The City, Railroad, and Utility staffs were energized by the decision to perform functional upgrades that would meet their business imperatives.
Sage Group Technologies has since been given follow-up projects for business enhancements for fleet maintenance, HR, and Finance. We have also provided Tacoma with staff augmentation and SAP basis, development, and infrastructure support.
Pegasus Blue Star Fund is a private equity fund specializing in Healthcare Services Investments, with 20+ years of experience of investing and managing Healthcare Services companies in the areas of Cancer treatment centers, Surgery centers, Practice management, Medical Group Purchasing Organizations, EHR, Medical Revenue Cycle Management, Patient Portal, Claims Optimization, Claims Authorization, Patient collections, Bad debt collections etc.
Pegasus Blue Star Fund had signed a Letter of Intent to acquire a very large Revenue Cycle
Management (RCM) Company and they needed a company to manage and perform an extensive due diligence of the company from a legal, financial, operational, and technology perspective. The target acquisition had extensive operations in Georgia, Texas, Colorado, California, Ohio, and Illinois. Pegasus Blue Star Fund required extensive analysis of the target acquisition to ensure that post acquisition the company would be a viable and profitable concern with a process and technology platform that would support future rapid growth.
Sage Group Technologies was engaged to manage the entire due diligence process and to provide the process and technology diligence. We coordinated the Due Diligence project using PBSF’s legal and external accounting teams and our own industry and technology experts.
Our team of experts visited every location with RCM operations. The team interviewed the leadership team at each location, evaluated their operational processes, their existing technology applications and infrastructure.
The Sage Group Technologies project manager coordinated all requests for information from the legal and finance teams and ensured that the responses from the target company were stored in the correct folder in the data room.
The detailed scope of the due diligence is provided below:
The Operations due diligence analyzes and reports each of the following categories based on inputs provided by the target business, interviews with key stakeholders, and observations.
Business Processes
Organization
Voice of the customer
Product and Services
The Technology due diligence analyzes and reports each of the following categories based on inputs provided by the target business, interviews with key stakeholders, and observations.
PBSF External Legal Team
PBSF External Financial Team
The legal due diligence analyzes and reports each of the following categories based on inputs provided by the target business, interviews with key stakeholders, and observations.
The financial due diligence analyzes and reports each of the following categories based on inputs provided by the target business, interviews with key stakeholders, and observations.
The final report provided by Sage Group Technologies consisted of the following:
Based on the extensive diligence effort and a detailed post-acquisition transformation plan Pegasus Blue Star Fund purchased the targeted business and engaged the Sage Group Technologies business experts to assist with the follow-up business process optimization effort. PBSF considers this diligence effort a model for all future due diligence efforts and Sage Group Technologies a strategic partner for all future acquisition initiatives.
Constellation Healthcare Technologies is one of the largest providers of holistic, integrated practice management support services to hospitals and medical practices across the United States.
They work in partnership with their clients to lead the evolution of the Health Care industry. They are recognized for their technologies that enable seamless access to integrated patient data, diagnostic data, lab and test data, and pharmacology data resulting in improved quality of care for patients. CHT’s products and services work together to provide automation, integration, and logistical support to Healthcare Practices in the United States.
Constellation Healthcare Technologies has adopted a business development strategy that combines organic growth with an aggressive acquisition initiative. CHT is targeting small to midsized companies with a primary focus on billing for the healthcare industry.
The Healthcare Industry is experiencing a great deal of downward pressure on physician revenues. This provides both an opportunity for billing companies to acquire additional clients, while at the same time forcing the billing companies to offer their services at a lower rate. This tumultuous environment forces many small and midsized companies to become available for outside acquisition; howevermany of these companies lack the technology and staffing to flourish. CHT required a partner to help them assess the value and potential for EBITDA growth of potential acquisitions. They also required a partner with the business process and technology experience to be able to develop transition plans to ensure that the new acquisitions could be seamlessly and efficiently integrated into their existing organization by leveraging the synergies, best practices, and technologies of both companies.
Sage Group was engaged to manage the entire due diligence process and to provide the process and technology diligence. We coordinated the Due Diligence project using CHT’s legal and external accounting teams and our own industry and technology experts.
Based on our extensive experience in assisting companies with large business process transformation initiatives that included the consolidation of businesses we were also asked to develop the transition plans and to assist with the implementation of the transition.
CHT has been growing rapidly and Sage Group has provided support for all 12 of their acquisition due diligence initiative. We have also planned and assisted with the consolidation of the 5 completed acquisitions and are actively assisting with diligence efforts which are still underway.
For all of these due diligence initiatives our teams of experts visit every location with billing operations. The teams interview the leadership team at each location, evaluate their operational processes, their existing technology applications, and infrastructure.
The Sage Group project manager coordinates all requests for information from the legal and finance teams and ensures that the responses from the target company are stored in the correct folder in the data room.
The detailed scope of the due diligence is provided below:
The Operations due diligence analyzes and reports each of the following categories based on inputs provided by the target business, interviews with key stakeholders, and observations.
Business Processes
Organization
Voice of the customer
Product and Services
The Technology due diligence analyzes and reports each of the following categories based on inputs provided by the target business, interviews with key stakeholders, and observations.
CHT External Legal Team
CHT External Financial Team
The legal due diligence analyzes and reports each of the following categories based on inputs provided by the target business, interviews with key stakeholders, and observations.
The financial due diligence analyzes and reports each of the following categories based on inputs provided by the target business, interviews with key stakeholders, and observations.
The final report provided by Sage Group Technologies consisted of the following:
Constellation Healthcare Technologies is extremely pleased with their partnership with Sage Group. They continue to rely on our experts with their extensive experience and our world class due diligence methodology to ensure that they have all the necessary information to make the correct acquisition decision.
Constellation Tarrant County is an urban county located in the north central part of Texas. Fort Worth serves as the county seat to a county population of approximately 1.7 million citizens. Tarrant County is a member of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Tarrant County is one of the fastest growing urban counties in the United States today.
Tarrant County was looking for an innovative solution to upgrade the current 4.7 version of SAP to mySAP ERP 2005, BW 3.0 to BI7.0, and ITS based ESS to EP 7.0 ESS. The County’s decision to make this a technical and functional upgrade was driven by urgent business requirements.
Tarrant County’s overall IT strategy is based on the growth of their business and the mandate to provide their constituents with premier customer service and products. The upgraded application had to provide Tarrant County with the ability to standardize its programming platform. The objectives were to create a single technology platform for new development and to increase the knowledge and skill sets of the IT organization.
Sage Group partnered with the Tarrant County IT Services organization to lead and assist in all phases of the upgrade beginning with planning and ending with the successful transition to mySAP ERP 2005, EP 7.0 ESS and BI 7.0.
The scope of the engagement included extending the functionality of all the existing SAP modules and components. The list below provides a high-level overview of the key achievements of the upgrade initiative.
Sage Group successfully completed the upgrade project on time and budget. Tarrant County was grateful to us for successfully completing the entire upgrade without having to extend the original aggressive schedule of 4.5 months.
Tarrant County is very pleased with our approach, services, knowledge and quality of project delivery. Since completing the upgrade project Tarrant County has recognized Sage Group as a strategic partner and awarded Sage group their Business Intelligence transformation project, a strategic review of their SAP organization, policies, and procedures, which resulted in SAP certification, and they have also awarded us along-termSAP support services contract.
MEI is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of unattended electronic transaction systems including bill acceptors, coin mechanisms, cashless payment systems and vending management solutions.
MEI needed to implement SAP HR to meet the Human Capital Management needs for their business which hasemployees in 12 countries. The project was required to meet the needs of a scheduled spin-off of one of their lines of business and required strict deadlines and a tight budget. Complicating the situation was the fact that MEI had limited HR IS resources and know-how.
Sage Group Technologies was selected for this engagement due to our rich experience in implementing SAP HR Solutions and innovative approach of Near Site Engagement. The SAP HR system providesMEI’s HR staff and Operations Managers with enhanced problem solving and decision making capabilities, in addition to the ability to manage their global workforce based on accurate and comprehensive employee data. The SAP HR solution also eliminatedthe outdated/redundant systems and processes and delivered powerful new efficiencies to the HR function.
Sage Group Technologies completed the project on time and within the budget. MEI successfully spun off the line of business as planned and are pleased with the efficiencies and productivity that the SAP HR solution has provided to their HR function.
The SAP HR solution delivered by Sage Group Technologies provides the tools and consistent access to the information necessary to optimally manage employee benefits, life events, benefits, career development, and job management activities.MEI is pleased with our highly skilled and experienced staff, and the results delivered by this project. They consider us as a long term SAP services partner.
OKI Data Americas, a subsidiary of OKI Data Corporation of Japan, markets PC peripheral equipment and customized document management solutions under the OKI® brand, including digital color and monochrome printers, color and monochrome multifunction products, serial impact dot matrix printers, thermal label printers and POS printers, as well as a full line of options, accessories and consumables. OKI Data Americas also serves the Graphic Arts & Production market with the OKI proColor™ Series.
OKI Data required a partner to assist with the design, development, and deployment of a Sales Force Automation (SFA) solution utilizing SAP’s CRM and STRATEGY modules. The solution had to be fully integrated with their SAP ERP system.
OKI Data wanted to replace their home grown Top-Opps and Goldmine systems and automate analytics and demand forecasting to provide operations with the best sales forecast possible.
The goal of the SFA initiative was a fully integrated SFA solution that provides an intelligent tool set to help the sales force manage contacts, accounts, opportunities, analytics, and forecasting.
Sage Group Technologies was selected for this engagement over other big consulting organizations due to our innovative approach, our high performance work team, and our SageSure methodology which delivers our value added services to every engagement. Our solution integrated the functionality of OKI’s existing SAP ERP with SAP’s Cloud Solution for Sales, CRM, and BusinessObjects’ Strategy Management modules.
The scope of the initiative included a full project lifecycle from requirements gathering, roadmap development, configuration, testing, training, implementation, and post implementation support.
The SFA solution included CRM, BW, and Enterprise Portal and delivered the following functionality to OKI Data:
OKI Data is extremely pleased with the solution design innovation and the efficient, flawless implementation. The solution is already providing the cost savings and business process optimizations that were identified in the business case.
Constellation New York Power Authority (NYPA) is America’s largest state-owned power organization. NYPA provides lowest-cost electricity in New York State, operating 18 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines.
NYPA was an early adopter of SAP and had not yet implemented SAP’s BW solution which led to many reporting deficiencies and management frustration due to the lack of analytical and decision support capabilities. Management realized that a robust Business Intelligence solution to provide improved access to information and foster more informed decision-making was imperative to continued business success. Although management understood the need for a BI solution, they did not have internal resources with the necessary skills to gather the requirements necessary to design a solution, nor did they have the skills and experience necessary to design and architect the solution.
Sage Group was asked to provide a team of experts with extensive electric utility experience and the technical skills necessary to meet with the senior executives to gather requirements and design a fully architected data warehouse to meet the needs identified by the executive team.
Sage Group’s senior utility industry business consultants developed and facilitated workshops for each functional area. The workshops provided the executive and their senior managers an opportunity to discuss all aspects of their business and describe the reporting, analytics, and decision support functionality required for their business needs. Sage consultants guided the discussions to ensure that the executives were considering all of their requirements based on current practices and industry best practices that they may wish to implement in the future.
Based on the results of the executive workshops, Sage Group’s data warehouse technical experts architected a corporate wide data warehouse design to meet the defined requirements and the two objectives of the initiative, which are defined below.
1.To develop a corporate wide data warehouse architecture that provides improved access to information, fostering more informed decision making at the New York Power Authority.
2.To provide a single, easily accessible, resource for data required by auditors, accountants, financial planners, risk managers, account executives, energy traders, and operational and support groups A key component of this solution is development of a Data warehouse to provide a single, easily accessible, resource for data required by auditors, accountants, financial planners, risk managers, energy traders, etc.
The scope if this project was very comprehensive and included all of the functions listed below:
Sage Group performed the following tasks for each of the areas described above:
NYPA’s CIO was extremely pleased with the innovative data warehouse design based on the detailed business requirements that were gathered during the executive and senior management workshops. The NYPA’s executive team expressed their gratitude for the industry insight and best practices provided by the Sage business consultants. NYPA intends to engage Sage Group for the implementation of the data warehouse and BI reporting solution; however budget constraints are delaying the implementation plans.
OKI Data Americas, a Oki Data is a leading provider of innovative products, services, and solutions marketed under the OKI® Printing Solutions brand including color and monochrome digital printers, serial impact dot matrix printers, fax machines and multifunction products.
OKI Data used their SAP R/3 system to support custom developed Sales Information System (SIS); however, the information provided by the SIS was not timely and frequently incorrect. SIS did not support OKI’s need to do periodic closings.
Additionally, OKI faced additional challenges due to the nature of some of their business practices and the shortcomings of SIS. The major challenges are listed below.
Sage Group was selected to provide a BW based Sales Information System. Our team of Business Intelligence experts developed a prototype solution on our own in-house BW system. This proof of concept was demonstrated to OKI management and they awarded Sage Group a contract to deliver a Sales Information System which addressed OKI’s business problems by incorporating typical drill down capabilities and three operational data stores (Sales Order Data, Delivery Data, and Customer Invoice Data). Sage Group designed and implemented an InfoCube for Sales Analysis based on the three operational data stores.
The scope if this engagement is to build a Sales Information System using the SAP BW loaded with data from OKI’s SAP ERP system. The Sales Information System will provide the following capabilities:
Oki Data is very excited about their ability to analyze all aspects of their sales and order process and they are pleased with Sage Group’s innovative prototyping approach and efficient delivery of their SIS.The analytical capabilities provided by the SIS have enabled OKI to fine tune their purchasing and distribution process and has resulted in improved profitability. OKI management relies on Sage Group, our skilled consultants, and our SageSure methodology to consistently deliver high quality solutions on time and budget. Based on our past performance OKI subsequently awarded their CRM project to Sage Group
OKI Data Americas, a Durham County was using SAP ECC, BW SEM-BPS for budgeting, e-recruitment and Learning Solution (LSO), ESS Portal for business operations utilizing Public Sector Financials (A/R, A/P, GL, FM, TR, AA), Purchasing (MM) and widely HCM including Payroll/Time.County was looking to expand on BW footprint to exploit the powerful capabilities of BW platform to provide better analytics and reporting countywide.
Durham County had more than six years of structured data in SAP and management believes that there is a growing demand of better reporting/analytics capabilities throughout county. Drilldown reporting, Web reporting, notification, automated report distribution, better formatting, integrated reporting, trend analysis, planning and strategy reporting needs were resonated in many discussions with different county departments.
Sage Group was asked to provide a team of experts with extensive Business Intelligence experience and the technical skills necessary to meet with the senior executives to gather requirements and design a future roadmap for data warehouse to meet the needs identified by the executive team. Sage Group upgraded County’s BW SEM-BPS based budget system to latest version and established a very strong foundation to build and expand Business Intelligence footprint integrated with ERP and other critical applications.
Durham County Budget Director was extremely pleased with the innovative data warehouse design and suggested roadmap based on the detailed business requirements that were gathered during the executive and senior management workshops. The County’s executive team expressed their gratitude for the technical insight and best practices provided by the Sage business consultants. Durham County has engaged Sage Group for the implementation of the data warehouse and BI reporting solution; Which was delivered on-time, under budget. Sage Group is currently supporting County on their various initiatives.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) exists to ensure that Colorado has a safe and efficient highway system by building and maintaining interstates, US highways and state highways.
To accomplish this goal, CDOT conducts three primary services:
Colorado’s Department of Transportation realized that they could increase the efficiency of their workforce by adopting industry best practices for mobile work management. Specifically, CDOT wanted to empower their field workforce with an efficient and automated maintenance work order solution which could be deployed on a mobile device with a user-friendly interface.
The three challenges for CDOT management were to do the following:
Sage Group, who has a long history of successful engagements with CDOT, was selected to implement the SAP Mobile Work Manager solution using a new mobile platform integrated with SAP ERP. Sage Group was asked to deliver the following capabilities and functionality:
The scope of the initiative was very broad and included all the tasks required for the automation of the maintenance work order process by utilizing mobile devices throughout the state of Colorado. The following is a list of the major tasks that were in scope for this initiative.
Blue Print, Configure, Test, and Implement the SAP Work Manager Mobile Application
Colorado’s Department of Transportation is very pleased with their state of the art mobile work management system, which was delivered on time and budget by Sage Group. CDOT’s SAP ERP Manager noted that CDOT has experienced an increase in productivity, which has resulted in cost savings to the state. He attributes the success of the project to Sage Group’s talented and highly skilled consultants and the SageSure methodology.
BCH Electric Limited, an ISO 9001:2000 company, is one of the largest manufacturers of low voltageelectrical and electronic controls in India. The Company was established in 1965 as a joint venture between Cutler-Hammer, USA, and a consortium of partners from India. In 1977 the company became a wholly owned Indian company but it still maintains its global business connections.
BCH electric limited was one of the first mid-size companies to implement SAP in India.BCH has experienced explosive growth in the 6 years, with revenue increasing by over 330% in that time. Although BCH implemented SAP in 2001 management noticed that over time SAP utilization has gone down and their staff reverted to the traditional ways of working. The SAP system was simply being used for a system of record and was not delivering the automation and process efficiencies envisioned by management at the time of the SAP implementation. The challenge is to identify why the staff is not using the system to improve productivity and create an action plan to revive overall SAPutilization and optimize the business processes.
BCH Electric selected Sage Group to audit the SAP system and business process. The primary focus of the audit was the planning process. Sage Group was asked to target the Sales, Demand Forecasting, Materials Requirements Planning, and Production processes and associated SAP functionality during the audit. A key deliverable of the audit was a prioritized action plan that would result in productivity improvement and cost reductions due to more efficient manufacturing and procurement schedules.
The scope of this process improvement audit was to review the processes listed below:
BCH was extremely pleased with the audit recommendations. The recommendations clearly identified the reasons for the failure of the organization to embrace the system and provided a detailed roadmap for enhancing processes and re-configuring SAP to ensure that the process and the system were completely synchronized and the expected productivity gains would be realized. Because of the audit, BCH Electric Limited, awarded a contract to Sage Group to implement the roadmap.
Orion HealthCorp is one of the largest Revenue Cycle Management Companies (RCM) in the United States with a strong Practice Management background. With offices in California, Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New York they provide billing and practice management services to healthcare professionals from single Physician practices to large hospital based practices.
OrionHealthCorp (Orion) is determined to improve operating margins in a very competitive environment, which is facing strong pressure from both private and public payers to reduce costs. Orion management believes that automation and process optimization are the best means to meeting their bottom line improvement objective. The challenge for Orion is to eliminate the heavily manual process of communicating with physicians and helping them submit their claims correctly the first time, or to correct any claims that require corrections or additional information.
Orion engaged Sage Group to design, manage, and implement a cloud based web portal and workflow system to streamline and automate their billing processes. The portal provides physicians with a quick and easy way to enter and correct claims, review the status of their claims, and to see their payment postings. The solution requires a tight integration of the workflow system, Orion’s multiple billing systems and Orion’s Business Intelligence system.
The scope of the initiative was very complex since every component of the system had to be HIPAA compliant, provide very robust security to ensure patient, physician, and practice level security, provide intrusion detection, and meet all the functional requirements listed below.
Sage Group’s Health Care Industry consultants and technical teams worked closely with the Orion management team and their billing technology team to successfully design, build, and implement Orion’s industry leading cloud based portal for medical billing. The portal and workflow solution were successfully rolled out to Orion’s clients nationwide and this world class solution is now one of the most compelling sales arguments in Orion’s marketing initiatives. The CEO of Orion attributes the success of the project to Sage Group’s talented and highly skilled project manager and their team of experts in cloud technology.
Merrill Lynch is one of the largest brokerage and investment banking houses in the US. Merrill Lynch has over 50,000 employees and operates in every state in the country.
Merrill Lynch needed a Human Resources system that could provide and enforce consistent and standardized HR policies and procedures for all of their employees.
Sage Group is nationally recognized for our extensive knowledge, experience, and skill in designing and implementing global HR solutions. Merrill Lynch selected Sage Group to implement Oracle’s HR Module.
Sage Group was responsible for the design of the infrastructure, configuration of the HR module, and the re-design of the HR processes. The scope of the HR solution is provided below:
Merrill Lynch was pleased with the innovation and automation that Sage Group was able to bring to their HR processes. The outstanding work done on this package implementation resulted in Sage Group being awarded the contract to implement Siebel’s CRM package for Merrill’s Wealth Management Division.
Merrill Lynch (ML) is one of the largest brokerage and investment banking houses in the US. Merrill Lynch has over 50,000 employees and operates in every state in the country.
Merrill Lynch Wealth Management has over 15,000 financial planners. The planners use many world class tools packaged together as a wealth management workbench to support their business. The workbench did not include a customer relationship management (CRM) component and the Wealth Management organization demanded that CRM functionality be added to the workbench functionality.
ML had a very positive experience with Sage Group’s Oracle HR implementation and they were aware of our extensive experience implementing CRM solutions from Siebel, SAP, and other lesser players in the CRM market. Consequently; Sage Group was awarded the contract to implement Siebel for ML’s Wealth Management business.
Sage Group was responsible for the design of the infrastructure, configuration of the CRM module, and the re-design of the sales campaign processes. The scope of the CRM solution is provided below:
The focus of this initiative was the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut geographies.
Merrill Lynch was pleased with the efficient implementation of the Siebel package and the new process that the Sage Group designed for wealth management campaign and events management.
Orion HealthCorp is one of the largest Revenue Cycle Management Companies (RCM) in the United States with a strong Practice Management background. With offices in California, Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New York they provide billing and practice management services to healthcare professionals from single Physician practices to large hospital based practices.
Orion HealthCorp (Orion) is composed of multiple business units, each of which utilizes a different product for their billing platform. Orion management realized that the lack of a common billing platform was adding cost to their operations and inhibiting their ability to rollout optimized processes nationwide. Orion was also faced with the fact that one of their billing platforms was based on obsolete technology and an archaic coding language.
Orion decided to move all the clients who were currently using the antiquated billing platform to one of their state of the art billing platforms, Imagine. Imagine is a package solution and Orion has a strong relationship with the Imagine Management Team. Orion selected Sage Group to help them upgrade Imagine and develop the necessary integration for the Orion clients who were using the billing platform Orion had decided to eliminate.
Sage Group was responsible for the specification and installation of the hardware required to support the additional volume on the Imagine system. Sage Group was also responsible for the upgrade of Imagine to the latest release and the design, development, testing, and implementation of all the necessary interfaces with client practice management systems. Sage Group had to ensure that HIPAA guidelines and regulations were followed on every task and that all data migration operations were HIPPA compliant. Sage Group also provided the project manager for the entire initiative including the actual transition of clients to Imagine.
Orion is very pleased that they were able to eliminate an obsolete billing platform and replace it with a platform that they were already using in another business unit. The project not only reduced the number of billing platforms, it also allowed Orion to consolidate two data centers. The CFO of Orion has credited Sage Group with developing and implementing the innovative solution which helped to reduce IT support costs and improve profitability, while at the same time greatly reducing the risk of system failure.
United Stationers Inc. (USSCO) is North America’s largest broad line wholesale distributor of business products, with net sales of approximately $4.0 billion. USSCO has 40,000 items from more than 500 manufacturers, 20,000 resellers with product categories including traditional office products, office furniture, technology products, and janitorial and sanitation supplies.
United Stationers wanted to streamline and automate operations to remain competitive in the quickly evolving market place. The USSCO management team identified the following objectives for this critical automation and integration initiative:
USSCO selected mySAP All-in-One solution to provide the technology solution for their initiative. Since the existing SAP solution did not fully meet their needs they selected Sage Group to partner with SAP to provide the design and development resources to create a new and innovative Dealer Network solution.
In addition to designing, developing, and implementing a world class solution for USSCO. Sage Group developed a global template for SAP’swholesale distributor industry solution. Sage Group’s innovative solution provides unique functionality to the distribution industry by incorporating Content Management, Campaign Management, Dealer Back Office, Dealer Front Office,and Analytics, into a holistic industry solution.
The scope if this initiative was very extensive and involved integrating e-commerce and internet sales functionality with marketing functionality to create a dynamic Dealer Front Office solution that was seamlessly integrated with the back office distribution operations.
USSCO is pleased with the benefits that resulted from this project. The solution delivered the benefits identified in the business case, which were the elimination ofredundant data entry, reduction in order fulfillment time, while providingeasier access to critical information and improved visibility totheir workload. The automation of reminders and alerts has greatly increased the timeliness and accuracy of deliveries. The solution has also improved management decision making.
Sentry Group is the world’s leading supplier of fire-resistant and security storage containers, with a commitment to rigorous standards in design, manufacture and testing. Their products provide fire protection, basic security, privacy and organization and are available online or in-store at many leading retailers. They are a global company which produces more fire-resistant chests, files, safes, security storage containers and gun safes than any other company in the world.
Sentry Group urgently needed to develop a new solution for Freight Management utilizing SAP’s APO and BW. They also neededto upgrade their SAP ERP to ECC6.0 with Unicode in a four month time frame.
The internal SAP team did not have the bandwidth or experience to deliver either of these projects.
Sentry Group determined that they needed a reliable and cost effective partner to for both the Freight Management Solution and the upgrade. Due to the very short window for the upgrade they realized that their partner had to have strong upgrade experience as well as full bandwidth to support any technical challenges during upgrade.
Sage Group was selected to be the partner for the Freight Management Initiative and to also perform the upgrade.
The Freight Management Initiative required that SAP’s Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO) be fully integrated with SAP’s Business Warehouse (BW) in order to provide management with the intelligence necessary to optimize their Freight Management Process.
The scope of the ERP Upgrade is provided below.
Sage Group successfully developed and deployed the Freight Management functionality.
Sage Group also successfully upgraded Sentry’s ERP application to ECC 6.0 and converted the system to Unicode. Sage Group performed the upgrade and conversion for a fixed cost and completed the entire project within the required 4 month timeframe.
Sage Group was able to complete the upgrade on time and for a fixed cost because of their highly skilled and experienced consultants who utilize our proprietary SageSuretools and upgrade methodology.
Sentry Group has acknowledged our outstanding performance by awarding us their IT support contract.
Aquatech International is a leading global supplier of industrial water and wastewater treatment systems and services. With hundreds of operating systems worldwide, they provide the technology, experience, and vision needed for total water solutions that work together seamlessly. Founded in 1981 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Aquatech began as a supplier of pure water systems for the power industry.
Aquatech was running on SAP 4.6B with the R/3 modules, PP, MM, SD, FI,CO, PS, PM and QM. Aquatech required an SAP service partner to provide the functional and technical support to all SAP applications. The support partner is expected to be an advocate of their SAP system to the business community. In addition to providing production support the partner must also able to help them with new initiatives, upgrades, and future roll-outs.
After Aquatech performed a thorough competitive search, vetting, and selection process they chose Sage Group as their ASM partner for SAP. Sage offered a comprehensive service contract that included the following key benefits to Aquatech.
The scope of the SAP support agreement included both level 2 and level 3 functional support for all modules and custom development associated with the SAP system. Process improvement guidance and functionality enhancements for the procurement and order management process was also a part of the support agreement. Sage Group also agreed to enhance the configuration of the Project Systems module to improve integration with the SD and MM modules.
Aquatech is extremely happy with the cost effective approach and highly skilled resources provided by Sage Group. Sage Group provides the following support services for Aquatech.
Resolving functional and processissues such as the following examples:
The level 2 support is provided by a cost effective approach that utilizes an on-site Sage Group Team that is augmented by a team of off-shore Sage Group resources. The Sage Group team located on-site determines the best mix of resources to utilize to resolve each issue based on severity and turnaround requirements.
Resolving issues that need configuration, coding, or process changes are managed using a combination of senior level Sage Group experts on-site and offshore based on required skills and issue priority.
Based on our intimate knowledge of the Aquatech SAP system and our deep knowledge of SAP; Sage Group has been selected to deliver other SAP projects for Aquatech.
Fujifilm India Private Limited was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation,is leader in a broad spectrum of imaging industries, operated in India through its branch office and Indian dealers. World over, FUJIFILM is the pioneer in imaging technology with 80 years of experience. With all advanced technologies, the company provides solutions in Digital camera, Photo imaging, medical products, graphic arts, life science systems, motion picture films, recording media and industrial products.
FFIL is running on SAP ECC 6.0 with modules MM, SD, FI,CO, WM ,CS,ABAP & BASIS and also few integration with third party software’s. FFIL is looking for SAP service partner to provide the functional and technical support to all SAP applications. They were also looking for partner’s capabilities to advocate their SAP system. The ASM partner should be capable of not just providing the production support but also able to help them in new initiatives, upgrade and future roll-outs.
Level 2: Resolving Issues at Process Level e.g. Problems in reconciliation, Problems in MRP needing data / timing / user error or other such adjustments: Combination of Sage Offshore / Onsite Team (Responsibility depends on severity and turnaround requirement)
Level 3: Resolving Issues that need config / code / process changes: Combination of Sage Offshore / Onsite Team (Responsibility depends on severity and turnaround requirement and level of client interaction required) Customer base is spread out nationwide (in US).
Prime Meiden Ltd (PML) is an Indo-Japanese joint venture company of the Prime Group, a highly diversified group which has been a leading force for over 28 years in the field of high technology equipments & systems covering the entire spectrum of power sector including generation, distribution and transmission; precision engineering, power conditioning, CNC machine tools etc. The group is virtually present in every major sector of the economy such as power and energy, aviation, space, railways, defence, IT, infrastructure, industries including automobile & metallurgical industry, petroleum, oil, gas, steel, fertilizers and ship building etc.
PML has just started there operation in SEZ premises and wanted to have SAP for all business process form starting. They wanted to implement modules MM, SD, FI,CO,PS,CO,PP,QM,ABAP & BASIS. PML was looking for Partner with god past records of on time implementation and is looking for SAP service partner who suggest them Industries best practices. The partner should be capable of not just Implement but also make system user friendly to smoothen the change management and easy transitions.
Monte Carlo Fashions Ltd was launched in 1984 by Oswal Woolen Mills Ltd, the flagship company of Nahar group. The launch was a significant step in the evolution of branded garment industry in India. Since then, it has been catering to the ever-growing demands of the Clothing and Fashion industry.
Monte Carlo was honored as one of ASIA’S BEST MARKETING BRANDS by World Consulting & Research Corporation (WCRC).The Company’s products reach the end user through different channels i.e. through Exclusive Brand Outlets, Multi Brand Outlets. Currently Monte Carlo is available through more than 200 Exclusive Brand Outlets & over 1300 Multi Brand Outlets.
MCFL is running on SAP ECC 6.0 with modules MM, SD, FI,CO,POS,ABAP & BASIS and also few integration with third party software’s. FFIL is looking for SAP service partner to provide the expertise to Implement SAP PP, Product Costing with integration with BAR Code & Scanners for production confirmations and also support to all SAP applications.. The partner should be capable of not just Implement but also make system user friendly to smoothen the change management and easy transitions.
To enhance the SAP system to rectify the process gaps in all implemented SAP modules.
Consolidation of various non-SAP systems used for different processes to SAP system.
Ralson today stands tall as India’s largest company in the field of bicycle & Automobile tyres, tubes and bicycle components. Ralson is the first and only Bicycle Tyre manufacturer in India to be accredited with an ISO 9001Certification, and it provides the widest possible range of tyres (Nylon & Cotton, Colored, Gum wall, White wall & Black), tubes (Natural & Butyl rubber) and components.
RIL was planning for a version upgrade and possible roll-outs for other divisions not running on SAP. This is the time RIL would like to take the opportunity to review their process to understand the utilization of SAP system.
The major objectives for the SAP review project are:
To enhance the SAP system to rectify the process gaps in all implemented SAP modules.
Consolidation of various non-SAP systems used for different processes to SAP system.
KML entered the auto interior manufacturing business with a single product (seating system for Maruti 800 CC Car) in year 1994. Today they manufacture 8 different products with over 100 different models
KML is implemented with R/3 4.7 and apart from the core module the modules like FM-BCS and Product costing
are implemented. Due to some gaps the closing process was very tedious for them and also they needed to have a review of the functionality of the product costing and a complete system audit on it. They had also very typical scenario in the payment process which was virtually impossible using the standard SAP functionality and they were completely at no end to map some of the asset retirement process. They needed some very complicated reports to comply to the internal audit team and besides all these they needed an expert hand to guide them on the SAP recommended process of year end closing in detail.
Level 2 :Resolving the day to day issues particularly those were there since the beginning of the year//mapping the business process with the SAP functionality and train the end user/core users//configuring the process for the payment program and FI-AA according to the changed scenario//designing of new derivation rules for the derivation of the fund centre//commitment item from within the regular transactions// creating the reports to the satisfaction of the audit team. Monitoring and explaining the process of year end closing.
Supertech Group, is founded in 1988, has set new trends and benchmarks of architectural excellence in the contemporary global scenario. An ISO 9001:2000 certified company; Supertech has successfully completed 20 years in real estate business and today it has revolutionized the real estate arena.
Supertech Group is running on SAP ECC 6.0 with the modules, MM, SD, FI,CO, PS, and RE.Supertech Group is looking for SAP service partner to provide the functional and technical support to all SAP applications. They were also looking for partner’s capabilities to advocate their SAP system. The ASM partner should be capable of not just providing the production support but also able to help them in new initiatives, upgrade and future roll-outs.
Sonalika is the one of the top 3 tractor manufacturing companies in India, other products include of, Multi utility vehicles, engines and various farm equipments. Today the group stands tall with an approximate turnover of 5000 Crore INR. An average growth of 30% makes it one of the fastest growing corporate in India. It is also one of the few debt free companies. Group has strength of about 2000 employee technocrats.
Sonalika is running on SAP 4.6 since 2001 and was looking for SAP partner to assist them in all their upcoming project ,they are matured enough on their current system and looking for improvement area and functionalities ,this is the time they want to explore new areas in SAP to improve their efficiency and want to make their system more productive .
Sage Technologies won this engagement through our innovative approach and value added services. Sage Technologies competed against the other big consulting organization .The scope of the initiative included developing a roadmap and subsequently doing the projects leveraging the existing SAP’s ERP.
BCH Electric Limited an ISO 9001:2000 company, is today one of the largest manufacturers of low voltage electrical and electronic controls in India. The Company was set up in 1965 as a joint venture between Cutler-Hammer, USA, and Indian partners. Since 1977, it is a wholly owned Indian company with global business connections.
BCH electric limited was one of the first mid size company to implement SAP in India .BCH has grown up from 90 crores to 300 crores in past 6 years. They have gone live in year 2001 ,but over a period of time SAP utilization has gone down and user’s went back to traditional way of doing work. The benefits from SAP went down and it just become the system of records. The challenge is to revive overall SAP and increase the SAP utilization.
SAP revival project.
Patel wood today is pioneering the best practices and striving for excellence through adaptation of latest technology and management learning. An ISO 9001:2000 certified company; they are managing their operations through effective Information Technology adaptation and have excellent production facilities with fully automated imported plant and machinery.
Patel Products Limited is running on SAP ECC 6.0 with the modules MM, SD, FI,CO,HRPY and ABAP. Patel Products limited was looking for SAP service partner to provide the functional and technical support to all SAP applications. They were also looking for partner’s capabilities to advocate their SAP system. The ASM partner should be capable of not just providing the production support but also able to help them in new initiatives, upgrade and future roll-outs.
Level 2: Resolving Issues at Process Level Combination of Sage Offshore / Onsite Team (Responsibility depends on severity and turnaround requirement)
Level 3: Resolving Issues that need config / code / process changes.
