Sify's SCM initiative

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: Since its inception in the early nineties, Supply Chain Management (SCM) has become an important factor in an increasingly global marketplace. With companies under intense pressure to reduce costs, expand into new markets, and develop new products, every manufacturer's supply chain is growing in size and becoming increasingly complex. However, complexity is not an enemy of the supply chain, and if it can be effectively managed it can even be an asset. This is where Sify's Forum-a supply chain management solution-comes into the picture.

Flashback to 1994. Dell was a struggling second-tier PC maker. Like many other OEMs, the company ordered its components in advance and manufactured PCs. Then it began to implement a new business model. Dell converted its operations to a build-to-order process, eliminated its inventories through a just-in-time system, and sold its products directly to consumers. The results were spectacular-because Dell had developed a supply chain process that went far beyond the pursuit of efficiency and asset productivity.

Rapid growth

A part of the corporate services initiative that contributes about 50 percent of Sify's revenue, Forum has grown by 100 percent annually (it has completed five quarters now), already has more than 2,000 installations, and has about 4,000 more to execute. What's more, it has a presence in about 300 towns all over the country.

Says Debjyoti Paul, Deputy General Manager, Forum, "Companies need to integrate data from the distribution chain with their own information. A supply chain should equip a business to earn more revenue by ensuring the constant availability of stocks, and let it act on this feedback by coming up with timely inputs."

A solution that can be deployed for thousands of partners in a typical distribution ecosystem is not an easy task. Sify's apparently found the way to do it as it has installations in more than a thousand locations across India. Clients include GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), TotalFinaElf India, Perfetti Van Melle (India), Pidilite, Gillette India and several SMBs.