UIL puts Rs 8-cr SAP package in place

Our Marketing Bureau in New Delhi

To counter the challenge of competition and increase efficiency within the organisation, consumer durables marketing company, Usha International Ltd. (UIL) has invested Rs 8 crore in putting into place a SAP R/3 package. The system has already linked 13 of its 16 branch offices. By this month-end, with the remaining three also becoming linked, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) process will be complete.

The system is expected to assist better logistics control and management of the entire supply chain, with the company’s 16 branch offices and 28 warehouses across the country becoming integrated into the system. Says Mr P Narayan, vice-president, UIL,‘‘With the implementation of the SAP R/3 package, we expect at least 30-40 per cent drop in inventory-holding costs. Already the benefits are visible in terms of achieving a high level of integration in the operations of different divisions like finance, marketing and HRD, besides making it possible to network these departments and the warehouses.’’ Other areas the company expects to see benefits in are: Better credit ratings of dealers resulting in lowering bad debts; more effective dealer schemes as they would be tailormade according to their needs; and trader satisfaction that would translate into better sales.

With the wealth of information that will be available with the company at any point of time, the next step will be to access the depth of the information system and apply it in an intelligent manner. To achieve this, training will be an important focus area from January. A comprehensive training and retraining programme is being chalked out for all sales and support staff.

With fans as its flagship product, UIL also markets a host of home appliances under the brand name Lexus. It is looking at a 30 per cent growth in this segment next year. Other categories it is present in are: Sewing machines, agro products and generators. With a cumulative turnover of Rs 410 crore (Rs 280 crore in domestic sales and Rs 130 crore from exports) last year, UIL is targeting Rs 440 crore this year.