Sizable 52-site ERP upgrade yields lessons in document management
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 9/1/2005 6:00:00 AM
When Luxembourg-based Actaris Metering Systems was spun off in 2001 from global oil & gas services giant Schlumberger, the first order of business for CIO Gustavo Civantos was streamlining IT operations. That meant upgrading a QADMFG/PRO ERP system in place since the early 1990s. Over that time, seven versions of the system—and more than 6,500 customizations—had been installed at 52 Actaris sites in 36 countries.
Civantos embarked on the upgrade with two primary goals: putting all Actaris sites on QAD's eB2.1 platform, and eliminating as many system modifications as possible. "We are a manufacturer, not an IT company," Civantos explains. "My objective as CIO is to make sure we are standardized as much as possible."
Standardization efforts also were applied to nearly 1,000 documents integral to Actaris' day-to-day operations. Companies often treat things like document conversion as separate, less important aspects of a project, which Civantos admits typically is the fault of the IT department.
"The tech guy isn't concerned about how the printout will look to the customer. But in the end, if he discovers that the invoice isn't readable, then he needs an emergency customization and doesn't pay attention to the cost."
Optio is QAD's partner for document management. Its solutions let Actaris customize documents without ERP modifications. "We extracted information from QAD in XML," says Civantos. "Then, by mapping this data in Optio, we produced the documents in a standard mode."
Actaris users found the documents already converted to new formats when they logged on, boosting their faith in the IT team and smoothing adoption of the new system.
Mike Lodato, QAD executive VP, calls this "one of the fastest QAD implementations of its size ever documented."
For Civantos, the documentation part of the upgrade wasn't exclusive to the paperwork. "It's a question of improving key functional processes and transactions that take place across the enterprise—from distribution to approvals and document storage," he says.
