The Client
One of the world’s largest door and window manufacturers, operating 117 manufacturing facilities in 19 countries located primarily in North America, Europe and Australia.
The Challenges
- There was a need for an effective, scalable system to help the client manage different business functions smoothly.
- The existing Progress based ERP system required the development of additional modules.
- The company’s ability to serve its clients was severely compromised because of a backlog of bugs reported in the ERP.
- Need to integrate Progress-based ERP with internal and external systems of the company.
- Earlier, too many tickets were raised in key ERP modules, and the ageing of tickets was a big concern.
- More than 40 Databases across different countries required continuous monitoring, automation, and performance improvements.
The Objective
With the changing business dynamics, the client sought to modernize their technology infrastructure to address operational inefficiencies and build an operating infrastructure to support their growth objectives. There was a need to enhance their progress-based ERP to streamline the business operations, organize workflows and optimize the experience for its customers.
JK Tech aimed at helping the client with Progress application development and management, integration framework, database administration and IT infra support.
The Solution
JK Tech, a leader in Progress Services, has been associated with the client for more than a decade. Based on the business challenges faced by the client, we devised a solution to enhance internal business processes and help save on costs with higher efficiency and increased productivity.
We designed the integration layers for the below applications to facilitate interaction with the ERP system as part of the transformation. Apart from enhancements, the team also carried out significant new module development.
- Vertex and OneSource Tax Engine Integration – Vertex is a third-party tool to calculate tax. We developed an integration layer for the ERP to send the required data to Vertex and get the tax calculated.
- Rebate System – It’s a module that manages customer rebates based on sales.
- EDI – EDI integration with ERP system to interact with customers, vendors and between plants.
We developed the Application Program Interface (API) required by the below application to show and commit the data along with business logic:
- Customer Data Management: An application to maintain customer data.
- Material Management: A web-based application to manage materials faster with greater accuracy.
- Web Order Status Application: A web-based application to know all details of an order, quotes, and the related details records.
- Sales Structure: A web-based application to show the sales team structure.
We undertook the complete ownership of 24×7 application support for the ERP systems. The application support team used the ITIL framework to help the client reduce the number of tickets by taking preventive measures and reducing ageing by putting the right processes and tools.
The database management team implemented the early warning system through automation and enhancements in the database performance. We also helped with Database maintenance, backup, and monitoring. In addition, we ensured that our client’s customers have high availability access to their servers to place orders and find information.
The Benefits
- Reduced the cost of development and support services by a margin of 35-40% without impacting the quality of service.
- The developments and enhancements in the application have led to:
- Enhanced inventory and supply chain management.
- Improved user interface & system quality.
- Access to real-time order information.
- Analyzing customer feedback and resolving complaints.
- Enabled the client to utilize the critical resources in more strategic tasks than mundane work, thus significantly enhancing their ability.
- 70 % performance improvement in critical functions of ERP.
- The age of backlog tickets was brought down to under five days, and the system was secured against bugs which ultimately improved the user experience.
- The solution brought in increased operational and cost efficiencies.
- Database performance was enhanced 60-70%
