Ceat Tyres Implements SAP platform

According to a report in India’s Business Standard, Ceat Tyres has recently automated its business processes on the Software Application Protocol (SAP) platform. The SAP implementation covers the company’s entire office network, consisting of corporate office, two manufacturing plants, 34 regional offices, 28 RDCs, 125 clearing and forwarding agents, 3,500 dealers, a warehouse, 15 outsourcing locations, 8 RPD & Mixing locations.

Unlike most companies, who phase in new IT systems in stages, Ceat has opted to have all modules in its 180 plus locations go live at the same time. Ceat Tyres vice-president Arnab Banerjee explains the reason behind this decision: “If we look at the industry, most of our peers have used a phased approach. We were advised to follow it too. However, in this kind of implementation there is resistance to change and opposition to new systems and processes. So, we thought that instead of going through these issues in phases, let’s take the problem head-on and implement it in one go.” The project was implemented within a timeframe of eight months.

While Ceat choose SAP as a technology platform, the implementation partner selected for the job was IBM. In total the company spent Rs 100,000,000 (£1.29 million) implementing the project, a sum it believes will be recovered within a year. The primary reason behind Ceat’s decision to introduce this new technology were global competition and pressure to streamline operations, plus the desire to improve customer service. “While we were reacting to customer requirements, we were not doing it fast enough,” Banerjee told the Business Standard. “Besides there was duplication of work.” Previously, the company took three to four days to respond to a customer query. It will now be able to do the same within 24 hours.

Banerjee is confident that other areas of the company’s operations will equally benefit from the roll out of similar technology. Ceat has plans to invest in a customer relationship management system. It also intends to extend SAP integration to the dealer level and is also exploring whether these applications should be made available to the company’s sales force.