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Customer
Profile
Epson
is the world’s second largest manufacture of printers, scanners
and digital cameras
Solution
Overview
Implementation
of la-vision solution using Microsoft Technologies gave Epson India
the necessary flexibility to keep pace with the changing business
requirements by providing the company access to a standardized and
common database across all departments and locations.
“Epson India Pvt Ltd, relies on la-vision solution for providing
a wide array of information to field sales personnel. As the need
for access and availability of data and information grows exponentially,
Epson India is turning to Microsoft Technologies to offer even better
analytical capabilities, performance, and scalability,” said Mr
Venkatesh, Deputy General Manager, Epson India Pvt Ltd.
Background
Epson India Pvt Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of Epson Singapore Pte Ltd,
is a leader in printing solution in India with an annual turnover
of over Rs 250 crore. Epson India Pvt headquartered in Bangalore
with regional offices at Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai and
resident representatives at Hyderabad.
The
company’s core area of business includes the development, manufacture
and sales & marketing of printers, computers, LCD projectors and
color TVs. Additionally it manufactures semiconductors and precision
assembly robots.
Epson India Pvt Ltd is a part of the Seiko Epson Group headquartered
in Japan. With a market that spans the globe, excellence in service
and support are Epson’s brand promise. Internationally located bases
ensure customer satisfaction in every region with regional headquarters
working in close cooperation with each other to ensure that the
sales, marketing and servicing activities meet Epson's global standards.
Business
Challenge
Prior to the IT implementation at Epson India, employees and management
were unable to cope with the fast changing business scenarios. Epson
was ill equipped to manage islands of information with the suppliers
and distributors and increasing demands made by the users. Additionally,
there was no homogeneous platform to integrate supplier information
regarding products, prices and availability. This lead to problems
in consolidation of sales reports, material management and sharing
of information among different departments at Epson.
Epson’s
sales structure in India comprises of distributors, authorized service
providers and Epson Authorised Service Centers. Being in the spare
parts business, there was a need for Epson to bring the distributors,
service centers, branches, warehouses etc into a homogeneous business
model so that the relevant process efficiencies would improve substantially.
To
streamline Epson’s sales operations across the country, KALS Information
Systems Ltd implemented "la-vision" a complete sales order
fulfillment and warranty management system. It works powerfully
in the Indian Internet Context and has fully leveraged Microsoft’s
component architecture in implementing the business logic. Planning
and Implementation: The planning phase at Epson India included the
formation of a core team that worked closely with a team at the
head office in Singapore. The implementation took nearly three months
where core issues like spare part management, turn around time (TAT)
and inventory management were addressed. KALS Information Systems
Ltd a software and consulting company delivering Internet web transaction
solution for Industries across the globe in the area of Insurance,
manufacturing, distribution & has implemented its product “la-vision”.
KALS with phenomenal experience in designing, developing and implementing
mission critical application on the web for global markets.
la-vision
– The solution…
la-vision
effectively manages the complete sales cycle of spare parts at Epson
from order booking, acknowledgement and allocation to status verification
and invoicing and post sale process including warranty systems.
Users can access la-vision anywhere in the world as it is a browser
application and is hosted on the Internet. The solution enables
Epson to make web based spare part transactions in addition to offering
a dedicated online service channel called e- support on its site.
Being a web-based solution, la-vision caters to the business needs
of order fulfillment, logistics and customer support. It has thus
helped Epson gain competitive advantage by providing Intranet connectivity
between various offices across the globe.
la-vision
has been developed as a robust, state of the art ‘e-order fulfillment
& warranty’ management product that manages the entire cycle of
these processes & efficiently integrates with a variety of back
end ERP systems said Mr.K.Ananthapadmanabhan Executive Director
–KALS.
"It's
vital for our customers, distributors and employees to obtain the
most up-to-date information. With the size and complexity of our
database, we required a scalable and reliable solution to determine
continued success as we move forward. la–vision from KALS Information
Systems Ltd manages the entire sales cycle at Epson and has led
to the generation of efficient MIS reports for business planning
and analysis leading to enhanced customer service" said Mr Venkatesh,
Deputy General Manger, Epson India Pvt Ltd.
The
technology requirements to handle transfer of data between la-vision
and Oracle database is quite critical. The solution has been built
using Microsoft technologies like MS Windows NT 4.0, MS SQL Server
7.0, Internet Information Server 4.0 and Microsoft Transaction Server
2.0.
la-vision
has been integrated with Oracle 8i based MIS system to transfer
the required master data from Oracle and to transfer back orders
and invoices to the MIS system which is located at the remote. This
data transfer can happen on a day-to-day basis whereby users based
on the privilege can logon to la-vision and initiate the process
of data transfer.
Benefits:
Information
Technology is thus playing an important role by computerising the
accounts and logistic departments leading to better inventory control
and management and enhanced customer service.
With the implementation of la-vision, order-processing time has
reduced, and this has drastically improved online processing and
tracking. Furthermore, it has led to better response time for services.
Most importantly the technology implementation at Epson has eliminated
numerous labour and paper intensive processes. This has also reduced
communication costs and facilitated use of standardized documentation
across all departments and offices at Epson India.
la-vision has led to efficient order fulfillment, process oriented
communication between various entities and the empowerment of the
field force. It has thus enabled us to reduce time-to-market, reach
global markets and increase our revenues,” said Mr. Venkatesh, Deputy
General Manager, Epson India Pvt Ltd.
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