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 Our solution put FAST almost on par with the SAP
ERP solution —Salil Sankaran
Following its break-up with Modi Telestra in April
2000, Spice Cell faced the daunting task of not only
re-building its user base, but also setting up a Web-based
enterprise solution which would help it integrate its
financial functions. The company already had a SAP solution in
place, but as it was licensed to Modi Telestra, the company
had to look for other alternatives. The company finally
approached Optimos India, a company offering solutions in ERP,
CRM, e-commerce and document management applications, for
developing a ‘Financial Application Management System’, which
would help it strengthen its back-end infrastructure.
Says Salil Sankaran, country manager, Optimos India,
“Spice Cell had implemented various packages such as finance,
HR, accounting, inventory etc. However, though these packages
served the intended purpose, they could not be integrated, and
thus could not provide a status of revenue collections and
inventory online. In case of the legacy ‘Financial Accounting
System’ it was necessary to take manual inputs from other
packages which meant duplication of work. The problem was
further complicated by the fact that these standalone packages
were at different locations. Also, maintenance of these
packages and training of users only served to add to the
already difficult task. Therefore, our chief objective was to
create a basic platform revolving around the Financial
Accounting System that would integrate the billing, inventory
and payroll systems.”
Optimos deployed a six-member team to work on the
project, which was divided into five phases. The first phase
comprised of analyses of raw data and understanding the
business while the second phase involved outlining the
specifications and transforming them into a tabular structural
format so as to facilitate project flow. The third phase
consisted of developing the solution according to
specifications and the fourth, the pilot testing of the
solution with Spice Cell’s user base. In the fifth and final
phase the company went live with the solution.
Sankaran proudly states that the solution put the
Financial Accounting System (FAST) almost on par with SAP’s
solution. The solution comprised of different modules such as
General Ledger, Accounts Payable (which was used for Passing
of Invoice for materials), Accounts Receivable, Asset
management, Cash Flow Management, Cost Centre Management,
Balance Sheet, Tax Management, Profit and Loss Accounts, Audit
Trails, User Queries and Reports. The whole purpose was to
have a smoother transition of data migration from the
company’s legacy system to FAST.
In case of the front-end, Optimos used Java for
development, distribution, reporting and documentation. “The
purpose was to have an easy implementation across the network,
which could be easily scalable. It also reduced the
requirement of a third party software for porting and
distribution of applications,” he says. The Java API with
Applets and Servlets were used to ensure a high degree of
security and enhanced GUI. “This helped in providing a
customised service to all levels of user requirements, simple
and easy navigation technique, optimum user interface,
validations and reports based on user query with drilldowns,”
he adds. For the storage and data administration needs,
Optimos used the Oracle 8 database server which helped in
faster data integrity, high level of security and scalability
and supported more than 200 concurrent users.
Commenting on the project, Sankaran says the turning
point in the project was the implementation of the ‘workflow
management module’, which took care of every step of the
project. Once the workflow module was set up, the company
integrated it with the Lotus Notes for faster and easy
accessibility. Besides this, it also took an in-depth approach
in providing specifications keeping the technical, user and
functional segment in mind. “We wanted to provide a simple and
easy to use solution with ready to use codes. Our main aim was
to see to it that even when we are not there, the company
should be able to use it and should not require much of
guidance in the same,” he adds.
Sankaran points out that the implementation of FAST
helped Spice in cutting 30 percent of their overhead expenses
and also helped them offer better delivery. With Bharti taking
over Spice Cell, Optimos is optimistic that they would be
given the order to integrate the Financial Accou-nting System
(developed by Optimos) with Bharti’s Oracle Financial system.
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