The Take Aways
Migration of multi version on premise instances of QAD to Adaptive ERP on Cloud.
Leveraging the brand new features of Adaptive ERP while migrating their key legacy solution to cloud helping the business users manage change at their pace.
Seamless migration of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), a key business enabler for Automotive industry.
Standardization of business processes across continents/countries with strong local compliance.
Problem Statement
One of the major Automotive ancillary manufacturers was in their journey to upgrade their ERP solution which had flavours of on-premises installations of QAD SE & QAD EE versions in multiple business units across the globe. Their goal was to standardize and implement global business processes across the business units and simultaneously upgrade their ERP systems to QAD AERP 2022 on cloud.
The Challenge
The organization was using a legacy Material and Logistics management application tailor made for their needs and wanted to have this application upgraded to the Cloud ERP. The company wanted to focus on the upgrade for the 4 BU’s already on QADEE before embarking upgrades from QADSE to QAD AERP 2022 Cloud for the remaining 2 BU’s. Being in automotive industry line, the organization was wary of business disruptions and re-certifications which may be required with their customers during and after such upgrades.
Solution
As a first step, Digitus worked to uplift the customer’s legacy solution for bar-code-based Materials and Logistics management to the cloud environment. This was followed by a technical uplift of their data and remaining core model functionality. The first phase of our implementation approach culminated with key user trainings on new functionality in QAD AERP 2022, the conference room pilots and acceptances and confirmations from business team to go-live big bang with the initial 4 QADEE sites to QAD AERP 2022. In the second phase of the project, we embarked the journey with the sites currently on QADSE. The upgrade journey became more challenging with this phase where business users had to be familiarized with the global core model as well as bringing the business team on speed on Enterprise Finance. Both these challenges were respectively addressed with minor tweaks to the global core model to suit the site-specific requirements and focussed efforts to educate and engage the business functions on trainings, trials and testing.
Key Features of the Solution :
The customer already had a well-defined core model and thus a simplistic approach to uplift this solution to QAD AERP 2022 on Cloud.
A fine solution tailor made for the customers logistics functions covering material movements, tracking, production reporting, receipts and shipments was an appropriate fit for their business lines. We upgraded this solution to work seamlessly in QAD which enables users to perform all core inventory management transactions using bar-code-based scanners thus bringing in speed, efficiency and accuracy to the day-to-day operations.
There was heavy reliance on EDI interchanges for demand call-offs and shipment notifications with customers following the automotive business and JIT principles. We had a meticulous approach to migrate the trading partners from current environments to QAD AERP 2022 in lines with the overall project goals.
Approach for data migration was strategized with technical uplift and conversion of data from QAD EE environments to QAD AERP 2022 thus bringing in historical data for these business units into the new environment. For BU’s which were on QAD SE, the approach was to migrate the data through data exports and imports and transfer of transactional opening balances.
The project also involved getting the customer on to the Adaptive ERP hosted in QAD Cloud thus adding in steady availability, best in class security standards and all-time availability of services.
Benefits
Global Best Practices:
The implementation of Customers Core Process Models across all their business units have brought in improved efficiency levels with individual functions in their business units and a global unified way of working.
Enhanced Efficiency:
A finely tuned in-house developed logistics management solution and right levels of usage of simplified Adaptive UI/UX has enabled increased efficiency in the operational usage of the ERP systems.
Consistency and Compliance:
Following guiding principles of business functions for Automotive Suppliers during the core model refinements has made the customer directly compliant for certifications and compliance.
Real-Time Visibility:
The Analytics and reporting platform within QAD AERP 2022 enabled for this customer provides real-time visibility into the operational metrics for efficiency and performance.
Cost Savings:
The upgrade to QAD AERP 2022 for four business units was completed with a big-bang go-live in a record-breaking time of eight months bringing in significant savings in the program. The roll outs at 2 additional sites have been executed with focussed approach there after to ensure sufficient attention to the additional challenges with an SE to AERP upgrade.
Conclusion
The QAD AERP 2022 Upgrade & Roll out for this customer was featured with upgrade of a powerful legacy solution for material and logistics management uplift of large volume EDI integrations. The upgrade has enabled the business powerhouse to utilize new and improved features of QAD AERP 2022 adding more efficiency in managing their business lines. This success story highlights our vast experience and knowledge in Automotive Industry processes and compliance requirements, technical strengths in migration of solutions and data, and strong knowledge in EDI and data integrations making fast-paced ERP upgrades and roll outs possible.