Customers: Stroydoreksport
Contractors: Software AG Russia and CIS countries (Softvear AG) Product: SAP ERPProject date: 2009/09
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In October, 2007 the tender for the choice of the ERP system and the contractor of the project was announced. Within the tender the company considered software platforms of Microsoft Dynamics AX, IFS Applications, SAP ERP and "1C: Enterprise". It was as a result made for benefit of the ERP solution of SAP. The contractor of the project selects IDS Scheer Russia and CIS countries company [1] (file), and the Krasnoyarsk consulting company "Partner Business Consulting" will become the partner in implementation.
According to Sergey Glukhov, the Chief information officer Stroydoreksport, the final decision on the choice of the ERP system was influenced that the solution optimum is suitable for geographically distributed structures, and sewn up in the "best practices" system on business process management conform to requirements of customer company.
The planned project scope included almost all business processes of the enterprise:
- construction of roads (construction project management, purchase of resources, maintaining suppliers, consumers, agreements and orders, production of road-building materials);
- transport and warehouse logistics (requirements planning, acceptance and inventory accounting of materials, holiday, movement, control of stocks, and also planning and working off of transportation);
- management of maintenance and repairs of the equipment, transport, buildings and constructions;
- extraction of nonmetallic materials (planning of production and capacity management);
- sales management and distribution (sales planning, maintaining customers and settlings with them);
- finance (accounting under RAS and tax accounting, calculation of the VAT, banking and cash activities, fixed asset accounting and costs, budgeting and controlling).
Implementation of the ERP system had to be performed at the same time in all key organization units of holding which participate in accomplishment of the main business processes: Stroydoreksport, Dorstroyeksport, "Prefactory motor depot", "Kemerovo stone pit" and Pit the Mozzhukhinsky, Kuzbassdorstroy. Further, within the second queue, system deployment in "Novokuznetsk DRSU" is planned.
The project was supposed to be broken into five stages: preparation, conceptual design based on which process project scope, implementation, final preparation and commissioning will be specified. Start of a system is planned for September, 2009, i.e. all project, including creation of the ERP solution and its replication in branches, territorially remote and diverse in terms of activities, is going to implement in only one year.
Discontent of the customer
On August 4, 2010 the Stroydoreksport company distributed the press release of the following contents:
Information on how the ERP system in the road-building industry on the example of Stroydoreksport road construction company successfully is implemented is posted on the official site of IDS Scheer LLC. It should be noted that this information is false. Really, our company (DSK "Stroydoreksport") signed the agreement on implementation of the ERP system with IDS Scheer LLC, however faced bad faith of this organization which did not fulfill the undertaken obligations, without having finished work on project implementation in time.
When the question of need of SAP implementation of ERP for our company was considered, we expected improvement of business processes through IDS Scheer LLC; we were sure that owners of business of IDS, the German company IDS Scheer, will not allow to build on deception business in ROSSII and we jointly will execute the project qualitatively and in time, but we were mistaken …
Within two years of implementation IDS Scheer LLC did not fulfill the obligations for implementation of the ERP project in our company both on volume, and on terms: work for several enterprises and structural divisions, integration about 1C, the PS block was postponed until a phase of commercial operation of the project, after our requirements to make completions according to technical specifications and terms of the contract to us refused. Our error is that we believed in stories about "angry and artful Germans", obligatory dismissals of a project team for not execution of contractual commitments, signed with advance payment acts of the performed works, made all payments and even advance payments, we were assured that completions are insignificant and they will be executed in the subsequent phases. In an implementation stage without approval of us there was a replacement of all project team including all management of IDS Scheer LLC, except the project manager and one-two more people.
It is possible to tell that IDS did not estimate the opportunities and competences, and the German owners neglected asset management.
We understood that at implementation of the project there could be difficulties as we were the experimental platform for IDS Scheer LLC - the project of such volume of modules at once. As it seemed to us, it, on the contrary, had to lead to hard work and cooperation, and led two years later to replacement of the partner and judicial proceedings with it.
Comments of IDS Sheer
On August 26, 2010 in the blog Maria Kamenova, the CEO of IDS Sheer described the vision of the situation[1]: We did not want to enter public dispute with Sergey Aparin, the CEO of the Kemerovo company "Stroydoreksport" (SDE) who sent on different "relizopriyemnik" on the Internet the letter. First, this personal letter of Aparin – on the website of SDE there is nothing of that kind, only news that in February trial operation implemented in SAP ERP company is begun. Secondly, Aparin himself stopped any opportunities for a talk, having notified on contract cancelation and desire to file a lawsuit. Well, let there will be an arbitration. Here only why it distributed this letter? Feels that its positions (more correct, his companies) in court will be not such "iron"?
The tadviser.ru portal which received Aparin's letter, having communicated to it and to us, wrote a note. It was reprinted in several places, including on cnews.ru. So it is necessary to enter polemic nevertheless. The matter is still that editors of these thematic media and community of Chief information officers with whom they actively communicate, involuntarily (and, maybe, unconsciously) always sympathize with the customer – he pays money. Therefore there was some kind of presumption of guilt of the consultant. (Cnews, for example, of Aparin's word reprinted completely, and the words of other party – only a half: type not very well as they come true there.)
Situations are different, but nobody will argue that in such big implementation projects (two years of work) the huge value has ability to manage the project and attention to it the top management of customer company. It is necessary to manage motivation of an internal project team, changes which bears implementation of ERP for all company and its employees, changes of parameters of the project. There are no such projects which within two years would be executed precisely as it was planned. Everything flows, everything changes – it is necessary to manage changes only.
Mr. Aparin at first paid not enough attention to the project, and then suddenly there is a lot of – and it is impossible to tell what is adequate. Under the agreement on SAP implementation of ERP in SDE (by the way, it was the agreement at the fixed price on the fixed amount of works) project implementation was provided in 5 stages: "Preparation of the project", Conceptual design, Implementation, "Final preparation", "Commissioning and support". The contractor completed the first four phases – there are mutually signed delivery and acceptance certificates of works. On them payment was made. According to the agreement, the customer had to execute works on the 5th stage: to a message in a new system data from old, having provided thereby productive start of a system, and then to close using a new system reporting period – it the company always does. But SDE did not make it. There was nobody – Mr. Aparin got angry on the people who were engaged in this project and left them.
We used our best efforts to complete the project successfully. Agreed to initially not provided stage of trial operation of system (OPE); developed the plan for remedial action, revealed during OPE. But same everything extra work and to consultants it is necessary to fly even to Kemerovo – travelers, daily … But it was not succeeded to agree about change of parameters of the project. Mr. Aparin behaved brutally: said that it is necessary to remake everything again from a phase of conceptual design of a system (without money, certainly). And then the notification on agreement cancelation came.
So what if the customer badly manages projects, all the same the consultant is guilty of everything? (For SDE it is strange as primary activity of the company – just project implementation.)
Well, we are ready to agreement cancelation and even to court. And what Mr. Aparin achieved? Now he looks for the contractor for project completion. For certain will spend much more money than if agreed with us. Sends abusive letters, trying to hang up thus on IDS Scheer a black tag.