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| Case
Study - Lotus Energy Pvt. Ltd. |
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Lotus
gets Energized with Microsoft Business Solutions-
Navision |
| Two
Americans, Adam Friedensohn of New York and
J.R. Goff from Texas, who wanted to bring
clean, environment friendly renewable energy
products and services to Nepal, established
Lotus Energy Pvt. Ltd. in the year 1992, in
Katmandu. |
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Lotus
Energy manufactures and installs equipment
for alternative energy sources. Specializing
in solar energy, Lotus Energy provides lighting
systems for remote villages, power for water
pumps, vaccination fridges and water purification
systems. Today, Lotus Energy can accomplish
all phases of solar and alternative energy
projects including design, manufacturing,
installation, warranty service and training.
It has an extremely flexible design and production
line and can, therefore, tailor products to
fit client needs. It also designs and implements
solutions according to specific customer needs.
Lotus Energy is the most successful alternative
energy products manufacturer till date, in
Nepal. The company's infrastructure has increased
radically from a small office and a 3-employee
organization in 1993 to over eighty trained
staff by 1999. At present Lotus Energy is
an industry in itself, with more than 100
employees and over 20 branch offices all over
Nepal.
Given the focus on alternative energy resources
and the high degree of customization they
provide to their customers, Lotus Energy was
in search of a business solution that could
meet all the peculiar demands of the organization
and at the same time was cost effective.
Lotus Energy required an Enterprise Business
Solution to address the following set of
requirements:
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A
financial accounting system that accommodates
multi-branches and multi-currency transactions. |
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A
complete pre and post sales CRM suit, right
from lead tracking to the final warranty stage.
Within the CRM module Lotus Energy wanted
opportunity mapping based on the success probabilities. |
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Automation
of sales force. |
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An
inventory management system, to track products
and inventory to and from multiple warehouse
locations. |
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A
module for production and materials planning
to track the varied and complex material flows. |
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All-e's
team comprising of Functional and Technical
Consultants implemented a Microsoft
Business Solution-Navision based solution
that was customized, implemented and
made operational within a short time
frame of 60 workdays. This included
data migration from the previous software
at Lotus Energy to the Navision solution.
The extensive customization undertaken
included the development of completely
new modules on 'Customer Service,' 'Production'
and 'Business Process Mapping', which
met all the unique requirements of Lotus
Energy. |
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Finance has found a marked increase
in output due to
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Multi currency |
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Subsidy
management |
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Multi
location inventory management |
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CRM
has helped in improved customer service |
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Detailed
reports help in taking correct strategic
decisions |
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Easier
to process subsidy claims for a smooth
sales process |
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| Lotus Energy
required solutions for a complex set of problems,
within their budget, which they found only the Microsoft
Business Solution-Navision solution could provide.
All e Technologies' team comprising of Functional
and Technical Consultants implemented the Navision
solution that was made live within a short time
frame of 60 workdays. This included data migration
from the previous software at Lotus Energy to the
Navision solution. The extensive customization undertaken
included the development of completely new modules
on 'Customer Service,' 'Production' and 'Business
Process Mapping', which met all the unique requirements
of Lotus Energy. |
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| Mr Sven Thomas,
Sales Manager, Lotus Energy, knew right from the
beginning about what he wanted from the system.
He wanted document management, opportunity management
based on success probabilities, sales force automation
and campaign management systems. Not only were all
these requirements met, the system was also customized
to adopt the company policies regarding named accounts
and their follow up activities. |
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"Navision
CRM outscores the competition due to its integration
with the back Office. Any document created
by the ERP system for a customer like Quote
/ Order/ Invoices/ Credit-Memo gets automatically
logged in the interaction log - this is fantastic."
Sven Thomas, Sales Manager, Lotus Energy
"You ask Navision anything and they
will provide it to you in the system."
J. R. Goff, Managing Director, Lotus Energy
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General
Ledger |
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Sales
and Receivables |
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Purchase
- Payables |
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Inventory
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Resources
Relationship Management |
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Human
Resources |
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Multi-currency
and Advance Dimensions |
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Production |
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Customer
Service |
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All e Technologies (P) Ltd
tailored their project methodology to suit the needs
of this project. The client being located in Nepal,
and with the intent of keeping costs to minimum,
the project activities were divided into 'Onsite'
and 'Offshore' tasks. This division, unusual for
ERP implementation projects, became possible through
innovative thought process and methodology.
As a part of the implementation process certain
specific customizations were needed by Lotus Energy.
Some of these are the following: |
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The
Government of Nepal subsidizes products sold
by Lotus Energy in certain specific geographic
areas. This implies that there are two customers
(for subsidized product and for the non subsidized
product) for this kind of sale. The second
customer being the government, which pays
for a part of the product. |
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Prior
to selling, the technical team members at
Lotus understands the requirements of their
client in order to configure the right customized
solution. This required a built in 'product
configurator' along with the facility of multiple-level
approval for the workflow and sales quotes.
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For statutory
reporting the Nepali date format was incorporated. |
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The
comfort factor with English language of the
frontline staff at lotus Energy engaged in
customer service and production is low. Therefore,
a specially customized, simple production
and customer service modules were implemented
at Lotus Energy. It was decided that after
1-2 years Lotus Energy would switch over to
the standard modules. Online leave approval
system, daily employee time recording system,
Travel Plan approvals and management were
incorporated in the solution. |
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Both
the finance and the accounts department have found
marked increase in their productivity with the subsidy
management module, availability of multi currency
functionality and cost calculation at each stage
of inventory. |
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Losses have been minimized
and it is easier to provide warranty services to
the customers due to automation of the entire sales
process. This encompasses: |
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Stage
wise Item and inventory tracking |
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Multi
location inventory management |
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The automated sales
force process makes it easier to process the subsidy
claims to be sent to the Government. |
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Prior to Navision implementation,
different people managed the contact database and
customer interactions. This resulted in duplication
of effort and lack of complete information. Post
implementation of the CRM module, information is
managed in a structured fashion and each customer
interaction is recorded. This has led to proper
division of work and improved customer service. |
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The facility in the
to generate detailed reports in real time now enables
Lotus Energy do in-depth analysis of their business
operations. This facilitates in taking correct strategic
decisions in time. |
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