Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
Alstom is an
international organisation. Were present in over 70 countries in
the world. Weve got a turnover of something like 23 billion Euro,
and we employ something like 118,000 people
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
Within the UK our main customer base is in the energy
infrastructure markets and in the transport infrastructure
markets, and probably the most high profile customer we have
right now is Virgin Trains where were supplying the Pendolino
which is the new tilting train for the west coast main line.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
Alstom has been formed
by the merger and acquisition of a large number of companies, and
in doing so weve actually taken on companies that are using
alternative systems, and its that process of reviewing the
systems that weve got experience on which have led us to the
decision to standardise on SAP as a ERP system for Alstom.
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
SAP is one of the leading ERP solutions in the world.
It seems a natural choice for a business of our size.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
In the year 2000 there
were some fairly major reorganisations taking place in Alstom,
and at that time Alstom took a fairly bold decision to reorganise
its IT resources. In the UK the IT Centre was formed out of the
staff on each of the individual businesses and it was formed into
a group of about 200 people.
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
Weve drawn those people from different backgrounds, so
for example our specialists in production planning and
specialists in supply chain typically will have worked in that
role within Alstom for a number of years. We have then added the
specific SAP skills, and in that way we provide quite a powerful
service to our business end users.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
At the moment there
must be 4 different projects running, and over the last 5 years I
think weve probably been running something like 6 or 8 projects.
Each of those projects is fundamentally different because each of
the businesses are fundamentally different in terms of the
processes that they operate, but by implementing SAP weve
actually managed to get many of the processes to be harmonised.
Now from Alstoms point of view that has great advantages in being
able to consolidate information within Alstom the Company.
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
The biggest challenge on any SAP project is getting
the right level of resource, not only from the IT side from a
consulting partner, but also internally within the businesse.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
The choice of Logica I
think has developed over a number of years.
Donella Duffy, Programme Manager, SAP Practise,
Logica
Logica is a UK company that has been established now
for 33 years. The SAP Practice represents 800 consultants working
across Europe.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
I certainly would
recommend Logica to another customer for SAP implementations, and
I think one of the principle reasons is because of the very good
and professional relationship that weve had with them.
Donella Duffy, Programme Manager, SAP Practise, Logica
We
spend time sharing knowledge of the project, agreeing what the
best approach will be to ensure reduced cost and improved quality
of delivery.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
Weve found that even
in areas where Logica havent been involved and weve hit some
issues and difficulties, Logica have been all too willing to come
along and help us out.
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
One of the more successful projects I think was for a
group of three T and D business units located in Stafford. They
were on a variety of legacy systems. I would say that the
flexibility that was engendered into those businesses, not just
that, the team building experience that came from the project was
unparalleled.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
Some of the
significant challenges that have been addressed are mostly people
related. Its the changes in culture. Its the changes in
processes.
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
Speaking to the majority of users, when theyre two to
three months into an implementation they will see benefits.
Primarily those benefits are the ease of access to information.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
Theyre operating in
one integrated system, whereas in the past what was happening was
that there were a multiplicity of different systems.
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
I think the main advice that I would give to anyone
about to embark on an SAP project or really any business systems
project is commit your best people and you have to commit them
full time, and if you can do that and find ways of releasing
those people to give their knowledge to the project and to take
from the project the knowledge that they need to move the
business forward, then that really is a recipe for success.
Donella Duffy, Programme Manager, SAP Practise,
Logica
Logica choose to use staff who have already worked in
existing Alstom projects
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
Logica can bring in people with retail experience,
they can bring in people with engineering, manufacturing,
aerospace, make to order, made to stock, engineer to order
experience.
Mark Lewis, UK IT Director, Alstom
I think some of the
main benefits to Alstom as an organisation from the
implementations of these SAP systems is operating our business
processes through an integrated system.
Colin Haynes, Stafford Local Service Centre Manager,
Alstom
Alstom has to deliver quickly, it has to deliver
accurately and it has to deliver a good quality product time
after time. Having access to business information, having access
to key decision making criteria is absolutely critical. We need
that flexibility - SAP gives that to us
Interview conducted by Sarah Turner, Customer
Marketing Manager, SAP UK on 21st August 2002.