PUNE: Thermax is a global solution provider in energy and environment engineering. It
offers products and services in heating, cooling, waste heat recovery, captive
power, water treatment and recycling, waste management and performance
chemicals.
The Rs. 600 crore energy and environment major functions in six major business
areas — Boilers and Heaters, Absorption Cooling, Water and Waste Solutions, Chemicals
for Energy and Environment applications, Captive Power and Cogeneration systems,
Air Pollution and Purification.
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For Rajendra Erande,
corporate advisor, Information Technology, Thermax, the challenge was unique.
Every division in Thermax functions like an independent entity. Therefore none
of the divisions talk to one another. More importantly, a majority of the work
was done manually and there was no common sharing of systems, information and
data. " Earlier there were reservations to share the data. The
challenge was to develop an integrated solution so that one could access the
data whether at the head office or at any location in the country.
The result was Thermax Information Management Systems (TIMS) that functioned at
three levels - internet connectivity level, LAN based access and WAN based
access. Built on an Oracle platform, TIMS ensured that the response time to the
issues raised was minimal. The seven divisions of Thermax were integrated.
These included the boilers and heaters; absorption cooling,
style="mso-spacerun: yes">Â chemicals, water and waste solutions, captive
power and air pollution control.
" Earlier, the receipt-of-order to starting-of-order took at least 10
days. This was now done instantly. Since the data was available on the common
sharing system, the concerned authorities could also grant approvals instantly.
TIMS now functions across all offices of Thermax.
Erande has also taken efforts to set up an Oracle financial accounting system
in the company called Oracle Apps. " When Infosys and Iflex had announced
that their accounts were ready at the stipulated dates, this was touted as a
major achievement in the industry. Thermax has already introduced this system
in the company in March. Hence the necessary accounts data is ready by the 7th
of every month. "The final entries could be fed in by the 15th of every
month. Therefore the data and the check data is ready by the 15th of every
month," Erande clarified.
The implementation of the Oracle package in Thermax has been a Herculean task
for Erande, also the president of the CIO Club of the Computer Society of
India, Pune Chapter.
The future plans are to extend more efficiency and improve systems for use in
the global market. Therefore, Erande has worked on devising the company's IT
strategy in alignment with its business. The results have been appreciative.
The Energy Systems Division (ESD) moved onto Prism - a project management
system. With this transition, the confusing jumble of software formats and
manual entries are all a thing of the past. ESD has now integrated several
disparate processes into a seamless system, which makes project monitoring and
management easier, resulting in 70 per cent annual growth.
Prism - a part of TIMS was developed on an Oracle platform and helps
project teams to automate the entire range of functions - from engineering and
sourcing to inventory management and dispatch.
For Erande, this has been a major achievement since another two divisions have
also been able to meet their business targets due to the IT systems.
The IT budget has not been a constraint at Thermax. Although a homegrown ERP
system is in place, the company is now considering the possibility of Oracle
system. The thrust now will be on consolidating and improving systems. From a
10-member team, the Information Systems Group (ISG) at Thermax has now grown to
30 people.
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