Group K 1

Indus Consumer Products Limited

SDEC Group Submission #1
(a) Identify a broad business focus of the company using the competitor data. Provide a couple of lines on the strategic
pain points for the firm.
So far, Indus business focus with regards to IT strategy, has been on the acquisition of faster and cheaper computing resources.
They now recognize the importance of IT (Exhibit 1) as a very critical strategic and operational resource that they wish to use
for real time sales data acquisition to seamlessly plan procurement, production and inventory management through the value
chain of their products.
As of now, Indus has been unable to effectively leverage its IT resources to develop information capabilities that can help the
company achieve operational excellence and create value for all its stakeholders. The insufficient size of the IT budget and
inefficient need based IT budget allocation has caused dissonance between the IT organisation and the different lines of
business.
Indus had instituted systems for improving overall efficiency of all functions. However, these systems were limiting the
company from achieving its growth objectives since they were functioning in silos. Lag in demand forecast because of manual
data collection was leading to frequent stock-outs in some locations, loss of sales and costs incurred due to excess inventory in
other locations.
Indus was unable to tap the large rural market as the uptake of the companys products required change in lifestyle and cultural
habits of the customers. It was necessary for the company to develop a connect with these customers to create demand for their
products and subsequently build a robust supply chain and distribution network to feed the demand created.
(b) Which of the existing applications should the company retain? Why?
The company should retain all the existing IT projects except for MFG/PRO Maintenance system.
The Payroll & Tax Processing System, Purchasing Activities Automation System, Plant Maintenance Systems, and Financial
Systems are all aligned towards the companys goal of complete automation in its processes. The Information Security &
Disaster Recovery Systems are critical because of the increasing dependency on IT systems, and therefore must be maintained.
The Compliance Systems are important from a risk management perspective, which will be very important to help avoid
making avoidable mistakes that can hamper the growth trajectory of the company. The Business Intelligence Systems is
extremely important, and the company is aware of this. It is currently under-utilized because of lack of quality data, which can
be improved by replacing existing ERP system with the new one. These systems are all aligned with the companys goal to
invest in strategic IT systems and complete automation of processes. The Employee Connect System should also be retained in
order to keep the efficiency of HR high and encourage knowledge management, collaboration and conversation among
employees, which is very important to sustain growth. The MFG/PRO Maintenance System is outdated and no longer serves
with the companys vision and operation scale very well. It should be replaced with a new ERP system.
(c) Which ONE of the following five applications must the company invest in? Why?
The 5 projects under consideration for investment by the company are Rural Connect, ERP, Supplier Connect, Distributor
Connect and Retailer Connect. We will be evaluating these alternatives in terms of 1) Business Contribution, 2) Business
Criticality, 3) Financials - NPV, IRR and 4) Alignment with Key Business Priorities
With 3.92 on Business Contribution and 3.60 on Business Criticality, ERP scores the highest in terms of strategic value of the
investment to the firm and the extent to which the firm is competitively disadvantaged if it does not make this investment.
Hence, ERP is a strong contender for future investment.
The financials further corroborate this decision. 81% is among the top 3 IRRs and 152.9 NPV is also a healthy NPV for a
project of this scale and nature. Though Retailer Connect and Distributor Connect have stronger financials, there are two factors
that swing our decision in ERPs favour: 1) Higher numbers on Business Contribution and Business Criticality and 2)
Alignment with the most important key business priority of achieving cost efficiency.
The current ERP doesnt have production module integrated with purchasing or finance systems resulting in silos of information
that cannot be leveraged across business functions, products and geographies and a lack of systematic monitoring. The rapid
growth has made process and system transparency necessary - a development that MFG/PRO has not been able to keep pace.
Hence, keeping in mind the strategic goals of the company and the merits of the ERP project, we recommend that the company
invest in ERP.

Group K 1
SDEC Group Submission #1

Indus Consumer Products Limited

EXHIBIT 1: Competitor Data Analysis

EXHIBIT 2: New Investment Comparison Matrix

SUBMITTED BY:
GROUP : K-1
Ayeesha Khanna : 61710461
Gaurav Jha : 61710460
Niyati Sharma : 61710453
Prashant Pratap Singh : 61710779
Raghav Jalan : 61710516