Implementation Highlightsn Implementation period of seven months.n Pilot Go Live of 5 entities during first week of February, 2008.n Rollout to 14 entities during first week of March, 2008.n Second rollout of 23 entities during first week of April, 2008.n Human Capital Management Go Live in April, 2008.n Implementation Partner – SAP Consulting.

Why SAPn Global industry leader in ERP space.n Choice of many Fortune 500 companies.n Possesses the required scalability and flexibility.n Faith in SAP’s products, solutions and services.n Overall suitability of SAP for infrastructure business, particularly for airports.

Benefitsn Availability of continuous real time information.n Seamless information flow across various business verticals and entities.n Uniform MIS and Legal or Operational reporting framework.n Standardized policies and procedures with defined roles and responsibilities.n Embedded controls with company wide risk management.

Existing Environmentn Disparate stand-alone systems working on different platforms.n Susceptibility to inaccuracies.n The inability of the existing system to keep pace with the growth of the Group. Third Party Integrationn Implementation partner – SAP Consultingn Hardware – IBM

Summaryn Name: GMR Groupn Location: Bangaloren Industry: Infrastructuren Products and Services: Agri business, Airports, Energy, Highways and Urban Infrastructuren Revenue: About INR 40000 million PA n Employees: About 3,500

Websiten www.gmrgroup.in

Challenges and Opportunitiesn Need for a strong technology platform to rest as a growth enabler.n Need for state-of-the-art systems to provide world class customer information and services in airport n Standardization of the best in class business processes. n Need for a single view of real time information across various business verticals and entities.n Need for seamless information flow impacting core strategic decision making.n The exponential growth of the Group.n For better mitigation of operational risks.

Objectivesn To implement the best in class ERP system and place the business on a solid technological foundation, capable of supporting the Group’s growth strategy and safeguarding the organization from operational risks and releasing the management bandwidth by automating the business processes.

SAP Solutions & Servicesn ECC 6.0 (FICO, MM, SD, PP, PM, PS, TR, HCM) GRC, EP, BPS

SAP ERP Success StoryGMR Group

QUICK FACTS“The way you cannot survive today

without a mobile phone, in the

same way your business cannot

survive without an integrated

platform like SAP.”

Mr. A. Subba Rao

CFO of Corporate Integration Group.

GMR GroupSAP ERP PAVES THE WAY FOR EXPONENTIAL GROWTH FOR GMR GROUP, A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE INDUSTRY.

Using stand-alone systems running disparate

processes across its many business entities,

the Group was plagued by the absence of

real time information visibility, susceptibility

to inaccuracies and the lack of a reliable and

meaningful information structure. SAP ECC

6.0 provided the Group with the requisite

technological foundation, and the scalability to

steer future business growth.

GMR Group is a Bangalore headquartered

global infrastructure major with interests

in Airports, Energy, Highways and Urban

Infrastructure. It has successfully employed

the public private partnership model to build

a portfolio of high quality assets including

the modernisation and restructuring of Delhi

International Airport and development of a

Greenfield international airport at Hyderabad,

the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Agri-

business is another focus area of the Group,

with Sugar as its main product line.

The Group deals with diverse businesses

and their inherent challenges. While GMR

Holdings Private Ltd. is the holding company of

the GMR Group, its two subsidiaries – GMR

Infrastructure Ltd. and GMR Industries Ltd. are

listed on the Indian Stock Exchange.

Challenges: Absence of a holistic view of

business across verticals; No access to

seamless information flow.

The width and depth of GMR Group’s activities

can be gauged from the fact that not only does

it have several legal entities under its fold, but

is also one of the fastest growing infrastructure

GMR GroupSAP ERP PAVES THE WAY FOR EXPONENTIAL GROWTH FOR GMR GROUP, A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE INDUSTRY.

companies in India. However, the Group’s

existing technological base was incapable of

keeping pace with the rapid strides the Group

taking. With every step towards expansion, the

operational complexities increased. The more

the Group pushed towards breaking growth

limits, the more the technological drawbacks

acted as speed-breakers.

“Exponential growth track demands focus,

aggression and strategic planning. However,

none of this is possible without a robust

integrated technological base,”

says Mr. M Mohan Rao, Vice President,

Corporate Integration Group.

A holistic view of businesses across verticals

is crucial for formulating strategies that will not

only harness the strengths of all the Group

companies, but will also impact them positively.

But stand-alone IT systems using disparate

processes lacked synchronization while

seamless flow of information across verticals

was non-existent.

Explaining the implications in terms of the

larger picture, Subba Rao explains, “A robust

information system is not only required for

consolidating the existing businesses, but also

for integrating companies to be acquired in

the future. Basically, the GMR Group wants

to capitalize on the immense opportunities

in the national as well as international level,

and establishing a solid technological base is

perhaps the most crucial step in that direction”.

SAP Consulting orchestrates seamless

implementation across five entities in seven

months.“Choosing SAP was not a tough

call. The preferred choice of Fortune 500

companies globally, SAP is clearly the industry

leader in enterprise resource management.

Moreover, only SAP has the scalability and

flexibility that GMR Group requires”,

explains Mohan Rao.

The organization was guided by the same logic

in choosing to partner with SAP consulting

for project implementation. In addition, Subba

Rao explains, “Nobody can care for a child

better than a mother. It is but obvious that

since the solution belongs to SAP, its features

and strengths will be best understood by SAP

itself”.

The implementation kick started in July, 2007.

Building the team was a major challenge as it

not only involved hiring people externally with

expertise in enterprise resource management,

but also borrowing employees internally from

business units. It was particularly difficult to

ensure that the day-to-day work does not

get affected even in the absence of certain

employees for the duration of the project

implementation. The project management team

finally came out to be a hybrid – a mix of 120

people chosen internally and externally.

Change management included setting up a

dedicated training center where people were

trained in three stages – Level 1 & 2 before Go

Live and Level 3 after Go Live.

With major international accounting and

Nine business verticals and over 3,500 employees – GMR Group’s exponential business growth was threatened by the absence of a solid integrated technological backbone.

consulting firm KPMG as project advisors

to GMR, almost each module was assigned

one representative to cross-check the various

plans and business processes put forth by

SAP Consulting. Weekly meetings, flawless

coordination and the involvement of top

management aided the deployment.

Mock run-ups of the actual Go Live played

a crucial part in making the final event a big

success. The cutover data for each module

was extensive. The trial run revealed a number

of loopholes that would have jeopardized the

final run, had they remained undetected. In

fact, the number of days in between account

closing and Go Live was brought down from

18 days during the trial run to just three and a

half days during the final run. This was a great

achievement as the lesser the number of days

for cut over, lesser is the amount of data to be

managed manually during the cut over period

and the easier is the transition. Therefore,

during the actual cut over, the account closing

took place on the 31st of January 2008,

and the system was in place by the 4th of

February. However, that day was completely

reserved for proof checking the system and

the final Go Live took place on the 5th of

February, 2008.

“Usually, in Go Live scenarios, people get

extremely overworked, missing out on sleep

and proper rest. But in this case nobody was

stressed. In fact, the day before the Go Live,

everybody logged off the office by around six

in the evening. This just demonstrates how

well we were prepared for the final transition”,

says Mohan V, Project Manager, SAP

Consulting.

Thereafter, Go Live for 14 more entities took

place on 17th March and for 23 more entities in

April, using the same operational guidelines.

Benefits: Seamless information flow

across verticals; Standardized policies and

procedures; embedded controls with company

wide risk management.

Reiterating the fact that it is too early to

track the tangible benefits, Subba Rao says,

“The power of information gives the power

of decision making. Benefits apart, the SAP

platform is essential for running the business

itself. Managing such diverse interests

without a platform like SAP was impossible.

Intangible benefits have been many such as

streamlined information flow, transparency

and risk management. Since accounts of

many companies have been consolidated, we

now know where we really stand in terms of

growth”.

The Way Forward

“We trust SAP’s capability in providing us

with the requisite support as well as the

guidance, as our business grows. As and when

challenges arise, we will depend on SAP to

provide us with the appropriate solutions”,

says Mohan Rao.

GMR will be implementing new generation

modules in Phase II of their SAP

implementation. This would cover BIW, SRM,

CRM and SEM along with Real Estate & EHS.

“Exponential growth track demands focus, aggression and strategic planning. However, none of this is possible without a robust integrated technological base,” Mr. M Mohan Rao Vice President, Corporate Integration Group.