The UK division of document systems company Konica
Minolta has abandoned using the off-the-shelf
packageSAP Netweaver Mobileto communicate
with its field engineers following a sharp drop in
productivity.
Konica Minolta UK introduced SAP Netweaver Mobile in 2004
when
the UK division replaced its Oracle ERP system with SAP R3,
following a decision to standardise on SAP across the
globe..
But productivity and customer satisfaction levels began to fall
owing to the system's inability to push updates to field engineers,
according to Konica Minolta UK. It relied on them synchronising
their mobile devices, said Peter Margrave, service director at
Konica Minolta UK.
"Efficiency was also negatively affected by the SAP system's
slow and inconsistent synchronisation process," he said.
The company returned to the Cognito software in October last
year, which the firm used to run on its Oracle ERP system. It
approached the supplier to create a bespoke version to work with
its SAP ERP after consulting field engineers about their needs.
"As well as giving field engineers access to the ERP system,
Cognito provided Click scheduling software so we can deploy
engineers according to knowledge, availability and proximity to
customers," Margave said.
Despite the additional integration costs, Margave said that the
bespoke system had enabled each field engineer to schedule an extra
customer visit a day, achieving a return on investment within a few
months of deployment. This has allowed the firm to boost
productivity by 15% - back to original levels.
Other business benefits included improved customer satisfaction
and more accurate service figures for sales teams to quote when
pursuing new business.
Margave said having a system that meets business needs
outweighed the lower cost and faster deployment of off-the-shelf
systems.
Cognito's development team has also taken SAP's development
plans into account to ensure that only minor changes will be needed
to enable the system to continue working with future versions of
SAP ERP software.
"We have full knowledge of the interfaces [between Cognito and
SAP ERP] in use and these were created with the assistance of our
in-house SAP team, so this process could be done in house in future
if required," Margave said.
SAP said that customer satisfaction was its key priority and
that the company was continually developing the Netweaver Platform,
which had been implemented successfully by more than 14,000
customers.
"We are currently investigating this specific customer situation
to understand more. Therefore, we cannot answer further questions
about this customer until we have more information," SAP said in a
statement.