Usha Partners with Dell to Improve their Overall Supply Chain Network

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"Supply chains cannot tolerate even 24 hours of disruption...,' this famous quote by Thomas Friedman stands true in the case of Usha International Limited, an Indian consumer goods giant. With a year-on-year growth rate of 25 to 30 percent, Usha needed accurate business forecasting and efficient supply chain processes for continued expansion, for which they decided to employ the services of Dell. However, Usha's data center facility was unable to accommodate its growing space, power and cooling requirements as well as the added complexity of managing a growing SAP landscape. With 30 physical servers allocated to deliver the current SAP workload, the data center would have to scale capacity by at least a third to support the new modules. According to Subodh Dubey, group CIO, Usha International, "Our system performance within an inefficient data center was slowing our processes, which reduced our ability to deliver to our customers." It was at this point that the company began investigating server consolidation and improved resource optimization. Having worked with Dell over the last three years to provide desktops and laptops for employees, the company elected to use the services of Dell Infrastructure Consulting and virtualize the data center on Dell PowerEdge^TMblade servers. "We realized that we could achieve a return on investment within three years by moving to a Dell virtualized platform. The company provided a long-term view of the data center and how we could support business growth without massive physical expansion," says Dubey.

The Results - Virtualization not only improved productivity but allowed for more innovation.

The partnership between the companies to consolidate the server infrastructure has resulted in the additional SAP modules and other core business applications being virtualized to run on an 80 percent reduced server footprint, translating to a cost saving of INR 800,000 (USD $14,300). The company has substantially improved both the speed and accuracy of sales forecasting, making it easier for subsequent phases in the supply chain to anticipate and plan for demand. With access to automated tools through the new SAP SCM module, reporting can now be completed 60 percent faster than previously, even during peak times. With accurate forecasts now available, the procurement team can process and approve purchase orders more rapidly, leading to improved relationships with the company vendors. "We predict that due to the overall improvements, we are 70 percent more efficient in fulfilling market demands. The more responsive we are to our customers, the greater our returns will be because we become a good business partner," avers Dubey.

The reduction in data center complexity is also delivering opportunities for improving innovation. What is even more interesting to see is that with a reduction in the server-to-administration ratio from a team of three to one person, team members can now focus on continuing innovation and improvement initiatives in business processes.

Server consolidation has resulted in further efficiencies for the company. The virtualized platform on energy efficient Dell PowerEdge blade servers has reduced the power requirements by 70 percent. Dubey says, "We managed to expand capacity and performance, while using less than a third of the energy. For a company of our size, this has a significant long-term impact on our bottom line." In addition, with accurate information rapidly uploaded to the business, Usha can ensure that it has the right balance of products ready for its customers. Long term, this leads to minimized costs and maximum profit for the company. Running a supply chain business places extreme pressure on the network and requires it to remain highly available to both the company and their vendors. When issues inevitably occur, the virtualized platform is protected by Dell ProSupport^TM with Mission Critical 4 Hour Onsite Response service. Dubey views this level of support as essential to the business. Dubey concluded, "We have direct support in India rather than having to work through a channel partner. Dell has in-house expertise that provides consistent support. Its strong presence in India and being able to guarantee a four-hour onsite response for our mission critical applications was a key factor in our decision to work with Dell."