Computerization happened to Avon as late as 1997-98, and today they are amongst the first to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution in the bicycle manufacturing business in India. Established in 1952, Avon Cycles started off making only a few cycle components and within a short span of three years, they were producing bicycles. Today Avon makes its own components and produces about 5000 cycles a day incorporating more than 100 models.

The suggestion to implement ERP came as a result of a BPR study conducted by Eastern Software Systems (ESS) in collaboration with Avon Cycles. A System Requirement Study of Avon was conducted by GMA Infosys, business associates of ESS, where they interacted with the users to find out what kind of solution they needed in order to customise Ebizframe accordingly to suit the requirement of Avon.

The Process
Avon started out the implementation of Ebizframe in two phases. Though only one phase of the implementation is over Avon is already raving about the accruing benefits in terms of time and cost saving. Life today is simple for Avon, as Pahwa admits, "Earlier I use to spend about four hours a day just signing bills and invoices for making any purchase, but now we just sign the purchase order since all accounts relating to any purchase is controlled by Ebizframe. This leave me with enough time to plan the future expansion course that Avon cycles should take." This perhaps is one of the biggest benefits that Avon will derive.

Also the onsite software professionals of ESS are training the Avon team to use their product. Currently there are about 22 users of Ebizframe who belong to the sales, purchase, inventory, export and accounts departments.

Today, Avon’s IT infrastructure includes over 60 computers, 3 servers and employs a state of the art ERP solution. The implementation of Ebizframe would enable all transactions whether customer related or purchase related to happen concurrently online, through their portal. Although it has taken a little longer Avon has realized the benefits of real time transaction.

How Ebizframe works
Developed by Eastern Software System (ESS), Ebizframe is an e-commerce-enabling tool, which allows an organization to conduct its entire business from its own Internet portal and includes a complete Net-enabled ERP system. The back-end functions can e-enable all aspects of business, which includes sales, purchase, finance, inventory, customer care. The ebizframe plan includes WAP base access and video conferencing.

Meghna Sharma in New Delhi

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