Symantec’s ERP

Turmoil
Presented by: Ved
Prakash Tiwari
 ABOUT
SYMANTEC
A leading software vendor specializing in
security and information management.
Well known for Norton brand of security products.
Has operations in more than 40 countries
and over 17500 employees.
In 2005, the company made its largest
acquisition to date, acquiring Veritas
Software for approx. $13.5 billion.
CONTD
…
After acquisition, it began an ERP rollout known
as ‘Project Oasis’.
Goal was to create single ERP systems.
Both companies were using Oracle E-Buisness
suit 11d prior to the merger.
Requirement

Combined company’s enterprise system

was needed to combine symantec
and veritas data from
key business processes
Future possible benefit

A common enterprise system would also reduce

the cost of maintaining symantec’s IT
infrastructure and licensing fees for the
enterprise software.
Steps taken by symantec

Company opted to upgrade to oracle’s E-

Business suite on sun solaris server.
They used oracle fusion middleware portal on
the front end ,providing a single point for all of
partners and customers .
Problem with new system

The initial reaction to launch of the new system

was decidedly negative .
Users were unhappy with this new system .
Customers began to calling symantec’s support
team in record numbers ,but the company was
unprepared to meet the increased demand for
customer support.
Wait time ballooned for an average of 2 min. to
an average of 25 min. for a call .
Cont…

Once customer reached a symantec employee ,

they could spend to 20 more min. troubles
shooting the problems and were often told that
there was nothing that could be done .
Customers were also unhappy with symantec’s
changes to its stock-keeping unit product system.
• Symantec tried to improve the systems by single set
of codes, But;
• some small distributors and partners didn’t update
their system to handle new SKU system
• extended the date but the overhaul still represented
an annoyance for many customers
• changes to software licensing were another irritant
to customers
• keeps couple of weeks in getting license
also not coordinated with rest of project
‘OASIS’
Difficulty in buying symantec’s products via
companies like Ingram Micro
partners unhappy with time consuming
processes
Missteps resulted:
made symantec in danger to loose many loyal
customers
company’s shortsightedness in implementing
project ‘OASIS’
earnings less than expected
needed to cut $200 million in annual costs
Top management confessed mistakes
 Project Nero
• With the purpose of undoing mistakes, the
Co. immediately came up with Project
Nero
• The goal was to recapture the loyalty of
customers who got annoyed after OASIS by-
• Reaching to those customers and
• Fixing the problems with their information
systems to improve response time and
streamline operations
Implementation

Company added 150 customer representatives to

handle increased volumes of calls, reduce wait
times and increase customer satisfaction
Company’s executives travelled the country for
improving relations with angered customers and
partners
Symantec also used Net promoter technology to
measure and increase customer loyalty
Aftereffect

Symantec’s customer satisfaction levels which

were all time low after OASIS, improved after
Nero project
Symantec reported that it now enjoys satisfaction
level at par with the rest of the industry and
averted a potential danger
 Presented
by: Prakash
ved Tiwari