Group 7

Akshansh Kumar Garg (211087)

Atri Bhatt (211096)
Jaldeepsinsh Chauhan (211106)
Saad F. Shaikh (211130)
Aman Vithlani (211244)

TEKTRONIX, INC.: GLOBAL ERP

IMPLEMENTATION

OVERVIEW
Tektronix was founded in 1946 for manufacturing electronics equipment. By 1993, it became a
$1.3 billion company. It had mainly three divisions named; MBD, CPID & VND. From the
exhibit, we can infer that MBD was bringing the most of the sales for the company compared to
VND which was bringing almost half of the sales than MBD.
These divisions were in the USA but Tektronix had a presence in more than 60 countries across
the world. They were having around 460 legacy systems in the USA itself and there was no
standardization across the globe. There were 26 independent divisions in the company to handle
the various departments and data.

NEED FOR ERP

The company’s structure was so complex and non-standardized that they were unable to execute
any order within minutes or on the last day of the week as it was taking time to coordinate with
various departments. If any department head or management requires particular data then they
had to make around 5 calls to figure out the current situation of sales, inventory, order, etc, and
still, it was not accurate as there was always some variation.
They had to standardize their system across the world to be ahead in the competition. Workflow
should be synchronized so that each department has its data ready at any time so that
management can make decisions on the spot just by using a system without any interference
from the personnel and human errors can be eliminated.
CPID has recently adopted a new business model to double its size. CPID’s new model is going
to be volume driven and it is necessary to build a capacity to handle large data. It will require
strong IT capabilities to run the business further and make it grow.

VISION
Implementation of ERP would begin with CPID and then move to other divisions. Carl Neun’s
vision for the enterprise had three components: separability of the businesses; leveraging shared
services; staying “plain vanilla” as much as possible. Each of the three divisions must have
different distribution and selling methods.

SELECTION OF SOFTWARE
Implementation planning began with software selection. In selecting a specific package, the
company spent little time comparing features and costs. Carl Neun (CFO) and Bob Vance
(technology manager) had previous experience with the ERP solution offered by Oracle, and
rather than spending resources evaluating competing ERP packages, the firm formed a minor
team of people who spent one to two months ensuring Oracle is the need of the hour. Finally,
they set to work on planning the implementation.

WORLDWIDE BUSINESS MODEL

The company’s initial implementation move was to create a steering committee, and its role was
to reshape the company’s vision and develop a “global business model” to which the ERP
system must adhere to be successful. Implementation of the business model required a complex
architecture, in which each of the three divisions had its worldwide implementation of Order
Management. The company would decide to build a data warehouse to provide near-real-time
visibility into worldwide operations.

PROJECT ORGANIZATION & MANAGEMENT

The project management and communications infrastructure was built upon several key roles.
Key players in each functional and geographic area ran interference and acted as negotiators
when the business change was needed. Project participants had to develop both business process
expertise as well as in the Oracle package. Critical project issues could only be resolved via a
combination of technical and functional strengths.
Carl Neun was supported by strong leaders in each business division. Bob Vance dedicated over
half of his best people to the tasks of ERP implementation. He made tough decisions, from
outsourcing the mainframe to retraining his staff. The presidents of each division were also
important in driving the project, making key people available, and discarding political obstacles.

PROJECT SCHEDULE
The implementation program, had many waves, with each wave delivering a specific functional
part. These were monitored to ensure that they remain on course while being independent at the
same time.

IMPLEMENTATION
Tektronix s ERP implementation was divided into 5 major parts. The first one was the
implementation of the financial management system; the Second to fourth was OMAR
implementation in three different divisions and the last one was a global rollout.
FINANCIALS
This was done to gain visibility (single view of all financial information) and drive out costs
associated with it. This involved business process reengineering worldwide.

STANDARDIZATION AND SIMPLIFICATION

Standardization of charts of accounts, and elimination of complex practices was the focus of this.
In Europe, even more, changes were required, like organizational structure and English language
usage as a business language in Tektronix. This approach was also accompanied by a change in
profit center to commission basis recognition. The ‘Plain Vanilla” approach was required by the
implementation team to address various issues throughout.

IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT
Tektronix relied heavily on consulting support for the implementation of financial services. It
used many firms for that, but Aris was the one whose roles and capabilities were learned by
Tektronix itself, and later their role in implementation was changed. Similar examples were also
carried out.

ORDER MANAGEMENT RECEIVABLE (OMAR)

OMAR implementation was almost the same as the financials concerning approach but varied in
the execution part. But in a few ways, problems faced while implementation was difficult as
customization was required. Also, the capability of the package, even though had enough for
overall Tektronix, required some functionalities, not in the Oracle. Even then, it didn’t delay the
release.

IMPLEMENTING OMAR AT CPID

CPID was the most logical candidate to initiate OMAR implementation because of its business
with high velocity, most commodity-type diversity, and the greatest need for growth. It was also
a good fit from the IT side owing to its simplest operational scenario. Difficulties were still faced
due to the newness of the technology and the challenge of executing the first implementation.
The decision was made to first go with the Beta version of the package.
The initial inputs from the consultants were criticized for not being productive and then new
consultants were hired. A shortage of workforce was sighted and smaller firms were also
onboarded to help in the process. This implementation took more than expected time but it came
out successful and also taught several important lessons that needed to be taken care of.

IMPLEMENTING OMAR AT MBD

Implementation at MBD was comparatively easy because of the lessons from CPID. However,
some new problems were also encountered because of the complexity involved. Oracle
consultants were brought in early and helped the team efficiently.
MBD went through rigorous testing because of its complexities. Implementation at MBD took
almost double the anticipated time and the majority of the time was utilized in learning to use the
system after testing time. Additional tests were done before launching the system and it helped it
to go error-free.

IMPLEMENTING OMAR AT VND

VND was the smallest implementation and there were several learnings from the previous 2
implementations. Still, there were some issues with VND, as it had highly complex products and
was also absorbing a recent acquisition. Due to this, implementing ERP was less emphasized and
thus was getting delayed only then the deadline was set by the VND President.
This led to rapid implementation and the small size helped them in the process. Lesser time was
spent on training and the resistance faced was also comparatively lower. Problems were faced
but were dealt with easily from past experiences. Thus, the fast, high-risk approach worked only
for VND.

GLOBAL ROLLOUT
Firstly they started from the distribution center (DC) in Holland. It was successful and so then
the company employees knew that the new process is not going to harm the business. Slowly
other waves were introduced gradually. Then they opted for implementation in many countries
including EU and Non-EU countries. Then all the 3 divisions were implemented altogether. Then
the American and Asia/pacific. Then Canada, Mexico, and Brazil being different countries from
the then USA, the implementation was done in parts. Then firstly they covered English-speaking
countries and then the rest of them. The final countries were Australia as it had many
implementation problems.

RESULTS
The implementation team felt that the time, money and energy spent had been worth it. Each
division was able to see the improvement and nearly 15 to 75% improvement was seen in every
division by the implementation. There were many non-quantifiable benefits as well which were
noticed by the managers. The improved data integration helped the finance team in many ways.
People felt that their work was more effective from now as they were able to see the results
effectively. From spending 90% of the time collecting data and 10% of the time getting
information, Now they spend 10% of the time getting data and 90% of the time getting
information. The information is more timely and very accurate.

*****