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Case Studies

Improving IT Efficiencies for an AgriBusiness Giant

Overview

The client is a leading player in the field of agribusiness. Its vision is to deliver better food to the world with the aid of outstanding crop solutions. It is into genetically modified foods and spans both the pharmaceutical and agricultural dimensions of the sunrise biotechnology industry.

Business need

The client requested Infosys to respond to a RFI (Request for Information) and subsequent to this exercise, asked Infosys to conduct a due-diligence report for various divisions under its Global IS Shared Solutions group, like Business Information, ERP Solutions, .NET Solutions and Application Services. The Global IS Shared Services wanted to move towards a 'Managed and Measured Services' operating model. As a part of this exercise, the group wanted to outsource application support, maintenance and development of non-SAP applications.

Every growing industry has challenges peculiar to its own field and Biotechnology is one sunrise industry that lives up to this norm. Biotech companies traditionally process huge volumes of data and one can be sure about the volumes of processing even in the near future. It has been noted that the size of their databases can balloon from 150 GB to 250 GB in less than one year. Because of this unpredictable nature of data processing, extreme caution has to be taken to ensure robust scalability. Among the major challenges were:

The client wanted minor enhancements and bug fixes to its existing code. Special care had to be taken to ensure that a bug-fixing exercise is carefully tested, or newer bugs may creep in when one bug is fixed.
The client wanted Infosys to handle projects related to Program Management, Business System Strategy and Business Change Management.
The client's own personnel would handle the above areas after fixes, enhancements and deployment. This meant that Infosys would need to train the in-house personnel of the client after finishing the project.

Infosys' Role

To meet the challenges of the implementation, Infosys used its Global Delivery Model. Since the project was quite complicated, the deliverables were of a fluctuating nature. Infosys created two groups to complement each other and ensure successful completion. The first team, called the 'Steady State Team,' was responsible for bug fixes, data corrections, enhancements and production support that can be tackled in less than 25 person days. The second team was called the 'Dynamic Team' and concentrated on handling special enhancement requests that exceeded 25 person days. This method enhanced the synergies of the two teams involved and brought the maximum benefit of the Global Delivery Model into the picture.

Infosys worked with various platforms like Microsoft .NET, Oracle Forms, Microsoft Windows DNA, Data Warehousing, Documentum, etc. The main issue that Infosys concentrated on was ensuring that open cases - which arise when problem areas are brought to the notice of the team - are closed at the earliest. Most open cases were closed at the earliest possible and almost all areas of concern for the client were tackled on a war footing the moment they surfaced.

Benefits

The major systems of the client, which were outsourced to Infosys for upgrades and maintenance, were overhauled and re-tuned to perform far better than before. Specifically:

Productivity showed a marked leap in spite of the fact that multiple systems from various vendors were used.
The Global Delivery Model slashed costs of implementation. Apart from this, the enhancements reduced IT woes and improved total measurable output.
The old system was complicated and unwieldy. The improvements ensured that it was better manageable.
The improvements made to the data mining and data warehousing modules helped the client make better sense of the huge repositories at its disposal.
The special trademarks database helped the client manage their trademarks better and also spot infringements from their competitors.
The Mergers & Acquisitions Deals Intranet helped the client get a better understanding of their ever-changing industry.
In essence, the various small, but useful-transformations made by Infosys had a far better impact than could be expected by a single, major change.

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