Business Standard

Leyland lines up Rs 80 cr IT plan

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Nelson Vinod Moses Chennai
Ashok Leyland plans to invest Rs 80 crore to scale up its IT infrastructure requirements in the next 2-3 years. The aim is to use IT as a key differentiator in its business strategy.
 
At present, the company is evaluating whether the requirements sourced to an external vendor or use one of its parent Hinduja group's in-house departments to service the requirements.
 
"The investment will be made to enhance computer-aided design (CAD) in product development, predictive engineering (analysis of data) and virtual product development capabilities," said N Mohankrishnan, special director - information management services, Ashok Leyland. The company has already invested Rs 80 crore in the past 2-3 years.
 
CAD uses computers in the design process while predictive analysis is used to capture data and mine it to provide insights to the business.
 
The application of virtual product development will not only help the company reduce the number of prototypes that the company builds before launching a product but will also reduce the cost of building expensive prototypes by using product simulations.
 
Among its key IT initiatives is a dealer management system that the company plans to unveil with a pilot involving 10 dealers in September 2005.
 
Ashok Leyland expects the pilot to cover half of its dealerships by the year-end and the entire dealer network in the next 14-15 months.
 
Their channel network includes 50 main dealerships, 20 spare parts distributors, 150 highyway repair centres and 50 engine service dealers.
 
Other ongoing IT programmes include customer initiatives, dealer management system product lifecycle management, alternate business continuity centre, enhancement of knowledge management and enhancement to business intelligence.
 
It received the BS 7799 certification for its information security management system last week.
 
Ashok Leyland's emphasis on IT began sometime in mid-2000 after an internal process restructuring initiated by AT Kearney.
 
The IT initiatives since include an end-to-end enterprise resource planning solution, data centre, independent infrastructure for software testing and quality control, connectivity between 75 facilities and a few key software business solutions.

 
 

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First Published: Jun 15 2005 | 12:00 AM IST

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