THE GODREJ GROUP

Godrej Group is one of the largest conglomerates based in Mumbai, India, involved in various industries that include appliances, precision equipment, machine tools, furniture, healthcare, interior solutions, office equipment, food-processing, security, materials handling and industrial storage solutions, construction and information technology. Its products include Locks, access control systems, security systems and safes, typewriters and word processors, rocket launchers, refrigerators and furniture, outsourcing services, machine tools and process equipment, cosmetics and detergents, engineering workstations, medical diagnostics and aerospace equipment, edible oils and chemical, mosquito repellents, car perfumes, chicken and agri-products, material handling equipment like FORKLIFT trucks, stackers, tyre handlers, sweeping machines, access equipments etc. The Group is headed by Adi Godrej and Jamshyd Godrej. Traditionally, Vikhroli, a suburb to the Northeast of Mumbai has been Godrej's manufacturing base, but increasingly the group have moved significant production facilities away from Mumbai. The Godrej group 2 also owns vast land in Vikhroli, occupying 3500 acres (14 km ) of land on both sides of the Vikhroli . section of the LBS marg. That makes the Godrej group the biggest private land owner in Mumbai by far 2 Such vast land can, in theory, be used to create at least 1,500 acres (6.1 km ) of residential floor space, which, at very modest rates (Rs.10000/sq ft), can be sold for USD 16 billion. Thus, the Godrej group is sitting on an invisible cash pile that is an envy of other Indian conglomerates

GODREJ INFOTECH
Godrej Infotech, formerly a division of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., commenced operations as a separate corporate entity on April 1, 1999. Godrej Infotech is a part of the diversified GODREJ group, established in India in 1897.We have three decades of experience in providing cost-effective and high-quality IT solutions. We are assessed at SEI-CMM Level 4 which means our quality processes are well-defined and professionally managed. In addition to SEI-CMM Level 4, we also have ISO-9001:2008 Quality Systems Certification for Analysis, Design, Coding, Testing, Delivery and Maintenance of Commercial Application Software AND ERP Consultancy and Operations and Technology Services (Exclusive of Design). We place a high premium on our people, quality and business values. We develop our employees through continuous training and provide them with opportunities to work on state-of-the-art technologies. We encourage our employees to develop their skills and to nurture the pursuit of professional excellence. We draw our strength from our team of committed and customer oriented professionals. It is to this team that we owe our recognition for quality. Vision Be a world class provider of high-quality Information & Technology solutions Mission Beyond business through integrated IT solutions.

Quality Policy We derive our strength from our people and value their professional ability and team spirit.

We shall offer our customers quality products and services which meet their stated and mutually agreed needs .Godrej InfoTech is a CMM Level-4 company in the business of developing customized software

solutions and implementing ERP, CRM, and SCM software. Navision, Axapta, Baan and e N compass an ERP from Godrej InfoTech, are uniquely positioned to address Industry needs. Established in 1897,
Godrej touches the lives of around 500million Indians every single day and is guided by the values of trust, integrity and humility. Godrej strives to meet the requirements of all their customers to the fullest. Guided by the same heritage, philosophy and values, Godrej Infotech has been providing cost-effective and profitable IT Solutions to customers across verticals in India and abroad since 1999. We have indepth expertise in various verticals like discrete manufacturing, retail etc. Our customers mean the world to us and we put our customers needs at the centre of everything we do, our endeavour being to satisfy and fulfil all their Enterprise Business requirements. From humble beginnings, today we have strategic partnerships with Microsoft, SAP, INFOR, IBM and PTC to provide solutions in ERP, CRM and Knowledge Management domains. We have 350+ customers across India, Middle East, Europe, UK and US. Our endeavour, along with our principal partners is to provide our customers with effective measurement and control mechanisms and solutions to improve their profitability significantly. We have an open culture, flat management & innovative HR practices which helps us to achieve our vision to 'be a world class provider of high quality information technology solutions'.

KEY PERSON:
Ajay Pimparkar, CEO With over two decades of experience in the IT industry, Ajay Pimparkars association with Godrej dates back to the 1980s. As part of this long and illustrious journey, Ajay has handled several diverse roles in the IT space with Godrej. While providing complete end-to-end IT support to Godrej & Boyce, he was responsible for preparing and implementing the complete Information Technology roadmap for the various businesses in tune with the Strategic Business Plan of the organization. With this vast IT experience behind him, Ajay today heads Godrej Infotech Ltd. which is a vibrant and dynamic organization committed to continual progress and forging ahead on the path of success. His objective is to achieve the mission of Godrej Infotech Ltd. to be a world class provider of high quality information technology solutions.

Godrej deals abroad

The Rs 5,000 crore Godrej group is eyeing acquisitions of mid-size companies in developing countries to compete with multinational corporations (MNCs) in India and abroad. For the international business, our strategy will be to acquire mid-sized companies in developing countries in the FMCG and consumer durables sectors. We will also focus on acquiring information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms in developed countries like the US and the UK, said Adi B Godrej, chairman, the Godrej Group. He was in Ahmedabad recently to address a conclave on family businesses. The group has almost finalised a deal to acquire a US-based BPO company as part of its greater globalisation plans. For us, globalisation is beyond exports and imports. We have manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. We will expand in select businesses where we have the global size and competitive advantage such as office equipment, hair care and household insecticides, said Godrej. Godrej is an umbrella brand for us and we have decided to invest in long-term brand accretion, he added.

Internationally, the group has grown to become one of Indias largest engineering and consumer products companies with a total sales turnover exceeding $1 billion. The companys products are available in the Middle East, Africa, south east Asia, Europe, North America and in the SAARC countries. The group has also set up manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Oman to cater to the burgeoning overseas demand and has its representative offices in Sharjah (UAE), Nairobi (Kenya) and Colombo (Sri Lanka). When asked about the overseas investment plans, Godrej said, We are ready to invest anywhere provided good investment opportunity exists at the location. However, he did not divulge the investment figures. Godrejs IT business is carried under its subsidiary, Godrej Infotech, which engages in the business of software development, e-solutions development, ERP implementation, customisation and ERP consulting services, while for FMCG business, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) is a major player in the Indian FMCG market with leadership in personal, hair, household and fabric care segments. Godrej is among the largest marketer of toilet soaps in the country with leading brands such as Cinthol, Fairglow, Godrej No. 1 amongst others. Our Fairglow brand, Indias first fairness soap, has created marketing history as one of the most successful innovations, said Godrej. Companys liquid detergent brand Ezee is the market leader in its own category. The company is also the preferred supplier for contract manufacturing of toilet soaps to some of the most well-known brands in the country. The Godrej Group has formed joint venture with the US-based Sara Lee Corporation to form Godrej Sara Lee, which is the worlds largest manufacturer of home insecticides with some of the most popular brands like GoodKnight, Jet, Hit and Banish under its belt. ENTERPRISE RESOURCES PLANNING (ERP) SYSTEMS ERP is an extension of MRP II with additionalcapabilities, such as better graphical user interface, the use of relational database, fourthlanguage generation, open system portability, andis much more integrated than MRPII (Boyle,2000). In addition, Kapp et al., (2001), state thatthe differences between ERP and MRP II is the inclusion of a variety of manufacturing processes within ERP, in which modern ERP software is able to handle both discrete work orders and flow orders, Just-In-Time (JIT) and MRP, Electronic Data Definition of ERP Systems ERP is the technological backbone of electronic business (e-business) in the back office. It was common during the 1990s to find the computing software for the finance department was different from that used by the human resources or stores departments. According to Kalakota and Robinson (2001), ERP overcomes the integration challenges posed by disconnected, uncoordinatedback office applications that have often outlived their usefulness. There are several ERP definitions that are all more or less similar (Hicks, 1997). ERP is defined as module-based integrated software packages that control all the personnel, material, monetary and information flows of a company (Granlund and Malmi, 2002). Gelinas et al., (1999) suggest an alternative definition for ERP systems as integrated software packages designed to provide complete integration of an organisations business information processing systems and all related data. These systems are conceptually based on eventdriven systems concepts, which include the capturing of both financial and nonfinancial data to facilitate access and ad hoc analysis (Gelinas et al., 1999).Yet another definition is given by Wallace and Kremzar (2001), they state that ERP systems are an enterprise-wide information system solution set management tools that balances demand and supply, including the ability to link customers and suppliers into a complete supply chain, employing confirmed business processes for decision-making, and providing high degrees of cross-functional integration among sales, marketing, manufacturing, operations, logistics, purchasing, finance, and human resources, thereby enabling people to run their business with high levels of customer service and productivity, and simultaneously lower costs and inventories; and providing the foundation for effective e-commerce (Wallace and Kremzar, 2001). Thus, for the purpose of this paper ERP can be defined as a software that can be used to integrate information across all functions of an organization to automate corporate business processes. Some ERP systems, according to Markus and Tanis (2000), were developed out of administrative (financial and human resources) sides of the business (e.g. SAP and PeopleSoft), and others grew from materials resource planning in manufacturing.

CONCLUSION Although ERP systems have the potential to significantly enhance the performance of many organisations business operations, they are still expensive and intensely complex to implement. Thus, the possibility of failure has always been high. In order to reap the potential benefits and avoid serious drawbacks, companies must really understand and deal with the planning issues. This paper focused on the evolution of ERP and its relationship with e-business. This begun by defining the concept of MRP and MRP II as a first and second phase of ERP, then it discussed the issues surrounding the concept of ERP. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of ERP were examined to explain the opportunities and threats of ERP and how organisations can utilise these benefits and overcome these barriers. Furthermore, reasons why ERP implementations fail were discussed as well as the relationship between ERP and e-business. ERP and e-business are not competitive systems. Yet, the basic functionality of ERP and the ebusiness are different. The potential benefits from ERP systems are varied with different types of benefits arising at different point. Early in the ERP experience benefits arise from both the IT infrastructure and the re-engineered, IT supported operational processes. Yet, benefits may arise from improved management decision-making, especially with regard to day-to-day operational matters. These benefits seem to result from basic use of the technology. However, organizations should plan to achieve these earlier benefits as quickly as possible, usually within the first few years of adopting the ERP systems. On top of that, companies could offer training and consulting to employees as well as provide high support levels of human key account managers to reduce the reluctance of targeted decision-makers to adopt ERP. However, an ERP system in itself does not offer competitive advantage in an organisational environment. Competitive advantage comes not from the fact that companies have adopted an ERP system in, yet that is what every other major company all over the world has done. It is how they interface that system with their employees, and how making employees perceive its benefits. The implementation of ERP software is not a technical task. The implementation of ERP systems is a business-based endeavour, as organisations try to match the technological imperatives of the ERP software with the business needs of the company. Thus, if organisations used ERP systems as an analytical and modelling tool for the redesign of organisational processes, real improvement in the organisations performance would be achieved.