Background
Until 2009, South American Tours S.A, receptive tourism operator, with 25 employees in Argentina and more than 130 in its branches in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Germany, used a very simple administration system called “Tour Office” for its every day processes.
A hundred percent devoted to operations, this system wouldn’t allow the board of directors a comprehensive analysis of the company’s profitability or management controls on a daily basis.
By late 2006, the company’s new administrative team spotted inefficient processes responsible for a poor, ineffective managerial strategy. Being “Tour Office”outsourced , SAT remained captive of its supplier who wouldn’t adapt their software to either a new way of doing things or to the necessary changes in a swinging business.
Quadion was called by this board of directors for the last stage of the 2008/ 2009 re engineering phase?. Quadion’s involvement was meant to target an updated system compatible with the newest trends and able to automate many of the processes that until then had been manual and error prone. The ultimate expected result: integrating the day to day operations into a unique business management tool that could provide a global vision for directors and shareholders.
Quadion, that had worked with the board in a project with similar characteristics for the Land Registry Office obtaining outstanding results, proposed a year work plan for developing an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) suiting the company’s real needs.
The Process
There were setbacks on the way. As months went by some business difficulties popped up, adding an unexpected complexity to the originally approved plan.
As the team worked on the project, new definitions, variables and modules arose showing a clear clash with the previously agreed requirements. After six months of work, it was obvious that the system would not have the original scope and that changes and modifications would occur on a daily basis, thus the project had to be redesigned.
It was agreed to work on “incremental prototypes”, two–week working modules that would produce really short “deliverables” that could validate progress, obtain customer feedback and quickly correct possible deviations and mistakes. Scrum was the selected working framework and almost two years were necessary to build the application suite.
Only by the beginning of the third year the system ran smoothly in a production environment, with all the variables under control.
The Solution
The implemented solution “SatNet” is an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning or a Resource Planning System) that works very well with South American Tours accounting system (Microsoft Dynamics GP) allowing an overall and efficient management of all the sectors of the company, reaching all its branches from a unique integrated system.
The Implementation
Going from the old system to SatNet meant an additional challenge. The project team had to deal with a strong resistance to change and lack of trust in the new method as the board gained a wider access to the company’s operations and exerted more control on the business as a whole.
The process to align the company behind common goals and set a new corporative culture implied the board’s strong commitment. It was only achievable by means of various trips and in-company workshops which resulted in a successful and integrated system understanding.
Balance
As a result of the implementation, SatNet allowed the board to have real information on their operations and a quantum leap on the company’s decision making process. Operating costs were successfully reduced in a 30% as processes were automated, dead time eliminated, mistakes minimized and unnecessary tasks erased. All this had a direct impact on customers, who experienced fastest response times as SAT improved its customer service.
Undoubtedly, the biggest strength was the integration of the administrative and operations areas which resulted in a visible balance and a clear direction of the company’s numbers. The ultimate goal had finally been achieved: a thorough analysis of SAT’s profitability.
New York, USA
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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