Here's a saga of a well-known infrastructure developer that has used technology to lay a strong foundation for all its ventures and process

1. Success Story
IT Is The Brick
And Mortar Of
DLF has pioneered
townships and group
housing in India and
has to its credit over
224 million square
The DLF Group
feet of existing
development projects
and 748 million
square feet of planned
projects
Here’s a saga of a well-known infrastructure
developer that has used technology to lay a strong
foundation for all its ventures and processes.
“An enterprising person is one who
drives through an old decrepit part of town
and sees a new housing development.”
T
hese words of Jim Rohn, an
American entrepreneur, author,
and motivational speaker, aptly
describe the vision, enterprise and
farsightedness of DLF Ltd, resulting in the
success story that it is today.
Over the years, the group has become
a name to reckon with in the domain of
contemporary urban development and
housing across the country, with many
urban landmarks to its credit. The core
business has traditionally been the
development of three prime divisions:
homes, offices and shopping malls.
But over time the group has diversified
into different verticals, establishing
partnerships with organisations in
the field of education, healthcare and
hospitality services. The company has also
entered into several strategic alliances
with global industry leaders.
“The landmark achievements
so far have been on the merit of the
synergistic strengths of good architecture,
appropriate designs, impressive aesthetics
and safety features that the firm has
incorporated in each of its development
projects,” affirms Mahesh Mathur, vice
president-Systems, DLF Ltd.
IT is at the core of development
The group’s journey of over 60 years
is marked by the adoption of several of IT
40 / December 2008 / BenefIT

2. Success Story
With the increase in DLF’s physical locations
and diversification into different verticals, there Landmarks achieved
was a pressing need for a unified/integrated ERP over time
application that could give a comprehensive view DLF has pioneered townships and group
housing in India. The group also has the
of the organisational operations, providing critical distinction of pioneering the development
information, instantaneously. of integrated townships through the right
mix of quality housing designs, IT parks,
state-of the art offices and shopping
best practices. engaged with us from the time
malls. Each township has a provision
The company uses several they buy/procure a property on for digital entertainment, leisure and
software to automate and digitise rent to the time they ultimately recreation, efficient infrastructure like
different operations like auto-cad sell-off the property or vacate the schools, along with hospitals and other
community spaces like parks and clubs.
for designing; software for project rented accommodation... this is
The group has a large network of
monitoring; and the Microsoft usually a pretty long span. So we dedicated direct sales agents and
Exchange mailing solution for need to keep histories of all the works in close proximity with financing
communication. The group uses transactions that take place with institutions, top architects and the finest
network of experienced contractors and
video conferencing at all major them during this period. But with suppliers.
offices. The company’s website is also our existing applications we were For more on the group, check out:
search engine optimised. not able to keep track and have www.dlf.in
To maintain a swift workflow, DLF a systematic record/complete
kept developing different in-house history of each customer on-the-
IT applications as well. The company fly. Besides, many a time we came
also deployed a well-known ERP across discrepancies in the data
package—Oracle Financial (a core collated from different sources/
financial module) for its corporate applications.”
office, reveals Mathur. With the increase in A glance at the IT
DLF’s physical locations and infrastructure at DLF
A few pain points diversification into different • Autocad for architectural designing
“Automation was in place for all verticals, there was a pressing • Software for project monitoring
functions ...there was an application need for a unified/integrated • Microsoft exchange mailing solution
• Video conferencing
for services/maintenance billing, ERP application that could • Ramco’s ERP solution
another for management reporting; give a comprehensive view of • Ramco Virtual Works 2.0 and
yet another for HR and payroll the organisational operations, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to run the
providing critical information, ERP software
accounting, etc,” reveals Mathur.
• Company website: www.dlf.ins.
Though these software instantaneously—in relation to any
applications did wonderfully for their of its customer or stakeholders.
respective processes, they developed early 2006 DLF started exploring for
into islands of applications leading An ERP solution that resolved a good ERP solution that could bring
to duplication of data, factual it all! all processes on to a single platform.
discrepancies, and disjointed To address this challenge and The management evaluated many
processes. The management realised close the organisational gaps, by options available in the market
that these applications were good
only when they were restricted to a “The Ramco ERP solution has
particular business/vertical and were
eliminated the operational/data
hampering the exponential growth
that the organisation was otherwise
redundancies, enhanced the
achieving. flow of information, and has
Mathur shares another need that thus significantly improved
was not addressed by the existing
applications: “Our customers are
Mahesh Mathur, vice
president-Systems, DLF Ltd productivity and profitability.”
BenefIT / December 2008 / 41

3. Success Story
“To migrate 15 years of legacy and profitability.”
Pathak enumerates some of the
data residing across the 710 key functionalities that the ERP
companies, 853 organisation units solution is offering: “The platform
and 2210 finance books of DLF offers service billing, which
was a humongous task. But Ramco includes the generation of bills for
maintenance, water and electricity
Chetan Pathak, vice
accomplished the daunting project charges; mall leasing and corporate
president, Enterprise
Solutions, India,
successfully, dealing with each leasing; retail and residential sales;
Ramco Systems
complexity head-on.” construction procurement and
payables; promotional/deferred
but after a careful analysis, zeroed was also prompted by another revenue billing, etc.” The solution
down on Ramco’s ERP solution. motive. The management wanted to has been developed using Ramco
Mathur shares his experience: first sell the benefits of the platform, Virtual Works 2.0 and SQL Server
“While exploring different options internally, amongst its employees. 2005.
we realised the complexities that Mathur shares, “The initial As regards the future, Mathur
existed at our end. Even Ramco resistance was expected from says that there are plans to have a
didn’t have a ready-made solution the employees, so to deal with few more implementations done,
to address all of our challenges. it we decided to always take our related to business intelligence (BI)
But the technology that they were workforce along with us. We did a and CRM (customer relationship
using put them in a better position phased roll out/implementation and management) added to the platform
to come up with a solution that now in the process identified the users to enhance the management
seems just perfect for our needs.” who needed to be convinced and reporting and communication with
addressed. customers. Mathur adds, “Over 300
The complexities “The effort paid off. After the users are already working on some
“To migrate 15 years of legacy second roll out there was a feeling of ERP module or the other. The count
data residing across the 710 comfort within the organisation... will go up further when the BI and
companies, 853 organisation units over a 100 users were already using CRM modules are deployed.”
and 2210 finance books of DLF the application, so the next set of 50
was a humongous task. But Ramco users were not that uncomfortable The journey ahead!
accomplished the daunting project as they had begun receiving a DLF is an organisation that likes
successfully, dealing with each positive feedback from earlier to keep pace with the times and
complexity head-on,” says Chetan users.” do all that it takes to stay ahead
Pathak, vice president, Enterprise The deployment now covers and add to the goodwill that it has
Solutions, India, Ramco Systems. most of DLF’s business processes, earned over the years. The key to its
The project was implemented says Mathur. success lies in the fact that it keeps a
in multiple phases for various tab on the needs of its stakeholders
companies doing different The ROI (which comprise business users,
businesses under the DLF brand. While Mathur thinks it is too end users, and its workforce)
The first roll out happened soon to comment on the ROI as the and leverages IT to address these
in February 2007, and the implementation has been a very challenges and requirements. With
implementation across the board recent development, on the basis of this commitment to deliver nothing
for all modules got completed in the initial experience he observes short of the best, we are sure DLF
February 2008. that the deployment has helped will continue to scale up further
DLF. He elaborates: “The solution and touch even higher peaks
Dealing with employee has eliminated the operational/ of success. n
resistance data redundancies, enhanced the
The decision to effect the flow of information, and has thus Vandana Sharma
BenefIT Bureau
implementation in a phased manner significantly improved productivity
42 / December 2008 / BenefIT