Whereas many other organizations faced downtime of 3-7 days and were able to roll out 100% GST compliance only after a week, EBEX, shared services center, could enable clients on day1, thanks to complete financial process automation

1. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 1
Case Study : GST rollout in SAP with
effectively ZERO downtime

2. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 2
This Case Study illustrates how
EBEX rolled out GST in SAP for
entities in different line of Business
running different business
processes, well on time with
effectively ZERO downtime.
First Time, On time,
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

3. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 3
A leading business conglomerate
having diverse business presence
across Media, Entertainment,
Packaging, Infrastructure and
Education (thus multiple business
structures in SAP) with worldwide
operations (geographically diverse) and
a workforce of over 10000 employees
with the strength growing day by day.
The Client
The Client
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

4. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 4
With 35+ entities running in the same SAP
instance, and each having “n” number of
custom objects as well as integration with
different non SAP applications, GST regime
was to be enabled latest by 1st July 2017.
Minutest of the changes was to be done with
utmost care, as it could have potentially
affected other businesses.
With limited time in hand, meticulous planning,
persistent efforts and astute acumen were the
only way to a sure shot success.
The Case
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

5. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 5
 Acutely short timelines.
 Diversity of entities and complexity of business
scenarios
 Zero experience of the GST implementation – all were
first timers.
 Even on entity / core users side, confusion on the “to
be process”, lack of clarity on the statutory
requirements.
 Interfaces to non SAP Applications – which are further
interfaced with vendors
 Geographical spread of the clients – literally “NO SAFE
Time zone” for taking a downtime. 4th July, being
Independence Day in US, it was a long weekend for
US client due to which he was adamant not to allow
down time even on Saturday and Sunday.
Challenges
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

6. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 6
Huge group-wide data at stake
Consumer facing businesses, not
ready to have system downtime
Payroll to be processed of 10,000+
group employees (i.e., 31st July)
Effect of configuration changes /
Implementation of SAP notes on
the existing setup.
The Risks
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

7. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 7
 Push for early-sale to consumer facing
businesses
 Ensuring clearance of open items, like
vendor invoices, provisions etc.
 Cold backup of servers
 Version maintenance of all ABAP updates
as well as workbench requests
 Blocking of all user ID’s before starting
the transport movement
 Rigorous UATs (User Acceptance Tests)
with almost all possible scenarios.
Preventive Measures
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

8. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 8
We took the ABC approach. We
splitted and marked the business
sections and processes into 3
categories, based on their functional
processing –
Critical
Urgent
Important.
Approach
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

9. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 9
There was no category less than
important. We prioritized the tasks
according to the list created and started
releasing the updates. While entire
technical team was meticulously
working on updates, other support
teams (functional, admin, SAP MDM)
were also aligned for acquiring timely
information and arranging resources as
the need may be.
Approach
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

10. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 10
To rule out any roll back possibilities,
phase-wise go-live was declared. This
not only helped in avoiding flood gates
of issues / queries, but also gave us
ample time to complete the master
updation activities. Phases were
created based on processes within
entities, and the criticality of the
function.
Approach
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation

11. Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd., NOIDA, India | http://esselebex.com consult@ebex.esselgroup.com 11
Whereas, different MNC’s went live
in 2nd week of July, where the other
corporates took almost week of
system downtime to upgrade to GST,
we were up and ready on day 1 –
could start with the inventory
movement & billing on 1st July itself.
Efforts were well appreciated
group-wide..
The Results
Shared Services Center
Financial Process Automation