After stabilizing FORWARD operations in QQP, Ali Bin Ali (ABA) Holding’s ERP project is preparing to Go Live at another FMCG division of the Group – Prime Consumer Products (PCP). Similar to QQP, PCP will be going live with the following modules – Finance, Supply Chain, Sales and later, Trade-Marketing.
After September 27, there will be a cut-off of five working days in PCP when some of the business areas will stop operations for the transition to take place. PCP will go live with FORWARD ERP on October 7.
FORWARD’s journey in PCP began in July 2018 when officials of the FMCG department and the FORWARD team decided to Go Live with the application in October. Towards the end of July, the GM of PCP, Mr. Ghassan Aibef, met with the FORWARD team to discuss the transition and implementation phase and detailed plans were formulated to ensure that the change was smooth.
This was followed by functional meetings where the project timeline was discussed along with process-mapping. For each of the modules, dedicated captains were selected and made responsible for the progress.
No transformation is free of roadblocks and, like the other divisions of ABA Holding, the PCP division too faced a few challenges in the process of implementation. However, the team overcame the challenges and the staff of PCP had a great learning curve, coming out of their comfort zone to get used to the FORWARD application.
Apart from the PCP staff getting used to the system, another challenge was dealing with customers. It was hard for customers like Proctor & Gamble as they had to go through their internal process of listing PCP again in their system. Similar to the customer cycle, the suppliers’ cycle also had to go through similar challenges for smooth placement of orders through the system and creating internal reports.
Speaking about the introduction of the FORWARD application in his division, Mr. Aibef said: “Getting the right mindset and moving from the old methods was a challenge in the beginning. However, the team’s commitment and positive attitude towards the project have made the journey so far effective. I hope that over time people will grow more comfortable with using the system.”
We wish Team PCP big success!