SCORE - Winning in the marketplace

SCORE is the SAP implementation project for Canada for the biggest home improvement retailer in the world 'The Home depot'. I wanted to write this blog just to convey how technology plays a vital role in today's modern business. Before me coming to my project let me explain how technology plays a small role in settling accounts with my roomies nowadays. Its really a pain to keep all your bills intact and then do calculations at regular intervals and finally settle the accounts. How many keep their bills or how many sit and calculate (its really funny when people say no time to sit and do all the exponential and logarithmic calculations). Recently one of my roomie found a piece of software which reduced all our paperwork and made all our lives easier.
We do all sorts of interpretations and analysis these days ..thanks to the application.

Now coming to SCORE this can be considered as the mother of all retail SAP implementations throughout the world (in case something has to be bigger than this then it has to be WALMART).
This project teamed up with Accenture, SAPAmerica,IBM,TCS, freelance contractors along with many Home depot associates. Since I joined this project just six months ago I don't know the full history. But all I know is there were many obstacles and lot of bumps across the road. Upon successful implemenatation of this project there would be 161 canadian retail stores along with six Distribution centres which would go live with SAP. We do not stop here, the project after implementation in Canada would target USA which would be 2000 + (Home depot on an average keeps increasing one store every 24 hours ) retail stores and also many many Distribution centres. After this would be Mexico impelementation and then China ..so it goes on and on.

Well considering the complexity of the project one has to consider lot of things before making a final decision. Its not just money that come into place. Its the 'belief' that make impossible possible sometimes. One moe big plus are the people who are working for the project. In my team I see a gentleOLDman who is 65+ who doesn't even wear spectacles in his age and works like a machine. Every day I see lot of my colleague's life partners either shouting in the phone or waiting in the lobby. (Thank god I don't have that probelm atleast till now).

Initailly at the start of my career I would wonder why companies are spending tons of money and effort to bring in SAP into their workplace, now I got the answers of all of my questions. Two things which keeps SAP far for their counterparts are in terms of scalability and optimization.
With SAP the entire Supply chain process is improved as we can model our existing supply chain, and set goals; and forecast, optimize, and schedule time, materials, and other resources. Supply chain planning functionality enables us to maximize return on assets and ensure a profitable match of supply and demand. SAP also gives us networkwide visibility across our extended supply chain to perform strategic as well as day-to-day planning. In retail industry it is important that we can sense and respond to demand through an adaptive supply chain network in which distribution, transportation, and logistics are integrated into real-time planning processes.

Personally I really like Home depot's motto of "Stock it high and watch it fly" concept. After all the toil and hard work two of our Pilot stores went live on March 24th 2008. It was really a joyful moment for the people who have given their heart and soul for the project. Personally I was really happy for the people who made the decision to stick with SAP for SCORE project and slowly but surely turning their dreams into reality. Its a long way to go but the news is loud and clear "No pain no Gain"

No.'7' fascinates me

I thought my first blog should be about my favourite number '7'. Well I am not so very superstitious but some things I tend to do on my lucky days. I don't believe in people saying 'Hey man you are in your 21st century ...blah blah ...' ; according to me he would be the first person who would follow many such activities.

Well I would like to list seven reasons why I prefer number '7':

* Seven colors in a rainbow
*Seven wonders in the world
*Seven days in a week
*My birthday is on 16 (6+1) and it falls on July which is seventh month
*My favourite and lucky day is on Saturday which is seventh day in a week(I always prefer to open new things on a Saturday sometimes even to the extent of my mouthwash)
*In terms of religious way lord 'Ram' is the seventh incarnation of Vishnu and central figure of Ramayana epic (I came to know about this couple of days ago), and also most of the gopurams of Hindu temples have seven kumbhas on top of them.
*There is a famous saying in Tamil "pathinarum petru peru vazvu vazga"
Basically it means all the following 16 types of wealths:

Thudhivani - Knowledge to Praise esp GODs
Veeru - Courage
Visayam - Wisdom
Sandhanam - Children
Thunibu - Daring Attitude
Dhanam - Money
Madhi - Intellect
Dhaanyam - Food
Sowbhagyam - Prosperity
Bhogam - Harvest
Arivu - brainpower
Azhagu - Beauty
Perumai - Pride
Aram - Good things / Truth
Kulam - Class in Society
Noikalpoon Vayadhu - Long life without any ailment/disease

So thats the small history of me choosing no.7. Recently when I went to a bank to finance my car loan the officer gave me fifteen days of time and fifteenth day being the maximum to make my first monthly payment. I was lightning fast to say I would like my first payment on 7th. She did not say anything but am sure she must have thought this guy is crazy.