| Customer: A global automotive component manufacturer and supplier | Profile: A global automotive component manufacturer and supplier of exterior lighting systems, plastic and polymer components, electrical-electronics components, and precision metallic components to passenger car, commercial vehicle, two-wheeler, three-wheeler, and off-highway vehicle OEMs
Services: SharePoint Development |
| Size: 10,001+ employees | |
| Region: Maharashtra, India | |
| Industry: Automotive |
Business Need
A global automotive component manufacturer and supplier wanted to automate its Capex process. The client was using an MS Excel-based system for the process, which was not efficient and therefore, wanted to move to a new, web-based system. The client wanted the web-based system to be intuitive, easy-to-use, and have enterprise-level scalability. The expectation was that the new system will:
- Bring transparency to the Capex budgeting, approval, and reporting process
- Introduce a high degree of data security and traceability
- Accelerate the overall process by eliminating the need for any manual intervention
The client also wanted to integrate the web-based system with their existing ERP system, SAP.
Solution and Approach
Synoptek began the engagement by carefully evaluating the client’s existing Capex budgeting, approval, and reporting processes and documenting their pain points. Based on the client’s requirements and Synoptek’s assessment of their challenges and pain points, Synoptek developed a new, web-based system – using Capex database and a SharePoint portal as the key components. The portal is designed to manage the end-to-end Capex process, right from budget allocation to approval and reporting. The Capex database is integrated with SAP for records maintenance and reporting purposes.
Using the SharePoint portal:
- Authorized users from different Plants, Business Units (BUs) and Functions can initiate a Capex request and submit it for approval to the respective approvers/signatories.
- All authorized approvers can see Capex requests submitted for their approval and approve/reject them.
The new system is designed to handle sophisticated workflows – related to conditional approval and rejection. It also generates automatic, recurring notifications for approvers when budget requests are pending at their end. Once the requests are approved, the corresponding details are exchanged with SAP for Purchase Request (or Purchase Order) processing. The same information also synchronizes to the Capex database and is further used to generate several monthly, quarterly, and annual reports.
Business Results
With Synoptek’s solution for Capex process automation, the global automotive component manufacturer and supplier has been able to:
- Standardize the end-to-end process, right from request documentation to approval criteria, to eliminate ambiguity, guarantee quality, and boost productivity
- Accelerate and streamline the budget approval cycles to take advantage of the time-sensitive opportunities
- Enable end-to-end data traceability to meet even the most stringent regulatory compliance requirements
- Create a centralized, integrated, single source of truth for reporting and analytics
- Limit data access based on different authorization levels to have complete control over data distribution and thereby enhance data security