WIPRO CONSULTING SERVICES CASE STUDY SERIES
GROWTH ON SPEED DIAL
By transforming Airtel’s processes and supply
chain, Wipro keeps a leader firmly in front.
INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE
The Indian telecom industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. On an average it adds more
than 17 million subscribers every month. The telecom industry contributes 2% to India’s GDP and is
bound to increase due to its huge potential of urban market and still untapped rural market.
However, this growth has been affected by high churn rate, rising costs and increasing pressure on
margins. The intense competition in the telecom industry forced all the operators to look for
opportunities to streamline operations, reduce cost and also outsource network related activities.
CLIENT BACKGROUND
Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is the fifth largest telecom services provider in the world
with over 230.8 million (as of June 2011). Airtel operates in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. The
company offers mobile voice and data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey
telecom solutions for enterprises and national and international long distance services to carriers. It
operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G services depending upon the country of
operation. Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the
world by business week.
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
Airtel’s business had been structured into mobile services, landline services and enterprise services. With
aggressive rollout targets, large customer acquisition and operator acquisitions, the focus traditionally has
been on business growth. This led to disparate operations and experience across the organisation for
each of the business entities. This necessitated a larger branding and transformation exercise for ‘One
Airtel’ experience. The key theme of the transformation was developing standardised and scalable supply
chain policy and process across the business lines and geographies. Also to be agile and responsive for
efficiently supporting the future growth, SCM function needed to be restructured with centralised focus
on strategic operations, setting up of the transactional support centre and at the same time leaving the
operational tasks closer to the customers.
Wipro’s phased approach to
transformation began by
redesigning the SCM
Organisation, standardizing
processes and addressing
spend management areas.
The transformation made
Airtel an organization more
responsive to the business
requirements. The increase
in quality of information led
to informed management
decisions and resulted in
higher customer satisfaction.
HOW WCS HELPED
Wipro took a phased approach and initiated the transformation by
re-designing the SCM Organisation, process standardisation and addressing
the spend management areas. The SCM organisation was re-structured in to
strategic, operational and business support groups and process re-engineering
was carried out. The process standardisation was carried out on the nine
racks (see figure) with defined KPIs, RACI Matrix and risks and controls.
Wipro also worked closely with the IT solution provider to ensure that the
recommended, To Be processes are enabled through a robust IT system.
Spend analysis to identify the common spend areas across the client’s
locations was conducted to identify areas of cost reduction through
consolidation and achieve purchase synergies across the business entities.
Sourcing strategy was defined for different categories of products.
Transformation initiative also included e-auctions for some of the categories
and institutionalising e-sourcing within the SCM organisation.
ORGANISATION
Item / Service Iden.
Partner Relations
Price Discovery
Purchase Trigger
Physical Flow
Post Purchase
& Payments
Accounting &
Ownership
Product/Service
Indetification
Suppiler
Collaboration
Spend
Analysis
Requisition
Management
Insurance
Management
Invoice Receipt
& Payment
Property
Management
Supplier Code
Management
Suppiler
Registration
Sourcing
Framework
Purchase Order
Management
Receipt of Material
& Services
Reconciliations
Contractor
Reconciliation
Catalouge
Management
Suppiler
Empanelment
Share of
Business
Contract
Compliance
Warehouse
Management
Exceptional
Handling
Box Vs Erlang
reconcilation
Performance
Management
RFx Management
and Negotiation
Logistics
Managements
Statutory
doucmens & Levies
Statutory
documents & levies
Grievance
Management
Suppiler/Product
Development
Site
Returns
Material & Service
Capitalization
Budget creation &
monitoring
Partner
Communication
Partner
Selection
Returns to
Partners
Month end
Closing
Opertations &
Maintenence
Partner Debarment
Contract Creation
& authoring
Scrap
Management
Site Acquisition &
Deployment
Manage Performance (KPI)
Once standardisation was achieved, next wave of transformation was
initiated to establish the Centre for Shared Services. The shared services
design principles were based on four parameters - People, Process,
Infrastructure and Technology. A detailed transactional analysis approach was
used to identify processes for movement to shared services. On the people
front, skill levels were defined for the CSS roles and change management was
initiated by building awareness and providing knowledge about the shared
services. Wipro also helped identify the location for the shared services
through a neutral approach considering location attractiveness index versus
operating cost of running a shared services centre. On the technology front
benchmarks and IT requirements for setting up successful shared services
operations were shared with the Client’s IT Partner.
BUSINESS IMPACT
With this transformation, the client has been able to optimise processes and
eliminate redundancy. There is standardisation across all geographies and
business entities this has also resulted better process compliance and
adherence. Shared Services ensured consistent processes, implementation of
"best" practices, and reducing operating costs for repetitive processes. The
transformation has made client more agile and responsive to the business
requirements. There is greater visibility and improvement in the quality of
management information to enable better informed decisions. There has
been higher customer satisfaction and this transformation has also resulted in
a better quality of work life. This SCM model is now being replicated across
the new geographies starting with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
About Wipro
Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT; BSE: 507685 and NSE: WIPRO), is a $7 billion conglomerate, and a global leader in providing technology enabled solutions
and services. Wipro has been a leading strategic IT partner for organization across India and the sub-continent. We have facilitated organizations achieve
superior business results by being a ‘transformation catalyst’ through our integrated IT offerings.
For more information email us at: consulting.connect@wipro.com
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