Keeping it in the family

T-Systems International today consists of what used to be the IT arm of Daimler Chrysler, Debis and the original T-Systems' business. The businesses merged in 2000 when T-Systems bought Debis. By then, both companies had global operations, with their own set of reporting standards and different system landscapes. In addition, says T-Systems SA's Gideon Ellis, there was insufficient system support for the business.

"We'd started developing a template around finance and control when the company was still Debis," says Ellis. "After three years, we had six or seven different implementations and realised the template was no template. The last implementation was totally different to the first, resulting in a lot of frustration for the head office."

At that stage, he says, SA was the only country that could report to head office on time and in the required format. Representatives from T-Systems International came out to SA in 2000 to see what T-Systems SA (previously Debis, but by then acquired by T-Systems International) had implemented.

"After deciding the project was on, then off, then on again, a contingent of executives visited SA in May 2003. The executives evaluated the system, and said they were satisfied with the processes and procedures that we'd applied in SA. They had additional requirements in terms of changes we had to make to our systems to make the local system a template [for the rest of the world]."

Three weeks of workshops were held in SA to decide on processes, and how things like the chart of accounts, for example, should look. Once those issues were resolved, Ellis' team in SA drew up the documentation and was given the go-ahead in September 2003 to roll-out to all countries except Germany.

After three years, the template was no template.

Gideon Ellis, T-Systems SA

The SAP financials system and associated processes have, to date, been rolled out to all 22 of T-Systems' IT services businesses. It is now being used by between 600 and 700 full users, and a further 3 500 timesheet users (those users who only log in to record time spent working on projects). The roll-outs were done by Ellis and his team, over 65 days per implementation. This included time spent customising the system to country-specific statutory and legal requirements. The system has also been made available in multiple languages to support the respective country requirements.

Having finished the mammoth four-year task of rolling out to all countries, Ellis and the team are now in the process of upgrading the system, a task Ellis expects to complete by the third quarter of 2008.

Says Gert Schoonbee, GM for new business development at T-Systems SA: "The standardisation of approach, functionality and platform leads to a repeatable solution where efficiencies can be improved with every new deployment. Standardisation leads to various benefits of economies of scale and scope. All the countries - from Japan in the Far East to the US in the West - are supported from a single location in SA, while hosting the solution happens in a single data centre in Germany.

"Another obvious enabler is the continuity of key resources. Our initial solutions architect [Gideon Ellis] is still handling the overall solution integrity with required enhancements with other key subject matter experts on the team. No matter how smart the approach or technology, people remain the key ingredients who create the magic.

"Economies of scale and scope will lead to significant cost savings," he continues. "For example, we have consistently reduced our deployment time by 20% per annum due to focused and determined continuous improvement initiatives by our team."

Recently, T-Systems International considered moving the applications management to India due to its perceived low cost status. After extensive investigation, this approach was not followed, due to the obvious value benefits provided by T-Systems in SA. This is, indeed, a great example of the comparative advantage of SA and its inherent IT skills.