Education to Placement: A Win-Win Approach

This case was developed by Dr V.K. Jain, Sumit Zokarkar, Nidhi Agrawal in the National Case Writing & Case Analysis Workshop, Organized by Pioneer Institute of Professional Studies, Indore during March 28-30,2011.

Introduction

ZAP Ltd., one of the leading ERP solution provider was founded in 1978.Based on market capitalization, ZAP became one of the world's largest independent software manufacturer. They had a customer base of more than 99,000 customers in over 110 countries and employ 49,000 people at locations in more than 42 countries in the European, Middle East, and Africa; Americas; and Asia Pacific regions. ZAP is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.
Their core business is selling licenses for software solutions and related services. Their solutions, which cover standard business applications and technologies as well as specific industry applications, are designed to help companies make their business processes more efficient and agile and create sustainable new value. By the year 2010, the total revenue was $12565 million and software service revenue $10978 million resulting into a operating profit of $2600 million. They Had an R&D budget of around $1800 million representing 14.3% of total revenue.
Market
Because of globalization and increasing orientation of the industries from the developing countries, the market for business software has become a global growth market. Factors such as constantly developing corporate-governance law and reporting regulation, increasingly globalize business and trade, the drive for sustainability, and the pressure of competition compel businesses to continuously adapt in a changing environment. They must not only bring innovative and competitive products to market, they must also continuously optimize their own structures, streamline processes, and extend customer and partner networks. Without leading-edge IT solutions, these are impossible challenges for companies – whether in the advanced economies or in developing countries and emerging economies.

Complete Modules of ZAP ERP:
ZAP Ltd, offers a wide range of modules covering technical, financial, SCM, Production and Other related modules such as:
Basis, ABAP, FA (Financial Accounting), CON (Controlling), EC (Enterprise Controlling), TRE (Treasury), IM (Investment Management), HRM (Human Resource Management), SDM (Sales and Distribution Management), LM (Logistics Management), MMS (Materials Management System), MT (Maintenance), PPC (Production Planning and Control), QM - Quality Management

Environments for ZAP
Supported Hardware for ZAP ERP
ZAP can be installed on the systems such as HP, IBM, Sun, AT&T, AS400, Bull, Sequent. The functionality and programming technique is same for all systems
Supported Database for ZAP ERP
ZAP is a back-end-free ERP system. That means the following Database can be used in ZAP software - Oracle, MS SQL, Informix, Sybase. The functionality/programming technique is same for all database system.
Supported Operating System for ZAP
ZAP can be installed on the following platforms (Operating systems):
MS Windows NT, OS/400, Unix, Solaris, AIX, HP UX, Sinux.

Partners

For implementing ERP systems at the client location ZAP has developed a system of partners who takes care of the business activities which includes marketing, implementation and training & support on behalf of ZAP. World wide they have collaborative partnership with many leading software development and consulting firms. In India the major partners includes: Accenture India Pvt Ltd , HCL Technologies Ltd , Infosys Technologies Limited , KIRTI Technologies Pvt Limited and many more.
KIRTI Technologies Ltd.
KIRTI Technologies was established in 1996 in Gwalior, M.P. India by Mr.Sanjay Rana (24) and Abhishek Rana (26). They started their operations in a rented office of 100sq.feet and started preparing software to satisfy the needs of local customers. On the basis of their accountability, prompt and exceptional services, they were able to attract good customers. Soon, they grownup and by the end of 2005, KIRTI Technologies became a mid-sized organization that provides technology services and outsourcing to global enterprises. KIRTI derives bottom line results for their customers by being flexible in the approach, agile in the delivery, and focusing on customer's success.

By 2005 they had around 2000 professionals providing services in the areas such as Automotive, Chemical, Consumer Goods, Education, Financial Services, High-tech Software and Manufacturing, Hospitality, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas Pharmaceutical, Retail, and Wholesale Distribution. They have got an edge over others because of Best Practices for rapid deployments, Multi-cultural global organization that fosters entrepreneurial leadership, Multi-faceted client relationships, Adherence to highest level of standards and industry Best Practices and ZAP Certified for Application Management Services.
   
KIRTI Technologies Ltd, have started offering consulting services for ZAP and executed many ZAP implementations in the organizations. They faced the difficulties when they were not able to get the professionals who are ZAP certified consultants and can execute ZAP implementations at client locations. In order to implement ZAP in the industries, KIRTI technologies had to appoint the consultants having trained by their competitors at a very high package. Also they faced that there is a high rate of attrition and expectations of very high rise in the salary by ZAP consultants.

Partnership for Education
In 2007, KIRTI Technologies limited entered with an agreement for offering ZAP certification courses by e-learning methodology. Now, they were the authorized training centre for preparing ZAP Consultants. Zap consultants are trained professionals who are the part of team to implement the ZAP ERP system at clients’ location. KIRTI Technologies started training centers at Gwalior, Raipur, Bhuvneshwar and Bhilai in order to meet out the demand of the ZAP Consultants as there is large base of industries and educational institutes around these cities.

In this process, they trained the manpower and recruited them for their projects. Any person with qualification like BBA, BCA, MBA, MCA, BE, CA, CS etc were eligible for doing this course. Average initial package for the ZAP Consultant ranges from 2.2 to 4.4 Lakhs per annum and having bright chances of serving in multinational companies around the globe.

In spite of such a great and lucrative profile, people were not interested to become ZAP Certified professional. KIRTI Technologies started offering education in the modules such as FICO, HRM, SD, MM, ABAP, PP etc.

The crisis of ZAP consultants was existed because of the reasons such as: awareness about the profile and job opportunities; high fee of around Rs.2 Lakhs being charged by the e-learning education service providers and Certification fee of around Rs.35000.

This situation made them realize to have certain strategies so that they can attract more number of students towards making their career as ZAP consultants.

SAMRIDHI PAO
In 2009, they came up with an innovative strategy “SAMRIDHI PAO” which means that become ZAP certified professional at KIRTI technologies and get Knowledge, confidence and authority along with placement which will ultimately result into getting Name and fame. In this scheme, they focused on the following:

1.    Fee Scholarship- Complete training fee will be taken care by the KIRTI Technologies
2.    Overall Learning - They highlighted that candidates shall be groomed according to the Job requirement and they will be able to:

    Improve the return on training investment
    Increase productivity
    Reduce TCO (total cost of ownership)
    Boost Confidence & Motivation
    Transfer business process knowledge related to ZAP effectively
    Use of time in the most efficient way
    Plan training to suit their schedule (Flexi Time)
    Monitoring the performance
    Identify additional learning needs

3.    Job Guaranty- i.e. students will be placed at KIRTI technologies Ltd. 
4.    Name and fame to the students and parents.

In order to make “SMRIDHI PAO” effective, they allocated the budget of 2 crores. They planned a huge campaign through Radio Jingles, Bulk SMS Service, Telephone calling, Bulk Mails and Print Advertisements.

They tried to generate the leads and interested professionals were called at the centre for attending seminars so that candidates can be educated about the ZAP and its advantages, also they can confirm their registration. The registration will be confirmed only of those candidates who have cleared a general aptitude test which contained the questions relating to general awareness, quantitative skills, verbal reasoning and analytical skills.

In this scheme, KIRTI Technologies had a tie up with the Nationalized Banks to finance the amount of training to be paid by the candidates and KIRTI will be the guarantor for it. The Loan amount will be repaid by the candidates after the successful completion of the Training and getting placed with the company. Also KIRTI had an agreement with the candidates for three years to serve in the company. This created a win-win situation for the candidates who don’t not have the money to carryout the training and get the desired profile of high repute, also to the organization to get the certified professionals at low package and at least for three years.


Questions:

1.    Was the decision of KIRTI Technologies right to enter into an agreement with ZAP to offer ZAP certification?
2.    According to you, what would have been the major causes of low interest of candidates towards the ZAP certification courses?
3.    Critically analyze the decision of KIRTI Technologies to go for SAMRIDI PAO scheme with a heavy budget of Rs 2 Crores.


 
Teaching Notes
Overview of the case: Present case highlights the problems faced by the KIRTI Technologies in getting the Trained ZAP consultants who can implement ZAP’s ERP Systems at client locations. In spite of attractive salary and profile there was a lack of availability of ZAP certified consultants into the industry. Which resulted into a huge supply-demand gap.
Learning Objectives: By analyzing this case students will be able to learn the following issues
1.    Diversification issues
2.    Effectiveness of Product Promotional strategies

Case Discussion: Initially the case can be read out by individuals for around 15min. after that there can be discussion for around 15min in a team of 3-4 students.

Answer to case questions: Answer of each question can be discussed within the group. And time allotted for discussing each question is 5min.