PJSC Cherkizovo Group is one of three market leaders for chicken, pork, processed meat products and animal feed. Within the group there are dozens of production and processing businesses, all located in the Central Federal District and in Kaliningrad. In 2015, with the aim of improving the efficiency of operational processes and overall business transparency, the company took the decision to launch a system on the SAP platform and launched the project TD Petelinka. To support the system after commissioning, outsourcing was chosen as the most effective solution and a tender was announced for the search for a service provider. The request for outsourcing included a number of critically important conditions for Cherkizovo.
Firstly, to ensure system and user support daily and around the clock, and that the time required to deal with critical incidents should not exceed thirty minutes. The company’s main logistical processes are shipping and transporting perishable meat products, which mainly take place at night. Cherkizovo Group also signs agreements with trade networks with set delivery times.
The second condition was a need to start supporting systems as soon as they were put into operation. The outsourcer was also responsible for stabilising the system, as well as training users with practical skills necessary to work with the system.
IBS offered a solution that met these requirements, at a price several times lower than competitors. This was possible thanks to a number of features of the IBS outsourcing division:
- A 24-hour SAP support centre working with an industrial service model. The customer doesn’t pay for the specialist’s time but rather for the final resolution of a problem, in accordance with the pre-agreed level of service (SLA). This approach allows the costs of 24/7 service to be reduced several times, while maintaining compliance with SLA, in fixed time frames and with financial guarantees.
- The IBS Business Applications Service Centre is one of few in Russia with experience in supporting several dozen different SAP systems and solutions that were implemented by other teams. A well-developed process of transmission and stabilization of systems minimizes risks for the customer that could arise from changing the support provider at any stage of the system’s life cycle.
The launch of the SAP system took place on 1st April 2016. The IBS Service Centre began round the clock support of all Cherkizovo SAP systems from the same moment: ERP, BI, PI, BO, MDG, DS, SM. During the stabilization of the system, IBS specialists managed to reduce the number of incidents and calls from 100 per day in the initial months to 20-30. Now the service is provided in regular fashion, as well as also providing support and implementing any requests to develop or change the system.
“To ensure the successful transfer of business-critical IT solutions for outsourcing, it is extremely important to deeply integrate the processes of the outsourcing company and the client. Due to highly mature processes at Cherkizovo as well as the quality of management – both from the IT side and from the business side – such integration was successful and in a short time period,” said Dmitry Ivitsky, Director of the Business Applications Support Centre at IBS.
“The partnership with IBS enabled Cherkizovo to provide round-the-clock support for the SAP platform systems, as soon as they were put into operation. Our company regards the start of cooperation as an important strategic step in the development of Cherkizovo Group’s business,” said Vladislav Belyaev, IT Director of Cherkizovo Group.
The Service Support Centre for IBS Business Applications is a certified partner of SAP Application Maintenance, offering a full package of services throughout Russia from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, from hardware support to system upgrades. Currently, the Centre supports more than 50,000 users, processing more than 5,000 requests per month and ensuring the continued operation of more than 200 SAP systems. Over 40 large Russian and international companies have trusted IBS with constant support of their SAP solutions.