Manila Water to reengineer its processes using mySAP.com

Manila Water Co. is adopting mySAP.com in a bid to reengineer its business processes and improve its operational efficiency.

A consortium composed of the Ayala Corp., United Utilities, Bechtel, Mitsubishi, and BPI Capital, Manila Water took control of the East concession of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) when it was privatized in 1997.

The East Zone is a 1,400-square kilometer area that covers 24 cities and municipalities in Metro Manila and Rizal. They include Mandaluyong, Marikina, Pasig, Pateros, San Juan, Taguig, Makati and parts of northern Quezon City, as well as the San Andres and Sta. Ana districts in Manila. Some towns in the province of Rizal, including Antipolo, are also part of the East Zone.

Geodino V. Carpio, Manila Water chief information officer, said the shift from government operation to private sector management entails extensive business reengineering.

"Government corporations have different business processes compared to private companies. Our acquisition of mySAP.com serves as a catalyst for implementing key business processes that will enhance our efficiency in providing water service in concession area," he said.

"We are a utilities company in the business of providing 1,600 million liters of potable water to over 4.7 million residents, and thousands of industries and businesses in the East Zone daily. The name of the game for us is service. That’s the sole concern of our clients, which entails that we be operationally efficient all the time. Since the inception of Manila Water, we have aggressively repaired leaks, replaced meters, regularized illegal connections and are now expanding our distribution network," Carpio explained.

SAP sector manager Earl Santos said that SAP was chosen as the Manila Water enterprise platform because its utilities industry solution provides a close fit with Manila Water’s business requirements. "Manila Water was also impressed by our reference sites," he said. Reference sites are companies where SAP has been previously implemented, and in the utilities sector include Sabah Electricity in East Malaysia, General Public Utilities (GPU) in Pennsylvania in the United States and Might River Power (MRP) in New Zealand.

SAP Philippines managing director Ian Black said, "SAP has more utility implementations than any other enterprise system developer. We’ve used that experience to build in best practices into our industry solution. So by acquiring mySAP.com, Manila Water has acquired the knowledge and processes used in the best-run utility companies in the world."

"We acquired mySAP.com and dubbed the implementation Project Omega - because we think it’s the last enterprise system we will ever need," Carpio said of the strategic investment. "In terms of functionality, mySAP.com covers everything from core financials, business information warehouse, CRM, supply chain management, e-Procurement and e-Portals."

Manila Water will enjoy other operational advantages as well, according to Carpio. For instance, SAP will seamlessly integrate Manila Water’s existing Unix Ingress and Windows2000 sequel servers. "Part of our initiative was to standardize applications on our Windows and Sequel Server platforms. SAP assured us of a homogenous environment that will be easier for us to maintain." The company currently operates different systems on the servers that are unable to communicate, forcing manual reconciliation of massive amounts of data.

mySAP will initially be used to streamline the company’s financial system, automating billing and general ledger functions. "Difficulties in extracting data from manual systems will initially be addressed. SAP will enable us to quickly extract reliable, timely information that will increase our efficiency." Aside from the sharing of vital information and applications across the enterprise, Santos said "mySAP.com will enable Manila Water to attain significant cost reductions while providing closer working relationships within the company and with its external customers and suppliers."

"mySAP.com will also enable us to capitalize on the potentials of e-commerce," said Carpio. "Eventually we will manage our supply chain over the Internet on the B2B side and transact with customers on the B2C side."