Post Implementation Analysis of E-Urja Project (ERP) at GSECL: The Senior Management Perspectives

Abstract

As mandated by Electricity Act 2003, Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) reorganized in April 2005 into initially six Companies i.e. one Generation Company, one Transmission Company and four Distribution Companies. A new Corporation named Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GUVNL) was then incorporated to carry out the residual functions of the erstwhile GEB. The power generation activities i.e. the power plants were transferred to GSECL (Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited). In order to meet the complexities in the power sector and meet customer expectations, there was a need for standardization of business processes across the 7 companies. GSECL has extensively used Information Technology to support its business processes amongst which “E-Urja” project, an end to end IT project (ERP- Enterprise Resource Planning) has been implemented across the company i.e. eight power stations & corporate office. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the broad set of activities supported by multiple module application to manage business. ERP applications are a collection of readymade software modules for different business processes that can be customized according to organizational needs. In a nutshell, there must be a value proposition, return on investment and total cost of ownership. It’s about aligning people process and technology so that they master the raging waters of the high volume transactional system. At GSECL, the ERP covers operations, maintenance, material management, finance, fuel, Purchase, Scrap and Projects across the company. The entire gamut of the operation revolved around better availability of quality power and efficient management of energy while maintaining the eco-friendliness all along. This paper has tried to capture the technology investment decisions made by Gujarat Government’s Gujarat Electricity Board company in implementing the Power sector reforms in Gujarat, specifically at GSECL and hence successfully restructuring the organization with the support of Information Technology. It captures the challenging journey from 2005 of transitioning all employees at GSECL, a Public sector Power Generation organization at Vadodara and all the power station locations in Gujarat, India to the E-Urja platform (an ERP solution). The organization had at that time constituted of majority of employees working out of a paper based office or utmost a standalone computer application. The management had expectations of the complete organization transitioning to the new ERP solution (E-Urja project) in 2 years time, which included the senior executives to support the technical team and in parallel work through people management issues of resistance to change to ensure a timely smooth transition. Being the first state in India to unbundle after enactment of the Electricity Act 2003, Information Technology played as a significant support system in their unique unbundling model and thereafter to allow fastest unbundling via the ERP (e-Urja) project. Via the paper we have captured using an unstructured questionnaire the experience shared by the senior executives at GSECL who were deeply involved in the transition process of E-Urja. The paper provides a synopsis of senior management’s qualitative perceptions regarding E-Urja advantages and challenges as they stand tall post a successful difficult technology implementation and hence organizational change.

Keywords: GSECL, Power sector, Gujarat, ERP, e-Urja

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