STO projects are vast and they bring a high degree of complexity which need to be planned and executed with high precision. Anything missed out can create delay in completion, cost escalation or sub-quality jobs.
A typical landscape of tools used by customers include an ERP solution for Asset maintenance and a tool for planning and execution. The two solutions are integrated with another middleware tool to exchange specific sets of information between the two systems.
Even though these tools may be quite powerful individually and the data synchronisation works smoothly, they create boundaries between the two leading systems. This creates a problem for the planning and execution team as they do not have seamless experience. Some examples could be as follows:
- The planners may not have information on material status while planning activities as all the information on material in stock or in transit may not be available in the planning tool.
- Planners may not be able to create a purchase request or purchase order from the planning tool with a single click. This may delay the process of ordering.
- The work budget may not sync with the ERP.
- It may be challenging to bring all the open activities which were planned for STO to the planning tool. If some work orders were closed before the execution started, these may not sync up with the planned scope.
- All required equipment details may not be available in the planning tool.
- During execution, tools, machineries etc might not be available the way they are required.
An STO management tool which is within the company’s ERP system i.e., within SAP, can provide all the information at a single place. This helps the STO team in multiple ways. First, it provides speed and agility in planning and execution. Second, it provides complete information at one place and thus ensures better planning and execution. Third, it provides all related and relevant information easily such as permits, contractual terms, skills and holiday calendar of employees, cost information wherever and whenever required. Overall, a seamless experience for all the users at every stage of STO project.
A seamless experience for a STO project can control the duration as well as the cost which results in plugging revenue leakage.
