Ravi Adhi, B.Comm, CMA, PMP, APICS-CSCP

WHAT SETS RAVI ADHI A PART

Implementing an ERP is a usually a multi-million dollar investment made by companies to bring about efficiencies in processes in order to survive in an increasingly competitive global economy. As we all know, consulting skill is not an uniform commodity, since there are numerous consultants in the market, the premise of this document is to provide, my humble opinion, as to what sets me apart from the crowd.

There are a plethora of programmers in the JD Edwards market who have evolved to be application consultants.  The educational training and career background of a programmer is distinctively different than that of a business person. The primary skill set that is required of an application consultant is to have a very good understanding of business processes in order to effectively map the software to an improved business process.

My Educational Background:

• APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
• Designated Accountant , (Certified Management Accountant-CMA, Ontario, Canada)
• Designated Project Manager (PMP)
• Trained, in person, by Robert Kaplan, on measuring and aligning the organization to strategy, based on a Harvard Business School Case Study.
• Degree in Bachelor of Commerce- South India (Similar to a Bachelor of Business Administration program  in the USA)

 

Relevance of Educational Background:

• I have approximately 10 years of formal business training and have another 15 years of strong accounting and application consulting experience.
• Companies that do not have someone with an accounting designation for a financial implementation usually find themselves short-changed at the end.
• Unlike the CMA of the USA, the CMA program in Canada is a hybrid of a CPA program and a MBA program.
•  In order for a project to succeed, as much as it is important for a lead consultant to be technically savvy, it is also important for a lead to be effective in managing a sub-project. The fact that I am a PMP and have been a project manager means that I can manage a project based on an international methodology.
• The APICS- Supply Chain designation has broadened my knowledge and has given me a good understanding of the best practices in supply chain operations and separates me from numerous consultants who work on silos. The combination of an accounting and supply chain  designation helps  me to focus on the procure to pay and order to cash streams and distinguishes me from numerous consultants who can only advice a client which button to click on, in JDE
• The training by Kaplan on, measuring and aligning the organization to strategy, has given a very unique perspective on establishing  key performance measures and to build a meaningful chart of accounts and data hooks, that will enable an organisation to tie reporting to strategy

The very hallmark of an ERP is that everything is linked. It is very common to find consultants who are specialized in a very narrow area, so much so that the touch points between the modules (for example A/P & Purchasing) are always the pain point in every implementation.

My Background:

• As you can see from my “JDE  Experience Matrix” document above, I rate myself between 4 & 9 out of 10 for the following modules. ( I can implement any module that I rate myself more than a 6 out of 10, and play the role of production support  and assist in implementing modules that I rate myself between 4 & 6 out of 10).

 

G/L	A/Payable	Purchasing & Inventory	A/Receivable	Contract Billing	Fixed Assets
FASTR	Job Cost	Multi Currency	Financial & Enterprise Report Writing	Sales Order & Inventory	Property Management
Advanced Pricing	Security	Manufacturing	World Writer	Service  Order Billing	Advanced Enterprise Report Writing

 

 

Relevance:

• Since I understand the entire “Procure to Pay”, “Order to Cash”, Property Management, Job Cost, Contract  Billing and Manufacturing streams makes me very valuable in the design stage to ensure that the investment in the software is optimized by using all the functionalities of the various modules and prevent issues during integrated testing.
• This big picture also enables me to effectively trouble-shoot the touch point issues between modules.
• Because I am well versed in property management & distribution, this makes be valuable to be a financial lead consultant as “ All roads finally lead to accounting”.
• I can effectively support numerous modules and have multiple skills, during post implementation support, instead of keeping numerous consultants, companies find it valuable to use me.
• During the production support phase companies find it difficult to find work to engage a consultant full time, my report writing skills become a good way to optimize consulting time.
• Multi Currency skills that I possess as a result of being a hands-on user and having been in multiple projects involving foreign currency is a very rare skill  in the North America market since most companies in the USA operate in US$.
• Most project managers manage projects at a very high level.  Since I have hands on experience in           JD Edwards for 14 years, I can add substantial value while managing a project.

 

 

Some application consultants tend to have only a single dimension experience of only configuring the software.

My Back ground and Relevance:

 

DIMENSION	RELEVANCE
2 years hands-on user of JDE as a  distribution power user and accountant	When setting up the system, can relate to the pain a user goes through and suggest solutions that are practical.
Production support and post implementation support	This experience has enabled me to learn from other’s mistakes and has strengthened my configuration experience
Implementing modules from ground up	The fact that I  have built modules from ground up, makes me very efficient in troubleshooting  issues
Report Writing Experience	My report writing experience as a teacher, consultant and user have given me a good understanding of the behind the scenes file structures. This helps me immensely to communicate with programmers effectively This also helps avoid customizing the software by providing information required by users through a report
Experience in working in an offshore outsourced environment	The communication protocol and implementation methodology is different in an environment that uses offshore consultants.
Project Management	A very good understanding of the big picture of    JD Edwards on how everything comes together.

 

• Having been in the JDE space for 15 years and being part of a large network of independent consultants I can connect clients to fellow professionals in areas where I lack depth.
•  I also partner with offshore and on shore developers for development and complex report writing work.
• I have also forged partnership with fellow consultants, where in I pay them out of pocket to get guidance and support, remotely, for areas that I rate my self between 5 & 7 out of 10 (will not use this model for a module that I do not have a back ground, such as payroll)
• All of the above would be done, within the constraints of the non-compete agreement that I am bound by for a given engagement.

• I have  about 6 years of World experience in about 10  projects including 2 migration projects from World to One World. This coupled with 9 years of experience in about 20  EnterpriseOne projects makes be very valuable for projects involving World  to One World migration.

Personality is half the battle to be a good application consultant, because the job is not a desk job and it involves the following:

• Interacting and communicating with senior management
• Being a change agent, to convince a client to bring about a change in the company
• Speaking in public to teach or make a presentation.
• Be energetic and enthusiastic to keep the client motivated
• Demonstrate leadership qualities.

My Back ground and Relevance:

• One of the main reasons why I made a career change from being an accountant to becoming an ERP consultant was because of the feedback I received from consultants that I worked with, that I would do well in application consulting due to my extroverted personality.
• Clients always comment on the fact that I have an upbeat, friendly personality and that I exuberate a lot of energy. One of the reasons for my high energy is because I work out regularly.
• I strongly believe that one of the fundamental needs of every human being is to be respected and appreciated. The words that inspire me the most are “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, as I believe that this would make the world a better a place to live in, if every body followed this simple rule.
• My extensive participation in debates, public speaking during high school and university days , having made extensive presentations  and chaired meetings as an application consultant makes me very comfortable to face large audiences in public speaking
• If I were to describe my personality in one word, it would be “Driven”.  Driven by passion to excel in what I do and add value. So much so that the practice leader of a big consulting firm categorized me as “Passive- Aggressive”. Passive, because I am polite, Aggressive, because I am determined to add value and steer the client in the right direction
• Two concrete example of this would be, where  in I had to convince 5 VP’s and directors who were against turning on multi-currency for a client in New Jersey and  persuading senior management of a business in Texas to take ownership of the JDE system by making a cultural change, on both occasions I got outstanding reference letters from the client.
• Even though project lead does not have any direct reports , this has never been a limiting factor in order for me to be able to be authoritative and get things done through people with whom I do not have direct authority over so much so that I have lead  teams comprising of CFO’s, VP’s, Directors & Controllers.

 

• Was one of the few people chosen by Senior Management to be part of a new company upon DataProfit going bankrupt.
• Rated as exceeding expectations by Liz Claiborne in a project involving Process Re-Design, Financials and Distribution.
• After hesitating for years to use the multi-currency feature, convinced the Senior Management of Liz Claiborne to use the feature to bring about efficiencies in the month end close.
• Was promoted to Senior Consultant from Consultant at Deloitte & Touche within a year
• Team member of one of the ten teams across the entire practice (Audit, Tax & Consulting) that won the client service excellence award in the whole Greater Toronto Area at Deloitte & Touche.
• Have numerous outstanding reference letters.
• Involved 7 senior management staff at the customer level and internally in order to get the customer to comply with the requirements to automate the cash application through EDI at Ace Hardware.
• Was given a rating of 85%, on knowledge of subject matter, for a presentation on multi currency at Collaborate- Oracle User Conference
• Have been rated as having “Excellent” presentation skills on numerous assignments.

 

 

• Process re-engineered the sample tracking process at Edwards Life Sciences
• Implemented a process change to use the Multi- Currency feature in JD Edwards at Liz Claiborne by proving the efficiencies with the help of process diagrams and flip charts.
• Helped to design the conversion of the legacy, custom written Procurement system to JDE with very minimal modifications by analyzing all the processes.
• Introduced the concept of testing the process as opposed to functionality and created process flows connected to scripts at Flint Energy
• As a “Power User” in JDE Implemented a program to automate the cash application in A/Receivable using  the EDI program to achieve 90% time saving and about $15K savings a year at Ace Hardware.
•  As an Accountant, helped to revamp the statement review process & reduced the time taken by 25%, by eliminating duplication of work & giving more meaningful information to the users of financial statements at Dinnerex Inc.
• Have conducted numerous “As Is” and “To Be” process workshops as a standard implementation methodology.