ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance   while   lowering   environmental   impact.   ABB   operations   in   India   include   14 manufacturing   facilities   and   over   6500   employees.   Customers   are   served   through   extensive countrywide presence with around 30 marketing offices, 8 service centers, 3 logistics warehouses and a network of over 750 channel partners.

Business Case:

ABB India   wanted   to   develop   a   corporate wide   Travel   Portal   to   be   used   by   all   their   6500 employees, travel agents, travel companies and companies travel managers across multiple Indian locations.   Without   such   a   system,   things   were   completely   out   of   control   and   ABB,   India   was incurring a huge cost on domestic and overseas travel requirements of their employees.

The Solution:

During mid 2006, mPower Labs along with one of its execution partner, developed the complete solution using one of the earlier versions of open source portal framework,  Liferay. An extensive study was carried out to understand the current business processes, how interaction happens with third   party   vendors,   travel   agents,   corporate   travel   desk   and   travel   companies.   The   solution included   automating   the   steps   right   from   the   employee   requesting   for   a   travel,   its   approval   to updating   the   travel   expenses   after   the   travel.   Many   reports   were   also   generated   for   travel managers – location wise.

Key deliverable(s):

The key challenge in this project was to integrate with the companys existing Financial systems based on SAP. We had to use open standards to integrate with the SAP system all the financial transactions.

Execution Partner:

This   project   was   jointly   executed   with   one   of   our   partners,  Channel   Mentor,   a   leader   in   the Corporate Travel domain, based out of Bangalore, India and a channel partner for ABB.