Guest Lecture by Mr. Prasad Akerkar

On 28^th February 2014, SIMCON organized a guest lecture by Mr. Prasad Akerkar, SAP Practice Head & Learning and Development Department Head at Larsen & Toubro InfoTech Ltd. Mr. Akerkar spoke on “ERP System Implementation & Change Management”.

Mr. Akerkar started his lecture by explaining basics of ERP, its use and implementation in a company, methodology and benefits in different departments. He also gave students the information about the history of ERP and how it modified the technology over the years. He gave insights to the students about supply chain, bottlenecks in supply chain and the role ERP plays while dealing with these bottlenecks.

Mr. Akerkar talked about Business Development Process. He made students familiar with various concepts like Make to Order, Make to Stock etc. He shared his experiences and gave real time examples for better understanding of students. He said that the approach, consulting attitude, exploring and expansion plays a crucial role in development of any business process. Sir made the session very interactive by taking the example of ERP implementation in a college (say SIMSREE) and asking students how it could be used in various college activities like admission, lecture schedules and finance.

Mr. Akerkar also explained the role of ERP implementation Life Cycle in Project Management.  He gave a brief idea to the students related to the stages through which a new Project goes like Project Preparation, Business Blueprint, Realization, Final Preparation and Post Go Live Support and how the real time examples are solved. He also spoke about the role of ERP in benefit realization and improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of processes.

Students also got to know about ‘Change Acceleration Process’ (CAP) module and 7 steps involved in implementation of CAP.  They also got insights about Proposed Framework for Change management.

The lecture was very informative and engaging. Being able to listen to and ask questions of such an informative speaker was a real benefit to the SIMSREE students. We thank Mr. Akerkar for his valuable guidance.