The Hub-and-Spoke Operation– How Microsoft Dynamics NAV Bests SAP in Helping Maintain the Spokes

One example is Asian Paints, an India based company with 29 manufacturing bases in 21 countries across five continents. It is India's largest and Asia's 3rd largest Paint Company. Its growth (organic and inorganic-both) represents the picture of a modern economy high growth MNC.

A few years back, Asian Paints' CIO was challenged with a tough position - "Should we replicate SAP (doing well at HQ in India) or should we look for options which are more cost effective and flexible for subsidiaries?"

Asian Paints chose the latter - it selected Microsoft Dynamics NAV to standardize its IT systems in multiple countries. The benefits from implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV across eight countries in less than a year were beyond all expectations.

In effect, the CIO became a business decision maker who would help Asian Paints use IT for competitive advantage.

The reasons for selecting Dynamics NAV rather than SAP to roll out to subsidiaries were easy - simplicity in terms of ease of usage, better local controls and accountability, and upgrading flexibility (as each country's implementation can be planned as per its individual business requirements, etc.). These factors are all in addition to the most significant reason - lower costs - both upfront and operating costs in maintaining the NAV applications as compared to SAP for spokes.

More companies are asking this question: Why pay more for cumbersome Tier 1 product implementations across midsized subsidiaries? Hub-and-spoke has been one of the innovative approaches, as it clearly challenges the traditional model for ERP adoption. To compete ...