Honda Pakistan accelerates customer spare part planning by 80% using IBM systems

Infrastructure transformation enables enhanced data-driven capabilities and faster and better-informed decision-making

KARACHI, MAY 21: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and GBM Pakistan (Private) Limited (GBM Pakistan), an IBM Business Partner, today announced that Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan (Honda Pakistan) has selected IBM Systems and IBM Storage solutions to run its real-time planning solution, based on SAP S/4HANA. 

The move was designed to enhance customer experience across Honda Pakistan’s 35 dealerships in the country and boost its after-sales services. Today, Honda Pakistan benefits from an approximately 80% acceleration in spare part planning for its customers.

Honda Pakistan is a joint venture between Honda Motor Company Limited and the Atlas Group of Companies and produces over 50K units per annum. In 2015, it turned to IBM Global Business Services (GBS) to deploy its initial SAP ECC Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to benefit from real-time planning and in turn, improve customer experience.

Recently, IBM GBS completed an IBM HANA Impact Assessment, which helped Honda Pakistan plan for the technical and operational requirements of the SAP S/4HANA move. To further enhance and nurture long-term customer loyalty, the company decided to revamp its after-sales services, which include maintenance, repairs, and vehicle servicing and collaborated with IBM and GBM Pakistan to implement IBM Power Systems and IBM FlashSystem Storage for its new SAP S/4HANA environment.

“In just a few years, rapid economic growth in Pakistan has caused dramatic changes both in the competitive landscape and consumer expectations,” Mr. Maqsood-ur-Rehman Rehmani Vice President, Honda Pakistan. “At Honda Pakistan, customer experience lies at the core of everything that we do and our after-sales service is no different. It is incredibly important for maintaining customer loyalty which is why we have turned to IBM processing and storage solutions and GBM Pakistan to revamp our services and further enhance customer satisfaction.”

Through the deployment of IBM Power Systems, Honda Pakistan today benefits from optimized performance and real-time planning. It also was able to drive up server utilization and reduce its spending on power and cooling in its data center.

As part of the transformation, Honda Pakistan also moved SAP S/4HANA to the IBM FlashSystem 5000 for fast access to its growing data volumes. With the addition of the FlashSystem and the greater availability to data the company is able to fuel analytics to make better-informed decisions, more quickly. In the past, generating reports on spare parts orders from its dealerships across Pakistan required up to 20 minutes to complete. Today, this process only requires a few minutes—a reduction of approximately 80 percent, freeing up the time of employees for more strategic initiatives.

“In a growing sector like the automotive industry in Pakistan, digital transformation and implementation of new technologies such as IBM Power Systems and IBM FlashSystem storage determines how much data can be stored and how fast it can be transmitted, processed and accessed,” says Asif Ahmad, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan. “The improvement in efficiency for Honda Pakistan’s unique business requirements truly demonstrates the importance of continuing to evolve technology provisions within enterprises.”

“We are delighted to be announcing yet another landmark IT project, this time for a leading automotive company, Honda Pakistan,” said Saqib Ahmad Khan, Country General Manager, GBM Pakistan. “Honda Pakistan has been taking bold, innovative steps to redefine customer experience, and this project is yet another testament to the company’s commitment to its customers.”

GBM Pakistan is a member of IBM PartnerWorld, IBM’s partner program that empowers businesses with the tools and resources they need to help transform clients into industry leaders.

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