Reviving a legacy system at Infosys

As companies grow, asset management becomes crucial for smooth operations. Smaller firms manage with MS Excel or plug and play solutions, but multinational companies need dedicated systems due to their complexity. Large companies often build custom systems as off-the-shelf solutions fall short. This case study outlines how Infosys' asset management team revamped their legacy system to boost efficiency, cut costs, and enhance control and accountability.

Large company, larger complexity

Infosys, a multinational based in Bangalore, India, employs around 250,000 people across 46 countries. With over eight development centers in India and smaller offices globally, Infosys manages a diverse range of assets, including software, hardware, land, buildings, intellectual property, and facilities like vehicles and furniture.
Each type of asset at Infosys presents unique complexities and requires distinct accounting and management approaches. Some of these complexities include:

1. Partial Ownership: Assets can be co-owned by Infosys and clients, such as intellectual property.
2. Rental Agreements: Assets may be rented from or to customers. Infosys often buys assets for clients, transferring ownership upon project completion.
3. Special Economic Zones (SEZ): Assets in SEZs must comply with specific government regulations and guidelines.
4. Employee Allocation: Managing asset allocation, deallocation, and extensions for over 250,000 employees involves complex workflows and approvals.
5. Software Assets: Require management of licenses, compliance, versions, and cataloging, along with allocation processes.
6. Asset Movement: Both inward and outward movements of assets involve varied workflows and approval processes based on the reason for the move.

Adding to the mix, assets are owned by different departments within Infosys, each with its own hierarchy and approval mechanisms:

• Hardware Assets: Items like desktops, laptops, and servers are managed by the Computer and Communication Department (CCD).
• Software Assets: Managed by the Software Department, a division under CCD.
• Facilitating Assets: Items such as tables, chairs, and desks are handled by the Facilities Department.

In addition, several other departments at Infosys play crucial roles in asset management:

• SAP Team: Manages sales, purchases, and payments through the SAP system. The asset management system relies on data from the SAP system and vice versa.
• Corporate Accounting Group (CAG): Oversees the sale and purchase of assets from an accounting perspective. The CAG team maintains a dedicated system to track assets for accounting purposes and requires data from the asset management system.
• Tax Department: Handles all tax-related activities for buying, selling, and moving assets.
• Security Department: Ensures the safety of assets on campus. Their approval is necessary for the inward and outward movement of assets.

The Three Systems

The complexities and departments mentioned above evolved over time. Whenever a new requirement emerged, it was either added to the existing system or a new system was created. This resulted in three different systems to manage assets:

• Amanat: Manages the assetization of all asset types. It integrates with the SAP system to retrieve Purchase Order (PO) details necessary for determining the asset type and category. It also handles the allocation, deallocation, and extension of hardware assets (facility assets typically don't get allocated).
• Asset Logistics System (ALS): Manages the movement of hardware and facility assets, both inward and outward. It integrates with the Amanat system to obtain asset details.
• Software System: Manages everything related to software assets, integrating with the SAP system to get PO details for identifying software type and category.

Problems!! Pause - Taking a step back

Over time, as new features and processes were added, the systems began to show breakages, slowdowns, and other critical performance issues. It reached a point where further development of the existing systems could no longer resolve these issues.
Additionally, an external compliance team identified major problems and recommended that Infosys's top management rethink their asset management process. Consequently, the management directed the asset team to identify all underlying issues and propose a comprehensive solution.

Pain Areas

The Asset team identified all known internal issues and conducted one-on-one meetings and group discussions with various departments and hierarchies to uncover additional underlying issues. The major pain points were:

• Integration with SAP System: Asset IDs, created in Amanat and the software system based on purchase orders (PO) from SAP, form the base data. The partial integration between Amanat-SAP and Software System-SAP leads to incomplete assetization details. Consequently, the team must manually add asset IDs from the back-end, making the process prone to human error.
• Hazy Integration Between Asset Systems: The integration between Amanat, Asset Logistics System (ALS), and the Software System is weak, leading to frequent breakages. These systems often operate in silos, requiring manual back-end updates for cross-data requirements.
• Outdated Workflows and Processes: Compliance requirements have evolved, changing workflows and processes. However, the system hasn't been updated accordingly, resulting in many processes being handled outside the system through email approvals, which are manually updated later.
• Lack of Feedback/Notifications: The system doesn't notify relevant parties upon the completion of approval processes. Users must manually check the system for updates, leading to reliance on email and direct chat. This lack of records causes audit problems later.
• Data Duplication and Corruption: Regular back-end updates cause data duplication and corruption. This requires continuous checks and rectification, adding extra manpower and cost to the company.
• Crippled Access Control and Security Features: There are around 25 roles across the three systems, with many repetitive roles having slight variations. No approval mechanism exists for role access, and many application pages are not properly tested, making them vulnerable to external attacks.
• No Service Level Agreements (SLAs): The current systems lack defined SLAs for processes, leading to indefinite delays. Requestors often rely on email reminders to get tasks completed.

The Crucial Decision

The Asset team shared their findings with top management and all relevant stakeholders. They highlighted the major pain points, emphasizing the integration issues, outdated workflows, lack of feedback mechanisms, data duplication, and system architecture problems.
To address these issues and accommodate future requirements, the team recommended developing a new system with a modular architecture - the Asset Management System (AMS). This new system would be designed to seamlessly integrate with existing systems, support updated workflows, provide real-time notifications, ensure robust data management, and enhance security and access control.
After numerous meetings and detailed discussions, management and stakeholders reviewed the proposal thoroughly. They considered the long-term benefits of implementing a scalable and efficient AMS, which would streamline asset management processes, reduce operational costs, and improve overall accountability.
With a clear understanding of the necessity and potential impact of the new system, the management and stakeholders gave their approval, signing off on the proposal to develop the new Asset Management System.

The Plan and Execution

A step-by-step plan was created to achieve the proposal:

Conclusion

As of the end of 2019, the team had successfully completed 75% of the modules. A significant lesson learned from this project was navigating the complexities of revamping a product within a traditional organization with multiple layers of hierarchy and stakeholders.