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Optimizing Software Investments through Business Analytics: A Case Study on Bajaj Auto
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Inventory Management Systems
- Functional Applications - Product Lifecycle Management Systems (PLM)
Applicable Industries
- Automotive
- Equipment & Machinery
Applicable Functions
- Procurement
- Warehouse & Inventory Management
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Time Sensitive Networking
Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Bajaj Auto, the third largest motorcycle manufacturer and the world’s largest producer of three-wheelers, was facing challenges in managing and controlling its enterprise software assets. With software procurement becoming a rising cost of doing business, software inventory management, license utilization rates, and charge-back accounting became critically important for accurate capacity planning and budgeting. Bajaj Auto's senior management was struggling to 'right-size' their product lifecycle management (PLM) software investments against organizational productivity. The company found it difficult to consolidate the total number of licenses and understand the usage of PLM, CAD, CAE, CFD, and NVH software for capacity planning to support its R&D staff. The company also discovered that up to 25% of procured software was significantly underutilized or not utilized at all. The lack of visibility into distributed systems and minimal accounting for procured software assets further complicated the situation.
About The Customer
Bajaj Auto is an Indian motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1926 by Shri Jamnalal Bajaj. It is the third largest motorcycle manufacturer and the world’s largest producer of three-wheelers. The company has plants located in Waluj, Chakan, and Pantnagar and produced a landmark 4.32 million two- and three-wheeler units in FY2011-12. Bajaj Auto is dedicated to bringing high-performance motorcycles to market with uncompromising quality. Innovation through research and development (R&D) is a market differentiator for Bajaj. The company's R&D facility located in Akurdi Pune is recognized by the Indian government and has numerous patents in and around its product lines.
The Solution
To address these challenges, Bajaj Auto partnered with Altair to implement a robust software asset optimization (SAO) solution. The SAO solution consisted of five main components: Data Layer, Data Collection Agents, Data Consolidation, Data Analysis and Analytics, and Presentation Layer. The solution provided on-demand software inventory visibility and system-aware alerts for license expirations, denials, and renewals. It also offered software license utilization statistics by vendor, by feature, by shift, by division, etc., and objective data and metrics to support capacity planning, software procurement decisions, and vendor negotiations. The solution was pre-configured for the most popular license servers and managers, requiring only a network connection to these servers and the installation of data collection agents to deploy a working solution. Within days of installing the data collection agents, Bajaj was able to visualize license server information and perform advanced analytics.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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