Kenya: SAP Helps Bidco Streamline Its HR Processes

In a bid to further integrate its human resource (HR) business processes more efficiently Bidco Oil Refineries has implemented SAP’s ERP Human Capital Management (HCM) which is a fully integrated HR and Payroll solution. SAP’s ERP Human Capital Management (HCM) will help the company find a solution that will uniformly integrate and centralise payroll and HR reporting needs therefore provide rich HR reporting functionality in line with the rest of the SAP ERP systems. “As a result of our continuous growth over recent years, the older legacy HR IT system could no longer be cost-effective in administration of tasks,” said Alkane Patel, Senior IT Professional at Bidco. Patel also revealed that after initial engagement with SAP implementation partner, Altura Consulting Limited, it was clear that SAP HCM had all the functionalities the company was looking for in a single package, one that could be implemented and integrated into the company’s existing financial processes with the support of the right partner. Altura Consulting Limited is a specialist in the HCM domain in Kenya and has an impressive track record in various industry verticals for implementation of HR solutions.

The company has worked extensively with various SAP partners for product and service delivery and understands the scale, Kenya’s legal and statutory requirements as well as the complexity of the Bidco business model. “Altura was the ideal partner to help implement this solution. They understood that there was little margin for error and that the project had to be completed on schedule and within budget,” added Patel. The project was large and challenging in its complexity, this led to the roll-out being done in two clear phases. Altura implemented the core HR and Payroll management modules first, which included personal administration, organisational and time and attendance management. The time recording terminal was also upgraded to automatically update attendance records in accordance with employee work and leave schedules. When Altura and Bidco were satisfied with the preliminary results, phase two of the project was initiated which included the Employee Self Service (ESS) and Management Self Service (MSS) portal, training and event management, as well as solutions to deal with recruitment, succession and performance management.

The ESS system offers employees instant payslip delivery, leave approval inquiries, as well as notifications of internal processes such as performance appraisals, for example. Andrew Waititu, MD of SAP East Africa says with the implementation of the SAP HCM solution, Bidco is progressing well on its cost-reduction initiatives. “Previous problems such as duplicate data entry and data reconciliation no longer occur. In addition, Bidco has one consistent location to find any kind of information about HR and payroll to keep apprised of changes. Today, thanks to SAP and Altura, Bidco’s HR group delivers its services faster than ever before, heightening employee satisfaction and making the organisation more efficient.” commented Waititu. Based in Kenya, Bidco is a major player in the East and Central African manufacturing industry with more than 30 brands available in 16 countries in Africa. A long-standing SAP customer, Bidco employs more than 2500 permanent and casual workers to ensure the effective day-to-day execution of its business operations. Bidco Oil Refineries already uses SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software as the central IT engine to drive its mission-critical business operations One of the great benefits of SAP ERP HCM is the tight integration with HR data and processes with other SAP ERP components and other SAP software – and via the MSS portal, provides greater opportunities for management executives to produce customised and detailed reports instantly.