Patni Computer Systems has announced that it has successfully completed India’s first-ever SAP ERP implementation for a temple trust – Shri Sant Gajanan Maharaj Sansthan, the second largest pilgrimage destination in Western India.

The Trust partnered with Patni to implement the SAP ERP solution in order to streamline its various functions including automation of the Trust's donation collection, accounting and inventory management processes. With a daily footfall of 3,000 devotees, a network of nine branches and over 20,000 daily transactions, the Trust needed to radically enhance its operational efficiencies. Post the implementation, the management has a unified view of its strategic, operational and transactional activities. It has vastly improved their ability to monitor the day-to-day operations as well as forecast the availability of finances required for sustaining its activities. This, coupled with an extensive change management exercise facilitated by Patni, has enabled seamless knowledge transfer and has improved the staff’s ability to handle large volumes of transactions.

S S Patil, chairman, Shri Sant Gajanan Maharaj Sansthan, said, "Given the magnitude of our operations, it was important for us to automate our functioning. SAP's ERP solution, coupled with Patni's change management programme, has led to an increase in manpower utilisation at the Trust. More importantly, it has helped us reinforce our accountability to institutions and devotees, who donate funds to facilitate the Trust’s smooth functioning".

"This implementation will show the way to other social institutions in terms of leveraging ERP for improving operational efficiency, ensuring accuracy and transparency in financial reporting, and driving social change," stated Vivekanand Sangle, senior manager, Patni. “Given the unique nature of the temple trust, the project provided the Patni team with challenging opportunities like configuring the ERP solution to meet their unique business needs and implementing a change management programme to ensure smooth transition from manual operations to a stable ERP environment," he added.

Nagaraj Bhargava, vice president, Marketing, SAP Indian Subcontinent, said, "SAP is happy to be part of this pioneering initiative undertaken by Shri Sant Gajanan Maharaj Sansthan, Shegaon (SSGMS) – the first Temple Trust in India to leverage SAP ERP to 'technology enable' their operations and provide access to critical information to key stakeholders like devotees, staff and temple trustees".