New Delhi April 23

In order to facilitate the top brass of Air India take quick financial decisions, the company has implemented the enterprise resource planning (Oracle Financial) system in its finance department that would also help bring about greater financial accountability in the airline.

"The Management Information System generated through the new system can be used by the senior management for taking decision faster on how a particular route is performing," a senior airline official said.

The implementation of the system would also benefit the entity created by the merger of Air India and Indian. "After the merger is completed, there are plans to have five profit centres. The implementation of the system would allow direct costs to be debited to each centre and profits to be shared in a manner that the Board thinks fit," an official said.

While the new system involves a one-time cost of Rs 7 crore and monthly running expenses of Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, the benefit in terms of faster financial decision making and better inventory control of a larger enterprise such as Air India would accrue to the airline for the next decade or so, officials added.

Completion time

Official sources told Business Line that the implementation of the new system would be extended over the next few months to its 59 other stations. This would help Air India close its books of accounts and publish financial results within a week after the closure of month. Currently, there is a gap of several weeks in the monthly financial closure and the accounts being reported.

The Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Systems, has been selected as implementation partner for the project.

Taken from Business Line

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