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This was a side project at Walter Industries that took approximately 2 weeks to develop. Previously, changes to the SAP systems were handled by filling out forms and passing them to an individual who had to track all requests for changes and the changes themselves. He would receive a paper request for change, email the details to a group of approvers, wait for a certain number of responses, and then email out the change to outside contractors for implementation.
I evaluated his method of handling the procedure, and developed a web-based change control system (CTS - "Change and Transport System") that would put requests for changes into a queue for the approvers. The approvers would then authorize or reject a request, and the tracking process would start from there. The person requesting the change would be notified on a rejection or approval, and could follow the progress of the change request as it moved through the system. The administrator would automatically submit the change request to the outside contractors once it had passed the approval process. It would then come back to him and he could close out the request with a status. The implementation of this system was an immediate success, and cut down the administrator's time spent managing change requests by over 60%. It also eased the burden of keeping track of tens to hundreds of change requests per day, as all information was stored in a database that could quickly be queried for reports.
Future versions of this application were planned, where administrative input was minimal and the entire flow was completely automated. I developed one other change control system for the Jim Walter Homes financial services group that followed that type of process. |