Morris Communications Co. in May began testing enterprise resource planning software that promises sweeping changes in the way the newspaper manages its customer relations and back office operations.

When it goes live, more than 5,000 Morris employees will use the software from Germany-based SAP. The only major area of company operations the mySAP.com e-business platform implementation, including mySAP Media, will not affect is newspaper production, which the company plans to address in a separate high-tech push.

MySAP.com ERP software will manage “everything from fixed assets to payroll, everything,” said vice president and chief information officer Steve Strout.

Strout said Morris is “making a huge investment in SAP for its business management platform,” although he declined to specify an amount.

Managing better

The investment represents “a way for us to manage better,” Strout said. The newspaper business is “not going to see the (double-digit) margins we’ve seen in years past, so better managing your business is a requirement.”

The idea behind the mySAP Media application is to marry back-office business management functions to customer services specific to the newspaper publishing industry, such as classified advertising management. In addition, Morris will integrate mySAP Human Resources and mySAP Financials apps with the platform’s media functions.

The first elements of the implementation will go live Oct. 1. Strout acknowledged that the run-up to the SAP platform was complex, requiring among other things that Morris compile about 2,700 different tables of data or data files cataloging various data points. Consultants from BearingPoint and SAP systems integration specialists are helping with the conversion.

Data conversion

Strout said the publishing company’s SAP implementation was “to the point where we can do data conversions from our PBS (publishing software) system and classifieds system. Now we’re to the point where we can do end-to-end testing. We feel really comfortable with that Oct. 1 date.”

One significant point about the process, Strout said, was that “this is tightly integrated — not interfaced.”

Despite the difficulty and complexity associated with the roll-out, Strout said Morris is undeterred from reaching a lofty goal: “Unlike a traditional implementation methodology, we will be bringing up all the applications at once, in one day, advertising, circulation, accounts payable, fixed assets, payroll, everything,” Strout said.

The SAP package includes a budgeting package “that tracks all the stuff going on behind the scenes. I can understand where assets are, what it costs me to do business,” Strout said.

Avoiding ‘ugliness’

A massive ERP conversion often brings “ugliness,” Strout conceded. He predicted the effort would be worth it. Take the customer management side of the equation alone, where “we anticipate taking significant amounts of cost out of the business by streamlining (service center) processes,” he said.

Strout cited as an example the integration of the company’s Digital Technology International classifieds system with SAP. “If I’m on the classifieds screen, (the SAP software will let ad reps know if they) have a new customer, an employee, a vendor or an advertiser,” he said. “(Who) they are does matter. Now we can start building relationships with customers in a different way,” such as, “Gee, maybe I give a different rate to someone who has been a subscriber for 10 years or more. Maybe it’s a vendor-business partner. It’s a very different view of how we deal with our customers.”