The importance of IT department in a company is not a novelty. In United Tractors, a leading heavy machineries distributor in Indonesia, IT department or as the company names it Corporate Information System Division plays a crucial role.

Established in 1972, United Tractors now has 34 subsidiaries, 18 branch offices, 22 supporting offices, and 12 representatives in 22 provinces in Indonesia.

“For me, IT has become a vital tool for the industry since many companies operation now rely on IT and its infrastructure,” says Lie Gunadi, General Manager Corporate Information System Division United Tractors.

The Importance of IT Blueprint

The importance of IT management in the company is probably because the innovation culture at United Tractors. “Innovation always needs a tool and the most effective one is automation or system. When we talk about system, it always relates with IT,” says Gunadi.

The importance of IT at the company is also reflected by request of IT needs from every activities conducted by each division or subsidiary. “This is why I say that IT is something important at our company,” says Gunadi.

With that crucial role, Gunadi planned to develop an IT blueprint that will act as guideline for future development. The blueprint will also be in line with the United Tractors future goals.

“So, when the company already plan for the next ten years, we should also have the same vision. But as IT rapidly changed, an ideal planning should cover for the next three to five years ahead,” he says. The future projection is then laid out in the IT Blueprint.

The IT blueprint drafting process began with making a detailed and comprehensive IT architecture according to the system, infrastructure and tools owned by United Tractors. With the IT blueprint, Gunadi expect all the tools owned by the company is well recorded and can be developed according to the company vision and mission.

Partnering with MII

To create the IT blueprint, United Tractor chose its vendor through a tight tender process. The criteria needed is what a vendor has to offer in terms of quality, cost, delivery, safety, and moral (QCDSM).

On the other side, to prove that the vendor is reliable, the company looked into the vendor success track records. And of course the HR quality of the vendor also plays a part.

From the process, PT Mitra Integrasi Informatika (MII), a subsidiary of Metrodata Group, was chosen as partner. With MII, United Tractors drafted its IT blueprint in six months from July to December 2012.

During the project, MII and United Tractors shared the workload. IT blueprint drafting were made into two areas: application and infrastructure; IT competence drafting through assessment and mapping on the required IT competence. The assessment areas were grouped into three scopes: main office, branch office or site, and AHEME Affco (holding). Assessment was done in more than 24 points.

In the early stages, the condition of the external and internal IT was identified. Next, IT blueprint plan is laid based on the needs for the next three years period. The last stage is to implement the plan.

“We got helped from the documentation side. If we get audited we can say that we have a very detailed architecture, in technology or application. Going forward, we expect to work again with reputable company like MII,” says Gunadi