ERP Business Analyst in Kolkata

Steel bought by the tonne and sold by the length

Steel stockists and re-rollers around Kolkata, including the trading lanes of the old business district and the yards across the river, deal in bars, angles, channels, plates, coils and sheets. Material usually arrives and is paid for by weight, but customers may order by the piece, by the length or by a bundle count. Coils may be slit or cut into sheets, leaving scrap and offcuts that still have value.

The requirement work starts with units. For each product family I record the purchase unit, the stock unit and the sales unit, the conversion between them, and whether invoices use theoretical weight from a section table or actual weight from the weighbridge. I then write rules for the differences: what tolerance is acceptable, who approves a larger variance, and where the difference is posted in accounts.

Processing adds more. When a coil becomes sheets, the requirement must say how the input cost is spread across outputs and scrap, and how a customer's own material, cut on a job-work basis, is kept apart from your stock. Each rule becomes a numbered statement with an acceptance test, such as receiving a coil at one weight, cutting it and checking the resulting stock and cost. My ERP requirements gathering page describes the general method behind this.

Coal and minerals priced on quality after delivery

Kolkata has long been home to companies that trade coal, iron ore, ferro alloys and other minerals moving between mines, washeries, plants and ports in the eastern states. In these trades the price on the contract is rarely the final price. Grade, ash, moisture and other parameters are tested on arrival, and the final value is adjusted up or down against the agreed specification.

A requirement document for this business has to describe provisional invoicing, the arrival of the test result, and the calculation that produces a final invoice, a debit note or a credit note. It has to say which parameters matter for each product, how disputes over a sample are recorded, and how quantities lost to moisture or handling are treated.

Logistics is part of the same chain. Goods often move by rail in rakes from sidings, with freight, siding charges and demurrage when wagons are held too long. Road movements add truck freight and shortages. I write requirements so each of these costs is attached to the consignment and visible in margin reports, rather than sitting in a general expense account. Where the platform cannot calculate quality adjustments natively, the gap is recorded honestly in the fit-gap matrix, together with options such as a small extension or a controlled manual step.

Leather from Bantala: hides in, square feet out

The leather complex at Bantala, on the city's eastern edge, groups many tanneries and finishing units, and Kolkata also has makers of leather goods that buy from them. A tannery buys raw or semi-processed hides by the piece or by weight, processes them in batches through soaking, tanning, dyeing and finishing, and sells finished leather measured by area and sorted into grades.

That change of unit is the heart of the requirement. I document how batches are formed, which chemicals and processes are booked to each batch, how finished area is measured and recorded, and how grades are assigned. The cost requirement then states how batch cost should be spread across the resulting grades, since a better grade carries more value per square foot than a lower one.

Exporters add buyer-specific needs: approved samples, shade and thickness specifications, inspection before shipment and packing lists by grade and area. Environmental and effluent compliance may also need records in the system; I note what the business tracks and leave interpretation of the rules to your compliance advisor. A clear ERP BRD for a tannery lets you test whether a platform can handle area-based stock before you commit to it.

Exports by road to Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan

Kolkata traders and manufacturers send goods to neighboring countries by road as well as by sea. Shipments to Bangladesh often cross at land ports such as Petrapole, while goods for Nepal and Bhutan travel north through West Bengal and Bihar. These movements can sit at the border for days, and the document chain is long: invoices, packing lists, export declarations, transporter papers and the buyer's import documents.

For the requirement document, I trace each step from order to payment. Which documents does the system have to produce, and in what format? How is a truck tracked from dispatch until it crosses? When is the sale recognized and how is foreign currency handled? How are export incentives, bank realization and any letters of credit followed up? I describe what the business needs to see; the treatment of export benefits, foreign exchange rules and tax is confirmed with your advisor, not decided by me.

The same exercise often uncovers informal practices, such as goods held at a border warehouse or payments routed through an agent. Writing them down makes them visible, so the new system can either support them properly or the owners can decide to change them. My India ERP business analyst page covers the national tax and invoicing requirements that sit alongside these flows.

Workshops that reach the yard, the tannery and the accounts room

The people who know these rules best are often not the people who attend project meetings. A weighbridge operator, a yard supervisor, a tannery batch in-charge or a senior accountant who has priced coal for years holds knowledge that never appears in a policy document. Some are more comfortable explaining their work in Bengali or Hindi than in English.

The engagement runs in English, and the sessions are designed with that in mind: where needed, a colleague who speaks both languages sits in and helps, and I keep questions concrete: show me the slip, walk me through yesterday's dispatch, tell me what happens when the lab result comes back low. Sessions are short and remote, scheduled around shifts and loading windows, and the notes from each are sent back to the person interviewed for correction.

After the workshops, I hold walkthroughs where process owners read the requirements and correct them, then run a gap analysis against shortlisted platforms. A visit to a yard or tannery can be arranged when a process is genuinely hard to understand remotely. For broader sector context in the city, see my Kolkata ERP consultant page, and if you need someone to oversee the wider project, the freelance ERP consultant in Kolkata page explains that role.