Now we are testing the basic processes

We have completed the ERP project Global Design Model

The ERP project, is a project for the effective governance of business processes, as we have previously informed you several times on the pages of Ocel vychodu in Slovakia and Steel Monthly in Serbia. The ultimate objective of this project is to improve the effectiveness of our business activities through the employment of a consolidated system. Adoption of the world class state-of-the-art system will improve the overall effectiveness of our Corporation on the global level in line with Best Practices both in production and administration. In today's performance-driven environment, the need for such change is inevitable. We need to implement changes that will create significant value for all of our stakeholders. This integrated solution will help our company to improve financial management and control, adopt world class process around the globe and support a performance-driven environment focused on increase profitability and enhanced cash flow.

The deployed ERP system will result in improved more cost effective purchasing and materials management activities, as well. For today, we would like to inform you about the changes we envision to make in the area called "Procure-To-Pay".

· The information was provided to us by the ERP team members, dealing with purchasing activities.
One of them is Peter Lacko, who is responsible for Inventory and Material Item Numbers, then Marcel Smerek, who is focused on Procurement, and Iveta Kozelova, who covers Accounts Payable, Inventory Issues and Supplier Codes. Ljiljana Lackovic is responsible for Purchasing and Inventory in Serbia.

· Which of the modules are to be deployed in Europe?
In the first phase, modules will be deployed as we know them in the F2000 legacy system: Dodavatelia (Suppliers), Nakup (Procurement, Sourcing), Sklady (Inventory), Zavazky (Account Payables). Other modules will be added to them with some new functionality for end users and will significantly contribute to improving the effectiveness of processes. Such as iExpenses (electronic employee expenses entering), APC (Advanced product catalog), Mobile Supply chain (a module supporting bar codes), iSupplier (electronic loading and direct supplier access to their accounts), iProcurement.

· What news does the ERP project present?
With deployment of the Oracle modules, new functionality will be added vs. the Legacy system, which will speed up the processing of data and provide insight into our processes. Several changes will be made vs. the Legacy system, e.g., in Serbia and the daughter companies, there will be scanned and electronically approved supplier invoices. Regarding F2000 this process is implemented only in U. S. Steel Kosice. Improvement will be made in entering employee expense data, which will be carried out via Web Portal by employees themselves; as well as approving procedures will be processed electronically directly in the system. We envision the settlement of employee liabilities and receivables via a bank interface. In this way we will significantly eliminate cash transactions associated with employees disbursements. Entering supplier data directly via Web Portal (iSupplier) by suppliers themselves and approving supplier accounts electronically will as well significantly improve the procurement process. We are compiling Global Supplier Accounts. The suppliers will be granted the access to view their shipments, invoicing, and payments. They will be capable to immediately acquire the up-to-date information about the status of all their transactions with USS. Inventory receipts and issues will be supported by bar codes hand held bar code scanners. A step forward will certainly be the capability to issue Purchase Requirements via the Web Portal (iProcurement, which represents an analogy to internet purchasing. Scope of the purchased items will be defined by Goods and Service Catalog, whereas there will be an option to order new goods and services not present in the Catalog.

· How are you progressing in the Project?
We have completed the ERP project Global Design Phase and are near completion of the phase of incorporating the Local Legal Requirements into Global Processes. Next, the ERP teams preparing the test environment setup in order to test all basic processes, interfaces and conversions. The Testing phase will commence in late November.