Growing Dairy Company Emmi Digitises with Infor

International Dairy Producer Streamlines Business Operations with Industry-Specific ERP Solution

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Mar 11, 2019, 09:00 ET

BARNEVELD, Netherlands, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Infor, a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry, has announced that dairy manufacturer Emmi is rolling out the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution Infor M3 to some of its subsidiaries in order to streamline its internationally expanding business operations. The first go-live took place at Emmi's UK site at the end of 2018. Emmi Canada and one of its US subsidiaries will follow this year, and the subsidiary in the Benelux in 2020.

Emmi originates from Switzerland, where it is the country's largest dairy processor, and has a global reputation as a producer of premium dairy products and cheese. In Switzerland, the company produces and markets a comprehensive range of dairy products primarily for the retail trade and the food industry. Elsewhere, it focuses on brand concepts and specialities, such as the Emmi ready-to-eat cheese fondue, cave-aged cheese specialities, and the various Caffè Latte cold coffee products. The company employs around 6,100 people worldwide.

Some of Emmi's international subsidiaries lacked up-to-date business software, and needed a professional, standardised ERP solution to support their rapid growth. Emmi chose not to invest in multiple solutions that would have been difficult to integrate, going instead for a single solution for these international locations.. Emmi took a year to survey the needs of the various locations. Out of four possible solutions, Infor M3 met all requirements most closely, and Infor was also able to make a successful business case for the international rollout. Infor M3 was also considered to be easier to use than the SAP system that is used in the head office in Switzerland.

'As well as extensive food & beverage industry functionalities, Infor M3 has a strong record in the dairy industry,' says Kees van den Houten, Benelux country manager at Infor. 'Emmi is a well-known player on the consumer and business dairy market, with international offices and production locations. These subsidiaries grow through acquisitions, and each has its own way of working, which makes it particularly challenging to facilitate further growth and streamline business operations. I'm proud that Emmi has chosen Infor to help achieve this.'

Infor M3 is easy to use, with all the advantages of a mature ERP system. This very comprehensive system – with specific features for the food industry – can be fully integrated, so that it can also work with financial and purchasing systems. This gives Emmi complete control over its business operations, making it easier to produce sales forecasts and reports. In addition, special attention is paid to quality control in the production and logistics processes, and to tracking and tracing – essential aspects in the dairy industry.

Infor's subsidiary Infor Alfa-Beta specialises in the food & beverage industry, and was the right implementation partner for Emmi. After an inventory of the capabilities, it was decided that the first implementation should take place in the UK. Infor Alfa-Beta proceeded in its characteristic way: The implementation was planned and conducted in partnership, in view of the express desire that as much knowledge should be transferred as possible so that subsequent implementations could be carried out more and more independently. Infor Alfa-Beta's own implementation team and an Emmi deployment team from Switzerland tackled this in a 'pressure cooker' project. Go-live of the pilot rollout was achieved in a record time of four months, to complete satisfaction. At the beginning of 2019, implementation started at Emmi in Montreal, Canada, and will then continue in California, where Emmi has its own production line and currently does not use an integrated ERP system. Emmi Benelux is next, in 2020. This location has a greater volume than the other sites.

Simon Berweger, senior project manager Corporate Development at Emmi, on the collaboration: 'We're enthusiastic about Infor M3. The software does what we expected of it, and is already a valuable addition. It's also very user friendly, even for people who lack strong computer skills. From the go-live in the UK, we can already see that certain activities are taking a lot less time than before. Together with Infor Alfa-Beta, we decided to take a lean approach to the project to achieve the first go-live quickly. We really wanted to meet this first deadline to set a precedent for the further rollout.'

'We have high expectations of what M3 can offer us in the future. Right now, we're focusing on managing the implementation. When the last go-live is over and everyone has mastered the system, we'll look at how we can further optimise it for our business, improve processes, gain new insights, and achieve more cost savings.'

About Infor
Infor is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. With 17,300 employees and over 68,000 customers in more than 170 countries, Infor software is designed for progress. To learn more, please visit www.infor.com.

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