Infor M3 Facilitates Growth for Dutch Cheesemaker

Rouveen Kaasspecialiteiten Improves Quality Thanks to Industry-Specific ERP Solution

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Sep 25, 2018, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Infor, a leading provider of industry-specific cloud applications, announced today that Dutch cheesemaker, Rouveen Kaasspecialiteiten, is live on its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Infor M3, to support its plans for growth. In addition to extensive Food & Beverage industry functionalities, Infor M3 has a strong reputation in the market.

The dairy cooperative, Rouveen Kaasspecialiteiten, is made up of a group of 250 dairy farms with two production sites in Rouveen and Molenschot and has more than 200 employees. The milk from these dairies is used to make specialty cheeses. The majority of the farms are in Rouveen where most of the cheese is made, except for the Blue cheese and organic Roodschmier, which are made in Molenschot. The company has a rich dairy history and promotes innovation in its business. In this way, new cheeses are continuously being developed.

When the milk quotas ended in 2015, the amount of milk that the cooperative had to process increased sharply and the cheese producer grew by about forty percent. Due to the 31-year production restrictions being lifted, Rouveen Kaasspecialiteiten decided to investigate opportunities to respond commercially. The company doubled the number of milk products to 20 in total. This also created the need for a professional ERP system that could facilitate growth, provide insight into the entire supply chain, help to guarantee quality and support the company in preparing for the next phase of growth. The company also wanted software that it could trust to handle its complexity, provide reliable tracking and tracing, and also quickly provide reliable and consistent information. All of which is possible with the new system because there is a single source of information, and costly, error-prone manual work has been eliminated from the process.

The shortlist of Rouveen Kaasspecialiteiten initially consisted of four vendors, but after a detailed comparison, two of them quickly fell off the list. In the end, they chose between Oracle and Infor. Crucial to their decision were the specific Food & Beverage functionalities for fresh products, the knowledge and experience of Infor and implementation partner Alfa-Beta Solutions in the cheese market and the right price and quality.

Once Infor was chosen in March 2017, the on-premises implementation began after the summer of 2017. Following an implementation period of half a year, the solution went into effect in February 2018.

"We are very satisfied with the cooperation, and the choice we have made. Infor M3 is one of the best software solutions in the cheese market thanks to its industry-specific functionality. All the basic options that we need are therefore standard in the solution," said Bert Gubler, financial director for Rouveen Kaasspecialiteiten. "Moreover, thanks to the knowledge and experience of Alfa-Beta Solutions and Infor with the cheese industry, we did not have to explain our processes. This has positively influenced the speed of implementation."

He continued, "We knew that implementing an ERP system was unavoidable for us in realizing our growth plans, to guarantee our professionalism and quality and, where possible, to make improvements by facilitating the exchange of data. Changes, however, also evoke resistance because the daily way of working suddenly changes and an ERP implementation is also quite difficult in itself, especially since we had no experience with it. Some things can still be improved, but we are already very satisfied with how the process has gone. The focus is now on the optimum use of all capabilities. We have dedicated a year to that and then we will look at opportunities for expansion. We now have a solution which will help us to grow."

"Infor M3 has a strong reputation in the Food & Beverage market, which has to contend with an increasing level of complexity, compliance and changing customer requirements," says Kees van den Houten, regional director Benelux at Infor. "Companies such as Rouveen Kaasspeciliateiten embrace technology that is specifically tailored to the needs of their industry, because the time-honored one-size-fits-all approach no longer fits. In doing so, they opted for a reliable implementation partner such as Alfa-Beta Solutions, which has excellent expertise and years of experience with this type of implementation. Rouveen Kaasspecialiteiten can now rely on a modern solution that meets the most important challenges in the cheese and dairy industry. We are pleased to be part of the new growth phase of the company."

About Infor
Infor builds business software for specific industries in the cloud. With 16,500 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.

For more press information
Lubbers De Jong
Anke van Heerebeek
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020 2050428

SOURCE Infor