Client Successes
As the retailers gain power in the value chain battle which ensued through the 1990's, fundamental cost reduction, supply chain transformation, and a firm control of the product portfolio management process are just three ways that the sector is responding. HCL AXON's clients in this sector include:
- Bass
- Brake Bros
- British Bakeries
- Britvic (Case Study)
- Burton's Biscuits
- Cadbury
- Carlsberg Tetley
- CWS Milk Group
- Dairy Crest
- Golden Wonder
- Guilbert (Case Study)
- Haagen Dazs
- HK Foods
- Irish Distillers
- Kitchen Range Foods
- Kraft (Case Study)
- Malton
- Mars
- Northern Foods
- Rank Hovis
- Rowntree Mackintosh
- Smith and Nephew
- Tate & Lyle
- United Biscuits
- Van Den Berg
- JTI (Case Study)
Case Studies
Britvic Soft Drinks Limited is a leading UK based manufacturer and supplier of branded and private label soft drinks. The company employs approximately 2,700 staff in 26 locations in the UK and has a turnover of £680 million.
In 2003, Britvic chose to embark on a major programme of business transformation having recognized that the company's business processes and supporting technologies were unable to support their aggressive growth plans and strategic priorities.
HCL AXON worked with Britvic to deliver a full scope SAP-enabled business transformation programme with the primary objective being to deliver a step-change in operational performance and an organisation capable of winning in a highly competitive and fast changing market.
HCL AXON delivered the core stream of the business transformation programme covering finance, procurement, logistics, production, order to cash and commercial asset management. A benefits driven approach to process and system design was used, with SAP beverage industry best practice at its core. Consequently, challenges to existing practice were always put in the context of hard tangible benefits and the company's strategic imperatives.
HCL AXON's role extended far beyond the delivery of improved processes and a world class SAP platform. HCL AXON consultants played a vital role in overall programme direction and management, as well as driving the SAP change management effort from senior management education through to detailed organizational and role design.
The main programme was completed in a timescale of 20 months - a year faster than the planned timescales before HCL AXON was engaged. Furthermore, the programme's benefits delivery plan has so far been met, delivering £11m of sustainable cost savings in 2006 with an additional £7m of savings expected across 2007 and 2008.
The tangible benefits delivered by the programme include:
- Product concept to launch time reduced by a third
- Inventory reductions and reduced storage costs
- Headcount reductions
- Savings enabled by optimization of replenishment and sourcing
- Manufacturing efficiencies, including production waste reductions
- Centralization of all procurement
- Better indirect procurement control and improved supplier management
- Improved cash flow
- Better promotional decision making helping to increase average revenue per liter
Mike Jones, IT Director at Britvic has the following to say about how HCL AXON has contributed to the business transformation programme, "We chose AXON as a strategic partner to support us in this major transformation programme for their deep SAP technical expertise, their rigorous implementation methodology and their skills in process optimization and change management. More importantly, they demonstrated a structured approach to accelerated benefits realization and are helping us achieve the platform agility we require going forward."
Guilbert UK
Client: Guilbert UK provides a comprehensive range of office supplies to thousands of business customers of every type and size across all markets and in the public sector. Every day the company's fleet of over 200 vehicles delivers to business addresses throughout the UK and Ireland from its network of distribution centers.
Business Transformation: Guilbert UK sought to reduce debt and working capital by transforming their accounts receivable function. Having such a large number and wide range of customers placing so many orders is particularly challenging in terms of invoicing and receiving payment. HCL AXON was engaged to analyze working practices and implement an organizational and technical solution based on SAP. An incremental approach was taken to ensure quick wins right from the outset. Significant improvements in working capital and increased profits have been achieved as a result.
Delivering Greater Operational Flexibility and Efficiency for Kraft Foods
Client: Kraft Food is a global leader in branded foods and beverages with 2004 net revenues of more than $32 billion. Built on more than 100 years of quality and innovation, Kraft has grown from modest beginnings to become the largest food and beverage company headquartered in North America and second largest in the world, marketing many popular brands in more than 150 countries.
Area of Transformation: HCL AXON was engaged to work in joint Kraft and HCL AXON delivering team delivering a pan European process redesign and systems integration programme across 17 countries. Together, they have reengineered operational processes across finance, sales, production, marketing and all aspects of the Supply Chain. The solution was rolled out to over 40 operating sites in 34 months supporting over 10,000 employees. As a result Kraft is experiencing greater efficiency across the whole of its European operations. It has also improved the flexibility of its internal processes and is able to react faster to changing market needs.
Client: Japan Tobacco International SA (JTI) is part of the world's third largest international tobacco company.
Summary: SAP enabled transformation with a Global HR system across the corporation, global rollout to 40 countries.
Scale / Relevance- Common Design and Realization phases of its HR transformation program (OneHR) involved the development of a common business blueprint capable of enabling world-class levels of HR performance in 40 countries including the UK & US
- The project was conducted in 3 Waves between 2005and 2006; with the entire project taking 24 months to complete
- Prime Contractor
- Programme Management
- Common Design, Quick Wins
- Build (incl Offshore Dev.)
- Change Management & Training
- Roll-out
- Knowledge Transfer + Support
- SAP HR - Personnel administration, Time Management, Talent Management, Organizational Management, Compensation BW for reporting, MSS and ESS with interfaces to international payroll systems (XI)
- Project location was in Geneva, Switzerland
- 12,000 employees around the world
- Total net sales US$39.5billion during the fiscal year that ended 31 March 2006
- Operations in over 40 different locations worldwide
- Reduced cost for running HR platform
- Central visibility of the regional HR functions
- Global reporting across the organization
- International assignment of resource process improved
- A move towards best Practice in HR
- JTI has seen labour costs savings of between 15 percent and 40 percent, and realized an overall savings of US $3m
