ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV ITALIA SPA

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An app speeds up the data entry of beer orders

The procedure went live in March 2015, after a short test phase: in a few months, about 9000 orders were processed with the new system developed by SB Italia.

THE REQUIREMENT

Anheuser-Busch InBev Italia S.p.a. is the Italian branch of the Belgian Anheuser-Busch group, the first beer producer worldwide and the market leader in the category of special and premium beers in Italy. The company distributes prestigious brands in Italy, i.e. Corona, Beck’s, Leffe and Tennent’s Super. The AB InBev reference market is divided into two different sales channels with different commercial features: the Large-scale Retail Trade and the Ho.re.ca. channel.

The company is carrying out a large project aimed at redefining the internal procedures so that the information about customer and order management is more easily usable. The scope of the project developed together with SB Italia lies in the achievement of this important objective.

THE SOLUTION

To replace the legacy system that required the entry of orders through Excel macros, SB Italia has provided the company with an orders’ entry system operating through a Web portal developed with the market-standard HTML5 technology; this system is hosted on the SB Italia Cloud and enables the direct data entry into the ERP SAP R3 central system.

In case of specific discounts, typical of Large-scale Retail Trade contract arrangements, the order must be validated at two levels: the first validation must be performed by the Area Manager; the second validation is carried out by an individual not belonging to the Sales department. To facilitate this procedure, SB Italia has developed a Web app that enables the approval process from a smartphone: the new system allows the persons responsible for approvals to view and remotely validate the promotions proposed by the accounts, thus avoiding any unnecessary delay in the ordering process and streamlining the whole procedure.

The same system is also used to manage orders related to visibility materials: items such as refrigerated display cases, glasses or coasters intended for the promotion of products within points of sale. For this type of orders, the logistics partner provides a feedback with timely delivery information constantly updated.

THE RESULT

The procedure went live in March 2015 and stands out for its high user-friendliness; it is available to all employees and eliminates unnecessary communication delays between the ordering process and the relevant data entry into the SAP system. As a matter of fact, orders are no more managed by “personal” Excel sheets; all the salesforce can send them at any time, using shared and updated tools combined with a WEB interface; this has an immediate effect on the system and dramatically accelerates the order progress.

With this new solution – hosted on SB Italia Cloud, hence without any impact on the already existing company infrastructure – AB Inbev was able to transfer some resources previously allocated to order management tasks to activities with a “higher-value”.

“Our customized solutions are developed in short time and enable to solve the problems concerning order management activities, previously performed with Excel sheets. We are specialized in custom solutions and in tailor-made projects that are highly appreciated by our customers because they provide them with powerful business development solutions”, states Daniele Meneguzzi, SB Italia ERP Division Manager.