AB World Foods (Sales Order Processing) Case Study
Web-based Sales Order Processing for Infor BPCS
Streamlining operations for non-EDI customers with a seamless integration with Infor BPCS
About the Company
AB World Foods leverages Infor’s BPCS ERP solution on IBM i
Home to brands such as Blue Dragon, Patak’s, Levi Roots and the iconic Tabasco, AB World Foods is has a strong presence in the food, ingredients and retail sectors with annual sales exceeding £15.4 billion and a global workforce of 133,000 employees operating in 50 countries.
Extending Infor BPCS functionality
Application accessible via web, tablet or mobile device by internal users, employees on the road & customers
Delivering self-service
Customers able to enter, view & manage their own orders through the self-service customer portal
Improved customer satisfaction
Importantly customers feel more valued application has been configured to meet their needs
"Proximity has been able to use the existing power of Infor BPCS at AB World Foods and extend it using i Order Management to deliver a modern application that is delivering tangible benefits and a great return on investment."
David Maskrey, Managing Director, Proximity Enterprise Solutions
Managing manufacturing operations
Infor BPCS manages manufacturing & ordering processes
Processing and managing thousands of orders per month with tens of thousands of product lines is a business-critical function required by the organisation. The major retailers have always placed their orders via electronic data interchange (EDI), with the rest of the orders being submitted by phone, fax, email and post for manual processing by AB World Foods’ Customer Services team. No facility was available for smaller customers to place and manage their own orders
Extending Infor BPCS functionality
New web-based application delivers for non-EDI
For AB World Foods, i Order Management has been configured to harness the power of BPCS making it easier for non-EDI customers to do business with them. As i Order Management runs on the same IBM i as Infor BPCS, no additional hardware or operating system software was required.
Seamless transition
Same data, same platform, but with more functionality
i Order Management uses the same data, the same platform and the same business logic as in the existing BPCS application, but extends the sales order entry, processing and management functionality across the internet.
Device-wide accessibility
Intuitive sales order management via web, tablet and mobile device
i Order Management is an intuitive application that can be accessed via web, tablet or mobile device by internal users, employees on the road and customers. Customers are now able to enter, view and manage their own orders through the web-based self-service customer portal. Once confirmed, the orders are then added automatically to the Infor BPCS database for review by the Customer Services team in AB World Foods, prior to processing.
Handle orders in various formats
Process orders in bulk via email attachment, spreadsheets and more
i Order Management efficiently handles bulk orders submitted via email or Excel. These orders can be automatically validated, corrected, and integrated into BPCS, minimising manual intervention. As i Order Management provides a single point of data entry with an efficient user interface and real-time validation, orders can be entered, managed and processed faster and more accurately.
i Order Management has provided us with a mechanism to better communicate with customers. Yes, we can process orders more efficiently now, but more importantly, our customers feel more valued as the system has been configured to meet their needs. Our customer service team can now concentrate on delivering a great experience for all our customers as well as a great product
Diane Byrne, Customer Service Manager, AB World Foods