Coca-Cola Enterprises has signed a multiyear deal with
SAP to develop a beverage-specific application to improve its
ability to serve customers, cut costs and share data through
disparate systems.
The software package will be built around SAP's ERP, CRM and
NetWeaver integration middleware to enable mobile connectivity.
It is aimed at helping beverage and other consumer products
companies improve the logistics around direct store delivery and
vending machine maintenance.
Coca-Cola said the software will cut out paperwork, make sure
cash settlements are made properly and reduce wasted cargo space in
delivery trucks.
"This should improve market execution, and the consumer will
experience better service," said Margaret Carton, chief information
officer at Coca-Cola.
The system will be able to take information from, for example,
an account manager via a handheld device and feed that into the SAP
application and "integrate that across the entire application
portfolio much more effectively", Carton said.
"This will give us a more integrated system that hopefully will
give us more information at the store level and account level, and
we'll be able to more effectively manage the business on the
street."
Coca-Cola already runs a mix of ERP and supply chain management
applications, including SAP's own R/3 material and production
planning applications. What has been missing up to now, said
Carton, was connecting direct store delivery capabilities to its
ERP backbone.
SAP also said that the software will deliver enhancements for
price-list and promotions management. It will also help improve
management for vending machines, with support for direct upload and
download of sales information using a handheld device.
SAP will offer the first product for sale early next year.
Marc L Songini writes for Computerworld
