Néstle points the way ahead from ERP

The "big idea" of enterprise resource planning (ERP) soon gets replaced by "business as usual", according to one large ERP customer.

Back in 1999, food giant Néstle completed one of the UK's largest ERP projects: 6000 users across 18 factories. Information systems director Nigel Pells was then faced with a new challenge - what to do next? "You get back into 'business as usual' mode," Pells told Computing. "There's no longer a big idea."

Néstle is concentrating on deriving the maximum efficiency from the system it took five years to introduce. "The difference now is there is a culture of continuous improvement," said Pells.

An obvious step forward is ebusiness, and initiatives are in place with suppliers and customers. Packaging companies have access to inventory systems to plan deliveries, and Néstle is working with Sainsbury's on collaborative planning.

Pells thinks that ebusiness must be kept in perspective, however. "The 'e-world' is important to us, but it will not revolutionise our business. It's just an aid to greater efficiency," he said. "The time scales are longer than people would have you believe. Remember you still have to get the goods to the customer. The internet doesn't change that."

ERP brought a lot of change, not just operationally but in the IT department's skills profile. "The structure has changed dramatically," said Pells.

A new role - the process development manager - was introduced as a bridge between business and IT. It keeps the focus on continuous improvement, rather than just maintaining existing systems, he explained.

Day-to-day issues are the responsibility of the 80 staff working on operational services, but more than 150 are employed in process development. "Our people are more business and process oriented. We have fewer 'old' IT skills, such as programming," he said.

The move helped protect Néstle from IT skills shortages. "It's never easy to recruit people with IT and business skills - not at reasonable prices anyway. But we have become good at cross-training, taking people out of the business and training them on systems and vice versa," said Pells.

Néstle UK's long-term IT is tied into a corporate initiative to globalise the company. Its Swiss head office has kicked off a £1.2bn, five-year project - the Global Business Excellence Programme (Globe) - to standardise business processes and information systems across all its subsidiaries.

For a consumer products company, Globe's focus offers a lesson for all bricks-and-mortar companies after the business-to-consumer dotcom boom and bust.

"Our improvement priorities are clear: first, the internal opportunities; second, business-to-business; and third, business-to-consumer," says Néstle's annual report.