Vichiunai
‘Strategic IT is a partner with extensive knowledge and experience in the food & beverage sector’
Vichiunai Europe live: the first step to a successful integrated solution
Bruges is the first of the Vichiunai Group’s locations to go live with Microsoft Dynamics® NAV and SI Foodware® from Strategic IT, the Belgian company of Schouw Informatisering. This is just the first step to creating a single integrated sector specific solution for the whole Vichiunai Group. We spoke to Dirk Belmans, General Manager at Vichiunai Europe in Bruges, Belgium: ‘For our sales office in Bruges we were looking for a way to link our database efficiently and effectively with the head office in Lithuania and with the other manufacturing units.’ Belmans continues: ‘The choice for Dynamics NAV was easily made, but we were then looking for a partner with knowledge and experience in the food & beverage sector; which we found in Strategic IT.’
Vichiunai Group
The Vichiunai Group has been manufacturing prepared fish products since 1991 and at present is the world’s largest producer of Surimi. Currently Vichiunai consists of 4 manufacturing centres and about 20 business locations, employing a total of 6500 personnel. Vichiunai’s products are sold in 42 countries through DCs; 95% of the products are destined for supermarket shelves or for further processing by another manufacturer. Vichiunai continues to expand its distribution network and has already started to penetrate the Asian markets. Belmans: ‘In 2000 I began work on establishing Vichiunai Europe as a sales & marketing and distribution centre for the European Union. We have now grown to employ 17 people and we are still expanding rapidly.’
Knowledge and experience in the food & beverage sector
We needed a different ERP solution because of the growth of the office in Bruges. And at the head office in Lithuania they wanted to have all locations work together in a single central database. There they were already working with Dynamics NAV, so that meant that the choice for Dynamics NAV in Bruges was easily made. ‘Now we were just looking for a partner with knowledge and experience in the food & beverage sector,’ Belmans explains. In Lithuania they had already started looking for an integrated standard solution for the various systems and the customisation that now exists within the Vichiunai Group and this is how the SI Foodware solution from Strategic IT was found. SI Foodware is q standard add-on for companies in the food & beverage sector based on Dynamics NAV, and this reduces the amount of customisation to a minimum.
Start SI Foodware in Bruges
The implementation at the office in Bruges is therefore seen as the first step and introduction to SI Foodware and Strategic IT. Currently the office in Bruges is using SI Foodware for procurement, sales and inventory management. In the subsequent phases at the other locations the system will be more complex, because production will also be incorporated in to the solution. To simplify the transition to SI Foodware and to learn as much as possible about the system, the implementation in Belgium is starting with the SI Foodware modules inventory management, quality and product specifications, these modules will later be implemented uniformly throughout the Vichiunai Group. The added-value of Dynamics NAV with SI Foodware is that we now have more features available for inventory management, queries and statistics (reporting).
Make clear agreements at the outset
‘The implementation didn’t run as smoothly as we had expected,’ explains Belmans. ‘We did follow the methodology, only we should have made clearer agreements at the outset.’ Another reason is that Vichiunai does not have its own IT staff or project manager, which makes it more difficult to gather all the right information in advance. ‘I think this is a constraint for SMEs in such projects,’ explains Belmans. ‘As the organisation grows, bits are added on all fronts and eventually there is no one within the organisation who understands it fully.’ Belmans recommends allowing sufficient time for a preliminary study so that you can conduct an in-depth analysis in the initial phase together. This helps you learn to understand each other and at the same time you analyse all aspects in a structured manner.
One integrated solution
Vichiunai Bruges went live on 1 January 2008, because that was the start of a new financial year. By April all functionality was being used. ‘At the moment we haven’t noticed any significant improvements, but we do expect these when Dynamics NAV and SI Foodware are running on a single database for the whole Vichiunai Group. By using an integrated solution all data for all locations is visible immediately for everyone in the group. From that time we will be able to work much more efficiently and that will mean extensive savings,’ according to Belmans. ‘One considerable advantage of Dynamics NAV is that it is already widely used. Combined with the add-ons from Strategic IT, in 99% of the cases it can be used immediately. With the knowledge and experience that is now built in to SI Foodware it is an excellent solution for food & beverage manufacturers.’ For more information please visit www.vici.lt.
Belmans: ‘It was a good move for Schouw Informatisering to open an office in Belgium! Besides having access to all the knowledge and experience of the food & beverage sector built up by Schouw in the Netherlands, the Belgian consultants know and understand the Belgian fiscal legislation and practices.