CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
9 September 2008
Implementation Investments
Leading Global Foods Manufacturer Utilizes SAP NetWeaver® Master Data Management to Increase Efficiencies and Provide Unified Data Foundation for SAP® ERP Roll-Out
SAP AG announced that Kraft Foods has adopted the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform as the backbone of its information and business transformation strategy. Kraft has deployed SAP NetWeaver® Master Data Management (SAP NetWeaver MDM) to integrate and consolidate data both from SAP and non-SAP legacy systems, enabling increased efficiency, more effective reporting and streamlined compliance. In less than nine months, Kraft's SAP NetWeaver MDM project rolled out data repositories focused on customer, product, vendor and materials data, to lay a foundation of comprehensive, real-time data as the company embarked upon a North American rollout of SAP's flagship enterprise resource planning product, SAP® ERP. The announcement was made at SAP® TechEd 2008, being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, Sept. 8-12.
"Unified master data is a critical component in Kraft's global business transformation effort," said Mark Johnson, senior director, Operations & Business Services at Kraft Foods, Inc. "Investing in technological innovations such as SAP NetWeaver MDM provides key decision-makers with reliable real-time access to master data from SAP and non-SAP solutions - transcending organizational, geographic and systems boundaries. Our teams are now able to make more effective decisions, improve collaboration with suppliers and trading partners, and more easily comply with reporting requirements. By establishing an effective master data management process, we will gain a broader view of our company's data, streamline our SAP ERP deployment and accelerate the time to value for the new system."
Consumer products companies, particularly food companies such as Kraft, are challenged to track, update and report on data regarding thousands of finished goods including sources of ingredients for food items. In order to best comply with reporting regulations and increase efficiencies in business processes such as order-to-cash, Kraft needed to standardize data to arrive at a "single source of truth," eliminating redundancies and data discrepancies. As part of this process, Kraft established a global data governance model that will help improve data integrity.
As Kraft continues an overall IT transformation to position the company for continued leadership, the use of standardized master data will enable Kraft to develop more accurate insights into customer needs and help employees make better business decisions quickly. The company is utilizing SAP NetWeaver® Process Integration as the integration layer for moving foundational data into the SAP ERP application. Kraft is also implementing universal data feeds out of MDM as part of its service-oriented architecture, which allows SAP and non-SAP systems to get the data they need without building multiple interfaces.
This strategy allows Kraft to have a single source of master data, reducing the number of disparate data sources, creating consistent definitions and providing opportunities to harmonize wherever possible. Access to quality master data is key to the success of the overall business transformation as Kraft implements its SAP ERP solution.
SAP NetWeaver MDM provides harmonized, consistent reference information to applications across the enterprise, enabling companies to store and consolidate master data from heterogeneous systems in multiple locations. The product is an integral part of SAP solutions that support customers' enterprise information management strategies. It is complemented by Business Objects information management products including BusinessObjects™ Data Integrator, BusinessObjects Data Quality Management and BusinessObjects Data Services.
"For companies that are making the SAP NetWeaver technology platform the centerpiece of their service-oriented architecture, an enterprise information management strategy is a critical first step," said Klaus Kreplin, corporate officer and member of the Executive Council, head of SAP NetWeaver Technology, SAP AG. "SAP NetWeaver master data management capabilities enable industry-leading companies such as Kraft Foods to consolidate and better oversee complex product, sales and vendor information. Companies embarking on their business network transformation initiatives need a single, trusted version of the truth as the basis for improving core business. The SAP NetWeaver technology platform can help companies achieve that goal."
SAP® TechEd 2008 in Las Vegas, Berlin, Shanghai and Bangalore
More than 16,000 SAP customers, partners and technical experts are convening at SAP® TechEd 2008 to learn how to transform existing business processes and IT landscapes and take advantage of the power and flexibility of service-oriented architecture. Celebrating its 12th anniversary, SAP's largest ecosystem education event of the year offers more than 1,000 hours of lecture-driven and hands-on sessions. SAP TechEd 2008 is being held in Las Vegas on September 8-12, Berlin on October 14-16, Shanghai on November 5-6 and Bangalore on November 12-14. For more information, please visit http://www.sapteched.com.
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