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Leading Global Commodity Trading and Processing Company Finds Best-fit ERP

System with TEC Software Selection Services

TEC Case Study

2Leading Global Commodity Trading and Processing Company Finds Best-fit ERP System with TEC Software Selection Services

Leading Global Commodity Trading and Processing Company Finds Best-fit ERP System with TEC Software Selection Services

The ECOM Agroindustrial Corp. Ltd. group is one of the world’s top three merchants in

coffee, one of the largest coffee millers in the world, and among the top five merchants

in both cotton and cocoa, with more than 40 offices in 30 countries around the world,

5,000+ employees, and annual sales of more than $4 billion (USD). Buying from producers

at origin, providing primary and secondary processing, logistics, and risk management

services, and selling to branded product manufacturers, ECOM is truly a global operation,

with production facilities spread over North America, South America, Europe, and Africa.

Name: ECOM Agroindustrial Corp. Ltd.

Industry: Agriculture—primary and secondary commodities processing

Company size: 5,000+ employees

Annual revenue:$4+ billion

Region:Global, headquartered in Switzerland

3Leading Global Commodity Trading and Processing Company Finds Best-fit ERP System with TEC Software Selection Services

As a multinational agriculture commodities trading and processing company, ECOM

has many processing facilities and offices around the globe. With multiple solutions in

place across the company’s different manufacturing facilities, there were problems with

redundancy, inconsistency, and integration. The company decided to standardize and unify

all ECOM systems and processes through the implementation of a single software system.

Identify the best-fit fully integrated ERP system leveraging the best practices approach of

TEC’s extended software evaluation and selection program.

TEC Advisory Services:

• Project Management Support

• Functional and Technical Requirement Set Development

• Vendor Demonstration Management (including demo script creation)

• RFP Development

• Vendor Relationship Management

Challenge

Among ECOM’s group of production facilities, there were a number of widely differing

software systems in place. Some of the facilities were running without a central software

system at all, some were using parts of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution,

which was working but management knew wouldn’t meet the facilities’ needs over the

long term, and some were using a dozen or more different systems to meet their needs.

Having so many disparate systems in place had resulted in poor communication between

the systems and inefficiencies both within the separate facilities and company-wide.

ECOM management recognized that unifying and streamlining systems and processes

across the company’s multiple facilities and offices would solve these problems, and

determined that an enterprise software system overhaul was key to achieving this goal.

ECOM created an ERP task force to define the requirements for a single integrated

technology platform, including infrastructure, databases, development, and testing and

training environments, which would standardize all ECOM processes and form the basis of

support for the business objectives of the organization. The new system would have to take

into consideration the needs of ECOM’s global network of suppliers and processors, and

address the challenges of multiple remote locations and poor connectivity.

The TEC team was knowledgeable, honest, and dedicated. ”

“

4Leading Global Commodity Trading and Processing Company Finds Best-fit ERP System with TEC Software Selection Services

In addition to improving operational efficiencies throughout the organization and reducing

overall operational costs, providing easy access to business systems information was an

important goal. ECOM managers and executives needed to be able to access real-time

data across all departments and sites, for improved decision making and greater visibility

across the company. Also critical was the capability for future expansion—to be able to

extend the solution to newly acquired companies, new origin country operations, and new

manufacturing facilities.

As for which solution to choose, ECOM management had a long and favourable relationship

with a leading Tier 1 ERP provider, and were inclined to continue with this vendor for the

new system, with this legacy solution already in use across many of the company’s facilities.

However, all involved parties ultimately agreed that it made sense to evaluate more than

one solution. The question was, how to best evaluate multiple solutions and ensure that

the best-fit solution was found?

Solution

A project advisor at ECOM had mentioned Technology Evaluation Centers’ (TEC’s) software

evaluation and selection services to the ECOM ERP task force at an early point in the

discussions, and the team recognized that a neutral and experienced third party could be

beneficial in supporting ECOM through the difficult process of finding a system that best

met the complex needs of all groups involved.

The task force was impressed by TEC’s impartial, transparent, and client-focused approach

to the evaluation process, and its experience with complex software selection projects.

“We wanted a selection process which was honest and fair and gave all of the parties

involved the same chance,” explains Peter Post, business owner, manufacturing systems

program at ECOM. “And we wanted an advocate, someone to ask the tough questions.”

ECOM soon got TEC on board, and TEC’s team of experienced project delivery managers

began to work with ECOM’s ERP task force to identify project requirements. Based on ECOM’s

goals, the framework that ECOM and TEC created for ECOM’s extended software evaluation

and selection project included a range of TEC services: requirements gathering with an in-

depth request for information (RFI) process, creation of detailed and tailored demo scripts

to help with vendor demonstration session moderation, and request for proposal (RFP)

creation in the final stages, as well as support at every step along the way.

The software vendors knew from the beginning that our process was not an easy one. They needed to become really competitive. ”

“

5Leading Global Commodity Trading and Processing Company Finds Best-fit ERP System with TEC Software Selection Services

In the initial stages of the evaluation process, based on ECOM’s specific functionality needs,

the necessity for a global (multinational, multilingual, and multicurrency) solution, and

many large company pain points to take into consideration, the list of potential vendors

was narrowed to three—all large players in the ERP market.

TEC’s decision support software, TEC Advisor, formed the foundation for ECOM’s software

exploration process. With 7,000-plus ERP functionality criteria included in the TEC Advisor

framework, and the ability to evaluate these against the selected vendors’ capabilities and

change the priority levels for the criteria, ECOM was able to explore multiple outcomes

without a commitment to any one vendor or system.

Of particular benefit to ECOM during the exploration process was TEC’s creation of separate

assessment projects using TEC Advisor at each of ECOM’s several facilities around the globe,

allowing for a ranked working list of vendors for each facility. Having the individual rankings

available to the ERP task force as well as a consolidated list ensured that the outcome

accommodated each facility’s needs and helped to bring about a consensus among the

global teams.

Prioritizing the functionality requirements for the system in TEC Advisor had helped ECOM

clarify its needs, and made it easy to create a tailored demo script that the vendors would

follow during the demo sessions.

Dealing with vendors during the demo sessions also adds another layer of complexity to the

demo process, as vendors are usually focused on demonstrating their products’ strengths

and don’t always align their presentations with what companies are most interested in

seeing. Creating demo scripts beforehand with TEC’s help put the control of the demo

session into ECOM’s hands. Says Post, “The vendors knew from the beginning that our

process was not an easy one. They needed to become really competitive.”

Within TEC’s framework for the vendor demo process, each vendor was required to follow

the same protocol for the demonstrations and in providing vendor responses. “By making

all vendors follow the same process, it was fair and equitable, very honest, and very

transparent,” says Post.

The creation of a comprehensive request for proposals (RFP) for vendors demands a lot of

work from both sides, but Post believes that this process, forming part of the TEC software

selection framework, is another important factor for project success. “It asks for a lot of

information from both the vendor and the company sides, but through this we’re showing

vendors that we take the whole process very seriously, and that leads to a better outcome

in the end.”

By making all software vendors follow the same process, it was fair and equitable, very honest, and very transparent. ”

“

6Leading Global Commodity Trading and Processing Company Finds Best-fit ERP System with TEC Software Selection Services

As a big company made up of many (dispersed) teams and multiple management levels,

ECOM also appreciated TEC’s flexible approach to service delivery and transparency

throughout, as well as its help managing the logistics of this significant selection project. TEC

team members, fluent in multiple languages, made several visits to various ECOM locations,

and were available to provide online help when not onsite. “The TEC team was lead by a

knowledgeable, honest, and dedicated project manager,” says Post. Overall, TEC experts’

experience navigating complex selection projects helped bridge any communication gaps,

and with ECOM’s complementary efforts the project was kept on track.

Results

For a large global company, it is sometimes difficult to challenge the status quo—

continuing with the incumbent vendor and solution, managing the project solely in-

house with information technology (IT) staff and upper management, and handling all

the requirements gathering, vendor demo, and RFP phases. But widening the scope of the

search to include multiple solutions and having the help of an external third-party with the

software selection process can help with due diligence and ensure an optimal outcome, as

ECOM realized in its project with TEC.

TEC’s software selection framework, and ECOM’s and TEC’s coordinated efforts ensured

that things ran smoothly for ECOM’s selection project, with transparency and flexibility

in the process and strong communication among all parties. Project goals and milestones

were met in accordance with the target timeline, and secured ECOM’s confidence in both

the process and the result. “At the beginning we wanted to buy an insurance policy for

this very important decision we were making,” says Post. ”Working with TEC was the best

insurance policy for the system selection process.”

We wanted a software selection process which was honest and fair and gave all of the parties involved the same chance. ”

“

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