Companies in the United States face a new business reality defined by economic volatility, higher demands from customers and increased competition. For diverse, U.S.-based companies such as Cheney Brothers and Enerfab, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and its partner solutions will help mitigate these business challenges by replacing disparate IT landscapes with integrated solutions that provide the clarity and transparency required to effectively manage their businesses and support their growth plans.
Cheney Brothers Tried on Others but Saw SAP as the Best Fit for Its Growing Enterprise
Founded in 1925, Cheney Brothers has grown from a distributor of milk and eggs into one of the largest food service distributors in the southern United States. Today, Cheney Brothers manages an inventory with more than 15,000 items that generates yearly revenues exceeding $700 million. The company needed a new business solution to execute on its growth plans and reclaim margins lost through inefficient rebate and chargeback processes.
With SAP® Business Suite software, Cheney Brothers plans to improve the alignment and efficiencies of its financial, human capital and operational processes. The enhanced enterprise productivity and insight it will gain from using the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application SAP® ERP will enable the company to adapt quickly and cost effectively to changing business, market and industry requirements.
"Cheney Brothers' number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service, and our commitment to doing so has made us one of the fastest growing, respected and progressive food service distributors today," said Joe Haber, chief information officer, Cheney Brothers, Inc. "Our future success depends on our ability to understand and anticipate our customers' needs, so we looked for a solution that can help our business run more efficiently and let us continue our focus on providing exceptional service. After evaluating several different options, we choose to partner with SAP because the company understood our business and offered the best solutions to support industry processes, including supplier integration, margin management and cost control."
Enerfab Reviewed the Options and Found that SAP Can Best Meet Its Current and Future Needs
Recognized as the fastest growing privately held specialty contractor in Cincinnati, Ohio, Enerfab Inc. was feeling growing pains with its existing IT systems. Reliability issues with its software performance provided Enerfab with inadequate support of the fabrication and assembly operations of its business. Additionally, operations throughout the company were run on separate, standalone applications, creating inconsistent business practices and very poor visibility across the organization. An executive from Enerfab was quoted as saying, "ninety percent of our time and energy is spent gathering information, with only the remaining 10 percent available to analyze and react to it."
In an effort to make better use of its data, Enerfab selected SAP® Business All-in-One solutions and the CREW for Construction solution from partner et alia. Through CREW, Enerfab can more quickly implement the SAP solution and still allow for the flexibility to implement its business process specifically. With SAP software and CREW, Enerfab expects to achieve the following goals:
- Complete, accurate and real-time visibility of job costs and business performance information;
- Standardization of business practices across all locations and divisions;
- An installed ERP platform that is reliable and can be counted on to support projected growth, including ventures into new markets and new industries;
- Improved efficiencies of supply chain and administrative functions.
"Earlier this year, Enerfab completed the assembly of a five-year strategic plan," said Dan Sillies, CFO, Enerfab Inc. "Upon execution, our plan will result in a tremendous amount of growth. In order to support this growth, we realized that we must solidify our infrastructure. We are making many changes within our organization to be ready for this growth, none more important than the ERP implementation. Through an extensive search, we chose SAP and et alia as our 'solutions' partner. Et alia brought the right balance of flexibility and experience to achieve all of our strategic initiatives."
Solution Extension Offerings Address Targeted Business Needs To Drive Additional Value and Returns From IT Investments
In addition to SAP solutions, Cheney Brothers and Enerfab selected solution extensions from SAP partners--including Adobe, Open Text, RWD Technologies and Vistex--to complement their existing IT investments. Developed by independent partners, solution extensions integrate easily with SAP software, offering cross-solution and cross-industry functionality that help address the everyday issues and needs many companies have, and include:
- SAP® Interactive Forms software by Adobe helps organizations that rely on paper forms to leverage the versatility, consistency and accessibility of electronic forms.
- The SAP® Document Access application by Open Text helps companies access and manage all types of documents relating to transactions and processes run by SAP software.
- The SAP® Productivity Pak application by RWD builds end-user skills and confidence with context-sensitive job aids and e-learning.
- The SAP® Incentive Administration application by Vistex enables companies to efficiently manage commissions and other incentive programs, including purchasing and sales rebate and/or royalty payment programs.
- The SAP® Paybacks and Chargebacks application by Vistex helps streamline chargeback processes, reduce errors and disputes, validate claims, avoid missed cost-recovery opportunities, prevent overpayments, accelerate cash flow and achieve extensive savings in labor costs.
"In today's challenging business environment, companies are choosing business solutions provided by SAP and our partners," said Robert Enslin, president, SAP North America. "SAP empowers companies to act quickly and decisively while addressing business issues they face today and in preparing for a full economic recovery."
Next Major Event: SAP® TechEd 2009 in Phoenix, Vienna, Shanghai and Bangalore
More than 12,000 SAP customers, partners and technical experts will convene at SAP® TechEd 2009, the company's largest ecosystem education event, to gain the inspiration and skills needed to maximize impact on their organizations at a time when companies need both skilled professionals and agile, efficient IT solutions. In its 13th year, SAP TechEd 2009 is being held in Phoenix on October 13-16, Vienna on October 27-29, Shanghai on November 11-12 and Bangalore on November 18-20. For more information, please visit www.sapteched.com. Join the conversation via Twitter at #sapteched09.
Cheney Brothers Tried on Others but Saw SAP as the Best Fit for Its Growing Enterprise
Founded in 1925, Cheney Brothers has grown from a distributor of milk and eggs into one of the largest food service distributors in the southern United States. Today, Cheney Brothers manages an inventory with more than 15,000 items that generates yearly revenues exceeding $700 million. The company needed a new business solution to execute on its growth plans and reclaim margins lost through inefficient rebate and chargeback processes.
With SAP® Business Suite software, Cheney Brothers plans to improve the alignment and efficiencies of its financial, human capital and operational processes. The enhanced enterprise productivity and insight it will gain from using the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application SAP® ERP will enable the company to adapt quickly and cost effectively to changing business, market and industry requirements.
"Cheney Brothers' number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service, and our commitment to doing so has made us one of the fastest growing, respected and progressive food service distributors today," said Joe Haber, chief information officer, Cheney Brothers, Inc. "Our future success depends on our ability to understand and anticipate our customers' needs, so we looked for a solution that can help our business run more efficiently and let us continue our focus on providing exceptional service. After evaluating several different options, we choose to partner with SAP because the company understood our business and offered the best solutions to support industry processes, including supplier integration, margin management and cost control."
Enerfab Reviewed the Options and Found that SAP Can Best Meet Its Current and Future Needs
Recognized as the fastest growing privately held specialty contractor in Cincinnati, Ohio, Enerfab Inc. was feeling growing pains with its existing IT systems. Reliability issues with its software performance provided Enerfab with inadequate support of the fabrication and assembly operations of its business. Additionally, operations throughout the company were run on separate, standalone applications, creating inconsistent business practices and very poor visibility across the organization. An executive from Enerfab was quoted as saying, "ninety percent of our time and energy is spent gathering information, with only the remaining 10 percent available to analyze and react to it."
In an effort to make better use of its data, Enerfab selected SAP® Business All-in-One solutions and the CREW for Construction solution from partner et alia. Through CREW, Enerfab can more quickly implement the SAP solution and still allow for the flexibility to implement its business process specifically. With SAP software and CREW, Enerfab expects to achieve the following goals:
- Complete, accurate and real-time visibility of job costs and business performance information;
- Standardization of business practices across all locations and divisions;
- An installed ERP platform that is reliable and can be counted on to support projected growth, including ventures into new markets and new industries;
- Improved efficiencies of supply chain and administrative functions.
"Earlier this year, Enerfab completed the assembly of a five-year strategic plan," said Dan Sillies, CFO, Enerfab Inc. "Upon execution, our plan will result in a tremendous amount of growth. In order to support this growth, we realized that we must solidify our infrastructure. We are making many changes within our organization to be ready for this growth, none more important than the ERP implementation. Through an extensive search, we chose SAP and et alia as our 'solutions' partner. Et alia brought the right balance of flexibility and experience to achieve all of our strategic initiatives."
Solution Extension Offerings Address Targeted Business Needs To Drive Additional Value and Returns From IT Investments
In addition to SAP solutions, Cheney Brothers and Enerfab selected solution extensions from SAP partners--including Adobe, Open Text, RWD Technologies and Vistex--to complement their existing IT investments. Developed by independent partners, solution extensions integrate easily with SAP software, offering cross-solution and cross-industry functionality that help address the everyday issues and needs many companies have, and include:
- SAP® Interactive Forms software by Adobe helps organizations that rely on paper forms to leverage the versatility, consistency and accessibility of electronic forms.
- The SAP® Document Access application by Open Text helps companies access and manage all types of documents relating to transactions and processes run by SAP software.
- The SAP® Productivity Pak application by RWD builds end-user skills and confidence with context-sensitive job aids and e-learning.
- The SAP® Incentive Administration application by Vistex enables companies to efficiently manage commissions and other incentive programs, including purchasing and sales rebate and/or royalty payment programs.
- The SAP® Paybacks and Chargebacks application by Vistex helps streamline chargeback processes, reduce errors and disputes, validate claims, avoid missed cost-recovery opportunities, prevent overpayments, accelerate cash flow and achieve extensive savings in labor costs.
"In today's challenging business environment, companies are choosing business solutions provided by SAP and our partners," said Robert Enslin, president, SAP North America. "SAP empowers companies to act quickly and decisively while addressing business issues they face today and in preparing for a full economic recovery."
Next Major Event: SAP® TechEd 2009 in Phoenix, Vienna, Shanghai and Bangalore
More than 12,000 SAP customers, partners and technical experts will convene at SAP® TechEd 2009, the company's largest ecosystem education event, to gain the inspiration and skills needed to maximize impact on their organizations at a time when companies need both skilled professionals and agile, efficient IT solutions. In its 13th year, SAP TechEd 2009 is being held in Phoenix on October 13-16, Vienna on October 27-29, Shanghai on November 11-12 and Bangalore on November 18-20. For more information, please visit www.sapteched.com. Join the conversation via Twitter at #sapteched09.
