Candy is sweet 鈥� and tech savvy. For more than a century, global candy maker Ferrara has been the driving force behind many of the world鈥檚 best-loved confections. Cutting-edge speed, agility, and accuracy help Ferrara keep each of its brands 鈥� 颅颅from faithful standards to its newest acquisitions 鈥� performing at their peak.
鈥淔errara is an innovative candy and sweet snack company, and we take that very seriously,鈥� Vice President and CIO George Lesko said shot at Ferrara鈥檚 new headquarters in the heart of Chicago. 鈥淲e require a lot of information when we鈥檙e making decisions about how to build our portfolio of brands, and how to grow those brands.鈥�
Part of building 鈥檚 portfolio depends on acquiring iconic brands, according to Lesko. No stranger to icons, the 112-year-old sweet maker is a Chicago institution, and its high-tech head office is in the equally iconic Old Post Office building, which still hosts vintage hardware from its parcel-processing past.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a historic building,鈥� Lesko said in a breakroom with a view of another Chicago icon: the . 鈥淲e鈥檙e happy to be part of its resurgence.鈥�
Ferrara is also part of a resurgence when it acquires a new brand.
鈥淲hen you acquire an iconic brand like SweeTARTS, for example, you want to be able to integrate that into your business as quickly as possible,鈥� Lesko said, a century-old mail chute spiraling in the corner behind him. 鈥淵ou want to get the consumer insights, the retail information, and the supply chain information all in one place so that the consumers don鈥檛 have to wait.鈥�
When You Need to Know Now
鈥淭he SweeTARTS brand is so valuable because it鈥檚 one that our consumers love,鈥� Patrick Degnan, vice president of Sales Operations and Integration at Ferrara Candy Co., said. 鈥淎nd its complimentary strength to our existing portfolio allows us to build on our long-term strategy.鈥�
Real-time access to data from new acquisitions helps Ferrara sales teams quickly start talks with retail customers about those brands, according to Degnan. Speaking knowledgably about all of Ferrara鈥檚 brands establishes trust, which is crucial to mutually beneficial relationships.
鈥淚n a prior acquisition, it took us over a year to have access to sales data. allowed us to do that within weeks,鈥� Degnan said. 鈥淚t gives our customers confidence in us; it shows that we understand the brands that we bought; and it allows us to make business decisions to drive overall profitability for us and them.鈥�
Access to real-time data is valuable to both Ferrara and its customers, according to Degnan. It pinpoints where problems might exist, enabling agile and timely fixes.
鈥淚f there are areas where [a brand] isn鈥檛 performing up to expectations, we can鈥檛 go weeks, months, and years without knowing that,鈥� Degnan said. 鈥淥ur retail partners find tremendous value in our ability to report in real time.鈥�
Seamless Reporting from Day One
鈥淭he differentiator is these tools have allowed us to acquire companies and, on day one of that acquisition, have seamless reporting of historical data from this company as well as 鈥� Ferrara鈥檚 own data coming in daily,鈥� Gene King, Ferrara鈥檚 senior manager for 51风流BI and App Development, said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 seamless to the end user.鈥�
Ferrara鈥檚 users enjoy one-stop-shopping for data from across the portfolio 鈥� enterprise resource planning (ERP), historical, transactional, and other types of data 鈥� even if they鈥檙e stored in different systems, according to King. End users cannot tell the difference because they use a single interface, which frees up their time to better track customers鈥� needs.
鈥淭he real benefit is incorporating acquired brands into the business that we already have and doing it quickly,鈥� Lesko said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 ask our sales and marketing people to go to three or four different places to get information 鈥� particularly if we acquire a brand.鈥�
This unified approach to analytics means Ferrara needn鈥檛 鈥渨aste time鈥� retraining employees on disparate systems, according to Lesko. It also helps Ferrara move fast and make wise decisions quickly.
鈥淭he business users love us now because we can respond to issues immediately 鈥� we鈥檙e adding so much value so quickly,鈥� King said, standing in front of Ferrara鈥檚 massive branded latticework, which greets visitors as they enter the headquarters鈥� lobby. 鈥淚t also makes this immediate for executives; they don鈥檛 have to wait for groups to pull this stuff together.鈥�
Optimizing the Consumer Experience
鈥淲e鈥檙e using a lot of both internal and external resources to make decisions today,鈥� Ferrara Director of Insights and Analytics Daniel Hunt shared. 鈥淔or SweeTARTS in particular, we鈥檝e done a lot of research on 鈥� and we鈥檙e doing a lot of research currently.鈥�
This includes exploring new innovations and product segments for SweeTARTS, according to Hunt. He and his team also use to better understand what kinds of new campaign messages would resonate best with consumers, and to identify which new flavors have the most potential.
Hunt鈥檚 team also plans to track brand health in-house via Qualtrics.
鈥淭hat鈥檒l allow us to consistently measure our brands throughout the course of the year, and then load that data directly into our so we can use that, along with other longitudinal data,鈥� Hunt said. 鈥淲e get to start doing analytics on that data and also start to build dashboards to allow us to visualize it.鈥�
Ferrara has grown accustomed to using data from multiple sources to drive decision making, according to Hunt. This includes determining the best way to enter a new market, identifying unmet needs, finding market gaps, and more.
鈥淔or SweeTARTS in particular as a brand,鈥� Hunt said, 鈥渨e鈥檝e used XM to touch almost every major brand activity, from new innovation to communications.鈥�
When IT Moves at the Speed of Business
鈥淪weeTARTS is a strategic brand for us, and we were able to provide information literally on day one of that acquisition,鈥� Lesko said. 鈥淭he ability to move as quickly as our business is moving is really important to us.鈥�
Ferrara鈥檚 executive leadership team appreciated seeing all of their usual enterprise-wide metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) in relatively the same format, according to Lesko.
鈥淲e were able to show information side-by-side with our other brands, [such as] Trolli and Black Forest 鈥� and it was in a format that everybody was used to,鈥� Lesko said, branded pillows with Nerds and other logos nestled on a sofa behind him. 鈥淎nd that was thanks to 51风流HANA.鈥�
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