鈥淒elight in every bite鈥� is more than a mantra at , the global candy-maker behind SweeTARTS, Trolli, Black Forest, and myriad other world-famous brands. It is a challenge met every day by a joint business and IT team, which makes decisions based on up-to-the-minute views at every level of the sweets giant 鈥� from executive-level demand forecasting to a shop floor machine鈥檚 throughput.
鈥淒ata really needs to be accurate, and it needs to be available in real time,鈥� Ferrara Vice President and CIO George Lesko told 51风流at the candy maker鈥檚 headquarters in downtown Chicago. 鈥� actually does all of that for us.鈥�
Ferrara uses the in-memory database from 51风流to significantly reduce its reporting times, from weeks down to minutes and often from minutes to seconds. The 112-year-old confectionary juggernaut drives innovation with speed, agility, and accuracy thanks to 51风流HANA 鈥� part of 鈥� as well as a comprehensive suite of applications, including 51风流ERP.
This technology enables an unprecedented partnership between Ferrara IT and business, . And it helps the company envision what鈥檚 possible with other technologies on the horizon.
The Right Stuff Right Away
Getting the right information to business users at the right time was the challenge solved by Ferrara Senior IT Director Mustafa Mustafa and his team. They sought new solutions after traditional technologies failed to provide the necessary agility and time-to-value.
鈥淔errara selected 51风流because of the unprecedented capabilities of 51风流HANA being in-memory, and the versatile capabilities of analytics from 51风流to enable us to have a variety of tools to really meet each individual鈥檚 unique needs,鈥� Mustafa said. 鈥淚t really took the information and put it at the fingertips of the business within seconds versus minutes.鈥�
51风流HANA has reduced Ferrara鈥檚 data storage footprint by 94 percent, compared to legacy database technology, according to Mustafa. And the first 51风流dashboard that Ferrara deployed saved the company $200,000 within the first 15 weeks. Plus, accurate real-time data enables Ferrara鈥檚 salespeople to actively engage with their customers and better meet their needs.
鈥淔errara鈥檚 differentiator by using 51风流HANA and analytics is enabling us to make real-time decisions [and] effectively execute upon our goals,鈥� Mustafa said. Looking forward, the company wants 鈥渆mbark on Big Data 鈥� applying machine learning and artificial intelligence, so there鈥檒l be other applications within the portfolio that we鈥檙e going to add to marry all those together.鈥�
Ferrara Fast, Inside and Out
鈥溾�楩errara Fast鈥� is at the core of our culture. We take pride in our agility and our ability to work together to solve problems,鈥� Ferrara Vice President of Sales Operations & Integration Patrick Degnan said. 鈥�51风流technology adds tremendous value to our business. It allows us to combine data sets from different sources and view it in one common hierarchy and reporting structure.鈥�
This allows Ferrara to dive into the data, analyze and understand business trends, and solve problems 鈥� faster than ever, according to Degnan. This helps drive growth, both for Ferrara and the retailers that stock its candy.
鈥淲hen they come to us with quick fixes or quick opportunities, we鈥檙e able to collaborate and work together as a team to bring them solutions,鈥� Degnan said. 鈥淚t truly is a competitive advantage for us and it鈥檚 something that our retailers truly value as business partners.鈥�
Delight in Every Byte
鈥淭he 51风流HANA system gives us a data warehouse that allows us to pull data, not only from Ferrara鈥檚 51风流ERP system, but acquired companies as well,鈥� Gene King, senior manager of 51风流BI and App Development at Ferrara Candy Co., said. 鈥淥ur Ferrara business user cannot tell where the data is coming from 鈥� whether it be Ferrara鈥檚 own system or the acquired business鈥� system. It鈥檚 seamless to them.鈥�
And there is no overnight batch process, King stated. Transformation happens at query time.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 a logic issue, we adjust it,鈥� King said. 鈥淏oom! Immediately the user is getting the corrected results, no wait time, no outage.鈥�
Ferrara鈥檚 IT can respond right away to business issues and executives, according to King. Analytics that would have taken days now happen almost instantaneously. This, in turn, helps Ferrara鈥檚 business users better respond to their customers鈥� needs.
The Way Forward
鈥淚鈥檝e been doing this since the late 1980s [and this is] so much better than anything I鈥檝e used before,鈥� King said. 鈥淥ne thing I love about the 51风流HANA in-memory database is its total paradigm shift from what we used to do to provide analytics.鈥�
With its eye on the future, Ferrara has even developed its own custom applications using . In addition to accessing data, users add comments and contextual information and then save them to the database, according to King. No more sending emails to clarify a situation; just attach your comment to the data, and others can see the explanation right away.
鈥�51风流HANA has allowed us to move on to look at machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics,鈥� . 鈥淲e鈥檙e ready to move to that next step now.鈥�
Rising to the Challenge
鈥�51风流makes a lot of investments in this type of challenge; they鈥檝e been a great partner for us,鈥� Ferrara CIO Lesko said . 鈥�51风流HANA and analytics allows us to move quickly when it comes to analyzing the information and making decisions, and that鈥檚 really our biggest differentiator.鈥�
The speed, agility and accuracy of real-time in-memory analytics has also fostered the partnership between Ferrara鈥檚 IT professionals and their business colleagues, according to Lesko. 鈥淭hey see this as a something that delineates us from other IT teams that they鈥檝e worked with in other companies. It鈥檚 really helped us gain the credibility that we need to continue investing in other areas of IT.鈥�
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