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As drinks producers the world over embrace technology, new opportunites for industry specific computer software are developing by the day. Deidre Mason investigates the leaps being made in drinks specific software and their applications in the modern beverage industry.
Most businesses install computer software because it makes their operation more efficient and so helps them to keep abreast of, or outdo, the competition. However, the growth in national and international regulations affecting the drinks industry has opened up a lucrative business opportunity for companies producing industry-specific computer software. As the screw tightens, computer programmes for keeping track of new fiscal, safety and quality requirements will emerge. So, too, will industry-specific software covering updated health and safety at work requirements.
Drinks industry experts meeting in London earlier this year for the International Wine and Spirit Fair made it clear to the wine trade that traceability systems for the industry are inevitable and that all parts of the supply chain must prepare for new legal requirements.
Michael Wight from the UK’s Food Standards Agency told the audience that the European Commission’s “farm to fork” approach to food safety standards had imposed particular demands on the EU industry, notably traceability requirements as well as formal product recall and withdrawal procedures.
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By GlobalDataThe British wine trade has taken this on board with the development of the Wine and Spirit Association’s Traceability Code of Practice, which is now gaining official acceptance across the European Union. This will open up a new market for software that can enable manufacturers to keep track of the ingredients they use and precise details of their sources.
Software demand is also being increased by the gradual international adoption of the HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) system for the inspection of all food and drink production. This is increasingly a legal requirement for food production (if not yet alcoholic drinks manufacturing, although the USA has recently put in it place for juice manufacturing). Whatever, HACCP inspection processes require record-keeping in considerable detail and that is an opening for software producers.
A more constant demand in play is the need to keep track of fiscal requirements, particularly at the end of the financial year. Many years ago, the Guinness brewery in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, would have had to pay an extra IRE£100,000 in duty for a particular financial year to the government had a sharp-witted employee not realised that the brew in Vat A would have to be transferred immediately to Vat B by midnight that day. The highly computerised brewery of today does not rely on that sort of good luck.
Guinness parent Diageo uses SAP 4.6 software. It is an integrated management system, linking management, production, accounting and reporting and is now used across all the Diageo companies. One of the key advantages of this package is that the entire accounting service can be based in one location – Budapest – which makes for considerable cost savings on staffing and administration.
Meanwhile from Tel Aviv, Israel, comes the latest version of the already successful DrinkSoft2000 programme. The new technology, built into the updated software, makes it easier to interface with, to install and to maintain. It is essentially a “manufacturing” programme used particularly by soft drinks and beer producers, but the update has built in Microsoft‘s distributed network architecture for manufacturing. The advantages claimed are that the programme optimises plant productivity, linking shop floor databases to those run by management, so that everybody knows what is going on.
One software company in business since 1981 with products developed specifically for the drinks industry is Online Drinks, (recently acquired by Alphameric plc and now called Alphameric Solutions Ltd). Its Brewmaster New Horizon software covers increasing sales, stock control, container control, cash management, buying out, estate management, key performance measurement and improving the quality of customer service. However, the company stresses that it does not try to shoehorn the business requirements of all parts of the drinks industry into a single software product. Brewmaster contains a range of core systems, tailored to reflect the differing priorities and activities within the industry’s various sectors.
Regional brewers, for example, put product management, telesales, warehousing and distribution at the top of their lists. Pub companies need to control the estate and monitor the performance of individual outlets and their supplying brewers.
Some companies will choose selected modules as a tactical solution for a particular need whereas others will opt for an integrated system incorporating a large number of modules to give them a strategic business system.
The software itself uses Windows screen displays. Beneath the visible part of the software, “open” technology allows the software applications to support a wide range of databases and operating environments, the company says.
Meanwhile, international software producer Geac Enterprise Solutions offers System21, in place successfully since 1995 at the King & Barnes family brewery in Horsham, Sussex, the UK. During the 1980s, the company had undertaken major redevelopments that included a new brewhouse, new fermenting vessels and facilities for brewing and packaging keg beers and lagers. Recently, the company added a bottling plant.
The company’s existing computer system was buckling under the strain, particularly accounting software as the company increased its number of managed houses.
Barrie Thorne, the brewery’s IT manager, says: “Full integration with the finance system means that the System21 software integrates automatically with the general ledger. The automation of the accounts process reduces workload. It has improved stock control and the system has the flexibility to grow with the future demands of the company. This all results in better management accounts being produced, providing more accurate information.”
*Additional reporting by Swineetha Dias Wickramanayaka
**Contacts:
http://www.sap.com
www.digital-yorkshire.co.uk/drinks_products_bmnh.htm
www.geac.com/case
