Karishma is an experienced project manager, and PRINCE2 qualified in IT project management in Dairy Supply Chain implementations. After working at Contec Group for the past eight years, Karishma has a unique perspective on the dairy industry and its need to adopt and embrace digital innovation and do so successfully. Prior to joining Contec Group, Karishma worked in banking, another highly regulated environment. With the completion of each implementation, Karishma has seen fantastic business transformation results that dairy processors realize through integrating, digitalizing, and optimizing their supply chains from farm to factory.
Tell us your six critical pieces of advice for embarking on a dairy supply chain implementation
- Select an experienced Project Manager, gather a team committed to the project, and establish clear and consistent communication with stakeholders.
- Conduct an audit of your existing processes, systems, and technologies to get a good handle on the project's scope and document this well. You will find that many of your current processes will become redundant with a fully integrated solution.
- Choose a proven solution with all the required functionality and partner with a team of experts with a successful implementation record. Future proof your business; you only want to do this once.
- Ask questions to your experienced digital partner. They will help and guide you throughout the implementation process with expert advice and knowledge.
- Implement your preferred ERP solution for your supply chain with the assistance of a team of industry experts who can help you identify essential project milestones and help your organization manage change during the crucially important implementation phases.
- Optimize the opportunity for your organization by choosing intelligent, connected, and secure business network platforms alongside innovative technology that help further focus your efforts on your product lifecycle processes.
Why do you think digitalizing the milk supply chain is essential?
Recent global events have created new levels of digital disruption; digitizing supply chains through modern integration, automation, and secure and connected ecosystems makes it easy to manage information flows and uncover insights to ensure continued operations, even in the face of significant disruptions.
There are just so many benefits, such as a great ROI. This is a mission-critical area for the Dairy Industry because it is the only way to ensure accurate data for milk quality, traceability, producer payments, and business intelligence. Other added benefits which increase the sustainability of the dairy industry include:
- Automation
- Auditability
- Transparency
- Compliance
- Future-proofing
- Risk Management
- Data Security
The only way to achieve all of this in an economically sustainable way is through digitization.
Tell me about a successful dairy supply chain implementation you worked on
I have been involved in the implementation of ERP solutions for approximately 19 countries, and all of them have been successful; one of which I am particularly proud of was the world-renowned dairy company with a large complex supply chain. We collaborated with multiple business stakeholders to analyze their complex processes and map them to our ERP solution, MADCAP. Our previous implementation experience helped us to deliver the quality system on time and keep scope creep to a minimum. That allowed us to deliver the project cost-effectively, i.e., within the budget.
How do you ensure everything goes to plan?
It is critical you have the required in-depth knowledge, are highly organized, surround yourself with a talented team, ensure a great communications plan, and continuously monitor milestones for on-time quality delivery.
What does an implementation cost, directly and indirectly?
Of course, this depends on the scale and scope of all the current processes we need to integrate and the complexity of the business. However, if we work with a project team that knows its existing systems and functions well, that dramatically reduces the time required for the implementation and thus limits the cost from your partner and your in-house resources.
We believe that MADCAP is the most comprehensive solution available, with the functionality to cover the most complex of dairy businesses. When “you go live,” you will have a fully automated solution, not part of a solution, and our customers will see an ROI from day one. When you require additional functionality, we can develop this relatively fast.
License and support fees can be paid on a subscription basis to limit upfront costs, and we do not tie clients into long-term contracts. Having never had a client leave us in over 25 years, we do not have to.