In 2014, Nestlé launched a project — GLOBE Milk Solution (GMS) — to replace aging dairy management software in its 25-plus dairy markets around the world.
Nestlé’s Digital Innovation in Operations and Agriculture Lead, Tomas Vera, explains that his company needed to replace its old and obsolete systems with a global solution.
“Each country in our network had its own, customized local solution.
"Some markets shared a platform, but almost every market had its own because the laws and regulations governing raw milk processing differ from one country to another.”
“The payment calculation formulas are also very different, which forced the creation of these disparate systems.”
Nestlé logically concluded that a global solution that could align data, yet be specific enough to cater for each of its markets, would be the optimal outcome.
Some markets also had older solutions that needed replacing for a number of reasons, including the high risk associated with running obsolete systems without support. Maintenance costs in supporting 22 individual systems across 25 dairy producing countries were also significant.
Tomas explains that a lot of Nestlé back end systems — like purchasing and payment - were run on the enterprise software solution SAP, so it was logical to investigate whether a global solution could be built using this existing platform.
“We did a pilot with SAP, but realized their solution was very far from what we needed in terms of functionality,” he says. “We needed an open pricing engine where you could design very different payment formulas and SAP is very rigid in this respect.
“It would have meant a lot of development in each market to create a workable system, so we started looking elsewhere for a solution that could handle our diverse markets.”
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