SAP ERP Replaces Legacy System to Future-Proof Business
Auckland, New Zealand — Ballance Agri-Nutrients, New Zealand’s leading fertiliser manufacturer and distributor, has selected SAP to provide enterprise applications to replace its legacy system. The deal includes SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Ballance’s existing legacy system had been heavily customised over the years in order to meet increasing business requirements. When it came time to upgrade, the company decided that SAP’s packaged approach would be better able to achieve the desired business benefits when compared with competitors’ offerings.
“The functionality provided by SAP enables us to streamline and simplify our processes, in order to make Ballance easier to do business with,” says Elizabeth Harper, corporate services general manager at Ballance. “We are looking to future-proof our business with this implementation. SAP provides us with a comprehensive solution that allows us to operate in a best-practice environment throughout all aspects of our business. Our focus is on providing excellent service to our customers, and SAP will enable us to enhance our existing offering and improve our efficiencies. We have selected IBM as our implementation partner to help us to manage the business transformation and benefits realisation.”
The deal includes a number of SAP NetWeaver® licences as well as SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (SAP NetWeaver PI) and SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe.
SAP NetWeaver is a web-based, open integration and application platform that serves as the foundation for enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) and allows the integration and alignment of people, information and business processes across business and technology boundaries. SAP NetWeaver PI is SAP’s implementation of SOA middleware.
“In a rapidly changing business environment, companies need to be equipped to compete and thrive,” says Ian Black, managing director, SAP New Zealand. “SAP’s technology enables collaboration across business networks.
Ballance joins a number of companies in the agricultural and rural services sector in New Zealand using SAP solutions. These include RD1, Gallagher Group, Livestock Improvement, Dexcel (DairyNZ) and Dupont New Zealand.
SAP CRM, SCM and SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe
Ballance will also implement SAP CRM to enable its employees to be more responsive to customers’ demands in the field and to assist with providing a superior customer experience. SAP CRM provides best-in-class functionality for marketing, sales and service. It supports customer-facing business processes across multiple interaction channels enabling organisations to focus on strategies for customer-driven growth.
SAP SCM will streamline Ballance’s supply chain, including improved demand planning and forecasting and optimised logistics and distribution. SAP SCM enables collaboration, planning, execution and coordination of the entire supply chain network. It provides broad functionality for enabling adaptive supply chain networks and integrates seamlessly with both SAP and non-SAP software. SAP CRM is recognised by key industry analysts as the market-leading supply chain management application.
SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe enables innovative processes, such as capturing off-line orders from customers, which helps to streamline cumbersome paper processes. SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe helps to bridge the paper-to-digital divide by helping organisations to leverage the versatility, consistency, and accessibility of electronic forms. SAP Interactive Forms can extend the reach of enterprise applications to a much broader set of users – internally and externally – while easily pulling data from SAP software.
About Ballance
Ballance Agri-Nutrients Limited is one of New Zealand’s leading fertiliser specialists, with manufacturing plants located in Whangarei, Mount Maunganui and Invercargill. In addition, the company owns the ammonia-urea manufacturing plant at Kapuni in Taranaki, and Super Air, one of the country’s largest agricultural aviation companies.
Ballance is a 100-percent farmer-owned co-operative, with some 18,000 shareholders throughout New Zealand. It was officially launched in 2001, the final step in a series of company amalgamations and alliances that saw regional fertiliser co-operatives come together under the umbrella of what was then Bay of Plenty Fertiliser.
Today, Ballance is a truly national company, with staff located from the Far North to the Deep South. The company places a strong emphasis on delivering value to its shareholders and on the use of a scientific approach to plant nutrient management. (Additional information at www.ballance.co.nz)
