BusinessDriven Digital Transformation DIGITAL REPORT 2021
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
BELL FOOD GROUP
PEOPLE, NOT SYSTEMS 2
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BELL FOOD GROUP
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BELL FOOD GROUP
BELL FOOD GROUP
Sven Friedli, CIO of Bell Food Group, talks AI, Machine Learning, Video Analytics, and how to make tech serve the business’ needs.
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Sven Friedli, CIO of Bell Food Group
t its heart, every digital transformation - no matter what sorts of flashy technology you employ - needs to serve the interests of the business. Sven Friedli, Chief Information Officer at Bell Food Group, can’t stress enough the fact that “People, not systems, make the difference. If you don't have clever people who understand how your technology works, you're not going to benefit from it. If you don't have people working hard to understand what the business needs, not just which technologies are the coolest, you'll never end up with a good result.” Friedli joined Bell Food Group in October of 2020, taking on the significant task of driving digital adoption and transformation across the multinational meat and convenience food production company. One of the major challenges inherent to the role, he explains, is that Bell Food Group’s scale (last year, the group sold over half a billion kilos of food, including more than 300mn kilos of meat, poultry and seafood and nearly 200mn kilos of convenience products) is matched only by the diversity of its business units. It's quite a challenging prospect, given all our different locations and sites, all operating with different technologies. The Group grew quite fast over the past 10 years, so there are a lot of newlyadded companies that Bell Food owns, each with their own IT environment,” he explains. “My job is to ensure that all these systems stay up and running, find clever harmonisations that fulfil our business needs in the future and today, and drive a step-by-step digital transformation of the company as a whole.” bellfoodgroup.com
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BELL FOOD GROUP
SVEN FRIEDLI TITLE: CIO INDUSTRY: FOOD PRODUCTION LOCATION: SWITZERLAND
EXECUTIVE BIO
Passionate manager with 15+ years of experience in it, telecom, enterprise architecture, manufacturing and organisational development. Before Sven entered Bell Food Group he spent the past 12 years in the telecom industry. He started his career studying computer science and business economics at the university of applied science in Bern and worked for a startup in software development. Within Swisscom, Sven first was responsible for several managing roles in the enterprise business group, mostly focusing on managing and delivering IT projects and telecom services. Over the last five years he was responsible for the strategic direction guiding architecture, technology, and innovation within Swisscom. Since October 2021, Sven has been managing the IT of Bell Food Group. He has to keep the balance in order to master the increasing complexity in IT, to ensure the daily 7/24 operation of the company, and to make sensible use of the opportunities of digitisation for Bell Food Group.
“ IT'S IMPORTANT TO SHOW OUR INDIVIDUAL BUSINESS UNITS WHAT THESE NEW TECHNOLOGIES CAN DO FOR THEM IN TERMS OF EFFICIENCY, STABILITY, AND TRANSPARENCY” SVEN FRIEDLI
CIO, BELL FOOD GROUP
BELL FOOD GROUP
Title of the video
Founded in 1869 by Samuel Bell, the once-small Swiss meat processing firm has grown into a truly pan-regional player, with operations in 15 countries throughout Europe, from Spain to Romania. “We offer products ranging from meat and poultry to charcuterie and seafood. We are also in the convenience sector, so we produce everything from salads and sandwiches to ready-made pasta, soups, and so on,” says Friedli. “We have about 12,000 employees working across our 63 locations, as well as a huge network of suppliers and sales partners in both the food industry and the IT sector who help us fulfil the needs of our customers.”
Efficiency, Stability and Transparency The potential benefits that Friedli hopes the adoption of cutting edge technologies like video analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and cloud-based business intelligence (BI) solutions can deliver are - he stresses - firmly contingent on an IT department that truly understands and works to serve the needs of Bell Food Group’s business functions. In order to get individual business units to support and embrace new technologies, Friedli is a keen advocate of the personal touch. “Since I started, I've been meeting a lot of different people and visiting a lot of different sites. You'd better believe that I have filled bellfoodgroup.com
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BELL FOOD GROUP
“ EACH PROJECT IS DIFFERENT, AND WE NEED TO BE FLEXIBLE”
PETER ETTRICH TITLE: HEAD OF DEVOPS CENTRE CSB INDUSTRY: FOOD PRODUCTION LOCATION: SWITZERLAND
PETER ETTRICH
HEAD OF DEVOPS CENTRE CSB, BELL FOOD GROUP
EXECUTIVE BIO
out an incredible number of forms to get back and forth to where I've been needed over the past seven months,” he laughs. However, he readily admits that two COVID-19 tests a week and a life lived almost perpetually on the road are essential if he is to effectively drive Bell Food Group towards its digital transformation goals. “It's important to show our individual business units what the new technologies we are exploring can do for them in terms of efficiency, stability, and transparency,” he explains. “In the food industry, digitalisation makes it much easier to show our customers exactly where our product came from, which kind of farmer is contributing the
Peter Ettrich started his career over 30 years ago with the first implementation and support of the ERP System CSB at a meat and sausage factory in south Germany. After a few years, for the first time he connected his professional life with Bell Food Group and ended up taking care of CSB Systems at various Bell’s locations. The next step in his career was CSB Switzerland, where he worked as a Project Manager and CSB Consultant for national and international CSB Customers. 5 years ago he joined Bell Food Group again. His previous experience and participation in many international projects allowed him to take on the position of Project Manager and Team Leader. Additionally, starting this year, Peter became the leader of the DevOps Centre CSB, and is responsible for the CSB Applications in 19 of Bell’s factories throughout Europe.
BELL FOOD GROUP
ANABELLE KLUSMANN TITLE: HEAD OF APPLICATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY: FOOD PRODUCTION LOCATION: SWITZERLAND
EXECUTIVE BIO
Drives strategic digitalisation at the Bell Food Group and is enthusiastic about innovations and process optimisation. Anabelle successfully completed her dual studies as a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Technology at the Bell Food Group in 2010 where she started as a project assistant. She then became responsible for the group’s SAP Solution Manager as a Test Manager, and was later promoted to Head of Test Management. With the implementation of more and more ALM scenarios within the SAP Solution Manager, such as Solution Documentation, Change and Release Management, and IT Service Management. She continued to expand her area of responsibility, and was later promoted to Head of SAP ALM. This formed the basis for the Service Now project, which will become the new IT service management solution for the Bell Food Group at the end of 2021. In addition to the SAP Solution Manager scenarios and the ServiceNow project, Anabelle is responsible for SAP Basis and SAP Authorisation as Head of ALM since April 2021.
ingredients to it, what kind of quality product it is, and so on. Using a mixture of business intelligence (BI) solutions, data warehousing, and other technological innovations, we're able to bring information about our business together and, on the one side, leverage it to improve production and, on the other side, give more transparency to our customers.” These business-driven solutions are the result of Friedli and his team’s tireless efforts to reposition Bell Food Group’s IT function into an organisation wholly focused on understanding and meeting those needs.
BELL FOOD GROUP
“WITH THE NEW IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT TOOL WE CAN ACHIEVE OUR GOAL TO REDUCE COSTS AND DRIVE STANDARDISATION” ANABELLE KLUSMANN
HEAD OF APPLICATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT, BELL FOOD GROUP bellfoodgroup.com
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BELL FOOD GROUP
“In the past, our organisation was a bit more technology-focused, but I've changed that structure to be completely businessoriented. The different tech units - ERP solutions, networking, and so on - are always supporting the business. Now, we put the business units at the centre of the organisation,” says Friedli. Taking ERP as an example, he notes that “lots of different ERP solutions can fulfil your needs. Lots of cloud solutions can help you reduce costs and drive standardisation,” but he can’t stress enough the importance that, “no matter what you decide to go with, you really understand the business needs that your technology is meeting.” Total Ham-sparency Spanning 65,000 square metres, staffed by 120 full-time employees, and capable 12
bellfoodgroup.com
BELL FOOD GROUP
NORA HERTZSCHUCH TITLE: HEAD OF ADMINISTRATION & INFORMATION INDUSTRY: FOOD PRODUCTION
of producing 5,000 metric tonnes of raw ham (including the highly-sought after Jamon Ibérico variety, from a very specific and ancient breed of Iberian pig), Bell Spain’s factory southwest of Madrid is one of the key production facilities for the company’s raw ham revenues in Europe. “It's a very delicious and expensive product, being produced at scale,” says Friedli. “We're talking up to a million hams hanging in our warehouses in Fuensalida as they dry and cure.” With different breeds of pig being turned into different grades of ham, which are then cured and hung for different amounts of time, depending on their quality and intended certification, the execution of thousandyear-old traditional methods in an industrial environment at scale can be a challenging one.
EXECUTIVE BIO
LOCATION: SWITZERLAND As a trainee, Nora joined the Group in July 2008. She completed a 3-year apprenticeship, during which she was able to move through a different department every six months. At the end of her training, Nora decided to stay in IT. In the IT Services department, she was first an employee until 2017, when she became the Deputy Head of the department. Her main focus here was on IT controlling, training and administration of the Bell Food Group's SharePoint, procurement of IT material resources and support of the ITSM tool. In October of 2019, she took over the position as Junior SharePoint Administrator/Data Services in which she focused more on SharePoint administration in the area of infrastructure and identity access management. At the end of 2020, Sven Friedli requested her for the IT Administration & Information area, which she took over in February 2021. Due to the wide range of tasks, which include the management of IT staff planning and the IT line budget, SharePoint administration and the sub-project management request management, the work is very versatile.
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BELL FOOD GROUP
“IT IS INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT TO BE WELL-NETWORKED ACROSS OUR MANY LOCATIONS AND TO WORK CLOSELY TOGETHER” NORA HERTZSCHUCH
HEAD OF ADMINISTRATION & INFORMATION, BELL FOOD GROUP
PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS
DID YOU KNOW...
“In the past, the company didn't really have an accurate, comprehensive view of their production process,” Friedli explains. “For example, when they used to do inventory, it used to take them weeks and weeks to count all their hams. Now, we've introduced an end-to-end supply chain solution that tracks the whole process, from buying the pigs to selling the ham. All the information and data is now in one system throughout the whole process, so their inventory is a one-click process, checking revenues is a one-click process.” The project has been a massive success, helping Bell Spain to solve pain points in their production process through technology - an achievement that Friedli emphasises was only possible due to the fact that “lots of time was taken by the IT team, by consultants, down at Bell Spain to understand what kind of problems the business was facing and how they could be solved with technology.” He reflects: “We took the time to understand the steps involved in production, what kinds of reports the company needed to better understand that process, and how best to generate useful data from the different steps of the production cycle.”
Partners “I'm still learning lots about my new partners. Some I knew in the past; some I'm still getting to know,” Friedli reflects. He adds that, because mutual understanding of key goals, needs and capabilities is so essential to a strong partner relationship, “it's important to have a few but strong partners.” He continues: “In difficult situations and they're always difficult situations, believe me - you have to act in a way that works for both you and your partner. So, for me, it's important to be transparent, open and honest with your partners and ask for help when you need it.” Since he admits he is still relatively new to Bell Food Group, Friedli explains that asking for help is a big part of his problem solving process. “I'm asking for help, asking my partners how their technologies, capabilities, and experience can help me drive better business outcomes for Bell Food Group.”
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BELL FOOD GROUP
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BELL FOOD GROUP
“ PEOPLE, NOT SYSTEMS, MAKE THE DIFFERENCE” SVEN FRIEDLI
CIO, BELL FOOD GROUP
Video Analytics for a Better Chicken Nugget Now, at Bell Food Group’s ham production sites as well as in other factories throughout Europe, video analytics backed by powerful AI and ML tools - are helping further improve the production process. “With video analytics, we can capture every important step of the production process and determine in real time whether each individual ham-slice meets the right quality standards," Friedli explains. “We do the same thing at our factories that process chickens. Based on things like size, color and structure, our video analytics can determine whether which part of a bird ends up as chicken sausage nuggets or stays, uh, chickenshaped as part of better quality products.” At this point, Sven and I both agreed that we were reaching levels of hunger that weren’t conducive to a quality interview, and steered our discussion towards the future.
The Road Ahead Digital transformation is, as anyone overseeing a digital transformation is quick to tell you, an involved and unending process. Friedli is proud of the progress made so far, but readily admits that some elements of the business have a ways to go. “In some areas, we're really advanced. We're using machine learning, predictive analytics and a whole load of other cutting edge technology for example to optimise our supply chain and production planning. In others, however, we still definitely have a lot more of our journey ahead of us,” he says. As he settles into his role, meeting with different business units, learning the ropes, and finding the pain points that technology can soothe, Friedli explains that “First, I'm working to fully understand the business’ needs so that I can help use technology to meet those needs as best as possible.” Once those needs are fully understood, he continues, “My second major goal is to clearly define the digital transformation journey that the company is on - to really understand which technologies, whether that's automation, analytics, or something else to use. It's important to have a clear goal. There are so many technology trends happening all at once that it would be very easy to do lots of cool stuff, but if we don't focus, then we will never see the benefits of those technologies reach the business. Having a clear strategy is essential.”
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