Transforming
IT
Transforming IT Written by Alex Young Produced by Craig Daniels
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In a constantly changing, competitive industry CBC Group is using IT to gain an edge
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srael’s Central Bottling Company Group (CBC Group) is realising the transformative power of technology. As a leading beverage producer and distributor, the company brings some of the world’s most distinctive brands to households across the country. We speak to the company’s CIO, Adit Shroitman, who has spearheaded IT development across the business, which has saved both time and money. Alongside keeping internal operations running smoothly, Shroitman’s remit now comes into contact with rapidly changing health regulations, consumer
preferences, and incoming competition. Day-to-day, she is tasked with leading the information systems unit in CBC Group, with overall responsibility for providing IT services with a focus on quality. Having secured major contracts with such companies as Heineken and Coca-Cola, the impetus to innovate has led the company to its current dominant position in Israel. Operations All told, CBC Group controls eight companies based in Israel based on a mutually beneficial synergistic operational model. Furthermore, the Group
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Nir Hezroni
Corporate Infrastructure Division Manager Nir Hezroni has spent over 20 years designing and implementing IT infrastructure, with direct experience involving diverse projects such as data centers, telecommunications, and personal/public areas. He has vast experience working for a range of global companies with varying cultures and locations, and has a particularly thorough knowledge of the IT sector of M&A. Among his numerous accolades, Herzoni has designed a global IT methodology, linked it to corporate M&A processes and led the IT part of many acquisitions in amdocs (ITDS, Clarify, Xacct, Stibo, Cramer, SigValue, JacobsRimell, ChangingWorlds, MX-Telecom, Actix and more). He has also built and operated support organisations and implemented ITIL processes across the IT group to improve service. Reporting to CIOs – Hezroni has run the IT budget, HR aspects, and asset management. He has overseen massive changes while communicating them across the company.
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also controls a further five units and are required to build companies outside of the territory robust solutions that can be used which are currently supporting its from beverage manufacturing international expansion plans. to dairy manufacturing.” CBC’s group structure means that it She oversees a department is responsible for several companies consisting of 90 personnel – half dealing with a variety of different food of which are consultants and and beverage segments. Shroitman developers specialising in SAP explains: “With the diversity of systems, while the other half consists business processes, from B2B of IT infrastructure experts. to B2C, the business requires IT to be agile The value of IT and to provide quick Alongside overseeing solutions without the technical side of IT forgetting the operations, Shroitman overall picture. also ensures that IT The year The Central “Sometimes works to drive value Bottling Company Group was founded we are required across the entirety of to mitigate operations. This has conflicts between taken a number of forms the different needs of the over the years, but nowadays different companies and business focuses on continuously improving
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efficiency, reducing costs, and utilising the business opportunities endowed by big data collection. Although CBC’s industry processes may differ to some degree, they are all run under a single SAP system. But the story doesn’t end there, Shroitman explains: “Each company has its own manufacturing challenges that require us to build and support different business processes.
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“The IT cost is transparent to the business and yearly business plans are built and communicated to all the companies; we aim to provide the best service and are measuring it constantly. This forces us as IT to utilise our resources in the most efficient way.” Providing a quick solution to answer regulation needs (particularly when it comes to recycling), developing a new innovative
game changing B2B application used by retailers to order 24/7. CBC has a strong culture of continuous improvement, Shroitman says: “We measure our activities such as service levels, applications usage, and customer satisfaction - projects are also measured on parameters such as budget and timeline. We also discuss with our customers about the value that the applications
provide and get their feedback.” Some activities are outsourced – particularly those that are either repetitive or less knowledge bound, but the company is also not afraid to bring in outside expertise that cannot be found in the organisation. “We do not hesitate to use experts in those fields externally,” she adds. “Our IT department is considered a leading organisation by our
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colleagues and we are frequently consulted by industry peers. We host knowledge transfer sessions for other companies and show potential projects to their customers.” Connecting the future “Our goals are to continue the digital transformation and offer more tools to strengthen the bond between the consumers, retailers and our companies and continue the postmerger integration process of the IT units in some of the companies we acquired,” Shroitman continues.
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As a centralised solutions provider, CBC Group is responsible for a bridge and link between its differing constituent companies, ensuring that each has access to the latest IT innovations. One of the ways in which this has crystallised is in the form of a bespoke collaboration tool that enables these companies to view relevant data and share information. Technological innovation is key. “Our business runs on technology. If our systems stop so does manufacturing, distribution, sales and customer service. Technology is a part of every business process and customer interaction,” Shroitman explains. “New technology is constantly examined and implemented where needed. We encourage our employees and customers to bring us new ideas and implement those that contribute to our business. We also participate in start-up hubs.
Rami Rimartchok Corporate Digital & Applications Division Manager
“On the infrastructure side we are investing in data centre HW such as storage and servers, we are continuing our move to a virtual infrastructure and examine the use of cloud services where needed. On the application side, we push the latest technology like “Get taxi” for technicians, SAP HANA is used for BW, and we also use predictive analytics.” CBC Group is also working to roll out a number of company-wide innovations, including omni-channel capabilities, digital IVR, and social network activity monitoring. Moreover, the company is examining several products that will allow it to monitor customer trends on social media and is also examining the use of big data for targeted marketing and trends analysis. Having built an exemplary IT framework across a number of varied business units, CBC Group has ensured that it will be firmly in control of its own destiny for years to come. Not content to rest on its laurels despite a commanding position in the Israeli market, the company’s forward thinking approach has ushered in next generation technology which is already proving to be a key competitive edge.
Rami Rimartchok has worked in IT and software development for the past two decades. His career has seen him manage IT teams across large organisations, as a single business unit and as a program manager for developing new services and products. Rimartchok has overseen the creation and execution of a new offerings plan including a strategy to attain revenue goals, as well as continued attachment of professional services and organic growth. He also successfully developed and implemented a digital transformation strategy. Responsible for building a dedicated SaaS department, he ensured service delivery performance met service level agreements according to customer needs while managing external hosting vendors like amazon and GoGrid.
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