US-based Epicor Software Corporation, a global leader in business software solutions, has announced that Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company (ECCBC) has chosen its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Epicor ERP.

ECCBC chose Epicor’s solution to align its processes and allow better transparency of business data across eight of their sites. The implementation will support ECCBC’s growth plans as Coca-Cola products continue to grow in popularity in North and West Africa, said a statement from the company.

ECCBC operates in 13 countries in North and West Africa. Founded in 1997 as a joint venture between a Spanish Bottler Company and The Coca-Cola Export Co, the organisation produces, markets and distributes world famous soft drinks including Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. It has a turnover of over 600 million euros and employs 6,000 people.

Rapid growth for ECCBC over recent years has created a number of business challenges based around central governance. With multiple types of software being used by different companies in the group, the company was struggling to achieve full visibility over the business from its headquarters in Barcelona, Spain. In addition, regional operations were changing processes locally and planning their own purchases, added the statement.

Cayetano Rodriguez, chief information officer at ECCBC, said: “As an international company, one of our core values, and a benchmark for our management model, is for business processes to operate efficiently, and uniformly.”

“With our business growing across the region, we needed a flexible ERP solution that could be governed centrally but used locally by teams based out of our eight sites. Crucially, we needed access to accurate real-time business data that could be held in one place to provide transparency of operations across all of our local businesses,” he added.

ECCBC has been an Epicor customer since 2003, using Epicor iScala for finance and supply chain management in 11 of its territories. Now, ECCBC continues to partner with Epicor to implement central purchasing and manufacturing processes, as well as financial data consolidation.

Rodriguez said: “Having worked closely with the Epicor team for a number of years, we decided to upgrade to Epicor ERP because we were impressed with the flexibility and agility of the software, and knew it could handle our needs.”

“The new software will transform how our business operates by aligning key processes under the same system and strengthening central management to make important business decisions. We expect the technology to have a major impact on the future growth of our business and see Epicor as one of our key strategic partners in helping to achieve this goal,” he concluded.

Epicor ERP will be initially rolled out in Ghana, with the technology expected to go live by the end of 2016. Seven other country operations will follow, including Mauritania, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands.

Sabby Gill, executive vice president for Epicor International, said: “We are delighted to partner with ECCBC on such a large-scale international deployment of Epicor ERP.”

“As companies look to grow in today’s global economy, ERP software gives organisations such as ECCBC the capability to face real-world challenges by providing a platform to track, measure, and streamline every aspect of their business,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service