Axon system answer for wholesalers

By ADAM GIFFORD

Systems integrator Axon Computertime has entered the hot new field of electronic procurement, selling a version of its in-house Quality Direct solution to the wholesale subsidiaries of the three Foodstuffs cooperatives.

In the process, Axon beat off 16 other vendors in an open tender, including some of the biggest names in the industry.

The SupplyNet application is at now being set up for Wellington grocery wholesaler Toops, and will then be implemented at Trents Wholesale in the South Island and Gilmours in Auckland. An information site is already up at toops.co.nz.

Axon is hosting the solution, downloading copies of the stock catalogues each night and sending any orders back into the Toops system, real-time, over the internet.

Axon chief executive Matt Kenealy said Axon's eFormation division had been working for three years to develop an e-procurement solution that mid-range New Zealand companies could afford, but which could also be scaled to handle the needs of bigger companies.

"Our selection by Toops - against strong competition from major multinational e-procurement offerings - is evidence that we have a new product with strong export potential," Mr Kenealy said.

The SupplyNet application used within Axon for Quality Direct is now in its sixth version, running on Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 and the new Microsoft Biztalk Server.

Scott Green, the eFormation division's general manager, said SupplyNet uses XML to plug in to back-end systems, including all the major accounting, ERP and supply chain applications. "Because we have gone though six generations, we have increasingly been able to divorce the business rules we have in the back-end system from the application, so it's increasingly portable," Mr Green said.

"We've worked to make it highly modular. This means we can put a simple e-procurement solution in fast and at a competitive price.

"We can then add more sophisticated features and functions as required."

The Foodstuffs cooperatives run warehousing, distribution, marketing, accounting and other functions for their members, which include the Four Square, Pak 'N Save and New World chains.

Toops, Trents and Gilmours wholesale groceries to a raft of companies which are not cooperative members.

Toops general manager George Sutherland said the three companies wanted a solution that suited their customers in the food service industry, from hospitals, catering companies, cafes and hostels to small dairies, service stations and convenience stores.

"We are strictly business-to-business, and we are dealing with other businesses who have a multitude of capabilities and platforms," Mr Sutherland said.

"We have designed a way to communicate with other businesses. It doesn't matter if they're a country dairy or a sophisticated corporate, we have a way of communicating on order capture. We can now offer a common platform for communication."

He said Foodstuffs was hoping that at least 20 per cent of customers would quickly adopt the new system.

As the three cooperatives have a combined total of more than 30,000 customers and transaction turnover of more than $750 million a year, that would make the "food service/convenience retail portal" one of the largest e-procurement sites in the country.

"The incentive for people to use it has to be business advantage. There has to be a value exchange. If it's not good for them, it's not good for us."

The portal will allow retailers to make their ordering process more efficient. For the price of a PC and access to the web, they will get what is, in fact, an inventory management system.

"From our perspective, it changes the way our telesales operation will work," Mr Sutherland said.

"There are two distinct skills in telesales. One is data entry and other is customer service.

"If we can get data into our system from people operating remotely, rather than sending in faxes which need to be re-keyed, our telesales operation can focus on giving customers service, telling them when their orders are due, setting them up on the web and personalising their order basket."

Mr Sutherland said the Toops project would start with a few pilot customers, but the system should be open for all customers by May.

"Initially, we will process selected customer orders through the web interface. They won't even know we're doing it."