Exo-net keeps drink firm in good spirits

By ADAM GIFFORD

Wine and liquor business Glengarry Hancocks has recovered from the failed implementation of a top-tier ERP (enterprise resource planning) system by installing the locally made exo-net 3000 product.

Glengarry manager Jak Jakicevich said attempts to install the overseas software took 18 months and cost more than $1 million. He would not name the vendor.

"It was not a success and we settled with them."

JD Edwards New Zealand director David Batkin confirmed that implementation of his company's system did not proceed, but said the reasons were covered by confidentiality agreements with the customer.

"There will always be examples of implementations which are better than others," Mr Batkin said.

"They happen for us very rarely. The nature of this business is it's a partnership with you and your customer and it must work for everyone."

Mr Jakicevich said it took just six months to install exo-net for less than $500,000, including developing the additional functionality needed for the company's complex needs.

It uses the same Dell 77 two-processor Windows NT server bought for the JD Edwards system.

The 150-seat implementation is the largest so far for exo-net.

Exo-net is based on the system the company's founders built for PC Direct and is built with modern tools and an object-oriented architecture which reduces the amount of code needed to be written to add functions or make changes.

Mr Jakicevich said exo-net had an intuitive interface which made it easy to train staff. Apart from the 12 Glengarry retail stores, the company also has large importing and distribution businesses, including liquor brands such as Jack Daniels whisky and Bacardi rum.

It also has a delivery business in Auckland and Wellington restocking licensed restaurants, bars and clubs. Group turnover is expected to top $100 million next year.

"We needed a package which would not only handle large numbers of products but also the distribution in the various channels all at once," Mr Jakicevich said.

The system also had to cope with multiple pack sizes, different vintages and the other unique factors in the wine, beer and spirits businesses.

The company went down the ERP track because of the need to integrate the systems of Glengarry and Hancocks, and because of concerns the custom-built DOS-based Vine system Glengarry's had run on for the past decade was not Y2K-compliant.

Other analysis and reporting tools have helped Glengarry to get through a difficult two years, particularly Cognos Powerplay and Crystal Reports. These tools are still in use with exo-net 3000, Mr Jakicevich said.

"At our retail end, even though exo-net has point-of-sale capability we use Advance Retail from Datagroup, which is a Windows-based system."