CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

14 December 2005

Implementation Investments

Distell Helps Ensure Compliance with Regulations Using Open Text's Livelink ECM

Open TextT Corporation said today that Distell Group Limited, a premier producer and marketer of fine wines and spirits, has successfully completed the first phase of its intended enterprise-wide Livelink ECM implementation. The system is designed to help ensure compliance with ISO and International Food Standards (IFS) regulations. The deployment has already garnered significant benefits for both end-users and the company.

Driven by content growth, the need for enterprise wide content availability and improved process automation, as well as evolving compliance regulations, Distell embarked on an ambitious initiative to deliver a complete ECM solution to all corners of its enterprise. Livelink ECM was chosen to allow staff easy access to unstructured content, improve productivity through effective content categorization and management, and to help provide good corporate governance practices for information assets.

"For most companies, the way information is managed has a major impact on critical processes and productivity," said John Kirkham, Executive Vice President of Global Sales at Open Text. "With its new ECM solution Distell is addressing both operational and compliance challenges head on and demonstrating how enterprise-wide ECM can transform the way companies manage information."

Livelink ECM is used for the company's enterprise-wide Quality Management System, which helps ensure compliance with ISO 9001 quality systems compliance; ISO 14001 environmental impact compliance; British Retail Consortium (BRC) compliance; and International Food Standards (IFS). Every time a regulated document is updated, added or deleted, the Quality Management System helps ensure that the appropriate personnel are notified via Microsoft Outlook of the document update. This was achieved by integrating the document distribution list for each document with the position numbers in the ERP Human Resources module.

Various business processes have been made more efficient by managing and tracking them through Livelink ECM. Quality Management audit findings are registered and managed in Livelink ECM until resolved. Similarly, innovative ideas generated by Mission Directed work Teams (MDT's) in the production environment are registered, managed and tracked through a Livelink ECM workflow solution.

Integration of Livelink ECM with Distell's ERP system has streamlined business processes in the Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Product Packaging Specifications departments. Technical material specifications stored in Livelink ECM can be accessed either using a Livelink ECM report or directly from the ERP materials master, which makes it easy and convenient for staff to retrieve product information. The use of the solution within the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable environments allows any Distell employee who has ERP access to display invoices and supporting documentation. Proof of delivery documentation can be faxed to a customer from within the ERP system instead of having to retrieve the document from the file room first, then copying and faxing it, which has improved Distell customer service. ERP data archiving supported by Livelink ECM is also used to control data growth in Distell's ERP system.

In the future, Distell's system will support information lifecycle management from data creation to archiving and disposal. Content-rich business processes at Distell will be ECM enabled, with content managed over a lifecycle - including the creation, capture, management, storage, archiving, distribution, search, and disposal of information.

The eventual ECM solution at Distell will also include Microsoft Exchange archiving which enables easy administration and management of emails stored on a Microsoft Exchange server. The project deployment is scheduled to begin in February 2006.

Distell Group Limited is South Africa's premier producer and marketer of fine wines, spirits and Ready-to-drinks (RTDs). Distell employs over 4 000 people and has an annual turnover in excess of US$800 million. Distell's activities range from grape farming, winemaking, distilling, maturation, production, distribution to the international marketing of trademarks. The company's head office is located in Stellenbosch, South Africa. For more information on Distell, go to: http://www.distell.co.za .

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