Atlas Products International Delivers Major Einvoicing Solution for Glanbia

International food powerhouse Glanbia has successfully rolled out an Atlas Fusion ebusiness portal solution that will eliminate 240,000 paper invoices a year.

Glanbia products are sold in more than 130 countries and the business employs 4,900 people in 17 countries. It processes almost six billion litres of milk per annum, manufactures over 500,000 tonnes of cheese and almost 250,000 tonnes of dairy-based ingredients.

In Ireland and the UK alone, it has more than 3000 customers including supermarkets, food service companies, cash & carry outlets and convenience stores. In addition it supplies pubs, restaurants and hotels, together with a wide range of public sector organisations such as schools and colleges, hospitals, prisons and police forces.

A large proportion of those 3000 customers are served by third party agents and/or delivery companies, ranging from those with small fleets of vehicles to individuals with a single van. The resulting logistical complexity and administrative burden was substantial, with Glanbia manually generating and posting around 240,000 paper invoices annually.

The scale of the process and the inevitable human error was time, resource and cash intensive. Says Director of IT Maeve Moynihan: “Dealing with paper invoices creates a number of touch points to generate, process, print and despatch them, each with associated costs and the potential for errors and delays.

“We were aware that Atlas had the ability to address a complex set of requirements and to come up with demonstrable ebusiness solutions that could deal with all of these issues. And the fact that they had achieved this for two important customers of ours gave us a level of confidence that led to their appointment as our strategic ebusiness partner.”

Utilising its tried and tested Atlas Fusion technology, Atlas developed a bespoke cloud-based portal solution for Glanbia that fully automates the secure movement of key business documents, integrated with the company’s SAP accounting system.

Added Maeve Moynihan: “We saw this as an exercise in improving our service to our customers. Atlas worked closely with us to configure the portal to the specific needs of both Glanbia and our customers who have adopted the system enthusiastically and value the visibility of the status of their account and the efficiencies it has produced for their business processes.

“The portal provides a single easily accessible location for all their relevant data. Our own processes have been significantly streamlined and we fully expect to achieve our targeted return on investment.”

Added Atlas VP Group Sales Michael Latimer: “Both the Glanbia and Atlas teams have worked hard to ensure that our portal solution has delivered the business benefits predicted at the outset.

“We strive to develop a strong level of professional trust and partnership with customers so that they get the maximum value out of our solutions. I am delighted that we remain closely involved with the Glanbia team, looking at potential developments and enhancements.”