Goodman Fielder(MIS100 2011)

Reports to: CFO
Size of IS shop: 101

PCs: 405
Mobile PCs: 540
Terminals: 1865
Hand-held devices: NA
Total screens: 2810

Industry: Manufacturing
PC environment: Windows 2000, XP; IBM
Server environment: IBM; AIX; HP UX; Windows 2000, 2003
DBMS: Lotus, Oracle, SAP
Address: 65 Main Highway, Ellerslie, Auckland
Website: www.goodmanfielder.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Not disclosed.

A significant $43 million transformational SAP project for Goodman Fielder (GF) was commenced in December 2009, following some GFC-related delays. In 2010, CIO Robert Hilditch told the MIS100 report that the SAP rollout would take three years and affect most of the food manufacturer’s business. The consolidation project is aimed at removal of disparate systems and ultimate delivery of one integrated system.

The GFC made the company reassess ICT priorities to ensure investments can demonstrate a valid value proposition to the business and could provide strong ROI. Just as GF was about to begin the project, increased commodity prices and the debt-funding drought ground things to a halt, CFO David Goldsmith explained to CIO magazine a year ago. ROI delivery on the SAP roll out is expected five years after the project’s completion.

A special team in involved in the project, so it does not fall exclusively to the CIO and his team. “The risk then is that it is seen as just another IT project. It is essential it is seen as a company-wide project, not just owned by the CFO or IT,” Goldsmith said back then. He has since left Goodman Fielder.

The company was been affected by the Christchurch earthquakes, having suffered damage to its production facilities in the area. “The ERP transformation has been re-planned to minimise the impact of the earthquake, with a minor increase to the overall duration of the project,” says Hilditch.