IBM has won a major contract with China’s $34 billion food and agriculture company COFCO to establish and roll out a range of SAP systems for the company’s “overseas agriculture business platform”, COFCO International (CIL).
CIL’s primary aim is to integrate its business operations with its core commodity trading system, a release from IBM explained. It also wants to shift from analogue procurement processes to ones underpinned by SAP Ariba, a digital procurement platform that links the world’s largest network of buyers and suppliers.
The two-year deal will see IBM and CIL partner to design and test a global template, pilot the solution, and then roll it out to over 30 countries.
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Andre Schneiter, CIO of COFCO International, commented in a release: “IBM Services will help us rapidly digitally transform our business, standardize and simplify our processes, and vertically integrate our operations.”
CIL is the overseas agricultural business platform of China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) which is based in Beijing and is China’s largest state owned food manufacturing, processors and trading company.
In 2017 it transported over 100 million tons of produce and reported an annual revenue of $34 billion (£26 billion.)
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IBM COFCO Deal Includes Plan to Shift from Analogue Procurement Processes
IBM will work with CIL to standardise its production, procurement and financial operations with the implementation of a new SAP-centric platform.
This will include tools from German enterprise software giant like S/4HANA (an ERP software suite on top of SAP’s “HANA” in-memory relational database), SAP Ariba and SAP SuccessFactors and more.
The aim is a “a fast transition from legacy, analogue procurement, to digital processes, improved stakeholder experiences, enhanced risk management, and reduced costs” IBM said in a release Friday.
Cathy Rogerson IBM Services VP for the CPG Agribusiness and Retail industries in Europe commented in the release that: “IBM is thrilled to have the opportunity to help COFCO International achieve their vision of standardized end-to-end processes across their operations.”
“With our IMPACT solution, we can quickly help to build an efficient, integrated supply chain and matching back end business processes which will give COFCO International’s leadership visibility and control across their entire supply chain.”
