consumer goods are moving fast to the cloud!
TRANSCRIPT
Anil Garg, CIO, Dabur India (FMCG) giant gives an apt message to his peers, “Most of our fraternity works as CTOs not CIOs. If we free ourselves from infrastructure hassles by using outsourcing and moving to the Cloud, we can actually become business enablers and move from being a CTO to a CIO. This is the opportunity. Go ahead without inhibitions, it works!”
Opportunities for FMCG companies to drive much greater value
from cloud computing
1New product and process
innovationThe use of cloud to help drive product and process
innovation is still limited. In process innovation cloud bases enterprise innovation management platform that captures and connects employees, consumer and consumer insights is still in nascent stage. Online cloud based platforms can
be designed to capture feedbacks from consumers, shoppers to design future products
2Forecasting and planning:
To understand consumer segment, their preferences, effects of promotional offers, new product launches cloud based analytic and social media can be used. Cloud based platform can be used for automatic order generation and
forecast.
3Manufacturing and Supply
chainCloud computing can be used for production, logistic and
capacity management. It can be useful for automated field management process, in store intelligence to understand the gap in the supply chain, mobile solutions for distribution management
4Back office functions:
It can increase the existing ERP solution to manage growing market diversity, can improve knowledge management capacity, can streamline recruitment and HR process to help attract and
retain the existing talent.
5New product and process
innovationThe use of cloud to help drive product and process innovation is
still limited. In process innovation cloud bases enterprise innovation management platform that captures and connects employees, consumer and consumer insights is still in nascent
stage. Online cloud based platforms can be designed to capture feedbacks from consumers, shoppers to design future products
Some of the FMCG giants on
Cloud
Consumer giant Unilever announced plans to double its business by 2020. Instead of adding layers of IT infrastructure to prepare for rapid business growth, Unilever’s globalization strategy involved the use SAP ERP on cloud network
Another consumer goods conglomerate Procter & Gamble (P&G) has signed a contract with world known cloud player to move all their internal and external data on cloud. They will be responsible for hosting P&G’s manufacturing, procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, physical distribution and financial systems on their cloud.
Dabur’s example is unique because the company has a customized design and approach to deploying Exchange on the Cloud. Dabur still retains its primary Exchange server in its own Data Center.
Kwality Dairy India Limited (KDIL), a leading dairy and dairy products company in Northern India, which processes about 1.7 million liters of milk per day, selected cloud to improve the dairy’s operational efficiency and productivity in its bid to become a global milk and dairy products company.
Amul, the iconic Indian brand, has also turned to technology to help bring in process efficiencies to support their accelerated growth plans.
“So to meet current and emerging demands, consumer product
companies must act now. Those that do not act miss
out on the chance to strengthen capabilities their rivals are rapidly acquiring.
