BWG Foods, the Irish owned and operated wholesale and retail company, which operates the SPAR, EUROSPAR, MACE and XL brands, has partnered with award-winning supply chain software company, Atlas, in a €300,000 investment to automate its entire purchase to pay process, handling in excess of 4.8 million transactions annually.
The new system, BWG Tradelink powered by Atlas Universal, has been configured to BWG’s specific business requirements and fully integrated across its purchasing, warehouse and finance functions. The web-based solution is enabling the company to carry out electronic data interchange, data synchronisation, supplier collaboration, invoice matching and new supply chain reporting.
As a result, BWG Foods and its suppliers are now using the electronic trading system designed by Atlas to achieve operational efficiencies and productivity improvements for both suppliers and stores. It has also delivered improved efficiency in warehouse management systems, space planning systems and electronic point of sale systems which all now benefit from much more accurate, up to date and reliable data.
Willie O’Byrne, Managing Director, BWG Foods said, “Given the diversification of our business across geographic locations and supply chain, the company was previously handling high volumes of paper-based invoices, so we were keen to devise a solution that would be more responsive, efficient and service-oriented for our supply chain partners and staff alike. Atlas was able to offer a retail technology solution which met our needs and was straightforward to implement. As well as streamlining the business’ purchase to pay process, and removing any inefficiency, we now have improved data intelligence at our fingertips, which can be shared across functions at the click of a button.”
Atlas Managing Director Allan Gray said: “Like many retailers in the current economic climate, BWG Foods is constantly looking for innovative ways to improve efficiency. We created Atlas Universal to do just that and I would pay tribute to BWG for its vision in identifying just what could be achieved through the application of Universal under its own name – BWG Tradelink – and to the efforts of all concerned in delivering these excellent results.”
The Atlas Universal electronic trading solution for BWG was the winner of the 2012 IT Europa Software Excellence award in the Supply Chain Management category, sponsored by Oracle. The awards attracted entries from 18 countries, with the winners selected by an independent panel of consultants and editors.
