Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

The temptation for small to midsized businesses is to implement a quick-fix point solution as each new business process problem comes to the fore, and each functional department cries out for a remedy.

In 2005 Gillette merged with Procter & Gamble, forming one of the world's largest consumer goods companies.

To supplement its SAP ERP implementation, Nestle deploys Symbol Technologies' mobile computers and bar code scanners in its two Czech production plants, as well as in one Slovak plant and in the warehouses of subsidiary Schaller. Symbol mobile computers and scanners will enable reliable warehouse tracking of the raw materials contained in products to meet EU legal requirements.

Brown-Forman, one of the leading producers and marketers of distilled spirits such as Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort, sought to enhance communications and business processes for its employees.

Delivering on its commitment to help companies adapt processes and optimize revenue across the most cost-intensive global trade operations, SAP AG recently released a new transportation management functionality for mySAP Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM).

Benefit Cosmetics, a subsidiary of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, is the third best-selling makeup brand in the United Kingdom, a top-seller in the United States and Japan, and has plans to expand into China in the near future.

THE MERGER AND ACQUISITION (M&A) trend continued through 2006, impacting a large number of technology providers that service the consumer goods (CG) industry.

SAP shares its perspective on the consumer goods market