The Pulse -- March 2005

Foster's: Australian for Improvement
The Carlton & United Beverages (CUB) division of Foster's Group is implementing a $170 million project -- including a warehouse management system (WMS) from MARC Global -- to significantly improve its supply chain operations and reduce costs across the business. Major components of this project are the closure of its Sydney, Australia, brewing operation and the upgrade of its brewing and warehouse facilities in Yatala, Australia. The Yatala facilities will be responsible for production and supply to the majority of the New South Wales market, equating to approximately one quarter of all beer consumed in Australia. The MARC Global WMS solution introduces a seamless integration with all production line receipts and facilitates direct loading from this mass accumulation table to outbound vehicles. This avoids double-handling and occupying storage space in the warehouse. New RF equipment from Intermec will be used within the upgrade project as well.

Electronic Arts Game for RFID
Since its opening in June 2004, more than 100 current and prospective customers from the automotive, consumer packaging, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, retail and technology markets leveraged International Paper's Customer Solution Center (CSC), located in Memphis, Tennessee, to test and customize potential RFID solutions. After testing a variety of RFID reader and tag solutions for its video game packages at CSC, Ira Oehler, systems administrator for Electronic Arts, says, "International Paper's product testing saves us time and money by preventing us from buying the wrong tags and readers." Within the Customer Solution Center, International Paper's team of engineers and technicians perform RFID tests such as tag evaluation, conveyer evaluation, portal evaluation and distribution testing to
help customers like Electronic Arts select the right solutions. The CSC also provides complete handling, distribution and environmental condition testing -- including impact, vibration, compression, temperature and humidity because ensuring tag readability at customers' dock doors is not enough.

adidas runs e-commerce
A leading brand in the global sporting goods market, adidas-Soloman, looks to GSI Commerce Inc. to provide and operate a new, integrated e-commerce solution for its new online store, www.thestore.adidas.com. Expected to launch in the summer of 2005, the reinvented online store will leverage the e-commerce technology, managed hosting, order management and other services from GSI Commerce. adidas will continue to offer consumers footwear, apparel and accessories for men, women and children and will include merchandise from adidas "original" and "performance" lines through the revamped Web site. In addition, GSI Commerce's CRM services will provide adidas with a 360-degree view of its online customers and be used to up sell and cross sell merchandise.

Maytag Goes Mobile
Agentek Inc.'s Agent Field Service and Agent Mobile Communications applications operating on Intermec 760 mobile computers interact in real time with the Maytag Corp.'s enterprise system for routing, dispatch, delivery, field data collection and order completion for approximately 800 routes. Service technicians will use the rugged handheld computers with GPRS wireless wide area network and integrated 802.11b wireless local area network radios for complete mobility. "Our desire to provide exceptional in-home service quality to our customer led us to seek out leading edge technology for our service technicians," says Darin Endecott, director of Maytag's eastern factory service operations. "With ever-increasing expectations from customers, it is vital that our Maytag service professionals have real-time information on part availability and direction assistance, as well as other vital details housed in our data warehouse."

Sara Lee Transformation Includes IT Overhaul
Designed to dramatically improve the company's performance and long-term growth, the Sara Lee Corporation announced a bold restructuring plan, including a $240 million IT overhaul. The company will implement a SAP system across its business, in addition to continuing the consolidation of information processing and technology. The transformation plan also includes: The election of PepsiCo vet Brenda Barnes as CEO; the relocation of North America food and beverage business with headquarters in the Chicago area; and the disposition of approximately 40 percent of the company's revenues. What do these drastic measures signify for Sara Lee's IT strategy and future financial growth? According to A.G. Edwards, not much. "While we applaud the transformational plan announcement, we believe the stock fairly accounts for the benefits," says Christopher Growe, analyst, A.G. Edwards. "We believe the new company will focus on slower growing categories coupled with profit margins that will fall short of the large-cap food group."