Nestlé streamlines information flow

Nestlé is launching GLOBE to streamline its information flow Keystone

Nestlé, the world's largest food conglomerate, is attempting to unify its worldwide network of computer systems. The project, which could cost up SFr3 billion ($1.83 billion), aims to simplify the flow of information and products within the multinational.

The Vevey-based company, which has an annual turnover of SFr62.4 billion ($38 billion), has spent the last 13 years buying up major brands including Buitoni and Rowntree in 1988, Perrier in 1992 and San Pellegrino in 1998.

As a result of this buying spree, Switzerland’s largest company has become an unwieldy conglomerate, with each factory running autonomously. Each of these factories also uses it own computer system, which in turn is not necessarily compatible with those of the group’s other companies.

GLOBE

To overcome the difficulties linked to the use of different systems, Nestlé launched its GLOBE (Global Business Excellence) project late last year. The project is expected to take six years before it becomes fully operational.

As an example of GLOBE’s benefits, Nestlé says the time when each factory went and bought hazelnuts individually is over. The buyers will now be able to talk to their colleagues and read each other’s reports saving time and money.

“We aren’t just thinking about standardising computer equipment and data,” says Christian Johnson, head of the GLOBE project. “We have already started putting it into practice in Singapore and Malaysia, where we have gained significant advantages.”

GLOBE is run from Vevey, and involves 500 Nestlé employees working in 45 different markets. Acquisition services are part of the equation, but so are also marketing, production, finance and human resources.

When the project is completed, a Nestlé employee should be able to access data from all the group’s companies anywhere in the world. GLOBE has already gained 12 months on its planned completion, and while it is expected to cost SFr250 million per year, it should allow the multinational to save millions in the long-term according to Johnson.

swissinfo