Single measure for drinks manufacturer

The manufacturer – which boasts leading brands such as Glenfiddich, Grants and Hendrick's Gin –selected IFS in a three-way final shortlist over Oracle and SAP because, it says, of the quality of service throughout the procurement process. William Grant & Sons was using 11 ERP systems across its global sites, making it almost impossible to retrieve accurate, reliable information – a major obstacle to resource planning and forecasting. John Brown, programme director at William Grant & Sons, said: "At the demo stage we were very impressed with the IFS Applications interface. We really put the vendors through their paces by asking them to demonstrate how their software would cope with a series of 20 real scenarios from our business. This helped us to judge who had the best understanding of our goals and objectives." A final gap analysis session led to IFS being selected. "I can't think of a milestone the IFS team hasn't hit," Brown added. The manufacturer employs 1,600 people worldwide, although most of its operations are based in the UK. The phased project will go live across all the UK businesses in July, before rolling out to global operations over a period of 18 months. Its finance department has already moved to IFS Applications, citing it as a key driver for accurate stock reconciliation.