SYSPRO to future proof alcohol co-operative Independent Liquor Group by removing manual processes and improve data integrity and reporting

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) specialist SYSPRO has been selected by Australia’s largest liquor co‑operative, Independent Liquor Group (ILG), to help future proof its business ahead of its national expansion. Headquartered in Western Sydney, the wholesale alcohol co-operative has chosen to implement an integrated ERP system to reduce the number of manual and duplicated processes and to significantly improve data integrity and reporting capabilities.

ILG is a member owned co-operative wholesaler that services hotels, bottle shops, licensed clubs, bars, restaurants and sporting grounds across New South Wales, Queensland and Australian Capital Territory. Ahead of its expansion into Victoria and then South Australia, the company wanted to update its outdated technology systems to streamline the company’s reporting capabilities in order to improve timely decision making.

The 45 year-old liquor co-operative identified a couple of years ago that there were some serious issues with the outdated and cumbersome technology it had developed in-house. There were various disconnected systems that failed to deliver accurate business analysis and month end reporting was taking three weeks and many labour hours to complete using a combination of the NAVISION accounting package and Microsoft Dynamics.

“Access to accurate data and real time reporting is crucially important to a liquor wholesaler and eCommerce business like ILG, as it is impossible for our mobile sales team to make timely decisions regarding stock holdings and deliveries without precise data integrity and the level of visibility that an integrated ERP system will provide us,” said ILG’s CEO, Paul Esposito.

Prior to selecting the SYSPRO 8.0 ERP system, ILG used a bespoke warehouse application called Licker for its three warehouses in Western Sydney, Brisbane and Townsville and one of the objectives of adopting an integrated ERP system was to improve warehouse picking, optimise stock levels and to remove manual or duplicated processes for the distribution side of its business.

“During the discovery process ILG surveyed many of our suppliers to see what ERP systems they were using and as part of this process we assessed Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle NetSuite and SYSPRO. SYSPRO and Oracle went through to the final stage and we ultimately selected SYSPRO as we needed a fully integrated ERP system that could handle the complexities of our business and we weren’t convinced that Oracle’s platform was flexible enough to manage this”, Paul said.

The SYSPRO ERP system will integrate with ILG’s Paperless Warehousing system, eCommerce website and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system Rhino, so that sales teams on the road have access to accurate stock information exactly when they need it. There will be 110 users interacting with the system across ILG’s three facilities, and more as the business expands into other Australian States. Currently ILG has 32 SYSPRO users.

“This move will make the process of expanding into Victoria and other states more straightforward for ILG as they will achieve greater efficiencies by eliminating manual process, removing duplication of data in multiple systems as well as ensuring data integrity across the whole business,” said Rob Stummer, CEO for Australia and New Zealand at SYSPRO. “It’s an exciting time for ILG’s growing business and we are pleased to be integral to its digital transformation journey,” Rob said.

SYSPRO and ILG are currently at the final design stage, with the system due to be finalised in May next year. The next step will be for SYSPRO to build the system, bringing data across from the old applications, testing it with the real data and integrating it with the other systems.

“SYSPRO has been great throughout the whole process; not only has is its team been extremely knowledgeable about distribution and warehousing, but their depth of expertise about their product’s capabilities and their ability to get the balance right in terms of adopting best practice meant that they were able to customise the SYSPRO ERP product to meet the needs of our business,” concluded Paul Esposito.