HEINZ
HEINZ KETCHUP IS PERHAPS THE MOST INSTANTLY-RECOGNISABLE
BRAND IN THE WORLD. THE FAMOUS BOTTLES FILL SHELVES FROM
SHANGHAI TO SYDNEY AND FROM PITTSBURGH TO PARIS.
Rarely has there been such a foodstuff that is so
universally popular. But it’s not only the famous
ketchup that the company produces. Heinz worldwide
makes soup, sauces, the student staple of baked beans,
condiments, seafood and frozen food. In the UK, it also
owns Farleys (which makes baby food), John West and
San Marco brands.
CHALLENGES FACED
Across a business of this size and complexity, supporting
many different departments based in different locations,
and ensuring that all operational information is up-todate
is imperative. In the UK alone, Heinz produces 15
million items every week, of which three million are tins
of baked beans and 1.5 million are bottles of ketchup.
With so many food products heading for customers all
over Europe, keeping track of stock levels is a priority. It
is therefore crucial that staff working for Heinz can
access accurate and current information from all areas
of the business, including details from Wincanton, Heinz
UK’s ambient foods distribution partner, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. Equally important is the need
for analysis tools - quite simply to ensure efficient stock
and service levels to the customer. This is particularly
relevant for customers ordering many different
products across the Heinz range.
SUCCESS STRATEGY

To achieve this, Heinz has been employing various
forms of business intelligence for the past ten years, but
recently decided to consolidate all its operations and
use Cognos as its global business intelligence tool.
Daniel Haverly, European information management
project manager at Heinz, said: “Heinz is currently
undergoing a major revamp of core systems. The benefits
of Cognos were identified globally and rolled out in the
first instance to one particular project, the UK’s National
Distribution Centre (NDC) for ambient product.”
The NDC at Heinz is a new venture complete with new
business processes and ways of working. For reporting
purposes, Heinz wanted to give users access to up-tothe-
minute information on stock levels, customer
orders and lorry loads held on its three legacy
mainframe systems.
The systems currently in place are order processing
systems from Heinz, Farleys and John West. These
systems are linked to a consolidated ‘one system view’
Oracle database, and also to Wincanton’s Warehouse
Management System (WMS) across a firewall. The
Oracle database is replicated instantaneously for
reporting. The information is purely words and
numbers but has a consistent report format and
method to access, irrespective of the source of data.
Heinz staff needed to access details from all the
individual distributed business systems, the central
database and Wincanton’s own WMS system, but they
needed one method of access, with the security and
data access being ‘behind the scenes’. This is exactly
what the Cognos solution was able to provide.
WEB BASED SOLUTION
Heinz chose Cognos Impromptu Web Reports to allow
users to create reports drawn from any data source and
deliver them to suppliers, customers and partners,
across the Internet. Users can subscribe to reports, and
then customise them to meet their specific needs. This
has the added benefit of each user only requiring
Internet Explorer, so roll out was quick and easy.
BUSINESS BENEFITS
The efficient implementation of Cognos led to
impressive tangible benefits.
From nothing, a team of six people – a mix of
consultants and newly trained internal staff – developed
the reporting function for the NDC in under six
months. Then, after just two months of using Cognos,
new efficiency gains were realised. In particular, Heinz
was able to qualify the results in terms of substantially
reduced stock discrepancies, more efficient stock
management and better load management.
Across all its systems, Heinz is now using the Cognos
solution to help drive new business processes and ways
of working. Heinz has noticed an immediate
improvement in the new processes supported by the
Cognos solution.
THE NEXT STEP
Daniel Haverly added: “Our eventual aim is to use
Cognos Web products across Europe as consolidating
the common key performance indicators across global
operations becomes a business priority. This will
enable all business users to use the up-front portal as a
‘one stop shop’ for information, whether the
information is local reporting, regional reporting or
regional or global analysis. The key area here is the
compilation and use of data standards so that we have
consistency in definition across all of Heinz’s global
businesses.”
The Cognos solution will be used as an integral
component of wider roll out of common systems
across Europe, encompassing areas such as customer
profitability and supply chain efficiency. “The focus
will be on Web only versions of Impromptu and
PowerPlay, but we also plan to investigate the use of
Query and Cognos Metrics Manager going forward,”
concluded Haverly.
WHAT LESSONS HAVE BEEN LEARNT?
• Company time and resources are maximised by
using one solution that collates data from a range of
sources into easy-to-use reports, so users can make
more informed business decisions
• In any industry, but particularly the retail sector,
accurate information is essential to ensure efficient
stock processing and transport management.
Cognos helps keep track of stock levels and ensures
delivery lorries are used efficiently
• A Web-based solution means customers, partners and
suppliers can all access reports immediately and
simultaneously as all they need is access to the Internet
• In large organisations technology can highlight
areas of inefficiency that the company was not
aware of before and ensure areas for improvement
are addressed early
• Business intelligence can encourage new business
processes and ways of working within companies