Coca-Cola Company is the worlds largest beverage company.

They sell four out of five of the worlds

top soft-drink brands, in almost 200 countries in the world. More than one billion servings of their
products are consumed each day. Due to the size of Coca-Cola, maintaining the finances and logistics of
their global enterprises is a daunting, yet crucial task. Coca Cola started out with using the old repository
and processes system called the legacy system which turned out to be very inefficient. The system was
not user-friendly and generated high costs. Financial plans were made on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
requiring manual re-entry of available information. Spreadsheets were submitted as hard copies. This
meant that it was difficult to consolidate and update information. This became a key issue as Coca-Cola
continued to expand globally, which made efficient and concise sharing of information even more crucial
to their success.

Therefore, Coca-Cola has the need for IT that goes far beyond individual finance processes. It requires an
integrated business management system to handle the different aspects of their worldwide corporation. As
mentioned before, Coca-Cola started off using the legacy system like many other old companies. Soon,
they realized that to sustain their ever growing business, they would have to find a more integrated system
to manage their global processes. Because of the global expansion of the company, Coca-Cola decided to
incorporate SAP Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM) and implemented mySAP financials into their
business in order to handle the financial processes of the corporation. SEM created a single environment
to make financial data accessible to management across the globe (2). MySAP financials are tightly
integrated with other SAP systems. SEM provides Business Planning Simulation for finances, Data
Warehousing for information collection and data analysis, and can also generate financial reports and
monthly sales forecasts (2). MySAP financials has allowed Coca-Cola to consolidate business and
planning, and the data warehousing insures that all financial records can be kept without taking up
valuable space on company hard drives. This IT is fully implemented in the companys headquarters, and
every field location is equipped with intranet capabilities so that information can be given to and looked
up from the centralized site (2). Data is organized so that intercompany transactions are eliminated and
other adjustments can be made so that the information can then be consolidated to draft financial
reports. This system is especially helpful at the end of the month when Coca-Cola is able to consolidate
information needed for monthly reports quickly. All of this data provides baseline information so that
Coke can track the financial health and growth of the company. In addition to mySAP financials, Coca-
Cola uses mySAP BI as a common repository for every location worldwide (2).

Another issue Coca-Cola faces, due to their global expansion, is managing their diverse group of
worldwide suppliers. Coca-Colas business strategy is Think local, act local, which requires them to
implement an IT system that takes into account all of their local bottlers in the world (4). The integration
between the local bottlers and delivery to the customers is crucial to the companys overall efficiency and
keeping the customers satisfied. Direct Store Delivery (DSD), full-service vending and equipment
services are key components of bottlers business operations and profit centers. Direct Store Delivery
(DSD) utilizes real-time information to maximize efficiency. DSD allows specific sites to transmit
customer information to distributors. With the specific data this information creates, DSD helps improve
delivery productivity and reduce cost (1). By improving the specificity of shipments, individual stores
will reduce unsold inventory and maximize profits. DSD tightly integrates the IT systems of the bottlers
and delivery personell with the on-site requests. These requests can come from any variety of mobile
devices, field sales representatives, and service staff (1). With this integration, stores can more easily
respond to their comprehensive range of customer requests. Therefore, with the mySAP SCM system,
advanced distribution models can be built to make the processes more efficient and comprehensive. The
following video discusses some of this vending equipment as well as how they have tried to make
delivery patterns and overall SCM system more efficient. RFID based bottle dispensers give real time
feedback that benefits research, product development, and marketing (6). This technology crosses
functional company lines and allows them to deal with wants of the customers in a more timely manner.

Coca-Cola's OPSI Systems - Optimizaion of Vending and Logistics (5)

Improved SCM can therefore help improve customer service and satisfaction. But in order to efficiently
use this SCM system, an advanced CRM system is necessary to utilize their customer information. Ron
Lewis' video (shown below) demonstrates Coca-Cola's customer focus. Again, this requires the IT system
to be able to handle all the data collected from customers, process them, and provide information to better
the products to suit the customers' needs.

Ron Lewis on Coca Cola's North American Supply Chain and focus on customers (3)

While Coca-Cola continues to shift its focus towards their customers, their IT system must also shift its
functionality. As Lo Apotheker, executive board member of SAP, says, In an environment where
increasing consumer and customer satisfaction is key for any company to survive and grow, consumer
products companies must be able to meet demand and service requirements on time, according to
expectations and as effectively as possible. SAP's Apotheker's philosphy directly applies to what Coca-
Cola is trying to achieve. With SAPs CRM system Coca-Cola was able to transform its business
operations towards their goal of customer focus. SAPs CRM provides a next-generation software
solution supporting the DSD process from order to cash and settlement (1). The CRM system will support
the existing processes of mySAP to improve it and provide new functionalities and opportunities to
improve their customer service and satisfaction. Being a global company, it has many different types of
product lines and the new CRM system is able to support these diverse lines. The updated CRM system
improves merchandising, allows for growth in market share, increases customer satisfaction, and reduces
logistics costs [Coca cola enterprise and sap join forces].
The CRM system also handles and integrates customer service. this includes reaching out to
representatives in the company for any issues relating to the products. The diagram below shows part of
the SAP CRM system that handles the contact centers around the word. Here, not only is service provided
to the customers through feedback, email, and telephone services but also through quality monitoring and
different types of analyses to ensure the best service practices. Therefore, the CRM system ensures
efficiency in all aspects of customer service.

SAP CRM system for Coca Cola's contact centers worldwide (7)
Coca-Cola's needs continue to change with their growing demands. And with every change, Coca-Cola
has the customer at the core of the decision. They will focus on how to best satisfy the needs of their
customers in all available markets. New technology for their SCM, ERP, and CRM systems will be vital
to maintain their position at the top of the beverage market. Coca-Cola is sure to run into new problems as
they fight to maintain their position at the top, but as former CEO E. Neville Isdell said in 2005, "As we
have always done in the past, I know that this industry will rise to the occasion."