Tech Update: Software solution sweet for sour cream

Daisy Brand, a Dallas-based dairy processor, faced a big challenge leading up to the year 2000. The company’s current systems, like many other food manufacturers, were not capable of supporting Y2K requirements. However, the sour cream maker found its answer in ERP software.

As business continued to grow after Y2K, the company decided to reevaluate its ERP implementation, but chose to stay the course and upgrade the Protean system from Invensys it installed in 1999. In the process, Daisy Brand took a fresh look at its business processes and found capabilities in Protean that it previously didn’t know existed.

“Growth is a strategy that is driven from all departments, not from an IT initiative,” said Kevin Brown, director of IS at Daisy Brand. “What is important is that the system provides the operational infrastructure to grow the business, and that the systems are not a barrier to get to new markets and to service new customers.”

At the same time Daisy Brand’s business has grown, it has also been able to reduce finished goods inventory by 25% and reduce the amount of time the product is in the plant, leading to lower inventory costs and an increase in the available shelf life of shipped products. The dairy processor has also reduced the extreme of impact peaks and valleys of seasonal demand have on its business and reduced days sales outstanding by 30%.