Russell Stover Candies outsourced its legacy information systems. However, two years later, they were unhappy with their chosen outsourcing provider and faced multiple ERP challenges. To help navigate these challenges, the company hired a seasoned IT executive. Find out why, after an exhaustive evaluation process, he selected OneNeck IT Services.
The CompanyFrom its humble beginning in the kitchen of Clara and Russell Stover's Denver bungalow home, Russell Stover Candies (RSC) has grown into the third largest American chocolate manufacturer. The Kansas City, MO-based company's three brands - Russell Stover, Whitman's and Pangburn's - account for more than 60 percent of all boxed chocolate Bigger Isn't sales in the United States. Russell Stover confections are sold in more than 50 company-owned retail stores and through 70,000 wholesale accounts in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and more Necessarily than 20 other countries throughout the world. The family-owned company manufacturers more than 100 million pounds of chocolate Betterannually and continues to use the same small batch candymaking techniques and recipes developed by the Stovers more than 80 years Why A Leading Candy ago. This painstaking dedication to quality has allowed Russell Stover Manufacturer Chose A Candies to become America's No. 1 seller of boxed chocolates. Mid-Market Specialist
The Challenge A O N E N E C K I T S E RV I C E S C A S E S T U D Y In 1997, Russell Stover Candies outsourced its legacy information systems. However, by early 1999, they were unhappy with their chosen outsourcing provider - one of the world's largest outsourcing companies. The outsourcer's poor performance affected RSC's ability to conduct business, and several attempts to ? x the relationship were unsuccessful. The company experienced regular network outages, which affected employee productivity; invoicing fell behind, and critical ? nancial processing and order ful? llment was often signi? cantly delayed. In addition, while outsourced, Russell Stover had chosen to purchase and implement Baan's enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, in part to mitigate its Y2K issues. The outsourcing provider, along with other consultants, had con? gured and built the company's new ERP environment. Unfortunately, Baan's ERP application appeared to be a poor ? t for RSC by not meeting critical business requirements. Further, the project was behind schedule, a "go-live" date was not planned, and RSC's busy season and Y2K were approaching fast. Because of these issues, Russell Stover considered bringing its entire IT infrastructure and support back in-house.
To help navigate these challenges, the company hired a seasoned IT executive, David Copas. After weighing available options, Copas decided rather than go through the expense, upheaval and multi-year process of rebuilding an in-house IT staff, Russell Stover Candies would ? nd a new outsourcing partner. The criteria for a new partner were: 1) be knowledgeable of mid-sized manufacturing company IT requirements; 2) have deep Baan expertise; and 3) have business process knowledge that would enable them to optimize the company's ERP environment. "Our decision to replace our Copas reviewed the usual list of big brand IT outsourcers but wasn't outsourcing partner vs. bring encouraged given the company's recent experience. He decided he our IT support back in-house needed a partner that could move fast, be ? exible and add value beyond was fraught with challenges. the traditional scope of outsourcing services. After an exhaustive evaluation process, Copas selected OneNeck IT Services. We were entering our busi-est season of the year, Y2K The OneNeck Solution was fast approaching and the OneNeck was selected to manage Russell Stover Candies' IT operations relationship with our existing with contract commencement in July 1999 - just months from the outsourcer was untenable. company's busy season and Y2K. With its work cut out for it and nearly impossible deadlines, OneNeck developed a plan to swiftly transition We had to make a decision and later optimize Russell Stover's ERP environment. With a unique to jump off the cliff and approach by staf? ng this customer with resources at both RSC's build our wings on the way headquarters in Kansas City and at OneNeck's operations in Phoenix, down. OneNeck provided OneNeck's Baan experts worked directly with Russell Stover's users to us a soft landing."understand and resolve all mission critical issues as quickly as possible during the transition. David Copas, Senior Vice President, Logistics and Information SystemsOneNeck's team created manual workarounds for poorly developed interfaces between Baan and Russell Stover's warehouse management system... [download for more]
