• Customers
• Industrial Companies

Sojaprotein

ERP requirements for MEs: adaptation to business processes and increased process efficiency

Sojaprotein AD ranks amongst the most significant soya bean processing plants in South East Europe and is the only company of its kind in Serbia. Founded in 1978, the company began regular production in 1982. To-date, Sojaprotein AD has around 400 employees, and the company's processing capacity is 900 tons of soya beans daily or 300,000 tons annually. The ERP project, which ranks amongst the most complex in Serbia, was implemented over a period of almost three years in total with significant challenges for the S&T team. "The previous business year was the most successful in the history of Sojaprotein AD, and the INFOR BaanERP business solution has helped us enormously in tracking key business performance indicators and making decisions in good time. After more than a year and a half of work, we are confident that we have adopted a modern IT system which will help extend our business scope as well as our expansion into new markets in the future", explain the executive manager, Branislava Pavlović, Managing Director of Sojaprotein AD, Veroslav Janković, Investment Director of the Victoria Group and Nikola Vučković, Internal Project Director and Sojaprotein AD's Manager of Planning, Preparation and Development of the Production Sector.

Bespoke Customization

Numerous business functionalities are covered by this project, such as: production process planning and production itself, quality control of incoming goods, purchasing, sales, storage, external trade business, wages calculations and employee tracking. Also, S&T has developed a completely new module to manage the payment of raw materials to contract farmers and has integrated it in the standard INFOR BaanERP solution. Comprehensive organisational changes to reduce the company's operating costs which arose during the implementation also meant that the solution had to be modified.

"The project already anticipated what studies have shown as regards the SME sector's future requirements for ERP systems: complexity and the desire for flexibility and efficiency as well as the need for standardization and harmonization", explains Christian Rosner, CEO of S&T. "It is important that, in parallel with cost reduction and product quality improvements, productivity can increase and the employee base can be optimized."

ERP Requirements in the SME Sector

According to "SoftTrend Studie 249" issued by the management consultancy SoftSelect, companies consistently consider the adaptability of ERP software to changing business processes as particularly important, as well as an increase in process efficiency and the seamless integration of additional applications. Also, the standardization of in-house processes, the reduction in life-cycle costs and web access to applications will be the key decision factors for or against an ERP system in the future. S&T offers support and consulting for the decision and implementation of an adequate ERP system in 22 countries. S&T has around 1200 experienced ERP consultants, who plan and realise flexible and individual ERP solutions for international and national customers.

The IT Market in Serbia

According to Business Monitor International, the IT market in Serbia in 2006 was worth around 366 million US dollars. The IT services market is worth approximately 73 million US dollars. Serbia is recording double-digit growth rates in this sector year on year, fuelled above all by bank investments, public sector and industry investment. IT expenditure per capita is still very low in Serbia at around 33 euros (compared with Slovakia at 137 euros), so the growth potential is correspondingly significant.

S&T in Serbia

S&T has been active in the Serbian market since 1996. Currently, the company has more than 100 employees in two subsidiaries (Belgrade and Novi Sad) and serves well-known customers like Alpha Bank, Telenor, Serbian Government, Dijamant, National Bank of Serbia and Direct Trade.