Biscuit company unites IT systems

United Biscuits has begun work on the integration of its IT systems with those it inherited through its acquisition of Jacob's last September.

The maker of brands such as McVitie's Digestives and Jaffa Cakes is combining finance, manufacturing, sales and distribution, business warehouse and supply and demand chain management applications with those of Jacob's, whose brands include Cream Crackers and Twiglets.

Both companies use enterprise resource planning (ERP) software from SAP, although they run different versions.

United Biscuits will migrate its own data - which has been running on fellow food manufacturer Danone's SAP systems under a transitional services agreement because its own were ageing and unreliable - to Jacob's more modern systems, allowing it to implement the same processes and procedures across the newly-combined business.

Clare Blackburn, United Biscuits European information systems director, told Computing: 'We split the IS activity into three areas: infrastructure, where obviously, we need to join together these two companies' infrastructures as quickly as possible, and that's already up and running.

'We've done a lot of interim work, allowing us to control a lot of both businesses during 2005, and that development work has come under an existing contract with Atos Origin.

'And not least is the long-term, full integration of the application areas, which we hope to have complete by the first quarter of 2006,' said Blackburn.

The company's agreement with Danone is soon to expire, making the integration process all the more urgent and allowing for the future provision of the expanded requirements of its business.

Blackburn says United Biscuits carried out a preliminary 100-day integration planning exercise, looking at both organisations, their processes and technology.

Integrating the Jacob's and the United Biscuits applications will deliver some of the most tangible benefits of the takeover, she says.

The integrated systems are also essential if United Biscuits is to ensure all of its data is covered by business continuity practices. The combined system will also generate cost-savings and improve business agility.

United Biscuits has signed two additional contracts with Atos Consulting and Atos Origin in recent months. The combined value of all three deals is £3m.