Technology Blogs by SAP
Learn how to extend and personalize SAP applications. Follow the SAP technology blog for insights into SAP BTP, ABAP, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP HANA, and more.
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Former Member
Halloween is just around the corner, and U.S. retailers everywhere are selling all kinds of spooktacular swag to help Americans celebrate. The popularity of the holiday is more than smoke and mirrors- it’s a major industry in which Americans happily invest.

The National Retail Federation recently released a report that indicates Americans will spend $8.4 billion on Halloween this year, with most survey respondents (+94%) planning to buy candy for neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Research shows that chocolate is the number one candy purchased for distribution on Halloween, with more than 90 million pounds purchased the week before Halloween alone. With SAP customers producing 79% of the world’s chocolate, Halloween is a fang-tastic time to see what a few of them are doing on the technology front to make sure consumers are getting exactly what they want in their candy bowls.

The Hershey Company. John Ward writes about how Hershey is using SAP S/4HANA to transform their business. “We use these tools in our supply chain where we’ve been able to influence how we think about inventory, how we procure goods, and how they move thru our system,” said J.P. Bilbrey, CEO of The Hershey Company in a video featured inside Ward’s blog. “I can take this interconnective system…ask a question, and visualize it in live time and act on the insights we’ve gained from that information.” Fun fact: Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are the second most popular chocolate given to trick or treaters. M and M’s and Snickers, distributed by Mars, Incorporated (another SAP customer) take spots one and 3.

Ferrero. The German-based confectioner that makes Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, Kinder Surprise, and Tic Tac uses SAP HANA to help them analyze cost and profitability data faster, optimize their supply chain processes, and even plan simulation exercises for the surprises inside those Kinder eggs. “With the help of SAP, we have standardized our way of doing business, we [have] more lean processes inside the company,” according to Enzo Bertolini, CIO at Ferrero.

Casa Luker. This Colombia-based fine cocoa manufacturer upgraded their IT system with SAP to support their growth into the worldwide market. They’re using a number of SAP solutions (like SAP Business Intelligence and SAP HANA) to help them manage their business (and the expectations of their customers) better. “SAP HANA given us foundation to innovate in the coming years using real-time data, and learn customers’ behavior in order to be one step ahead, and…have the products they want over the next 10 years,” said Gerson Granados, Director of IT at Casa Luker.

Mondelēz International. With brand family members like Oreo, Cadbury and Toblerone, Mondelēz International (with CompriseIT) is using SAP solutions to streamline processes for new product launches and improve master data quality. The sweetest part of it? Costs are lower and products are going to market faster. "With the majority of the data derived using rules that we maintain in SAP BPM, we can be more certain about our data quality, according to Ajay Patel, Master Data Manager at Mondelēz International. “The data dashboards provide clear visibility into where products are throughout the process, so we can spot and correct issues before they impact operations.”

Learn more about how SAP is innovating with businesses here.

Top image via Shutterstock
1 Comment