Ferrero, a well-loved brand most known by its chocolates Ferrero Rocher, Kinder, and delicious hazelnut spread Nutella, started off with a humble beginning in Italy in 1946. The group has grown exponentially, thanks to its progressive and global outlook which puts its product and people first. Today, it has presence in 55 countries with its Asia Pacific headquarters situated in Singapore.

A Massive Amount of Paperwork

As its Asia Pacific operations continue to grow, Ferrero Asia has to innovate to manage the increasingly challenging flow of operations. This ranges from product management, planning and supply, logistics management, import and export and customer service. Huge amounts of information in the form of documents and emails are handled on a day-to-day basis. Heavily reliant on manual effort, the task is laborious and mundane, and subjected to human errors.

A Tedious Information Retrieval Process

The information retrieval process is equally long and tiresome. Employees have to first access a spreadsheet to search for the required document’s location. Then, one has to pull out the physical carton and go through the documents in it manually to find the correct one. During peak periods, this process could take up to five days.

Concerns for the Environment

With the reliance on hardcopy documents in its daily operations, Ferrero Asia’s consumption of paper rises as its business grows. This paper-based workflow not only impedes its operations efficiency, but also contradicts its commitment to minimising negative impacts on the environment.

Upping Productivity with Digital Storage and Retrieval

With the implementation of Canon’s Therefore^TM Document Management Solution, paper documents are digitised, stored, managed and distributed seamlessly. With Optical Character Recognition (OCR), desired documents can be easily located and retrieved. A simple keyword search is what employees need, calling up associated documents and signicantly cutting down on manpower and time required.

Value-adding to Customers and Staff

With the substantial reduction in mundane paperwork, employees are now able to provide value-added services to customers. Ferrero Asia saw the potential to upgrade their personnel skillset and redeploy them to make a difference in other functions of the business. These include business reviews with key customers, collaboration with the transport management team and sales team to provide customised solutions to customers. The implementation of the solution empowers employees in career progression and development.

A Smaller Carbon Footprint

In line with the Group’s commitment to respect and protect the environment, Ferrero Asia is able to reduce its carbon footprint with the signicant reduction in paper usage. Unlike previously where hardcopy printouts are used in deliveries, employees now work with digital documents, allowing the process to be more seamless and sustainable.

A Brilliant After-sales

Team Ferrero Asia has a very positive experience working with Canon Singapore. The Canon team has been very responsive and reliable in addressing challenges faced. Both parties have established a mutual understanding and trust which had been crucial in the smooth implementation of the solution.

Working Towards a Long-term Partnership

Since implementing Therefore^TM in its operations, Ferrero Asia has seen a 50% reduction in document processing workload and a 20% increase in productivity level. Next, the document management solution could be implemented in its Legal, Human Resource and Finance departments involving paperwork-intensive tasks. There are also plans to get its distributors on board to create a truly seamless and ef cient work process.