Smithfield Foods is a leading consumer packaged meats company with over 52,000 employees across the company. They are also the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer, committed to providing good food in a responsible way, while exhibiting operational efficiency and innovation.
Download this case studyOnce Smithfield Foods went live on their upgrade from JD Edwards World to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, they realized that their new tier 1 solution required knowledge they didn’t have in-house. While they were skilled on World, the change to E1 revealed a gap in skillset for HCM (HR, Ben, Pay, ESS, Health and Safety), Manufacturing, Distribution, Capital Asset Management, Financials, and Advanced Cost Accounting. And when your organization’s revenue stream is contingent upon technology tracking everything from when the hogs get shots, feed, medications, placements, mortality rates, sell dates, to when they’re in heat, it’s important to know that the solution is working properly and will deliver the results needed to maintain that revenue stream.
Before taking over support after go-live, CSS took time to review the processes they used in World, including which custom modifications were necessary to bring up to EnterpriseOne, and which processes could be improved with standard E1 functionality. Because hog production utilizes a customized system, loosely based on a grower module that CSS has implemented, they turned to CSS to bring that portion of the system up to E1. The project, plus a thorough review gave CSS a comprehensive understanding of the support this client needed and set expectations properly. CSS provides the functional support for JDE EnterpriseOne and also provides development work so that the hog production could continue uninterrupted and without a loss of revenue. CSS will continue to provide support to this client’s hog production processes using JD Edwards.
CSS manages the day-to-day operations in JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. This means the Smithfield employees can concentrate on the business, not the technology. And there is 100% employee satisfaction with this model. CSS moved a customized technology solution that supported a main revenue stream to a more sophisticated system and Smithfield relied on CSS instead of hiring additional staff – this saved a significant amount of money. And with improved Reporting and Inquiries, Smithfield is capable of full picture reporting on Financials by Period, Date Range, Location, and Animal Type to name a Few.
Tier 1 production system successfully upgraded with no additional staff
Freed up IT staff to concentrate on roll-outs and custom development
Saved time on upgrade of hog production by using CSS
Provides regular upgrade schedule and needed E1 skillset
Saved money not hiring FTE to manage the solution
I want my folks, in-house, to work on things that move the company forward and affect the bottom line. Not the day-to-day stuff. That's the new trend. And we feel like CSS is that extension to our team. And it's great.
Jona Smith, Asst. Director Information Technology
