iWay Keeps Information Flowing for Mark Anthony Group

Leading Alcoholic Beverage Company Automates Order-to-Cash Process

Founded in 1972, Mark Anthony Group is Canada’s leading privately owned importer and distributor of fine wine, premium beer, and specialty beverages. More than 15 million cases of alcoholic beverages pass through the company’s warehouse each year.

Until recently, Mark Anthony primarily used manual processes and paper-based activities to track many warehouse transactions, both internally and with its trading partners. Even after implementing Microsoft BizTalk Server to exchange communications across its extended organization, the ability to quickly and seamlessly share information between its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems continued to pose quite a challenge.

Mark Anthony Group deployed solutions from iWay Software – a division of Information Builders – to help streamline warehouse operations. iWay’s Business Process Automation (BPA) Suite automates internal workflows by passing XML documents between systems to control a wide array of mission-critical business activities. Additionally, iWay manages dynamic electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions with the organization’s manufacturing partners.

Today, more than 150 outgoing orders as well as 15 large shipment receipts are processed by iWay each day. By eliminating cumbersome and error-prone manual tasks, Mark Anthony Group has realized a substantial boost in productivity. For example, the company estimates that iWay technologies enable it to process orders up to 75 percent faster while ensuring greater information accuracy.

Putting a Cork in Old Technology

Previously, Mark Anthony Group used Microsoft BizTalk Server to integrate and exchange information throughout its extended organization. But developers had trouble using the middleware to establish solid communications with the company’s ERP and CRM systems.

"As we gained greater automation with our ERP system, we wanted to extend that automation out to the warehouse and back, keeping the entire business process electronic,” says Ray Cooper, developer and analyst at Mark Anthony Group. "BizTalk was not able to do the job to our satisfaction, so we began examining other options for internal application integration.”

Mark Anthony Group evaluated middleware solutions from leading technology providers, including iWay Software and Cast Iron Systems. iWay emerged as the most flexible and cost-effective solution. As Cooper relates, Cast Iron requires its own proprietary hardware while iWay can be deployed on virtually any platform. He also liked iWay’s intuitive graphical interface and developer workbench, which make it easy to create custom components and workflows.

Cooper downloaded a demo version of iWay and installed it on his laptop in less than 10 minutes, and then later replicated it on a virtual server. Working alone over a three-month period, he went on to transform many of the fundamental communication processes in the enterprise.

"If I ran into any issues, iWay’s support team was there to help,” Cooper relates. "They were exceptional. I have been in the IT industry for 25 years and I have never seen a help desk as responsive as iWay’s. Any issue I have is usually resolved the same day.” Cooper says one of the reasons his company dropped BizTalk was a lack of prompt vendor support.

Tapping Internal Business Processes

Much of Mark Anthony Group’s IT infrastructure is Microsoft-based, including Windows servers, Microsoft CRM, and Microsoft SQL Server. The company also uses the MFG ERP system from QAD Systems. Leveraging this infrastructure, Cooper used iWay’s BPA suite to automate internal workflows on a massive scale. iWay passes XML documents between systems and controls essential business processes, such as receiving stock, identifying non-registered products, managing inventory, picking orders, shipping goods to retailers, invoicing retailers, and handling many of the reporting requirements of the Liquor Control Board.

For example, once a sales person inputs an order into Mark Anthony Group’s ERP system, iWay picks up the record from the SQL Server database, creates an XML document, and sends it to the warehouse. Personnel at the warehouse pick up the order based on information in the document.

As they scan cases of product for shipment, iWay receives the data and populates the database with a Web service. After the order has been shipped, iWay creates another XML document that includes specifications for creating an invoice.

"iWay automates the entire process from order to billing,” Cooper explains. "Previously, this was a manual process that involved a lot of paperwork. It’s much faster and more accurate now.”

iWay also manages inventory receipts for incoming product shipments, which typically arrive via container to Mark Anthony Group’s warehouse. As the goods are scanned, iWay validates each product to ensure it is a registered product that the company can legally sell. Unregistered products are set aside to await approval by the Liquor Control Board.

"Because Mark Anthony Group functions in a highly regulated industry, there is a great deal of government reporting involved with the flow of inventory in and out of the warehouse,” explains Robert Eckley, who leads the IT team at Mark Anthony Group. "iWay has simplified the process of creating accurate reports to share with the government. iWay’s reporting capabilities are phenomenal.”

Distilling B2B Communication

Eckley’s team is also using iWay to manage EDI transactions with manufacturing partners, such as the production facilities that produce beverages, bottles, labels, and crates. Those facilities send EDI EBIX files in a standard shipper/receiver format. iWay receives those files and inserts them into Mark Anthony Group’s ERP system. If a trading partner is not set up for EDI, iWay can receive the information via e-mail in an Excel spreadsheet and then transform the data into the correct SQL Server format.

iWay’s broad B2B capabilities simplify collaboration and information sharing with vendors, suppliers, customers, and other business affiliates. "iWay saves us a lot of time because the information gets into our ERP system more quickly,” Cooper says. Previously, Mark Anthony Group manually entered the data into its ERP system, which occasionally introduced errors. "iWay’s EDI capabilities are not only faster, they are also more accurate, which has improved our data quality.”

iWay also includes enterprise information management (EIM) capabilities for evaluating, monitoring, and managing data quality. Based on predefined business rules, it can flag exceptions and spot inconsistencies. For example, if a customer wants 12 cases of the 2006 vintage of a particular wine, but none is available in the warehouse, iWay alerts the sales rep before the pickers start pulling together the order. Previously, the pickers might simply pack up the 2007 vintage instead, which could end up being returned if the customer doesn’t accept it. Now, they can find out in advance what the customer prefers. This additional insight minimizes returns and boosts customer satisfaction.

Currently, Mark Anthony Group has moved five of its customers to the EDI system, with labor savings equivalent to one full-time employee. Once iWay is interfacing with all of Mark Anthony Group’s customers, those savings will be magnified many times over.

Packaging New Data Integration Scenarios

In the future, Mark Anthony Group plans to integrate iWay into the Samba direct messaging system that underlies the company’s ERP system. Samba provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients and can integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or as a domain member. It can also be part of an Active Directory domain. This integration will permit iWay to manage many additional business processes, both internally and with trading partners. Based on the quick results he has seen to date, Cooper is confident that iWay will easily handle this messaging standard.

"The performance of iWay and its ability to adjust to our needs is excellent,” Cooper summarizes. "We can scale our server or add another virtual machine as the business continues to grow. The stability of iWay is leaps and bounds ahead of what we were previously using. Its ability to communicate with virtually any system makes it a very valuable tool for us.”