Hello! I'm Rif Kiamil, Chief Information Officer of JJ Food Service Limited, and a longtime user of Microsoft Dynamics AX. I'm taking part in the virtual launch of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 that kicks off this morning http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax2012launch/, but wanted to give readers of The Edge a sneak peek at what I'll be sharing during today's keynote webcast.
Based in north London, with six locations in the United Kingdom, JJ distributes a range of ambient, chilled, frozen foods, as well as packaging and cleaning products. Our company delivers 500 tons of food and catering products per day to our 30,000 plus customers, with a fleet of 150 trucks from six distribution centers across UK. We also offer a collection service where we put the products into our customer's vehicle at any of our branches.
As every CIO knows, profitability depends on highly efficient business processes-from taking customer orders accurately to delivering products on time with the correct billing information. We depend on our technology for everything from order processing to stock control. Our business strategy is to make JJ Foods easier to use and more reliable than our competitors. This includes the complete experience with our company from how effortless it is for a customer to place an order, to our ability to offer the right price, to always ensuring the customers are billed correctly. AX 2012 is a critical component to this competitive strategy.
We've been using AX for seven years now and each new release has enabled us to more effectively address our ever-changing business needs and sharpen our competitive edge. I measure the effectiveness of our ERP solution by analyzing the time our employees spend doing duplicate work: double-checking an order that was entered, running reports to see if the stock is low or making credits due to invoicing errors. Since moving to Dynamics AX, we have saved 6,805 days that would have been unproductive sales time.
Another benefit we're already experiencing with Dynamics AX 2012 is increased system performance. We can now run Master Planning all day long to ensure that our product team doesn't miss out on sudden demand from our customers-you never know when the weather is going to change in London and we need to get more ice cream into the market. (I wish there was a day that I would need ice cream, more like tea, but I digress...). Looking ahead, we have some major projects planned around building apps for mobile devices, which will allow self-service access for customers giving them deep visibility into our system, even down to the level of knowing which person in our warehouse has just picked a packet of chicken. Windows Communication Foundation, part of the .NET Framework, will allow our mobile apps to "talk" with AX 2012 while keeping all the business logic and data in AX. (Those of you wanting to wallow in developer goodness can check out this video on the Microsoft Dynamics ERP team's YouTube channel.)
When our CEO walks into my office, and tells me that he wants his new business idea completed in a two-week timeframe, I know that I can do it in one week with Dynamics AX. I think Microsoft has really thought about what a successful ERP solution should be. They shared this vision in 2008 and have committed to making it a reality. I have always viewed our Dynamics AX solution as a platform to enable innovation within the company, and to help us compete in the marketplace.
Rif Kiamil, Chief Information Officer of JJ Food Service Limited
