“French family business, pioneer of organic fair trade and cocoa specialist”: this is how the SME Kaoka presents itself, a company founded nearly 30 years ago. The brand offers 56 organic and fair trade chocolate references, distributed in specialized stores such as Biocoop or Naturalia.
Kaoka does not have production tools. For the manufacture of chocolate and the transformation of its cocoa beans, the company relies on suppliers, including the Cémoi group. Kaoka is both customer, supplier and subsidiary of the manufacturer.
Organic, a quality and traceability issue
The company chose to focus on supply and grower relations. Kaoka has 4,824 partner producers who supply it with the raw material. The main part of its activity therefore consists in managing the supply chain, the quality of the products and also the commercial aspect.
This management came up against the complexity of the lack of an integrated software package. In terms of computer tools, Kaoka and its 17 employees previously relied mainly on a limited sales management application and Excel documents.
As its CEO, Guy Deberdt explains, tasks related to “cocoa bean flows or batch composition” were before 2020 managed manually via Excel files. The processes and the exchanges, in particular with Cémoi, were therefore time-consuming and the entries were multiple.
An ERP for the food industry
In 2020, the SME decided to remedy this by acquiring an ERP (integrated management software package). Among the five tools selected within the framework of the call for tenders, it is finally the Divalto Infinity software package, customized by the integrator PG2i to stick to the specificities of the food industry, which will be retained.
Kaoka was accompanied in the first phase of selection by a consultant in order to help it clear a new technological offer for it. To decide between the products, ergonomics was a major criterion.
“We needed a fairly versatile and multi-activity ERP,” underlines the manager. Infologic’s ERP Copilote, specializing in the agri-food sector, would have met Kaoka’s expectations. “We also have other colleagues who use it on the organic market. »
Balancing features and cost
However, the cost of Infologic’s ERP exceeded the available budget. Divalto then represented a compromise between functional coverage and cost. The solution has also been adapted to the specificities of the food industry by the integrator.
Regarding the deployment mode, Kaoka has chosen an on-premise installation on a server installed locally. The cloud was also available. But for Guy Deberdt, this mode of consumption nevertheless presented a risk likely to paralyze the activity in the event of an internet outage.
The boss of the SME also claims an ecological attachment, pointing the finger at the energy consumption of the hosts. To ensure the security of the ERP and its data, Kaoka has a Stormshield solution managed by Orange. The backup is based on multiple replications, on site and externally. Added to this is a disconnected backup.
Regarding the functionalities and contributions of the ERP, they are at this stage focused above all on the management of the stock and the supply chain. The company’s quality experts also use the software package for product traceability and entering quality data. Sales administration, through workflow automation, is another area for improvement.
Ongoing optimization
Functional scopes remain to be optimized, including sales monitoring. Due to a complete change in product classifications, Kaoka does not have a data history beyond July 2021. From 2023, thanks to two years of history, the sales department will be able to refine data analysis and management.
In terms of user adoption, it was facilitated by the creation of a six-person ERP working group right from the start of the project. Employees required to use Divalto on a daily basis have been trained and participated in preparatory workshops.
Since the rollout, Guy Deberdt reports efficiencies in billing and order management. Some of the gains have yet to be made and require broader interfacing with Cémoi, and in the future with other major customers.