IT at Käserebellen

Consumers and farmers alike appreciate Käserebellen from Steingaden: Revenue increased eightfold over the past ten years to 40 mil. € and the number of “hay milk farmers” also doubled during this period. For more than ten years all key processes at this rapidly growing company have also been managed using the enterprise software winweb-food. What are internal operations like at Käserebellen? Head of marketing Matthias Köpf and head of IT Tino Winterhalter explain this during a tour of the facility. In the goods receiving department 28 mil. kg of hay milk from a total of 290 farmers must be recorded each year. This is then used over the course of a year to produce 2.800t of hay milk cheese in a broad product range from “Bio-Bergsteigerkäse” through “Bio-Wiesenkäse”, “Bio-Scheunenkäse” to innovations such as “Bio-Rüblikäse”. The products are sold directly through 25 stores, with both franchise locations and company stores in operation. Other sales channels include the traditional wholesale channel supplying supermarkets, butcher shops and fine-food stores. The customer database also contains 15.000 consumers, who place orders through the online shop and receive deliveries directly. The software, which controls all of this, is called winweb-food. The company has grown approximately eightfold since 2002 and has also become much more complex in its structure. This is precisely where Winterhalter gives the software partner credit: “Our system was already designed for this growth. Normally, a company that had grown much larger would also need a completely different software solution.”

Software focused on food

The customer base of Winweb, a provider based in Aldenhoven, is concentrated in the meat processing industry. Is cheese not an entirely different business? Network administrator Tino Winterhalter, himself a trained butcher and a certified business economist specializing in meat, smiles: “Animal-based foods such as meat and cheese have many similarities, both in terms of production technology and their distribution through the wholesale trade, particularly at service counters.” Above all, however, software from a specialist provider in the food industry is already designed to ensure compliance with important legal requirements. Winterhalter cites food hygiene regulations and consumer protection as key examples. Batch traceability, for instance, is a requirement that legislators, the wholesale trade, and consumers place on dairy and meat products alike.
When asked what was the decisive factor behind the investment, the answer lies in the connection between “cheese and meat.” Tino Winterhalter explains: “The former managing director of Schwarzwaldfleisch and the owner of Käserebellen, Sepp Krönauer, have known each other personally for many years. The process therefore began with the experience of a satisfied winweb-food user in the meat industry.”

Value for money

Despite the influence of further positive user experiences, Krönauer commissioned a careful price/performance comparison of various providers. And when it became clear that Winweb also offers good value for the performance provided in terms of purchase- and maintenance costs, Winweb had won the competition.
Today, much of what the integrated business software does has become part of everyday operations. „When the system was implemented at our company in 2002, the seamless integration of labeling directly from the inventory management system was already revolutionary“, recalls Winterhalter, who was working at the company as an external consultant at the time. Matthias Köpf, now Head of Marketing, also clearly remembers how he was introduced to using the system: „I was simply seated next to a colleague. He then explained to me what the purchasing and sales screens looked like. About five minutes later, I was entering data myself. The system really is structured so that new employees can find their way around easily and intuitively.“
Winterhalter agrees and also draws on his experience at CeBit 2014 in Hanover: „At the trade fair, I took a close look at what was available and what the various systems could do. When I returned home, I was absolutely certain: I have never seen the core purchasing and sales functions implemented better than at Winweb.“

Special requests

At more than 40 workstations across all areas of the company, employees now use winweb-food, the „leading system in our company“, as Tino Winterhalter describes it.
Implementing enterprise software always involves accommodating special requirements. Winterhalter: „For example, in the areas of warehouse accounting and batch traceability ، we had specific requirements. Winweb implemented these well. And whenever something was unclear to us, we always received a prompt and expert answer.“
Finally, the two Käserebellen employees Winterhalter and Köpf also give their enterprise software top marks in categories where an industry study has already recognized Winweb: This relates to system training. For this purpose Trovarit AG from Aachen most recently evaluated 48 software vendors with support from Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule. Winweb achieved the highest satisfaction rating in the industry-specific software category. Outstanding individual scores were awarded for „industry expertise“ and „commitment“ (each scoring 4,77 out of a maximum 5,00) and „employee training“ (score 4,69).

www.kaeserebellen.com
www.winweb.de