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One of the world’s major manufacturers of paints, coatings and powder coatings, the Jotun Group has 5,000 employees in 67 companies and 39 production facilities on 5 continents. In 2005 revenue amounted to US$ 1,042 million. Jotun develops, produces and sells cost-effective paint and coatings products, and provides customer service and technical support to residential, marine and industrial markets worldwide. Jotun is headquartered in Sandefjord, Norway. Accessible information
Jotun had run a tailor-made ERP system for more than 20 years, during which time the company grew from being a small Scandinavian operation to becoming an international corporation. In 2002, Jotun began the process of standardizing its business software. First the company took a couple of years working on a strategy process that, among other things, defined the requirements for the future solution. One of the most important criteria was that users would get secure ease of access to the information they required—whenever and wherever they required it. The choice of ERP system would also make IT and its use a strategic tool for Jotun.
Why IFS?
The process of selecting an ERP vendor commenced in March 2003, when BPCS, Intentia, SAP, Oracle and IFS were invited to an initial vendors meeting. Jotun’s management had defined a number of requirements prior to the meeting. To be selected, a vendor would have to be present in Scandinavia, have the capacity to deliver a global solution and support Jotun’s operations worldwide, have a proven solution and good references, be financially stable, offer an industryspecific solution, and focus on research and development. IFS was considered the best option for most of the criteria. In addition, IFS was deemed to be the most competent vendor, with a culture that matched that of Jotun. IFS Applications was judged to be the easiest, most intuitive solution, both to learn and to use.
Key to Successful Implementation
“Most businesses find it relatively easy to buy business applications. The real challenge is to carry out the implementation as optimally as possible,” says Glenn Arnesen, managing director of IFS Scandinavia, who emphasizes the importance of involving management throughout the process. Øyvind Hauge, head of business development at Jotun, was responsible for the implementation project and agrees entirely. “Involving key people in management is crucial to the success of the project. Many decisions have to be made; we made an average of two or three significant decisions, every day. In these cases, it’s vital to have direct contact with those who actually make the decisions in order to stay within the time limits,” says Hauge. Despite the individual challenges during the implementation, Jotun plans to increase its revenue throughout the period.
Global Roll-out
Jotun has plans to roll out IFS Applications globally. “We have already started to roll out parts of the solution internationally. Jotun sites worldwide have been given access to a master database which contains a considerable amount of data, including recipes—our most important assets,” says Hauge. Implementation of a complete ERP solution on a global level commenced with operations in Sweden and Denmark going live in January 2006.
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