Portola International

Portola Packaging Migrates to Glovia’s Extended ERP Solution

Improves Information Management and Streamlines Decision-Making Process

El Segundo, Calif., April 28, 2003 — Glovia International, a subsidiary of Fujitsu and a leading provider of extended ERP solutions for companies with global operations, today announced that Portola Packaging has migrated to Glovia’s newest ERP solution, glovia.com. Portola is the largest U.S. manufacturer of plastic, tamper-evident closures for noncarbonated beverages, such as snap caps for milk bottles, pull-ring caps for juice cartons and pop-up sports caps for water bottles.

Based in San Jose, Calif., and with 15 manufacturing plants in the United States and other countries, Portola is using Glovia solution in its U.S., Canada and U.K. operations. The company’s Mexico facility is currently migrating to the solution, while an implementation timetable for the China plant is yet to be set.

Glovia’s extended ERP solution is designed to support companies that employ mixed-mode manufacturing (engineered-to-order to ultra-repetitive), and offers project/contract management and service management capabilities, plus integrated financial, business intelligence and customer relationship management tools.

Portola is employing Glovia ERP capabilities to improve tracking and control of its manufacturing and warehouse operations, with significantl efficiency gains and cost savings. . The company also is using the application to streamline its financial operations and customer service functions.

“I’m excited about the solution we’ve provided Portola,” says Dennis Michalis, president and chief executive officer of Glovia International. “They’re a global company and the leader in their space, and they’re driving an efficiency and control agenda that matches the strengths of Glovia’s ERP solution. In addition, Portola benefited from the straightforward and risk-free migration to Glovia.”

Major Increases in Data Accuracy, Completeness

By definition, the beverage closure industry is extremely competitive and price-sensitive, with today’s struggling economy exacerbating the situation. According to Portola CIO Ara Chakrabarti, Portola decided to implement Glovia ERP “because it would allow us to manage operations the way they need to be managed in the present business environment.”

“For example, to better control manufacturing and warehousing, we’re now able to employ a bar coding system using handheld radio-frequency (RF) terminals. The application we were using before we moved to Glovia required us to enter data manually, and inaccurate or incomplete data kept being entered. Many times, we found that what was actually happening in a plant or warehouse didn’t match what the application was showing. It was difficult to make business decisions with full confidence.”

Shortly after it implemented Glovia’s extended ERP solution, Portola saw major increases in data accuracy and completeness. Utilizing the bar code system and handheld RF terminals in its U.K. operation, the company began gathering manufacturing and inventory data. Data entry errors plummeted and Portola gained tighter control over the facility. Says Portola CFO Dennis Berg: “When we began using Glovia, we were at 16 days worth of finished goods inventory in the U.K. warehouse — about $1.1 million in goods. Three months later, the application’s capabilities allowed us to reduce that inventory to eight days worth, or about $500,000 in product.”

‘Push-Button Financials’

With the implementation of Glovia extended ERP solution, Portola now produces web-accessible financial reports from a single, unified database. Before, the company generated multiple spreadsheets from various databases and then consolidated these into final reports. This process led to inconsistencies and errors. “Since we’re dealing with a single source of data today, we’ve noticeably improved the accuracy of this data,” says Chakrabarti.

The time savings from what’s been dubbed the ‘push-button financials system’ are impressive as well. “When we first implemented this system,” says Berg, “we were closing our books on a 10-day cycle. We are continuing to improve our closing cycle and we are now down to seven days. In the next few months, I don’t see why we can’t drop that to five days, and then at some point, perhaps to three.”

With the more timely, accurate and complete information gathered through Glovia, Portola management has become more proactive and rapid in its decision-making. “We’re seeing the latest company data in real-time,” says Chakrabarti, “and we’re now more confident when we make decisions.”

B2B Framework: Integrated, Seamless, Real-Time

Glovia ERP capabilities are also allowing Portola to better serve its customers in a highly visible way — via the web, these customers can access a ‘customer-centric information source’ and check order status and other data in real-time, 24 hours a day. When a customer places an online order, a shopping cart-style interface speeds and simplifies order entry.

“What the Glovia solution has let us do is build an integrated, seamless, real-time business-to-business (B2B) framework,” says Chakrabarti. This contrasts sharply with the system the company ran prior, he notes. “When new pricing or other information was entered in this system, it wasn’t immediately reflected in our web interface. With the time lag, we weren’t always sure we were dealing with up-to-date information. But today we don’t have that problem. We’re always working in real-time, with the most current information.”

A Smooth Move

Implementing new software can disrupt a company’s operations. But Portola and Glovia worked “hand in glove” to ensure a positive transition. “The migration was well planned,” says Chakrabarti, “so we didn’t experience any stoppages.” Adds Dennis Berg: “Glovia made sure our employees were well trained, so that when it was time for us to go live, we were ready. Our migration to Glovia ERP basically went off smoothly.”