Distiller William Grant & Sons Reduces Costs and Improves Control over Worldwide Shipments by Automating Documentation Processes

Aug. 1, 2005
William Grant & Sons Ltd.(London), an award-winning, independent family distiller of Glenfiddich, the world's number one single malt Scotch Whisky, has

William Grant & Sons Ltd. (London), an award-winning, independent family distiller of Glenfiddich, the world's number one single malt Scotch Whisky, has migrated to Covusa a document process automation software from FormScape (Raleigh, N.C.). The software lets the distiller automate sophisticated processes that create Customs documents to improve efficiency and reduce costs, as well as to enhance control over worldwide shipments.

Covus is said to manage the complete ERP document lifecycle. It brings together pre-packaged processes and industry best practices with inbound imaging, integrated storage, and outbound communications. William Grant & Sons uses a custom Covus application to automatically access a Customs database, tell the computer how many cases are shipping, when the goods will leave the warehouse, what seaport the goods will be leaving from, their final destination and a commodity code. The Customers system then sends back a number in response, which Covus automatically includes in the shipping documentation. "We have saved between GBP 30,000 ($54,000 U.S.) and GBP 40,000 ($72,000 U.S.) per year by automating this function," says Graeme Fraser, IT Team Member at William Grant & Sons.

William Grant & Sons uses a separate Covus-based application to enhance control over shipments. Covus automatically takes batch numbers as well as date and time data in XML format from a specialized high-speed printer at the end of each production line and automatically enters the data into an AS/400 database. In the future, the company may implement a Web-based, self-service front end so employees can view this shipping information over the Web.

Says Fraser, "In the future, if someone takes a bottle of whisky off our shelves anywhere in the world, we will be able to tell what case it was in when it left our site and what customer it was shipped to. By tracking each case, we can ensure that products are sold in the countries to which they are shipped so that distributors will not undercut prices, which reflect local market conditions." William Grant & Sons also uses Covus to generate a range of branded documents including sales orders, invoices, credit notes, debit notes, employee expense remittances, and vendor remittances and to deliver these documents via fax and email, saving time and cost. Covus has made it fast and easy for the company to develop new forms and has improved branding by automatically including the right logo on invoices. S

ays Malcolm Peden, FormScape's CEO, "Covus is designed to automate and optimize all aspects of document processes; it also provides tools that customers can use to tailor the product to their unique business requirements. The William Grant & Sons application perfectly demonstrates the operational control and efficiency Covus is able to provide as well as the high level of flexibility Covus offers, allowing customers to address their unique business requirements."

Source: FormScape