Hot Donuts en Más Require 100% System i (iSeries) Reliability At Iconic Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has an aggressive inventory control process that involves replacing products that are just a few hours old. If any of its computing processes fail, the delivery of fresh inventory could be disrupted.

Top-shelf companies constantly weigh their ability to improve business processes and guard hard-earned marketshare. If you're firmly committed to providing a product or service that's better than anyone else's (in this case happens to be a donut), then you strengthen areas where weakness may impede success.

Krispy Kreme is firmly committed to serving an ultra-fresh donut to its customers, and stands behind the freshness of the 7.5 million baked goods it makes every day. As of the 2006 fiscal year end, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Krispy Kreme posted sales of $543.4 million, which is a lot of dough by anyone's measure. Given the pace of Krispy Kreme's expansion over the past decade, ensuring the continuity of its business systems is central to the attainment of this mission.

Krispy Kreme got its frst System/38 in 1982. Now, it manages its wholesale operation with an EDI solution from EXTOL that runs on an IBM System i model 520. This system serves roughly 400 users and supports remittance processing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, sales reporting and many other functions.

Krispy Kreme sells its products in 293 store-factories, 90 satellite locations, and countless supermarkets throughout the US and in eight other countries. According to Greig Radford, manager of System i Technology, "We have trading partners sending information to our EDI system all the time and if it's not available then we could have problems. This could cause a serious ripple in our supply chain that would hurt our wholesale operation." Krispy Kreme also relies on electronic billing to invoice its customers. This system can generate thousands of invoices for one big retail outlet per month and delayed billing can seriously impacted cash flow.