Foodstuffs Co-operative Society Wellington(MIS100 2010)

By Jess Meyer | Thursday, May 27 2010

2009 ranking: 71

Senior IS executive: Egon Guttke, group manager IT
Reports to: CEO
Size of IS shop: 64

PCs: 2090
Mobile PCs: 500
Terminals: 250
Hand-held devices: 80
Total screens: 2920

Industry: Wholesale and retail trade
PC environment: Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP; Dell; HP
Server environment: Dell, Unisys, IBM, Windows 2000
DBMS: Informix, SQL
Address: 57 Kiln Street, Silverstream, Upper Hutt
Website: www.foodstuffs.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Not disclosed.

Foodstuffs Co-operative Society Wellington uses a broad base of technology sourced from multiple vendors to service its ICT needs. PC operating systems are spread across Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000 and Windows XP, while both AIX (IBM Unix) and Windows 2000 server operating systems are employed.
Server hardware includes Unisys, Dell, IBM System P and Intel-based hardware systems. While the food retailer does not utitlise a CRM system, it does rely on Oracle JDE for both its ERP and financial software needs. Storage solutions are provided by ARCServe and CA (Brightstor), with VMware serving as the preferred virtualisation vendor. Telecom services are supplied through FX Networks and Telecom.

Parent company Foodstuffs is one of the two largest supermarket groups in New Zealand. The Wellington co-operative also covers the Napier and New Plymouth regions. Turnover for Foodstuffs Wellington has grown from $900 million to $2.2 billion a year and the co-operative commands 69 percent of its market, the biggest market share of the Foodstuffs group. Before he left his post as head of Foodstuffs Wellington at the end of March this year, Tony McNeill told The Independent about advances the retailer had made through the strategic use of technology. “The warehousing was a lot more basic. People got labels attached to sheets and would go around and pick a card and put a label on it. Today, computers tell headphone-wearing storemen in a variety of languages where to go and what to pick up.”