Diverse projects, one goal: The new global NKG Digital Ecosystem
Diverse projects, one goal: The new global NKG Digital Ecosystem
The need for digital transformation arises from different external factors such as evolving market complexities, rising regulatory demands, increasing costs, market volatility and changing customer requirements for sustainability and transparency. Climate change also more and more impacts crop forecasts and the market, thus our business. Those external developments do not impact single group companies on a local level, but the whole group. Therefore, we need to grow closer together and provide or report information as well as data in a harmonized way.
Looking at our current IT setup as a group, though, NKG faces several internal challenges such as disparate data silos, manual data entry, outdated IT systems, and multiple ERP systems across NKG worldwide, leading to inefficiencies and a technology setup that is not catered to meet all external requirements anymore.
The DTP initiative is taking into account all internal and external requirements on a global level. It goes beyond an IT project and represents a comprehensive business transformation by defining one global standard of all business processes. We’re future proofing NKG to remain strong in green coffee amid market challenges.
Many projects, some of which we will update you on below, are currently running in parallel. While the DTP team is focusing on the core solution (Dycotrade and Microsoft Dynamics 365), other teams or departments are mainly responsible for solutions around that are to be integrated. Even if these projects do not yet provide an overall picture, all these seemingly loose ends will eventually be tied together and result in the global NKG digital ecosystem: a network of interconnected digital tools, platforms and technologies, that will set a global NKG standard for all business processes, while integrations retain the flexibility to respond to local requirements. This ecosystem will enhance data collection and analysis, leading to more effective decision making and increased process efficiency.
Our goal is to improve the group wide collaboration while maintaining our successful profit center structure, streamlining processes across the whole supply chain.
Going forward, we will continue to provide regular updates here in our INSIDE NKG MAG on the progress of the transformation and what is happening in each project. Please take a look below to see what is currently happening in a selection of our projects.
We are moving closer to the first go-live of our new global core system Dynamics 365/Dycotrade including several integrations at all NGUS companies (Neumann Gruppe USA, Rothfos, InterAmerican Coffee and Atlas Coffee Importers). Great progress has been made and important milestones were already achieved. User Acceptance Testing Phase is being completed, making sure that the system can fulfill the U.S. business requirements and is running smoothly. End users training started already on the new solution and the preparations for a go live in early 2025 are progressing. Shortly after, the DTP team and Steering Committee will start with the assessment of the potential next rollout country.
We just rolled out new functions in our global HR system Workday. Workday 2.0 introduced a New NKG Learning, the Career Profile, Performance Reviews and, for some companies, Time Tracking. That means, our current NKG Learning tool is being replaced. The new platform can be accessed directly via Workday. The Career Profile feature allows employees to create and maintain a career profile for themselves. To strengthen our feedback and management culture, we will gradually introduce Performance Reviews. The Time Tracking service in Workday is or will be introduced in eight countries (Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, PNG, Germany, Vietnam and Singapore).
The first implementation of Cargoo, the new Transport Management and Document Management System for NKG, was successfully done within NKG Bero Italia and continues right now with Bernhard Rothfos. In parallel, API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) for Comtras (ERP System for several Import companies) were developed in line with the needs of our business requirements both, from the import process perspective as well as to cover also the exporters needs. Cargoo will be connect with Dynamics 365 / Dycotrade during the course of next year.
The Business Partner Due Diligence module in osapiens has successfully gone live, allowing group companies to begin interacting with their Business Partners through the platform. This milestone is a key part of NKG’s strategy to establish a unified Due Diligence System that supports compliance with both the EUDR and Business Partner requirements. The focus now shifts to the EUDR module, which is essential for ensuring compliance with EU regulations. The next step involves making this module fully operational, requiring continued efforts from all teams. Achieving this will further solidify NKG’s readiness for the upcoming regulatory landscape with regard, e. g., to CSRD, CCF, and CSDDD.
NG’s Tax Department is implementing a new tax reporting tool for NKG together with its partner AMANA, which offers comprehensive solutions for tax reporting in groups. Since the end of 2023, GTC Tax Suite has been introduced at NKG. The aim is to determine current and deferred taxes in accordance with IAS 12 for the quarterly and annual financial statements in a uniform manner throughout the group. Once the system had been set up and the master data had been entered, user training sessions were held in Hamburg, Bogotá and Singapore between June and July. The system went live in October, with tax data being calculated for the first time for the entire group for the Q3/24 financial statements.
For the past two years, Regional Responsible Business Program Manager Melyne has been on an – for her – unexpected journey in the coffee world. “Although I was open to the agriculture sector, I never imagined working in coffee until I joined NKG,” she says. Her passion for coffee started during the interview process, sparked by an introduction to various grades of green coffee.
Joanne’s coffee journey began as a Barista in London: “Searching for a decent cup of coffee” when she first moved to London was the catalyst that led her into the industry. For the past decade, Joanne has been an integral part of Nordic Approach.
Congratulations to Pablo, our new NKG Integrity Champion! Pablo is an indispensable member of the InterAmerican Coffee team in San Diego, known for his unwavering support for colleagues and his dedication to nurturing a community of small and medium roasters aligned with NKG’s vision for a better coffee future.
