With a portfolio of several iconic brands including Heineken, Furphy, James Squire, and Kosciuszko, Lion is a global beverages company operating predominantly in Australia and New Zealand. It produces, markets, sells, and distributes alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and operates microbreweries worldwide. Lion’s purpose is to provide beverages to be enjoyed responsibly, and to bring people together. This is coupled with a commitment to function with integrity and build a transparent and ethical supply chain. With more than 400 customers and partners, including some of the largest supermarkets and venues across the world, Lion recognised the need to modernise its technology environment to become an agile and hybrid organisation ready to deliver to ever-increasing demand for its products.
Lion leverages Software AG’s webMethods technology platform for enterprise application integration and business-to-business data exchange. webMethods connects Lion’s supply chain applications and external applications (used by its business customers like pubs and retail outlets) that exchange data with Lion’s systems. These interfaces support Order Management and other business critical systems and functions.
After its on-premise webMethods solution (version 9.5) reached end of life, Lion teamed with Atturra to upgrade to a contemporary version, webMethods 10.5. This would ensure continuity of business-critical integrations, establish an integrated framework to underpin its transition to the cloud, and provide continued capability as Lion further digitalises its operations and adds new partners and services.
The modernisation would also help Lion alleviate challenges and cost overruns of new projects on the former on-premises platform. By moving to the cloud, Lion would no longer be at risk of extended operational shut-down on the back of unexpected physical or digital disasters, such as fire and flood disruptions at its sites or cyber threats. With its IT environment connected and cleaned up, Lion would also be equipped to proceed to seamlessly complete the divestiture of its Dairy and Drinks business, which it sold to Bega Cheese for A$528Mn to focus on its Adult Beverages business.
Atturra led Lion’s modernisation from start to finish, including design and implementation of the webMethods 10.5 platform in Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres, separation of its Adult Beverage business from the now-sold Dairy and Drinks business, and the concurrent establishment of disaster recovery capabilities - at lower cost and milestone-based fixed price. Lion selected Atturra for its long-standing expertise and integration specialisation - it was regarded the safest pair of hands to manage the highly-complex requirements and goals Lion set out to achieve.
Feedback from all stakeholders highlighted that the project ‘just happened’ without any pain points across the supply chain.
Ram K. Solution Delivery Manager at LionPartnering with Atturra not only made this business-critical transformation possible, but ensured the road to the cloud was hassle-free for Lion and all our partners. They’ve built a foundation on which we can easily expand as operational requirements change and demand continues to increase. This was a successful engagement.
Since the completion of the project in mid 2021, Lion has experienced significant benefits across the business, many of which extend to its business customers.
Feedback from all stakeholders highlighted that the project ‘just happened’ without any pain points across the supply chain.