Bandito's spices up its business with SAP's SMB offering

Bandito's, the maker of fiery sauces which has grown from a cottage industry to an international company in 10 years, has become one of the first South African companies to implement SAP's business software solution for the SMB market, mySAP All-in-One.

Bandito's MD Kian Macrae says the prospect of rolling out SAP was "a little daunting to start with", but is convinced the move is crucial to the company's growth plans both locally and abroad.

It's a far cry from the early days in 1994, when frustrated ex-teacher Macrae started Bandito's with a batch of chilli cooked in borrowed pots and sold in recycled tequila bottles.

Bandito's products are now sold in supermarkets and restaurants across SA - including Woolworths, Spar, Shoprite and Pick 'n Pay. It is also fast garnering a following in Australia, Europe, the UK, New Zealand and Canada.

Bandito's funky image belies a lean, mean operation, and Macrae says the good manufacturing control system and top supply chain management tools that the new SAP solution brings to his company are "essential for making our operation efficient".

"Because we're in the food business, we strive to deliver wholesome, safe and appealing products," says Macrae. "Our sauces are not for the faint-hearted, but we're obsessed with quality, and SAP will help us provide customers with extremely high-quality products."

The solution is being implemented by SAP partner SCT Services, which hopes to complete the roll-out and start delivering business benefits within eight weeks - a key aspect for a small business.

SCT Services' Victor van der Watt says mySAP All-in-One will enable Bandito's to overcome some key corporate "pains" typical to many small businesses: manual product tracking that was slow and inaccurate, inadequate inventory control, a lack of integrated, timely reporting, and a very slow month-end close.

In the manufacturing area, the SAP technology will allow Bandito's to plan its supply chain and manufacturing processes with much greater precision than it could with the previous system.

"We're looking to become leaner and more efficient than ever before, and this will reflect in real results in terms of actually getting more product out the door than previously possible," says Macrae.

"SAP doesn't know it, but they're helping make the world a hotter place!

"Also, our quality system will now be closely integrated with our manufacturing system. We'll use the Quality Management and Warehouse Management components for testing, date-code tracking, and to identify and locate quality issues. This will be a real benefit."

SAP's ability to keep close tabs on the product was another key criterion in Bandito's purchasing decision.

"We were looking for a software product that would allow us to track products through the facility and the marketplace," Macrae says. "We're far too busy doing the important stuff to have to worry about issues like this."

The SAP solution will also deliver substantial benefits in other business areas, such as business and operational reports. "We've got so much data in our current system, and when everything is accurate, we'll be able to fine-tune the business in other areas," says Macrae.

"We know that when this work is finished we will have much more than we ever could have before. We are discovering new things all the time with SAP. There are still a lot of areas that we haven't even thought of using yet, but we plan to get there in the future."

Bandito's is also very pleased with the service it has received from SAP and SCT Services.

"SAP offers very knowledgeable resources - within the company and through partner alliances - that we have used to answer our questions," says Macrae. "We genuinely feel that SAP views its smaller, midsize clients as an important part of its business. We'll know they're there when they start serving our hottest sauces at their corporate functions!"