Under the name Swissmilk, the Association of Swiss Milk Producers (SMP) conducts basic marketing for Swiss milk and dairy products. The organization now relies on Microsoft Dynamics 365 for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM), as well as Azure and Microsoft 365 as a cloud solution for its digital future. The services are sourced locally through Microsoft’s data centers in Switzerland.
Anyone who has ever searched for a recipe for a chocolate mousse on the Internet has almost certainly landed on the Swissmilk site. But there is more behind it than just an online cookbook: the association also represents the interests of Swiss milk producers on a socio-political and economic level.
Of course, the SMP has long been digitally on the move, despite its history of over a hundred years. With a prominent online presence and web store, the association therefore relies on the right technology around resource planning and customer relations. «For this reason, we decided to replace an aging system with a new cloud-based ERP and CRM solution. With the cloud, we can ensure security and scalability at the same time,» explains Cyrill Messerli, Head of Marketing Datacenter at Swissmilk. «Since the organization was already very familiar with Microsoft, the decision was made in favor of Dynamics 365.»
Among other things, the threads of the Swissmilk webshop now come together in Dynamics 365 Business Central: from goods receipt and warehouse management to goods issue and invoicing. In addition, the association operates a web-based app for event organizers, where Swissmilk supports the respective events as a sponsor. The entire goods management runs via the new ERP. Messerli says: «In this respect, Business Central as an SME solution is ideal for our organization size.» The new CRM system serves the ERP’s accounts receivable management with personal data. A direct interface between the two systems was set up for this purpose. The addresses of the recipients of Swissmilk’s well-known “Family” magazine are also managed in the CRM.
The trust of Swissmilk’s management in Microsoft has been built up over many years of experience with the Office product suite. «Thus, in addition to Dynamics 365, we also use Microsoft 365 and certain components of Microsoft Azure – such as Active Directory, for example,» says Messerli. Equally crucial for Swissmilk was the option of local data storage in Switzerland: «Here, we clearly put our values and focus on supporting the Swiss economy as a Swiss organization,» says Messerli. «In terms of data security, Switzerland as a data location was also important.»
With its digital future in mind, Swissmilk plans to continue relying on Microsoft’s cloud solutions: SharePoint is already used for document storage, but will soon also become the platform for Swissmilk’s new intranet and a project-based collaboration tool. Microsoft 365 with Teams is also to be used for most project work in the future.
