Wednesday, January 15, 2014

IT Updates

Successful Projects & New Key Initiatives
ABARTA’s IT Department rang in the New Year looking back at several successful completed projects in 2013 and looking forward to several key initiatives for the 2014 calendar year. Recent events in the IT department include: a knowledge transfer of in-house functions and processes to new hires, an analysis and planning strategy to increase network security, a joint effort project with the Buffalo location to incorporate the collection of state required recycling fees, and assisting on ABARTA’s annual close efforts for Fiscal Year End.
Over the last six months there have been new hires in both the ABARTA’s Corporate IT department and the Buffalo Facility IT staff.   The learning curve and transition for the new hires has been a significant climb but thanks to the existing professional, veteran staff, the business impact has been minimized.
In an effort to reduce network vulnerability, secure administration roles have been reviewed and will continue to be altered.  The implementation of these processes will lower the risk of breaching the ABARTA network and allows more precise monitoring of network activity.
In fall 2013, the Buffalo facility initiated a project to increase potential revenues by collecting state- mandated recycling fees.  This project has been ongoing and has required resources from the Buffalo and Cleveland facilities, ABARTA IT, and Coke Bottling Services.  The goal of the project is to collect the recycling fees for specific product as mandated by the State of New York.  The project required several changes to the in-house Garman and VIP software and the Consolidated Invoicing Software used by Coke Bottling Services.  Initially, the project is being designed around Aldi’s willingness to work with Coke, but once implemented, the program can be rolled out to other interested customers.  The anticipated implementation is early in the 2014 Fiscal Year.
The IT staff also has been busy assisting ABARTA’s Shared Services in the Financial Annual Closing of the Fiscal Year and preparations for the start of a new Fiscal Year.  The IT related tasks include loading of the new budgets into Margin Minder, setting up of new G/L accounts, and rolling over any year-end open balances. 
As a whole, the IT department has been very busy keeping up with the daily support as well as incorporating new initiatives and is looking forward to the challenges brought in the New Year.