Who Does the Largest Pasta Manufacturing Company in the World Trust for Reliable EDI?

98% of Barilla America’s business is done through EDI, and “if Cleo is gone, it’s a huge risk.”

As IT Applications Competency Center Manager for Barilla America, Suma George is responsible for maintaining Barilla’s IT environment and ensuring the reliability of its EDI. Barilla is the largest pasta manufacturing company in the world, but it also has numerous other product lines. Quality has been and will continue to be the top priority for Barilla’s customers. 

George sat down for a video testimonial with us at the 2018 Cleo Connect customer event in Nashville. She says that the most important thing for her company is to remain connected all the time with its trading partners. Trust with a vendor is not always guaranteed, she said, especially trusting a product as much as the company itself. But that trust factor is alive and well with Barilla America and Cleo, George said, because of Cleo’s commitment to resolving Barilla’s issues, whatever they might be.

Here are a few sound bites from the interview that demonstrate how Barilla America leverages the Cleo Integration Cloud EDI Platform to onboard new trading partners, eliminate downtime, and much more.

On onboarding new trading partners with Cleo

“We had recently been migrating to the new platform, to a new server, and when we were installing it, migrating from the old trading partners to the new trading partners was extremely easy on the new system. We didn’t have any problems with the migration, there was nothing complicated. It was very simple and easy.”

On less downtime

“We had different communication software before we implemented Cleo, and we had a lot of downtime because of system outages. That was directly affecting our business because everything is passing through EDI. Ever since we implemented Cleo six years ago, I didn’t have any single downtime based on a Cleo software problem.”

On the value Cleo brings

“Ninety-eight percent of our business depends on EDI, so if Cleo is gone, it’s a huge risk. We can’t run our business without the Cleo software at the moment. Three hundred and sixty-five days of the year and 24/7, we have transactions coming in and out, so the availability of the software and the reliability is extremely important, and Cleo has helped us achieve it.”

On evolving with the customer

“(It’s important too) technologically be capable to ever-changing consumer trends and behavior that’s happening every day. So be aware of it, and be prepared for it all the time. Grow with consumers, that’s what the challenge is.”

On Cleo’s support team

“(Cleo’s) tech support team has gone above and beyond in reaching out to us and our network administrators, talking to them and helping them resolve the issues, even if it’s a firewall problem or something like that.”

On a future that includes blockchain

“We are in the e-commerce space a little bit, but we would like to be there more. So, that is one area that we definitely need to grow more. The other thing is end-to-end product traceability. We are looking at researching blockchain and similar technologies now, for food safety reasons. Those are some of those technology gaps that we have, and we definitely need to fill very soon.”

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