Datapac helps Walsh Whiskey Distillery account for ‘the angels’ share’ with a customised ERP solution

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  • Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides increased oversight of Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s operations and processes
  • All of Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s systems now unified and accessible as one
  • Scalable solution facilitates Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s continued growth and global expansion

 Dublin, 28th April 2017 – Datapac, Ireland’s leading technology solutions and services provider, today announces the implementation of a customised ERP solution for Walsh Whiskey Distillery. The new system unifies Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s different departments, providing increased oversight and streamlining the company’s production and sales processes.

Located on the 18th century Royal Oak estate in a €25m distillery in Co. Carlow, Walsh Whiskey Distillery is one of the leading independent whiskey distilleries in Ireland and the only independent distillery in the world to produce all three types of Irish whiskey – pot still, malt and grain –in one still house. The distillery has the capacity to produce eight million bottles of its Writers’ Tears and The Irishman whiskeys annually, for export to over 40 countries globally.

Having experienced significant growth in recent years and with further major growth planned, the company was looking for a scalable ERP solution that could unify these different departments and manage everything from ordering ingredients to bottling and stock taking.

Datapac won the competitive tender process to install and manage a customised ERP solution, based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Datapac’s solution meets Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s needs, integrating completely with its operations and archiving all of the data from the various stages of the production process. Advanced security and access management functionality makes this data easily accessible to anyone who needs it, while ensuring that it can only be accessed by those with the correct credentials.

Whiskey production is a very technical process, involving large and complex equipment; the largest of Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s giant pot stills has a capacity of 15,000 litres and weighs between four and five tonnes. As well as this, over the amount of time that it takes to produce whiskey (a minimum period of three years), a certain amount is lost from the whiskey casks through evaporation, and this quantity is known to whiskey distillers as ‘the angels’ share’.

As well as unifying the various departments that oversee various stages of the production and sales process, Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s new ERP solution had to account for quirks like this in the whiskey production process.

Mary Hayden, financial controller, Walsh Whiskey Distillery, said: “With our old system, our operations such as finance, sales, and bottling worked independently, and as a result we were spending a lot of time generating reports and sending them between departments.

“However, our recent growth phase had rendered this approach unsustainable, and so, with significant further growth also planned, we were looking for a modern system that would handle the end-to-end process. We wanted to incorporate the accounting and production elements of the company, and, of course, we needed a solution that could account for ‘the angels’ share’!

“Datapac successfully moved all of our processes, including business operations from purchase and sales orders to financial services and even bottling and cask management, over to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. All systems are now unified and can be accessed as one, which gives us increased oversight of all operations. Reports are also now automatically generated, providing us with significant time savings while improving efficiency.”

Richard Murphy, head of business solutions division, Datapac, said: “Walsh Whiskey Distillery has undergone significant expansion over the past year, and their old processes were no longer sustainable. They needed a modern ERP solution that would unify their systems and streamline their work practices.

“With over three decades of experience and an established team of ERP consultants that hold a range of Microsoft accreditations, Datapac is uniquely placed to provide customised solutions to Irish companies to help them to develop their businesses.

“Having assessed Walsh Whiskey Distillery’s needs we knew that Microsoft Dynamics NAV was the perfect fit. We’re delighted that they are already seeing the benefits of the new platform, and we look forward to continuing to work with them to help them drive their business forward.”