Westmalle benefits from Drink-IT upgrade

The Trappist Abbey of Westmalle became a loyal Drink-IT customer back in 2005. The people there were still working with their old, original Drink-IT 4.0 version. The urgent need for a solution became apparent owing to the increasinly difficulty experienced when making the necessary adjustments in terms of legislation and so on. On top of that, Microsoft´s support in the event of problems had been discounted.

The Westmalle convent was elevated to the status of an abbey of the Trappist order in 1836, which was also the year when the monks began brewing beer. They initially produced the beverage for their own consumption but then began selling to the public in 1856. Established entirely within the abbey walls, the brewery has been extended and upgraded several times since that date.

Confidence in Drink-IT

Until recently, Westmalle brewery was using an outdated Drink-IT solution so it was difficult to make any necessary adjustments.

“Owing to our many years of experience with the package and Drink-IT's sector-specific functions, we were keen on continuing with this solution. We also considered it important to switch to the most recent version straight away so that the new opportunities the solution offered could be put into practice immediately”, says Jean Goiris, the head of Westmalle Brewery's financial department

Trouble-free reimplementation of the existing solution

There was no need for the NORRIQ team to start from scratch with the reimplementation process. Underpinned by the existing Drink-IT solution, the process resulted in a smooth-paced implementation.

“Our brewery is not that big and we use only a part of the Drink-IT solution”, stresses Jean Goiris. “We have however noticed the various disadvantages associated with many tailor-made options. The standard functions are now being exploited to a greater extent."

Major improvement

It takes users some time to get acclimatized to switching from Drink-IT running on NAV 4.0 to Drink-IT working with NAV 2013 R2. As well as being visually different, it has also become a role-based solution.

“Unlike the old system, users are now able to customise their screens, menus,… In any case, our staff do require some time to adapt. However, the new solution has to be regarded as a major step forward. It has a far more modern appearance, while the high level of integration with Microsoft Office offers the user a much more flexible process for retrieving information from the system according to a specific approach. My close involvement in the implementation process has given me personally a far better understanding of how the solution functions so in future we ourselves will be able to adjust a lot more things that we always had to rely on the helpdesk for in the past," says Jean Goiris.