In 1929, the Chauhan family of Vile Parle, Bombay founded a Parle Products company in British India. In 1939, the Parle company started producing biscuits. The company launched a publicity campaign in 1947, when India became self-employed to display their Gluco biscuits as an Indian alternative. After products like the Parle-G biscuits and cold drinks like Goldspot, Thumbs Up and Frooti, the Parle brand became known in India. India’s leading biscuit brand Parle has now partnered with IBM in pushing its business into the hybrid cloud to boost growth. In a press release, IBM would migrate SAP workloads towards IBM Cloud, in order to gain flexibility and scale to meet growing consumer needs. On Thursday FMCG (Parle) and the IBM announced a partnership under which the IT Major will provide the biscuit maker with technological support, to quickly and effectively market their products. Together with their leading security and industrial expertise, technological consulting and technology services, both companies will use IBM’s transformative hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities, Parle stated in a joint statement. This will help Parle bring its products to market at the right time and in the right place.
Parle Products Managing Director Ajay Chauhan commented on the partnership, “As India’s leading provider of the biscuit brand, our focus is on addressing Indian consumers’ growing demands. Working with IBM to speed up our cloud journey and strengthen our security position, we will find new ways to reduce time to market and streamline our business – a major milestone for us.” The partnership will move Parle Products’ critical SAP workload, ERP, supply chains and analysis applications to IBM Cloud, while IBM will also assist in the design and monitoring of Parle’s corporate health and results, according to the statement of a critical KPIs based performance management framework. In addition, Parle has added that its IBM Global Business Services (GBS) and Global Tech Services (GTS) will be leveraging IBM’s extensive industry expertise to host its IBM Cloud operations, including other services. Parle says that it intends to innovate more quickly through the hybrid cloud approach – finding new ways to bring its products to consumers’ homes, while the pandemic of coronavirus poses challenges in the supply chain and sets mandates for certain staff to work remotely. Parle expects business growth in India and beyond by simplifying operations and achieving greater scalability to meet changing demands.
Sandip Patel, IBM India’s Managing Director, said, “IBM has brought industry and technology expertise over the course of several decades to help achieve the vision of making the right products available on the market at the appropriate date”. “Parle will be well equipped to satisfy increasing consumer demands by utilising technologies such as the hybrid cloud and security-based AI, while security is at the forefront of their digital innovations,” he added. IBM has been in contact with Parle and is responsible for the implementation and management of mission-critical ERPs and other workloads. The work is aimed at helping Parle sensing the demand more effectively, optimising inventory and logistics costs, and provide intelligence for its procurement activities.
