McCain Turns To Fulltilt To Meet UCCnet RequirementsMcCain Turns To Fulltilt To Meet UCCnet Requirements

Faced with the must-do implementation of product-tracking systems compliant with UCCnet, food supplier McCain Foods Ltd. has turned to collaborative product-information-management software from Fulltilt Solutions Inc.

"We had to classify this project as mandatory," says Don Luby, director of IT planning and E-business for McCain. "The channel has said we've got to do this, and given that we've got all these demands, we said we needed some kind of global system to handle it."

In addition to meeting the UCCnet requirements that can mandate a detailed listing of hundreds of specific attributes to each of the company's many food offerings, and then updating those data banks on regular basis, as a global supplier, McCain, a Canadian company, is also required to be compliant with slightly different standards in Canada, Europe, and Australia, Luby says.

McCain has begun implementing a system based around the I-Accel program from Fulltilt. I-Accel lets users process disparate data inputs from internal or external data sources. The data can then be rationalized and stored in a standardized format within a relationship database, says Bob Moyer, president of Fulltilt.

The software is being utilized in multiple vertical industries, including electronic distribution and medical supply, but has proven particularly effective in retail markets where suppliers are faced with meeting UCCnet requirements, he says.

With the I-Accel program implemented, Luby says McCain's is finding that in addition to helping it meet UCCnet requirements, the company is benefiting from having a central product information repository that can be utilized by its 20,000 employees as well as customers.