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Do you carry Altoids, Life Savers, or Juicy Fruit chewing gum? The 116-year-old Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company provides these well-known brands of gum, mints, and candies to consumers in 180 countries around the world. In 2001, the $5 billion company 

decided to expand the global image and reputation of the Wrigley brand. This move included replacing an aging, disparate IT infrastructure with a single supply chain platform using SAP.

Donagh Herlihy, Wrigley's CIO, spearheaded the three-year, international SAP implementation, and helped shape the governance process needed to carry out the initiative. To help Wrigley continue to build brand awareness with consumers, the IT team is helping consumer marketing lay out a strategy and a presence in the virtual world of Second Life, and to provide a safe, family-fun Web environment at www.candystand.com, where kids can indulge in multi-player games.

In this podcast, Donagh Herlihy, CIO and vice president, supply chain strategy and planning for the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, talks about the lessons learned from deploying SAP on a global scale with a new organizational structure, the role IT has played in shaping the Wrigley Innovation Center, and more.

Resources

SAP CRM Sweetens Wrigley's Trade Promotion

Wrigley Web site

Wrigley's Candy Stand

Bio

Donagh Herlihy is vice president, supply chain strategy and planning and chief information officer for the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. In this position, Mr. Herlihy is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the global supply chain function and for optimizing the existing supply chain network. As CIO, he is responsible for all aspects of IT. Prior to this position, Mr. Herlihy served as the company’s CIO and drove the transformation of the company’s core business processes, enabled by a global implementation of SAP. Prior to joining the Wrigley Company in 2000, he led the IT function for Duracell.

Production Credits

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Producer
Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show Host