Iowa Ag News Headlines West Central Cooperative Prepares for Growth With SAP Iowa Ag Connection - 03/10/2010 As the recession eases, 2010 offers opportunities for growth in the agricultural industry. To capitalize on this prospect, many companies are looking to identify ways to make their business processes more flexible and adaptable to change. SAP AG announced that West Central Cooperative, Ralston, the 15th largest grain company in North America, has selected SAP software to assist in better aligning business processes with overall company objectives, evolve with changing business requirements and scale for future growth. The grain and soybean processing cooperative will deploy the software for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) to streamline internal and customer-facing processes across its nationwide and international operations. Aimed at improving productivity and efficiency while also reducing overall costs, the SAP solutions will automate business processes that are currently being performed through the company's legacy system. "In a cooperative marketplace marked by fast-paced, daily national and international business transactions, we must continually respond more quickly to customer demands and market changes," said Chris Coen, executive vice president of administration and chief information officer at West Central. "SAP is providing us with a holistic solution that will allow us to become more dynamic and effective so that we can continually adjust to meet the needs of our members and customers while growing our business. The SAP team of professionals understood our business and demonstrated how we could take full advantage of the software's native features to meet our specific industry requirements in order to gain a competitive edge." Copyright © 2010 - USAgNet.com. All Rights Reserved.