Reconcile orders between bottlers without weeks of back-and-forth
Sector: Secondary sector · Industry: Food and beverage industry · Organisation: CONA Services LLC · Maturity level: Production
CONA Services LLC, the shared IT provider of the twelve largest North American Coca-Cola bottlers, records cross-company orders on a Hyperledger Fabric ledger running on the SAP platform. The bottlers are legally independent franchisees with their own ERP systems, so reconciling open orders between them took around 50 days and tied up working capital. In the Coca-Cola Bottling Harbor extension, Provide Technologies and Unibright additionally synchronise the ERP systems via the Baseline Protocol on the public Ethereum network without exposing business data.
Documentation status
- Project status: Production — First roll-out with North American bottlers in 2019; the Baseline extension Coca-Cola Bottling Harbor followed from 2020.
- Evidence: Evidence medium
- Editorial review: pending
Description
CONA Services LLC, the joint IT service provider of the twelve largest North American Coca-Cola bottlers, manages cross-company orders on a distributed ledger. The bottlers are legally independent franchisees who exchange orders among themselves when one plant produces for another, each operating its own ERP system. Reconciling open orders between the companies took around 50 days this way, tying up capital in the process accordingly.
In 2019, the first North American Coca-Cola bottlers commissioned a ledger based on Hyperledger Fabric running on SAP’s Blockchain-as-a-Service platform. The operator is CONA Services, the joint IT service provider of the twelve largest bottlers, which creates the crucial prerequisite: no single franchisee hosts the data of the others. The aim and proof of the project is to shorten order reconciliation from around 50 days to a few days, improving productivity, cost structure and payment flow between franchisees. In a second expansion stage, CONA developed the so-called Coca-Cola Bottling Harbor together with Provide Technologies and Unibright, based on the Baseline Protocol. This method reconciles the ERP systems of the participants over the public Ethereum network without disclosing business data there, making the approach connectable for partners outside the internal network as well. The case is a reference example showing that a distributed ledger can support not only traceability but also commercial reconciliation between independent companies.
Perspectives
B2B — organisations perspective
For network structures with legally separate entities, such as franchise systems, cooperatives or joint ventures, CONA demonstrates a pattern that operates without central corporate control. Companies with long coordination cycles between sister companies can estimate how much capital commitment can be released through a shared order status.
Employees perspective
A significant part of bilateral clarification between companies is eliminated in order processing and accounting, while tasks in data quality and interface maintenance increase. IT roles are additionally responsible for connecting independent ERP systems to a shared ledger.
Benefits
General
- Order reconciliation between bottlers shortens from around 50 days to a few days.
- No single franchisee hosts the data of others because a joint IT service provider operates it.
- The Baseline extension reconciles ERP systems over a public network without disclosing business data.
- Faster reconciliation accelerates payment flow between franchisees.
B2B — organisations
- Lower capital commitment through shorter coordination cycles.
- A transferable pattern for franchise systems, cooperatives and joint ventures.
Employees
- Significantly less bilateral clarification between the companies involved.
- A shared working status instead of conflicting ERP extracts.
Challenges
General
- Connecting independent ERP systems of multiple companies is technically complex.
- The companies involved must agree on which order data is shared and which remains confidential.
- The model requires a neutral operator trusted equally by all partners.
B2B — organisations
- Without a joint IT service provider, the question of operation would be difficult to resolve among competing franchisees.
Employees
- Data quality and interface maintenance become ongoing tasks.
Technology foundation
The first expansion stage uses Hyperledger Fabric as a permissioned ledger on SAP’s Blockchain-as-a-Service platform; the extension relies on the Baseline Protocol, which reconciles ERP systems over the public Ethereum network without disclosing business data. A distributed ledger is central here because twelve legally independent franchisees must maintain the same order inventory without any one of them hosting the others’ data.
Implementation examples
Coca-Cola Bottling Harbor of the North American bottlers
The twelve largest North American Coca-Cola bottlers are legally independent franchisees, each with their own ERP system; cross-company order reconciliation took around 50 days and tied up capital in the process.
CONA Services, as the shared IT service provider for the twelve largest North American Coca-Cola bottlers, manages their cross-company orders on a ledger based on Hyperledger Fabric. The Bottling Harbor expansion synchronises ERP systems via the Baseline Protocol.
The first rollout took place in 2019 on SAP's Blockchain-as-a-Service platform using Hyperledger Fabric as the base. The goal and proof of concept is to reduce order reconciliation from around 50 days to a few days, improving productivity, costs, and payment flow between franchisees. In the second phase, CONA developed the Coca-Cola Bottling Harbor together with Provide Technologies and Unibright, which reconciles ERP systems via the Baseline Protocol on the public Ethereum network without disclosing business data.
Reduction of order reconciliation from around 50 days to a few days; twelve largest North American bottlers connected via the shared IT service provider.
Long reconciliation cycles between independent companies, capital tied up due to delayed order clarification, and the question of who is allowed to operate a shared ledger without one franchisee controlling the data of the others.
Tags
Order reconciliation, Franchise, Hyperledger Fabric, Baseline Protocol, ERP integration, Working capital