In the spring of 2023, Raisio Group, an international company specialised in healthy, responsibly produced food and ingredients, sold its fish feed business RaisioAqua (now Alltech Fennoaqua) to a consortium consisting of Finnforel Oy, the American AllTech Corporation, and the Finnish Heino Group. Midagon helped Alltech Fennoaqua carve out its IT systems from Raisio Group and establish new, standalone IT and business capabilities. The change was successfully implemented in early 2024.
Fennoaqua’s ownership change secured Finland's only fish feed factory's continued operation and development. The transaction raised the need to separate Fennoaqua’s IT systems, services, and network from Raisio Group and build new, independent IT capabilities to enable the fish feed business to operate as a stand-alone company under its new owners.
This needed to be completed in less than a year. An IT carve out with a strict schedule is a demanding task requiring a competent and experienced leader with strong project management skills and a solid understanding of the subject matter. Fennoaqua didn’t have the required competence in their organisation, as they had previously relied fully on the parent company Raisio Group’s IT department in all IT-related matters. Hence, they quickly realised they needed external support for this role and turned to Midagon for help.
Midagon’s consultant, Jussi Kokkonen, was brought in as an interim CIO for Fennoaqua. This position required handling several different roles, including designing and implementing new processes, bringing ERP know-how, leading the procurement of a new ERP system, and leading several IT projects and workstreams to implement the carve-out.
"Since the recruiting interview, we were confident that Jussi Kokkonen is our choice for the very large and complicated ERP project. Jussi confirmed that he really knows what we should do and how we should run the project. In the interview, he told us what he would do if we chose him as the CIO for the project. In addition, Jussi had experiences of similar cases, moving from SAP to AX system - probably not in such a fast timeline - but we made it. Now that the project is done, I can confirm that Jussi was a man true to his words."
“Having been in similar migration projects before, I was looking for an Interim CIO with experience from “the other side of the table”. It turned out to be a valuable experience and asset in our favor because Jussi had been in similar projects as a system integrator and ERP supplier. He knew the possible pitfalls and project management-related risks from his own experience. Therefore, he kept calm and sometimes solved problems for us before they surfaced. He also kept our expectations reasonable over the timetables and other critical factors. Not only did Jussi show a “can do!” attitude, but it was also his bulldozer ambition to apply a “will do!” attitude. When a person can and will do, it is a perfect combination for a project like this. I would hire him again any time.”
Soon after the acquisition was completed in February 2023, it became clear that there would be less than a year to implement a new ERP system as the license for the old ERP solution obtained through Raisio would end 12 months from the acquisition date.
The ERP renewal would, in turn, impact several surrounding solutions, including MES and other factory production solutions, which also needed to be carved out and linked to the new ERP within the same time frame. Several other streams, including the building of a new network in the factory, outsourcing of IT support and Finance functions, and the implementation of several different factory and office solutions, also needed to be completed with the same schedule, which meant that there was a lot to be done in a short time. This whole scope was to be completed by the end of February 2024.
This undertaking was not a single person’s effort but a dedicated teamwork from the start. The core team from Fennoaqua received great assistance from people in Alltech in the US and Alltech’s subsidiary, Alltech Coppens, in the Netherlands & Germany.
The team was extended to include representatives of all the involved third parties, including skilled implementation and support partners and supporting people from Raisio Group. A united team was forged, where everyone pulled together towards a successful go-live. Furthermore, this made an excellent basis for future development and daily operations.
“In my opinion, one very remarkable key to success in this kind of project is that the CIO must be a part of the employer’s team. Since the interview, I felt that Jussi was our man. My team also felt that Jussi was one of them, not an interim person. On the other hand, I must give huge credit to my team, because Jussi told me that he really felt like an employee of Alltech Fennoaqua.”
Decision-making must be fast and straightforward during a fast-paced project, and resistance to change must be minimised. This was achieved by allocating a full-time team from Fennoaqua to the project, showing trust for all people and parties involved, and through open and constant communication. The deadline for cut-over and go-live was set for February 26, 2024.
Thorough up-front preparation and planning were carried out with all major parties onsite in Raisio, working together. The go-live went successfully according to plan, requiring no more than a couple of days of downtime in the operations.
By the completion of the project, the following had been accomplished:
A new network was built with a new internet service provider and switched to from Raisio’s network
Operational processes were in place for Sales, Production, Warehouse & Logistics, Invoicing, Finance and HR
SAP was replaced with Microsoft Dynamics ERP, with integrations to other business-critical solutions, such as MES and a recipe management solution
Other business-critical solutions were taken into use and integrated into relevant solutions
Several other solutions taken into use, including Sympa HR, ePassi, and Expense solution
Relevant licenses and contracts were moved from Raisio to Fennoaqua
Domain and Microsoft 365 instance was transferred from Raisio to Alltech
Support functions in place
The finance function was outsourced, and a new invoice operator was taken into use
The most crucial success factors of the project were:
The strong commitment to the project in Fennoaqua, from the top to the bottom
Teamwork and collaboration between different parties – all parties were on the same side of the table and worked together exceptionally towards the common goal.
Open and straightforward communication on all levels and with all parties involved.
“I would say that hiring an interim CIO was the right decision, at least for us. We were in the middle of breaking out from our former parent company, and at the same time, establishing a new company. In other words, we had no resources or knowledge about an IT carve-out. Today, I would make the same decision, and if we have a similar project in the future, I will definitely call Jussi.”
”I think Jussi applied just enough change management discipline in his project management strategy, which made a big difference. An ERP implementation project is always a pervasive one. The leaders had to address the human factor of change – in international and multicultural dimensions. This was not only a technical implementation project but also a major change management project. That is where excellent Interim managers make a difference to the good ones. Jussi represents top excellence in this respect.”
