Brown Forman embraces changing e-invoicing regulations with Sovos

case study

Brown Forman

The Sovos e-invoicing compliance solution allowed Brown-Forman to ease the burden of compliance from its IT team.

Summary

Business Challenges

  • Growth strategy hindered by complex regulations

  • Real-time processes and responses required by mandates impacting business operations

  • Limited IT resources to monitor and implement requirements

Solution

Brown Forman selected Sovos’ Business to Government regional reporting platform for:

  • Brazil Nota Fiscal
  • Mexico CFDI
  • Mexico eContabilidad

Benefits

  • Seamless integration with SA

  • Constant monitoring and support has resulted in zero business disruptions

  • Ability to redeploy resources to core business functions

  • Need for ongoing SAP upgrades and IT burdens eliminated

The Company

Brown-Forman is one of the ten largest spirits companies in the world, distributing products in more than 160 countries. Based in Louisville, Kentucky with offices across the globe, Brown-Forman manufactures iconic brands such as Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort and Woodford Reserve.

The Challenge

International expansion has been integral to Brown-Forman’s success, but this growth strategy placed a great demand on its IT team. The company’s SAP systems needed to comply with the constantly changing financial legislation around the world, and e-invoicing mandates threatened to exceed the Brown-Forman IT team’s bandwidth. This was especially a concern in Brazil and Mexico, where the company operates nine facilities and regulations change frequently.

Demanding real-time processes and responses, any e-invoicing oversight in these countries would affect both the finance and supply chain teams, and could significantly impact business operations. 

The Solution

With limited in-house IT resources to monitor and implement each country’s fiscal requirements, Brown-Forman needed a solution that would help it adapt to the ever-changing Latin American landscape and also integrate into its single global instance of SAP ERP.

Given the extensive scope of its operations in Latin America, Brown-Forman realised that it needed a specific subject matter expert. In addition, the company required a predictable cost structure during its heavy expansion.

“Because Sovos provides the network upgrades as well as the SAP ERP configurations, we have been able to work with one vendor across multiple countries and confidently manage the changes to Brazil’s Nota Fiscal and Mexico CFDI’s legislation.”

Randy Isdahl

Director, SAP Process Architecture at Brown-Forman

The Benefits

Sovos provides Brown-Forman with constant monitoring and support, ensuring no compliance-related business disruptions. Plus, the Sovos solution seamlessly integrated within Brown-Forman’s existing systems, allowing the company to manage multi-country compliance directly within its internal SAP system.

The Results

With Sovos e-invoicing compliance in place, Brown-Forman was able to redeploy resources to core business functions, including account receivables and account payables, and focus on supply chain and logistics enhancements. In addition, the partnership has eliminated the ongoing SAP upgrades and IT burdens caused by the constantly changing e-invoicing regulations.

Why Sovos?

Brown-Forman selected the Sovos eInvoice and eAccounting regional solutions to simplify its compliance efforts in Brazil and Mexico. The company sought a solution that could help it cut down on human resource capital and technology investments, and Sovos’ SaaS platform allowed it to accomplish that goal.