Massimo Zanetti Beverage

The Company

A multinational group listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group S.p.A. is one of the global leaders in the production, processing, and distribution of roasted coffee, operating in approximately 110 countries. The Group manages activities from sourcing to consumption, operating 18 active plants across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and through an international network of around 400 coffee shops in 50 countries. In addition, Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group manufactures and sells coffee machines and complements its product offering with high-quality tea, cocoa, chocolate, and spices.

The Group’s holding company, located at Villa Zanetti in Treviso, houses the management of the parent company and coordinates over 50 subsidiaries operating directly across four continents, including Segafredo Zanetti. About 40 users work at the headquarters, mainly engaged in corporate, finance, and management control activities, often in mobile mode.

The Challenge

The Group’s various companies used different ERP systems, which made management control activities complex. In 2017, the management decided to implement a Group-wide ERP system to be used by all organizations worldwide.
It was an ambitious project that would engage the multinational’s IT team, coordinated by the holding staff—but composed of a small, focused team—for three years.

“At the holding company, we carry out coordination and control activities,” says Massimo Zuffi, Group Information Technology Director at MZB Group.
“From an IT standpoint, we focus mainly on critical applications for processing financial data, feeding both an internal data warehouse and a cloud-based EPM application for management control and financial reporting.”

The new ERP project, based on Oracle Cloud, coincided with the need for a technological refresh of the Group’s IT infrastructure to maintain high levels of performance and security.
All of this was part of a broader and more recent strategy to outsource IT-related activities.

“In recent years,” explains Zuffi, “our IT strategy has leaned toward outsourcing the management of infrastructure services (network and telephony). We sought a partner to whom we could entrust the ‘keys to the house,’ capable of handling all aspects of management and delivering a truly comprehensive service. We found this partner in VEM Sistemi, which has supported us for over ten years and knows our company’s technologies and processes very well.”

The Solution

The technology refresh was studied and proposed by VEM Sistemi in continuity with the previous architecture. New solutions for network, servers, storage, and backup were implemented.
In particular, the replacement of the core switches with two Cisco NEXUS 3548 was proposed, connecting uplinks to peripheral cabinets and 10G connections to the server-farm environment. Similarly, all edge switches were replaced with Cisco 2960X switches with StackWise technology, allowing multiple devices in the same rack to be managed as a single unit. The access points were also replaced with new Cisco AP 1700 models.

However, the real transformation came with the additional shift toward managed services in an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) model and with VEM Sistemi’s proactive approach in managing the IT infrastructure of the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group’s holding company.

“At the holding,” explains Zuffi, “we need to stay focused on our core business, and we can’t handle tasks like managing the data center. That’s why I worked with VEM Sistemi on the financial aspects of our partnership, fully delegating both the selection of technologies and their ongoing management—moving from a reactive to a proactive paradigm.”

After designing and implementing the new technologies, VEM took over the IT infrastructure management of the holding company through its NOC (Network Operation Center) and SOC (Security Operation Center), staffed by over 40 professionals and holding more than 200 certifications (including Certified Ethical Hacker, CISSP, ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Specialist, and ITIL Foundation v3).

As a result, day-to-day operations are fully entrusted to VEM Sistemi, which independently and proactively manages the infrastructure (telephony, networks, collaboration systems, video surveillance) and handles any issues.
The IT teams from the holding and the partner simply meet remotely for periodic reviews.

The Results

The service levels guaranteed by VEM Sistemi’s NOC/SOC are the same as those the holding enjoyed prior to the paradigm shift—ranging from one hour to a maximum of eight working hours, depending on the issue and the component involved.
However, problem resolution times have significantly decreased because interventions are automatically triggered by VEM’s monitoring system.

In parallel with outsourcing management to VEM Sistemi and refreshing some network components, the holding also cabled a second building adjacent to Villa Zanetti, ensuring the same level of service and security as the main site.
For the new unified workspace, a dedicated VLAN was created, capable of connecting more than 30 users simultaneously with greater bandwidth and a higher level of security than the standard Wi-Fi network.

“The IT team at the holding,” concludes Zuffi, “has reduced time spent on infrastructure management by over 30%, allowing us to focus more on business support applications. Not to mention that the new operational leasing model has enabled us to reduce investment costs compared to the previous setup.
Proactivity has led to greater efficiency and lower operating costs, which means we have fully achieved our goal of improving EBITDA.”

Outsourcing is thus the way forward for Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group, a future that has already begun with VEM Sistemi managing the infrastructure in IaaS mode and the ERP software running in SaaS mode.