The SOMDIAA Group set up 4 functional departments focusing on the African affiliates and whose competencies and savoir-faire allow them to maintain high standards in terms of competitiveness as well as quality and efficiency.

Creating and developing package software

SOMINFOR continuously develops management and reporting package software that is critical to business operations. Those projects aim at meeting the needs of the affiliates and of the corporate office in order to optimize company tools.

As an example in 2011 the SOMINFOR software teams will be focusing on:
- developing an automatic reordering management module
- developing a CAMM (Computer-Assisted Maintenance Management) module
- developing new versions for business management, payroll and personnel management applications.

An interactive and user-friendly Intranet portal

The Intranet portal allows every employee to share his or her information with all Group members in real time. As a user-friendly tool it helps disseminate information at all times to teams across several continents, thus generating a better response.

Thanks to an ongoing monitoring program, innovating solutions are regularly introduced to improve system performance. The latest Intranet version implemented in 2010 brings a modern and intuitive interface. Ergonomics has been completely revised and offers a customizable workspace with a navigation system allowing access to the pieces of information that each user uses the most. The configuration chosen by the user is stored and replicated on mobile tools.
 
Moreover, SOMINFOR manages the implementation of new communication tools for SOMDIAA affiliates, which involves the installation over several continents of systems such as IP voice telephony, instant messaging and video conferencing with optimized bandwidth management.

To that end SOMINFOR relies on partners specializing in telecommunications and high tech applications.

Consistent and Secure Hardware equipment

This all would not be possible without a diversified, innovative and reliable hardware offering facilitated by a dozen IT engineers, two IBM Blade I-Series computers and an RMX 200 multipoint platform for about 900 users.
For this, SOMINFOR centralizes purchasing operations by ensuring efficient and consistent hardware equipment with quality material at optimum costs.

SOMINFOR also guaranties the Group's computer network security.
Most of the Group businesses now have contingency backup communication equipment and every one of them will have one in the short-term.

With more than 500 suppliers and a constant search for new contacts, Procurement can best meet the needs of internal clients by always seeking to contribute to lowering their production costs.

Consulting for plants
Procurement conducts an interactive buying policy and, in this spirit, distributes all of the information and documentation concerning the new products, materials and production machines, always proposing the best bid and alternatives.

PURCHASE of COMMODITIES - A trade specialty of the SOMDIAA Group.
The choice and purchase of cereals, closely related to market variations, are also managed by Procurement. The purchase of wheat, for flour production, is subject to special care and long know-how inherited from the Grands Moulins de Paris (Mills of Paris'company).

The results of the Group's mills depend in large part on a qualitative, homogenous and regular supply.
As needed and to complete our offer, this department also supplies certain markets with sugar (sourced directly from Brazil or any other producer country), in bulk or in containers, based on the international market.

A regular and optimized supply
With each new campaign, our technicians and millers prepare specifications, working closely with the cooperatives and collection and storage entities. In these areas, Procurement handles purchase and transport price negotiations, then takes care of ship reservations. The Department, strong with this expertise on the cereal supply market in Africa, uses its organization to help other miller operators on the continent.

Balance between operator needs and logistical constraints
In the service of a milling industry requiring regularity and stability, the department must also continuously listen to the markets so as to inform and advise operators, in real-time, on the quality and quantities to order.

Clear and efficient information
Each year, a milling seminar brings together technicians from the SOMDIAA Group, outside partners and suppliers to inform the subsidiaries about cereal campaigns, technical advances and new product developments in order to best adapt our mills to these evolutions.

Our teams also participate each year in Paris in the "milling technical days" of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Meunerie et des Industries Céréalières (National Upper School of Milling and Cereal Industries).

Transport
Maritime and air transport are subject to annual contracts with companies, negotiated based on the group's overall volumes in order to benefit from the best prices and boarding priorities. Procurement thus also provides express breakdown services at reduced costs.