Solution to the headaches caused by IT in the food sector

Why do ERP selections last so long? It's not because there are no adequate solutions, consultants and/or ERP providers, but because clients often seem very surprised with the implementation that follows."

We speak with Danny Cevaal, who has been working in the sector for 18 years. He is devoted to food and IT and is a well-known name in the food industry. Since April 2018, his FoodSuite team has been marketing the American ERP, CRM and E-Commerce solution in the Oracle NetSuite cloud, under the supervision of Oracle ERP expert Quistor. "We have noticed that there is a clear need among SME's in the European food industry for a scalable and rapidly deployable cloud solution; one that allows ambitious traders and producers to grow. These companies operate independently with their sights set on the future, and they also expect this from their business software and their partners."

"Let's be honest: the commercial software used by entrepreneurs in the food industry, and everything their use entails, is often a cause for headaches. Of course, you need to manage your business in a structured way and facilitate growth, but IT projects are a constant source of unforeseen problems. It is necessary to deal with interfaces with a portal, RF scanners or CRM packages, the maintenance of contacts and contracts with TIG software providers, the update of ERP applications and servers every few years, implementations whose cost goes over budget and the hiring or sub hiring of additional IT staff to keep everything under control, while there is a shortage of this type of professionals. And all this while all you want is to devote yourself to doing business, to concentrate completely on your suppliers, your products, your clients and your employees."

FoodSuite is based on NetSuite, a complete online business application that is offered in a subscription model. It has a wide range of functions in the fields of accounting, purchasing, omnichannel sales (including websites, online stores and points of sale), quality, production, stocks and warehouse, human resources management, CRM and generation of reports (business intelligence). This can be extended unlimitedly, with native applications from NetSuite partners, such as EDI, WMS or even a Salesforce.com connector. These applications can be loaded directly into your commercial application from the online store. All this is available within the same environment.

Cevaal outlines a series of convincing advantages compared to classic solutions: "NetSuite is an online application for multiple users, so it is not a solution hosted on a private server that is advertised in the cloud. There are 45,000 companies worldwide that use the same version and yours will also be updated automatically. You will never have to go through an annoying reimplementation again. Only an initial implementation, that's all. OPEX instead of CAPEX, so it is not necessary to make large investments in advance.

In general, interconnection and customisation are the main bottlenecks for companies. This is not the case with NetSuite. Given that the application already contains elements such as portals, CRM, HRM, business intelligence, points of sale and web stores, you won't be forced to use too many interfaces. The interfaces that are still necessary will be implemented in a much faster way and automatically included in the update process. NetSuite is defined by one word: personalisation.

FoodSuite is thus much easier to implement, compared to other classic applications, so implementation projects are much shorter. Therefore, the implementation of FoodSuite is offered for a fixed price and doesn't depend on the elements chosen. And since the clients' employees are less burdened by implementation, daily business can improve a lot during the implementation process."

FoodSuite is a powerful, easy-to-use, cloud-based package for SME's in the food industry. It is perfect for ambitious, growing (online) traders and producers. Its main strength lies in the integration between ERP, CRM and omnichannel sales functionality (web store and POS).

FoodSuite is suitable for food companies that have a great need for customised flexibility and convenience. The application can be accessed from anywhere and from any device. The external service and warehouse personnel work in real time with the same data as in the office. Therefore, mobile storage is fully integrated and there is little or no middleware and/or interface.

For multinational companies, FoodSuite offers solutions such as centralised customer registration in multiple countries/branches, information on the availability of stocks in multiple (international) branches and automated processes between companies. Consolidation and work with multiple currencies and/or languages ​​is also covered within the system.

According to Cevaal, "companies with growth prospects want to get rid of ad hoc actions and stress. They want to introduce structure, a general vision and peace within the organization, but without sacrificing the workflow. With FoodSuite, you can easily create and activate workflows. Furthermore, the performance of your organization will always be easy to check thanks to its clear visual panels."