Sunblest Commodities is a Canadian distributor and wholesaler of food and food products that was looking for the best ERP system for its business. Like many food distributors, it needed an ERP solution capable of handling a large number of transactions, tracking ingredients and inventory, and collecting and presenting data in a useful manner to those that need it the most.

As an importer, wholesaler, and distributor of natural and organic ingredients, Sunblest handles a large volume of items and transactions with a small number of employees. To be precise, since starting out in 2010, Sunblest has grown to $18 million in revenues with only ten full-time employees. They are growing, and growing fast, and needed a company-wide and fully connected software solution to support operations and growth.

“We face a mixed-bag of challenges,” says Sunblest’s President Anisha Virani, “Global logistics, we are dealing with different governments, different regulations, lot traceability, tracking inventory, terms… It’s all been a bit of a challenge.”

Global Logistics: Software for Today’s Food Distributor

Sunblest’s global logistics challenges included dealing with different customers and governments, so they needed an ERP system that would be able to handle multiple legislations. Their logistics requirements also included being able to track and locate both ingredients and products, as well as manage inventory in third-party warehouses. As a distributor and wholesaler, Sunblest needs to know where all items are stored, where they are once they are moving, and the most efficient way to distribute them, and the ERP they chose provided just that.

Inventory Tracking and Lot Traceability: Key ERP Components for Food Companies

The native lot tracking and traceability functions have made it a successful solution in the food and beverage industry. It provides traceability of ingredients and in-depth lot tracking. The solution has also spread through a global community of users, due to its multi-legislation and multi-currency capabilities. If a company wants to expand operations to a new country, odds are the ERP can adapt to being used there, and configurations exist to make it compliant with local legislation and accounting practices.

Efficiency in Reporting Centralized Database and Flexible Dashboards

The company also had issues with efficiency. Employees were dealing with data from multiple sources, having to manually pull and compile reports in Excel before they could be used.  To make the life of the team a lot easier, The Answer Company developed and designed reports and dashboards that present the information needed by Sunblest’s employees. These reports can now be accessed from any device at any time. Since the ERP houses all business activities, the info is pulled from the central database, eliminating redundancies and ensuring accuracy of the information. For a small team, improvements in efficiency go a long way in improving productivity.

Small Team and HR Limitations No Challenge for ERP Project

Sunblest’s small team also meant that human resources towards an ERP project were limited. With The Answer Company’s experience though, that wasn’t a big concern as they were able to go in and help build what was needed for the structure of the company’s information systems.  They worked together to design and create the architecture of Sunblest’s business processes within the engine of the software they chose. The process started out by examining Sunblest’s current processes, finding what worked and where there was a desire for improvement, then drawing out the path to the ideal situation.

For these reasons, The Answer Company deemed Sunblest was a perfect fit for a new ERP, and they began working together.

Sunblest found a solution that brings all business practices together as it is a fully integrated business solution capable of handling end-to-end business processes and it can be accessed from anywhere with any device. It meets their logistic needs, provides a way to eliminate redundancies, and organizes their data so that it can be accessible and provide value to the company.

“We found that the software actually provided all the solutions that we were looking at. It was a thing of beauty,” completed Ms. Virani.