To keep pace with demand in the fast-moving food and beverage (F&B) sector enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become essential tools. With such a wide range of options available, how do you choose the right one for your F&B business?

Ideally, your ERP system will have all the functionality you need for finance, accounts, and purchasing so customizations and workarounds won’t be needed. You’ll also want to be sure integration with other key systems such as your business to business (B2B) ecommerce platform, production, warehousing and distribution can be achieved seamlessly.

With over a decade of experience meeting the needs of B2B operations, here are some things the Cloudfy team suggests will help you make your choice.

Your F&B business requirements

Firstly, it’s important to be aware that many ERP systems are designed for the most general business processes, so they might not work well in the F&B environment. Create a checklist of your top priorities, such as:

Accounting and operations – margins in the food and beverage sector have always been tight. The rising costs of raw materials and inflation are also affecting the spending power of your customers, so you will want to have accurate and up to date information about all aspects of your business in real time. If it’s difficult to integrate an ERP solution with inventory, purchasing and sales processes to minimize human data entry errors you won’t have the complete picture you need.

Compliance – stringent regulations make quality control a priority. You can save time and simplify your compliance and reporting processes when your quality control functions are integrated with your ERP system to help manage your supply chain and quality control data.

Production and storage – the limited shelf-life of many F&B products means you will want a clear and reliable view of production and storage that will alert you when products are reaching their expiry dates. Data about spoilage, damage to packaging and real or potential contamination will all help you improve performance and profitability and minimize waste.

Warehousing – the time your products spend in your warehouses is unprofitable for your business, so you will want to maintain peak efficiency from use of space to picking, packing and despatch. Stock tracking and management are essential to meet demand, ensure food safety, build brand value, and support business growth. Making sure you can take advantage of state-of-the-art warehouse management systems and processes that help you to optimize your performance is an important  requirement.

How your ERP system supports your business

The F&B sector is critically sensitive to market trends and supply chain disruptions. Availability and cost of raw materials, effective and environmentally sustainable distribution, efficiency and cost-effectiveness are key elements of success.

Accuracy – an ERP system helps you manage and streamline everything from procurement and finance to human relations and marketing. Most importantly, it provides a single source of accurate and reliable information about your key business operations. When orders are placed via your B2B ecommerce platform, electronic data interchange (EDI) or through your field sales team, you can reliably confirm stock availability, prices, and shipping information.

Consumer preferences – your consumers are much more aware today of the environmental and health implications of their food and beverage choices. You will need to respond to these changing preferences and be able to demonstrate how you are reducing your carbon footprint and supporting producers. Your ERP can help you consolidate large amounts of data from many sources into useful reports for both internal use and external reporting.

Regulations – across the sector, the regulatory landscape is changing continuously, creating significant administrative overheads. Compliance failures can be damaging to your brand and costly if they result in fines. Your ERP will help you collect and monitor key data to help you meet your obligations.

The organizational benefits of an ERP in the F&B sector

When choosing an ERP system for your food and beverage business, you will want to have clear and measurable goals in mind so you can be confident you will achieve a good return for your investment.  

Accurate and reliable near real-time information shared across your organization means you can manage business performance more effectively, plan for growth with confidence, and improve efficiency so you can reduce your working capital requirements. Other benefits include:

Costs – you can quickly highlight opportunities for cost reductions.

Performance – companies that implement an ERP system can reduce process times, helping to optimize performance.

Agility – accurate information helps companies to make data-based decisions quickly and with confidence.

Efficiency – with a clear overview of business operations you can reduce duplication, improve production efficiency, and reduce costs.

Customer service – you can automate processes to confirm order details, inventory levels, and delivery times to reduce the number of order status requests your team must deal with.

Traceability – an ERP system allows you to track products throughout the production cycle to meet food safety regulations and to maintain quality.

Automation – – inventory management, product tracking, and order management are all time-consuming tasks. You can free up resources for other activities through automation using internet of things (IoT) devices and B2B ecommerce self-service.

Collaboration – with a reliable shared source of information your internal teams and suppliers can collaborate more effectively to build better relationships and improve communication.

Production – the complexities of recipe and formula management can be more easily managed when your ERP supports modeling of process changes.

Quality – sensors can input information such as temperature or consistency directly to your ERP system and highlight when pre-defined thresholds are reached.

Allergens – your ERP system can also help you to manage the stringent requirements for isolation of specific ingredients.

Seamless business systems and processes

Cloudfy is a leading software as a service (SaaS) B2B ecommerce solution, designed to help your growing food and beverage business to simplify, save and scale.

Based on our extensive experience in business to business solutions, Cloudfy offers a cost-effective approach that will seamlessly integrate with your ERP solution.

To find out more book a free Cloudfy demonstration.

With sales over US $1trillion in 2022 global sales through e-procurement channels like PunchOut catalogs are expected to continue growing.

You can optimize ecommerce sales through integration with your buyers’ own e-procurement systems via PunchOut catalogs. That’s why it’s becoming one of the fastest growing B2B sales channels.

Many procurement processes can now be automated that once required manual processing, from product choices to order approval and invoicing. This approach improves accountability and control throughout the procurement process so it’s becoming more popular. 

What is PunchOut?

PunchOut integrates supplier ecommerce portals with buyer e-procurement systems. Customers can browse product catalogs online and purchase goods or services within their own digital infrastructure. PunchOut allows organizations to use their enterprise resource management (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) systems to manage their purchases.

The process involves opening an in-house B2B e-procurement platform to search for approved suppliers. Once the buyer selects a provider, the platform forwards them to the supplier’s B2B ecommerce portal or marketplace for authentication. The buyer can then choose products from the catalog as if they were browsing the supplier’s site. Alternatively, they can be automatically presented with a custom product catalog and pre-agreed discounts.

Products can be added to the buyer’s cart to be automatically exported the order to their e-procurement platform for approval. Once the purchase order is approved the order will be placed with the supplier.

PunchOut integration

Integration can be achieved with a customized solution or through a cloud gateway.

For custom integrations, suppliers and buyers cooperate to build and host a joint solution. Alternatively, a third-party managed cloud gateway can allow communication between platforms.

A PunchOut website is a version of a supplier’s ecommerce site that is accessed within their buyer’s e-procurement platform. The PunchOut catalog integrates the buyer and seller platforms without importing the seller’s catalog, which could become out of date.

The benefits of PunchOut catalogs

Punchout catalogs allow B2B ecommerce companies to integrate their catalog with buyer back-end platforms with very little investment. PunchOut catalogs are always up-to-date and automated transfer of data between platforms minimizes errors.

Real-time information

Real-Time Product Information and Availability with a PunchOut Catalog on a Supplier’s B2B Ecommerce Site. PunchOut catalog hosted on a supplier’s B2B ecommerce site means changes are seen immediately by their buyers. Buyers have access to real-time product availability information, pricing, and discounts.

Efficient procurement 

Advantages of Using PunchOut Catalogs and Automated Ordering to Reduce Errors and Costs in Order Processing. Businesses can manage their spending through seamless procurement data and processes. PunchOut catalogs streamline data interchange between platforms and automatically synchronize buyer and seller information, saving time and money.

Order accuracy

Eliminating Order Processing Errors with PunchOut Catalogs and Automated Ordering. Manually processing orders will inevitably introduce errors which can cause delays and additional costs. This might lead to duplicate orders, pricing and quantity errors, and disrupted deliveries. PunchOut catalogs and automated ordering help to eliminate many of these problems.

Customer retention

Efficiency and Cost Savings through PunchOut Catalogs and B2B Automation. Buyers need fast and efficient solutions and will choose and remain with suppliers that make their tasks easier. PunchOut catalogs and B2B automation reduce processing and staffing requirements for buyers and sellers, helping to manage costs.

Control

Benefits of Direct Purchasing for Businesses. Businesses have more control over how and where buyers make their purchases and can negotiate prices with pre-selected suppliers. This also minimizes the risk of fraud from payment requests or catalog misidentifications, for example, which can be closely monitored.

Streamlined B2B ecommerce and procurement

Effective and efficient procurement has become a strategic function where supply chain disruptions can affect revenue and profitability.

Buyers find it easier to search, compare and purchase products in the controlled environment of their own e-procurement system.

There are many different e-procurement, spending management and ERP platforms available. Communication protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs) can be used to make the integration process work seamlessly. Common protocols and formats include cXML, XML, OCI, EDI, iDOC, CSV and email.

B2B ecommerce businesses can gain a competitive advantage when they have established processes to implement a PunchOut solution for customers. Well-trained sales and marketing staff and easy onboarding will make it an even more attractive option.

As millennials play an increasingly important role in B2B procurement high quality online purchasing experiences will become increasingly important. Providing effective search tools, personalization, and conversion rate optimization techniques help to build trust and confidence which will increase sales. 

Work with experienced PunchOut partners

Leading supplier of protective packaging in the UK and Ireland, Macfarlane, chose Cloudfy Enterprise as their core B2B ecommerce platform. They deliver online ordering and customer self-service with direct integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Management, PunchOut, cXML and EDI.

To find out more book a free Cloudfy demonstration.

As the global economy continues to struggle and businesses around the world are feeling the pressure of an uncertain future, it’s more important than ever before to find ways to save money and time. One of the best solutions is investing in a powerful B2B ecommerce web platform such as Cloudfy.

Cloudfy is designed to provide manufacturers and distributors with a simple, cost-effective solution that can help them reduce operating costs, streamline their processes and scale their business over time. With advanced features like real-time product search, rapid order fulfillment, inventory management and automated invoicing, Cloudfy offers powerful tools that can help businesses save time and money.

With over a decade of experience working with business-to-business (B2B) companies around the world, here are eleven steps recommended by the Cloudfy team.

1. Be customer-centric – the businesses most likely to succeed in difficult times are those that effectively explore and meet their customers’ needs. While focussing on pricing might seem like an obvious step, improving customer service and adding value are likely to help you build long-term brand loyalty.
2. Communicate effectively – a practical strategy to maintain your cashflow is to make sure you communicate regularly and consistently with your customers and stakeholders. There’s never been a better time to build up your first-party subscriptions list so you can provide valuable information to your customers.
3. Take search engine optimization seriously – as budgets are placed under increasing pressure your B2B buyers will be searching online for the best deals for their company. As well as paid-for online advertising you will need to make sure search engine optimization (SEO) for your B2B ecommerce site is a priority. If some of your competitors choose to cut back on their online marketing activity, you will benefit from being easily discoverable online.
4. Plan for growth – while simply surviving might appear to be imperative, things will eventually recover. Improving efficiency will help you to manage current pressures and prepare for the future. You can position your business for growth as financial pressures ease by taking advantage of opportunities to automate and streamline your business processes through business systems integration.
5. Improve productivity – your teams can do more when they are working well together, so consolidating data through business systems integration will also provide a single source of truth to make sure everyone can be productive. It allows you to avoid duplication and unnecessary manual data entry and, when combined with your B2B ecommerce platform, business systems integration will also streamline your sales processes and improve customer satisfaction.
6. Support your employees – when you give your team members the right tools for the job, you will send a clear message that you value them and what they do. Engage with them to find out what will make a difference, listen to their recommendations, and share your future plans so they can be confident you have things under control. As more transactions are completed online make sure your employees are correctly incentivized and recognized for their contributions.
7. Improve your order to cash process – making customer payments easy and efficient and automating your credit control processes will help protect your cashflow. Offering flexible payment options via your B2B ecommerce platform will make it easy for your customers to pay and keep track of their accounts.
8. Be agile – with each digital transaction you will collect a lot of useful information about your company finances and customer behavior. Rather than waiting to see what market trends and reports are telling you, collect and evaluate real time data about your customers’ purchases and preferences. You can use analytic tools to convert this into actionable insights for your production, marketing, sales and after sales teams. You can then respond quickly, effectively and confidently using data-based decision making.
9. Focus on customer retention – retaining your existing customers will be more cost-effective than searching for new customers during these challenging times. Look carefully at what your data tells you and introduce a customer loyalty program or update your existing one to add quality and value for your customers.
10. Collaborate – you can realize the benefits of scale when you collaborate with others including your suppliers and perhaps your competitors too. Online marketplaces can give you access to new audiences and locations, so explore opportunities to provide value-added complementary products and services.
11. Take the long-view – distinguish between short-term tactical activities and your longer-term strategy. You could, for example, buy inventory at a reduced price if one of your competitors is cutting back on their purchasing in the short-term. However, for the future you might want to become more efficient with an integrated inventory management system.

Take the first step today

Cloudfy B2B ecommerce software is designed to help simplify your manufacturing or distribution business to save you money and allow you to scale as your business grows.

With our extensive experience of B2B sales Cloudfy offers a comprehensive suite of powerful ecommerce tools as a cost-effective software as a service (SaaS) solution.

To find out more book a free Cloudfy demonstration.