The Italian food industry, with its annual turnover of 179 billion euros, 60,000 enterprises, 464,000 employees and export value of more than 50 billion euros, plays a crucial role in the economic and social landscape. It is the most important manufacturing sector in terms of turnover, and ranks second in terms of number of enterprises, employees and export value.
Given its importance and the high degree of competition, companies in the industry are constantly looking for solutions, management and software to improve their management and increase productivity. In this context, Italian ERPs have become crucial for agribusinesses. But what exactly are ERPs?
Federalimentare Report 2023
According to the Federalimentare – Censis report “The economic and social value of the Italian food industry”, of May 2023: “In ten years the turnover [of the Italian food industry] has increased by 24.7 percent in real terms, the number of employees by 12.2 percent and the value of exports in real terms by 60.3 percent.
It is a major component of the Italian food supply chain, from farm to table, which in turn has an annual turnover of 607 billion euros, with 1.3 million enterprises and 3.6 million employees. In ten years, the supply chain’s turnover has marked a real increase of 12 percent, while the number of employees has increased by 10.8 percent.”
These numbers underscore the importance of agribusiness to our country and the need to support new needs with more innovative tools. For example, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system could prove essential to maximize efficiency and productivity in this vital sector. Let’s look in detail at what this is all about
What are ERP systems?
ERP-Enterprise Resource Planning are integrated management information systems that support all departments of the company. Today this term is expanded by the concept “Business Solution,” which is intended to denote integrated application platforms that transform business management into an unprecedented experience.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a perfect example of this innovation: it is a powerful suite that transcends traditional boundaries capable of integrating not only withPower BI’s Essential Business Intelligence, but goes beyond that, introducing Artificial Intelligence with Copilot, and uniting office tools, with a special predilection for Excel.
An ERP, like Business Central, is like a meeting point, connected directly to various departments. This means that you can effortlessly navigate between different applications through a single start icon.
How does an ERP work?
You have to think of an ERP system as the brain of a company. It makes all the business data they need available to different teams, creating an environment where collaboration and communication flow smoothly.
And we are not just talking about a simple “data repository,” but an intelligent system. For example, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is an excellent example of a mid-range ERP (depending on the project) that does more than just collect data. This system ensures that every operation within the company is in perfect harmony with the specific requirements of each process. Imagine not being able to issue an invoice for 50 pieces if the customer order is only for 40. An ERP like Business Central takes care of these details, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and accurately.
What ERPs exist?
The ERP landscape spans a wide range, ranging from customized systems to those with national or international reach, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
However, when making a crucial decision, the importance of the choice of partner and brand emerges. This is because the brand, e.g., Business Central, ensures the reliability of the management system by offering state-of-the-art solutions aligned with market dynamics. The choice of partner is equally crucial as they must have a solid understanding of the market in which the ERP is to be implemented.
That’s where our experts at Velika come in. We specialize in ERP solutions for the agribusiness sector, and this specialization is no accident. It is the result of years of experience, practice, and deep knowledge of the field, and with our expertise, we have developed our verticalization to ensure that companies have an ERP solution that best meets the needs of the industry.
Italian agribusiness ERP: FOOD365
The FOOD365 ERP is a verticalization of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, which means it has all the advantages we saw earlier but is perfect as a management solution for small and medium-sized companies working in the agribusiness sector.
It is designed to simplify the management of all business processes: from administrative tasks to business operations, from logistics to production. Most importantly, it boasts of Velika’s vast experience – of more than 30 years – in the food and beverage industry. With FOOD365
- You have a management environment, available both in the cloud and locally, that provides a customized and flexible solution for managing the quality control of raw materials and finished products.
- Line yields, actual processing cost, downtime statistics and nonconformities can be analyzed, contributing to a better understanding and more effective control of the production process.
- Enables easier management of warehouse inventories with traceability and tracking functions for finished product batches and raw materials.
- It offers greater flexibility of price list by customer, group, sales channel, buying group, zone or territory, also allowing the definition of packaging specifications according to the customer.
- Its flexibility andintuitive interface enable all staff to adapt quickly, without long start-up periods.
- It can be integrated with any MES, including proprietary ones, to manage the sorting of data and useful information on individual production orders and on individual production line, appropriately configured.
- It can also be integrated with WMS solutions for automatic finished product inventory reporting.
But FOOD365’s real strength lies in the fact that all of the industry’s most in-demand processes are already in place, but of course it is also possible to further configure it to best meet each company’s needs.
Call us to learn about our suite of agribusiness solutions.
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