Renowned, growing creamery transforms operations with Business Central
Key takeaways
Food and beverage companies commonly have complex operational requirements that must work in harmony, from quality control and inventory oversight to supply chain and distribution management. By leveraging modern cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions combined with industry-specific insights and advice from a trusted advisor, companies can effectively track and monitor these and other key variables and establish a foundation to optimize operations and stimulate growth.
Proactively modernizing key operations
For Cypress Grove, an iconic, award-winning creamery located on the rural North Coast of California, the time was right to modernize their ERP foundation by transitioning to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central from their previous Dynamics NAV platform, with support from RSM US LLP. Cypress Grove sought a new solution that could establish stronger, customized controls for the milk valuation process as well as a stronger data foundation to drive company decision making.
“As I always say, bad data in, bad data out,” says Cypress Grove Director of Finance Cindy Hori. “So, that was one of the biggest struggles that we had was getting the correct valuation in the beginning of the costing process. In our new ERP, we wanted to capture appropriate controls throughout the process so we could make sure that the ultimate valuation of that milk was correct at the front end.”
Developing a scalable strategy
To align D365 Business Central to Cypress Grove’s unique operational needs, both teams conducted a comprehensive in-person discovery process. The goal was to not just meet the functional needs of the current system, but also to address the needs of a growing organization (operational reporting and analysis, process efficiencies, etc.).
The RSM team brought an extensive understanding of the food industry, specifically dairy and cheese, in conjunction with industry-specific proprietary tools that enhance the D365 Business Central application, called food and beverage accelerators.
The result is a D365 Business Central solution that captures the necessary production, sales, quality and warehousing information, with comprehensive workflows, safeguards and efficiencies to deliver accurate recordkeeping. Cypress Grove has the confidence to make key business decisions with accurate back-end accounting and operational data that is secure and easily retrievable via Microsoft Power BI reporting.
Capitalizing on deeper insights and increased automation
For Cypress Grove end users, the biggest benefit of Business Central is the increased functionality in the cloud. Users now have easy access to critical company information and more extensive insight into inventory so leaders can make timely business decisions and take advantage of opportunities based on real-time data.
“I can stay on top of things,” says Cypress Grove Supply Chain Director David Estes. “I have easy access to inventory. I can tell the sales team whether we can pull off a promotion pretty much from anywhere in the world that I have web access.”
Every success that we have, I feel like it goes back to our relationship with RSM,” says Hori. “They were with us from the beginning and they're still with us now.
Cindy Hori, Director of Finance, Cypress Grove
With increased automation in D365 Business Central that has eliminated previously manual tasks, Cypress Grove is saving a significant amount of time and effort that can now be dedicated to more strategic tasks.
“I used to spend hours and hours per week, basically dumping data into Excel,” says Estes. “With Business Central and now Jet, I’m able to basically get automated reports on a weekly basis that I don’t have to spend a minute of my time developing, which is great.”
A bright future on innovation and trust
After implementing D365 Business Central with advice and support from RSM, Cypress Grove has fundamentally transformed how they do business. With a scalable, modern ERP foundation in place, the company has become more agile, and users feel more empowered with a higher level of confidence in their data.
“With Business Central, there’s just so much more we can do,” says Cypress Grove Distribution and Customer Service Manager Brandon Rasmussen. “So much has changed for the better and it’s so much quicker. We have more time, and we have more understanding of our system than when we were working with NAV.”
Ultimately, the most critical element of the success of the Business Central implementation is the strong working relationship between Cypress Grove and RSM.
“Really, it comes down to trust,” says Hori. “Being able to trust that they're giving you the best advice on the product itself, as well as trust that they're going to meet your needs.”