Organic food store in Ekkharthof - Switzerland
Ekkharthof, in Lengwill at Lake Constance in Switzerland is a facility for disabled people who live and work together according to anthroposophical principles. Decs has now implemented Microsoft Dynamics at their organic food-store to effectively streamline inventory control and to make life easier for store personnel and other employees.
Situation
Ekkarthof was looking for an inventory management solution for their organic food store with an integrated POS system and total control of all business activities; including the dairy, the bakery, the cannery and garden center. The Organic Restaurant also needed a recipe and menu management system. The wide ranging functionality of LS Hospitality based on Microsoft Dynamics convinced the management what would be the right choice. Youths and adults with disabilities live and work together at Ekkharthof. Besides offering jobs, there is a wide range of education alternatives at the facility. It’s possible to choose between accompanied integration, protected training or regular apprenticeship to become a gardener, farmer, baker and many more. Handicrafts are produced in workshops and the food production, which is controlled and certified by bio.inspecta, is based on local specialties, fully organic and available all over Switzerland in food stores. A vital requirement for the choice was that the new system could be integrated with the already existing finance system as well as the one dealing with the suppliers and customers.
Solution
All the requirements were to be met in the new business solution. In the first phase, the item master was compiled and revised. An important part of this process was the general ledger and the connection to the Bio Partner Schweiz ordering and delivery system. The point of sale was set up at the same time in the organic store, complete with a scale connection. Next was the registration and setup of menus and recipes. The flexible LS POS allows sales to Ekkarthof residents to be booked directly to their expense accounts.
Benefits
One of the aims of the new solution was to get full overview and transparency of the flow of goods between departments as well as the purchases and sales. True Cost Pricing is mandatory by law in Switzerland and it is now fully covered in all departments after the implementation of LS Retail software. Another result is the total alignment of internal processes. This has caused some changes for the staff so the training was very important. Now, not only the overview of the business statistics is much clearer but the item and stock figures are now reliable and correct. The initial project was up and running inside four months and more functionality will be added. Ekkarthof now has a good platform for setting up a fully integrated web store that will be implemented soon.
