ERP for food manufacturers

Northlake Partners (NLP) is offering a new ERP solution called NorthScope. The NLP says they operate on the refusal to overpromise and underdeliver, lie to make a sale and not put the customer first. Even though Managing Partners Tom Williams and Adam Herman have seen these tactics used in the industry for decades, they decided to challenge the status quo when they started their company over 10 years ago.

To the question why design ERP for food manufacturers, Mr Wiliams replies, "I had spent 10 years providing ERP software to food companies and really liked the companies and the hardworking people in those companies. During that time, I had many opportunities to meet with customers to understand their problems and then design features to solve those problems. Seeing a customer struggle with something, designing a solution that solves it, and then seeing it become part of the core product was a great feeling I wanted to keep experiencing."

Mr Herman adds, "I wanted to leverage the knowledge I had of food ERP software because this is a really interesting industry. I love going places and working with people involved in the food chain and supporting something that benefits everyone. I used to think it was less glamorous than other industries but now I consider most other industries boring and find the challenges and changes in the food industry much more compelling. I don’t know of another industry that exists in every country, city, language, and currency and that every person in the world depends on. 

NLP aims to serve everyone in their ecosystem by offering “bug-free, hassle-free, lightning-fast business software.” Driving these goals is NLP’s belief that their job is to serve. They serve by offering software that is agile and flexible and a team that is responsive to user requests and treats customer problems as their own. They serve by challenging the status quo with a powerful ERP system that you can configure easily, fix mistakes that are made, and not put your company out of business to buy.

“Starting a company was based on the absolute feeling that we could do a better job at the same thing than the people out there doing it. We knew a lot about the industry and felt like we could turn that knowledge, plus our desire to do something bigger, into a better version of what we had been living previously,” said Managing Partner Adam Herman. When asked about why it’s important that NLP challenge the norms of standard ERP, Managing Partner Tom Williams said, “People, both customers and team members, shouldn’t be miserable at work or feel undervalued doing remedial tasks. The computer is an amazing tool that can transform the impossible into the possible. We can help people be enriched at work while helping their companies run more efficiently. We sell the promise of a better future. This is a responsibility we do not take lightly as many people sell this but don’t deliver.”

Read the interview with NLP’s Managing Partners on challenging the status quo of the food ERP industry.