This year TEC analysts are certifying a variety of new ERP solutions for process manufacturers. Another that has been recently certified is vendor JustFoodERP’s eponymous software JustFoodERP.

JustFoodERP is a subsidiary of the Microsoft Dynamics Partner IndustryBuilt, and was founded just over 12 years ago specifically to develop and deliver an ERP system focused on the food and beverage industry.

Indeed, JustFoodERP is pretty savvy when it comes to the specifics of this niche, and offers a very competitive solution overall. The company primarily caters to small-to-midsized manufacturers and distributors, although they have clients with annual revenues ranging from $5 million to $700 million. It has customers in different subsegments of the food vertical, including bakeries, beverage processors, and meat producers, but all relevant functionality has been built into a single system.

The software is entirely built on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV as a platform. The vendor has enhanced the standard functionality and made many significant modifications and additions related to the food and beverage industry niche. Examples of enhancements include deeper support for quality management and product traceability, incorporated co-product and by-product management, and natural support for recipe-based manufacturing products and their formulations.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV already being known as a strong player for manufacturing ERP (albeit mostly for discrete manufacturing), improvements made by the JustFoodERP team have transformed it into a competitor worthy of note in the process and mixed-mode manufacturing fields as well.

Although the food and beverage ERP market space is quite crowded, JustFoodERP has been able to obtain an impressive number of clients, thanks in no small part to a combination of clear positioning and competitive differences.

These competitive differences include:

• JustFoodERP’s close relationship with Microsoft, which means that the underlying technology is continuously updated and never becomes obsolete.

• Because the software is already focused on a particular industry niche, there is no need for massive modifications or customizations, and it is therefore easy to upgrade and follow the latest versions and developments of Microsoft Dynamics NAV software (as contrasted with packages that require many modifications, for which each upgrade is almost as difficult to manage as a new implementation). An upgrade toolkit is provided with the application, which allows clients to stay on the general product path. Many customers of JustFoodERP are using the latest application’s release. They can always take an advantage of access to the newest technology, such as (for instance) cloud enablement or Web service technology, which weren’t available five years ago.

• Direct support from the head office, with assurances of one-hour response time for any logged issue, and quick problem resolution

• JustFoodERP has also been certified by Microsoft and holds “Certified for Microsoft Dynamics” (CfMD) status, which means that a) the software meets Microsoft Corporation’s standards of comprehensive business management solutions, b) it was tested and proven by Microsoft experts, and c) the product is seamlessly integrated with other Microsoft products and is recommended by Microsoft.

My impression is that the company employs and is led by young, energetic, and ambitious professionals with clear business goals and who are very persistent in pursuing these goals.

Stay tuned for TEC’s JustFoodERP Certification Report, with more on the product background, highlights, features and functions, and competitive strengths and weaknesses. It’ll be available in upcoming weeks at http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/certification-reports/archives/2012.html. Alternatively, subscribe to our certification report RSS feed.