The Client:

Smart Organic AD marked the beginning of bio food manufacturing in Bulgaria in 2009, inspired by the mission to make healthy food accessible for everyone. Owing to their hard work and talent in the creation of innovative products, the company has expanded to become among the leading distributors in Europe, delivering to customers from more than 60 countries around the whole world.

As part of Smart Organic company, dedicated to the same mission, the bio store chain Zelen offers a wide variety of bio products, following their motto: “A place for everyone for everyday!” With their dedication and innovative way of thinking, focused on the clients’ needs, Smart Organic and Zelen Bio challenge the established perceptions of healthy eating, proving that it can be diverse and truly delicious.

Business case:

Smart Organic consists of six companies: Smart Organic AD, Smart Organic SRL, Smart Organic GmbH, Zelen Bio, Santolita and Naughty Nuts. As leaders in the manufacturing and sale of bio products, the companies deliver their rich variety of products to over 60 countries across the world – on the local market, in the European Union, Asia and America. However, this becomes a challenge in the manufacturing management processes, inventory availability, stock distribution, order processing and financial reporting.

Before transitioning to the implementation of the new ERP system, the companies, part of Smart Organic, had no visibility over all business aspects. Part of the companies worked with different systems, lacking integration between each other. This is why Smart Organic needed an adaptive system that would help them monitor data in real time, make decisions faster, ensure access for all departments and strive towards sustainability by reducing food and paper waste.

The Solution:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and LS Central The focus on innovation is among the main values of Smart Organic AD: in the products themselves, but also in the way they offer them to customers. This is why the company embarks on the path to modernization with a unified business management solution, implemented by NavTech Group. The solution is based on the market-proven ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and its extension – the all-in-one software LS Central, developed by LS Retail. Microsoft Dynamics 365 LS Central unifies the management of all locations, brands, and processes into one software and gives Smart Organic’s team full control over the ERP and POS system, warehouse management, supply chain, e-Commerce, financials, and customer loyalty. To provide Smart Organic with a solution, adapted to their specific needs, NavTech Group integrated add-ons that boost every department’s productivity in the company.

Warehouse Management Software Stedosoft

One of these add-ons is the integration of the warehouse management software Stedosoft. Thanks to Stedosoft, Smart Organic can make swift decisions regarding stock redistribution, order fulfilment, utilization of available resources and spaces. This optimizes employees’ work and reduces the risks of errors that may occur from manually conducted checks. Smart Organic can follow their stock with batch number, country of origin and expiry date, which gives them additional visibility over the whole inventory. With the wide variety of functionalities of Stedosoft, Smart Organic improves the accuracy of their, plans their resources effectively, track and fulfill orders with precision.

Module Manufacturing and Purchases Planning

Module Manufacturing and Purchases automates the process of creating orders by generating proposals for purchases based on previous sales data. The sales are calculated by channels based on history and from this data, a demand forecast is automatically generated. With this module, Smart Organic gain visibility over the production need according to all sales channels, considering all open purchase and sales documents and the quantity of materials necessary to produce the final products.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Integration

The EDI integration enables electronic document transfer with end clients. This add-on automates the workflow, saves time, and resources, enhances the speed and precision in data import, while giving users the opportunity to track all sales documents easily. EDI integration is a crucial part of Smart Organic’s sustainable development as it eliminates paper waste.

Intercompany Management Module

The Intercompany Management Module automates the interchange of purchase-sales between all companies, part of Smart Organic. This is a huge benefit for all sides as it simplifies communication among the separate companies and improves the accuracy and precision of their work.

Bankfeed App Integration

NavTech Group, together with their partners from Softera, expanded the functionalities of Dynamics 365 LS Central with the integration of Bankfeed – an innovative payment management app. Bankfeed deals with the time-consuming accounting tasks as it imports all bank statements into the ERP system and automatically matches payments with invoices. What is more, Bankfeed provides bank statement imports 4 times a day which gives Smart Organic complete visibility over all transactions and payments they receive. With such intelligent solution like Bankfeed, Smart Organic's team reduces errors and inaccuracies caused by lack of attention, while also saving valuable time and eliminating the need for manual data entry. Bankfeed is an extremely user-friendly and adaptable app as it connects to both local and worldwide banks - a list of over 2300 banks and payment platforms users can choose from.

Module Courier Payment Import

The integration of the courier module allows for linking courier payments with sales documents: for cash on delivery, couriers provide payment information, which is imported by Smart Organic, and consequently each payment is matched to its respective invoice. Through this linking method, the company saves time and gains visibility into all courier payments, reducing the risk of document loss and discrepancies in financial reconciliations.

Sales Tracking in OSS mode

Sales Tracking in OSS mode enables automatic calculation of the corresponding VAT for online sales to individual customers within the EU. The matrix is created with the VAT rates of different countries and allows for product customization according to these requirements upon their creation. Since food products in each country have different rates - standard, reduced, or special - the matrix is based on this information.

Workflow Approval and Module Insurance Tracking to an External Company

The Workflow Approval function allows the Smart Organic team to follow customers’ credit limits and send approval to the authorized users depending on the chosen type of payment. With this function, the sales go through several stages of approval, Smart Organic can monitor the credit limits and track the insurance of clients.

Netronic Visual Production Scheduler (VPS) App

Netronic is an instrument for visual planning of manufacturing processes which gives the Smart Organic’s team the function to manage and change interactive schedules as well as prioritize certain manufacturing orders. With such a flexible planning instrument, Smart Organic have gained complete visibility and access to manufacturing processes as they can follow orders, material resources, deadlines, and operations in real time. An innovative solution such as Netronic allows the company to react in time in every situation so as to optimize the process of bio products manufacturing, ensure the necessary stock availability and satisfy their customers.

Warehouse management system PocketNAV

PocketNAV is an adaptable and easy-to-configurate app that was integrated into Microsoft Dynamics 365 LS Central, as part of the holistic solution provided by NavTech Group. With PocketNAV, bio stores Zelen managed to optimize all processes carried out in the shop and increase their employees’ productivity. Zelen Bio monitors their inventory, accepts Purchase orders as well as customers’ orders, conduct dispatch of items and transfer between stores from the chain. With the barcode scanning function, PocketNAV enables the Smart Organic team to reevaluate soon expiring products, print labels and warehouse documents directly from the mobile application. The convenience of the mobile app gives them the opportunity to make Purchase orders which are then sent directly to the supplier.

EFTPOS Integration

To provide Zelen Bio customers with fast service, NavTech Group extended the solution by executing EFTPOS integration. The add-on connects all bank devices in Zelen stores with the ERP system and enables the payment information to be automatically transferred to the POS terminal. The EFTPOS integration reduces the risk of errors caused by manual sum entering and at the same, gives the employees flexibility so that they can provide their customers with fast service, without waiting in queues.

Online shop integration, omnichannel approach and loyal program

Smart Organic AD places their customer satisfaction first and strives to constantly modernize their customer approach to respond to consumer demand and behavior. Bearing in mind the increasing popularity of online shopping, part of the solution, implemented by NavTech Group, was to create a new e-Commerce platform for Zelen Bio as well as integrating it with the ERP system. The team of bio stores Zelen has visibility over the sales of every channel and thanks to the omnichannel approach, can offer their customers different payment and delivery methods for their desired bio products.

In addition, the ERP system enables the management of a loyalty program. After registering on the website, users automatically become part of Zelen Bio loyalty program and can take advantage of exclusive promotions and offers.

Bio Store Zelen is committed to sustainable development, and their campaign "Save Food" is yet another testament to this. To reduce food waste, Zelen gives their customers the opportunity to purchase discounted products near their expiry date.

“The wide variety of operations in the company required the implementation of a well-structured system for the management of all processes. A system that is at the same time flexible and precise. This was the reason why we worked so restlessly on this project that is of such importance for us. And consequently, we plan on to continue investing in its development in the long term as we strive to achieve significant optimization in all aspects of our work.”
- Kalin Karadzhov, Project Manager

A Look into the Future

The partnership between NavTech Group and Smart Organic AD continues as the software is yet to be implemented in two more companies: Santolita and Naughty Nuts. NavTech Group is working on the integration of another warehouse module in Naughty Nuts, as well as their B2B website, based on Shopify. Smart Organic AD continues their expansion with the opening of a new factory on the horizon, where NavTech Group will integrate assembly line machines with the ERP system. The development of a B2B website for Smart Organic is also in process. This will give an even faster and more convenient way for business users to access clean and organic food.

The solution, based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 LS Central and enriched by numerous additional integrations, gives Smart Organic AD security and control, while saving them the chaos of operating with multiple systems. Thanks to this all-in-one solution, even the most complex and time-consuming processes are executed with a few commands and impressive precision. The companies within the corporation gain visibility into the processes in each department and seamlessly communicate with each other.

The holistic solution fosters loyalty among Smart Organic customers as it prioritizes their satisfaction. When choosing to shop in a Zelen Bio store, customers do not waste time waiting in line; do not worry that their favorite product is out of stock, or that their order has been delivered to the wrong place. All of this is possible thanks to the functionalities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 LS Central, which simplify the team’s work, save valuable time, and place the focus on communication with clients.

Do you recognize the challenges Smart Organic previously faced? And do you notice the need for such a tailored solution for your own business as well? We listen to your needs, and we craft our solutions accordingly. But let's start from somewhere – contact us to schedule a consultation. Our A-team can help you spot your areas of improvement and help you mark the beginning of your success.