Project brief

Nugo Nutrition® is a leading producer of nutrition bars and snacks using only the finest all natural ingredients in its products and is the fastest growing lifestyle brand in the natural products category. Following several years of significant growth, Nugo engaged in a formal, quantitative software evaluation project to find an ERP solution capable of meeting its expanding business needs.

According to Larry Dunn, Nugo’s Chief Financial Officer, the company had significantly outgrown its existing systems. “Our existing systems consisted of a custom-built order management system with limited inventory tracking capabilities and a modest interface to our accounting system. In addition, our existing systems were missing key elements required to manage the business and enable the company to continue to grow.”

During its software evaluation process, Nugo issued a formal ERP RFP documenting its current and future business requirements and conducted software demonstrations with four leading food processing software vendors and solutions. Through this process, Nugo determined E21 ERP software to be the best functional and organizational fit to meet its growing business requirements.

Dunn continues, “We had very specific requirements, including multi-warehouse and multi-company support, food traceability software functionality, integrated customer service and support for tracking customer feedback, complex pricing management, business intelligence, MRP, and sales commissions processing. We also were looking for a company that provided U.S.-based customer support. E21 ERP was the only solution that met all of our requirements.”

Following its selection of E21 ERP's software, Nugo set out on an aggressive 90-day implementation deadline. Through constant communication with E21 Services team’s project management and technical support staff, Nugo was able to meet its deadline with a successful go-live experience with no impact on its day-to-day operations or its customers. “Our implementation was absolutely successful and met our expectations. This was due to two key factors: all Nugo personnel were involved in the selection and implementation process, and E21 Services team’s personnel were exceptionally knowledgeable and helpful in training and data conversion.”

Through implementing E21 ERP, Nugo has achieved a substantial return on its ERP software investment. Dunn notes, “We have minimized staff growth while significantly growing the business, streamlined the order lifecycle process from order entry to invoicing, and given our third-party warehouses access to certain functions in E21 ERP for more accurate, real-time business information. We’ve even seen time-savings in processing credit card transactions.”

Nugo also leverages E21 ERP for effective forecasting, material requirements planning, and inventory management, and utilizes their fully-integrated business intelligence and dashboard tools for sophisticated executive reporting. “We have better inventory control of both finished product and raw materials and now know what we should have in inventory on a real-time basis, allowing us to be more proactive with our suppliers and our customers.”

Reflecting on Nugo’s software selection and ERP implementation project, Dunn concludes, “There is no question about whether or not we made the correct choice in selecting E21 ERP. We evaluated four ERP systems in order to determine if they satisfied our documented requirements, and E21 ERP ranked number one. We look forward to growing with them!”