A Small Company on a World-Class Platform, SAP Business One
Quick Facts
- Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Industry: Coffee, Wholesale and E-Commerce
- Products: Gourmet Coffee, Merchandise and Brewing Equipment
- Website: nmpinoncoffee.com
- System: SAP Business One ERP, Softengine CoffeeOne
Over 25 years ago, New Mexico Piñon Coffee began with a small 15lb roaster in the bed of a 1952 Chevy pickup. With his loyal dog Decaf by his side, the founder created one of the Southwest’s most iconic coffee blends using high-quality Arabica coffee beans and roasted piñon pine nuts. Now the largest coffee roaster in the state of New Mexico, each batch of coffee is made with carefully sourced high-altitude Arabica coffee beans and custom-created natural flavorings to ensure each cup is smooth with notes of iconic Southwestern flavors.
New Mexico Piñon Coffee is built on five Core Values. In everything they do, the decisions they make, and how they approach new challenges and opportunities, the New Mexico Pinon team maintains community, quality, passion, family, and integrity. The company has seen monumental growth through consistently innovating through partnerships and product development. Their latest innovation was investing in ERP technology to help them scale for the rapid growth they were experiencing.
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Disjointed Systems and No Live View of Inventory
New Mexico Pinon Coffee grew organically by continuing to build their brand and expanding local presence throughout New Mexico. The company quickly began to see monumental growth, especially when Costco, and a local distributor, Statewide Products, selected New Mexico Pinon as a coffee
provider. Like most rapidly growing companies, they started to require more automation and technology in their day-to-day operations. When there was a need to solve a particular challenge, they would find a software solution to solve that specific problem. For example, when payroll was no longer feasible to manage manually, they implemented a payroll system.
Unfortunately, all these technologies were handled separately and the different departments at New Mexico Pinon had to take the time to patch information together, which was a time-consuming, error-prone process. By the time New Mexico Pinon sought out an ERP system, they were running 7 distinct software solutions. None of the existing systems talked to each other, and the team was in dire need of something to tie everything together. Due to the lack of
integration between systems, data was stored in silos, and it took a long time to communicate between departments.
Another challenge that New Mexico Pinon was looking to solve was inventory visibility. Prior to working with Softengine, they did not have a live perpetual inventory system. In fact, there was no way for them to know exactly how much inventory was in stock, so the team had to operate on a “best guess” basis. This made it challenging for the operations teams to scale production efficiently and fulfill orders efficiently.
Why Softengine & SAP
Many of the vendors and companies that New Mexico Pinon Coffee was partnered with were already running on SAP and finding success with this solution. Implementing SAP Business One would make it simple for New Mexico Pinon to manage these partnerships. Furthermore, for a growing business such as New Mexico Pinon, SAP Business One offered an affordable, scalable solution. Other ERPs that claimed to cater to an SMB market were more costly and oftentimes did not offer specific industry experience.
New Mexico Pinon Coffee was seeking an implementation partner who understood the unique challenges of the coffee industry. Softengine’s extensive experience working with coffee companies was one of the factors that attracted New Mexico Pinon to work with them. The specialty coffee company needed a partner who had previously worked with food and beverage companies that needed to meet stringent food quality and safety regulations. Softengine’s track record gave New Mexico Pinon confidence that together they could set up a quality assurance (QA) system that fit their specific needs.
“The implementation team was outstanding. They understood the system and our business and made a smooth transition. We had a short implementation
window. We went from evaluation to go live in 3 months. In making the transition from go-live to the help desk, I was nervous, but I have been very impressed by the quick responses from the Softengine help desk.”
Bob Bruce, Director of Operations, New Mexico Pinon Coffee
Data Transparency and Real-Time Inventory
Prior to SAP Business One and Coffee One, New Mexico Pinon Coffee had no idea what they had in stock. Inventory data is now up-to-date and readily accessible, and people don’t need to go through an entire chain of command to see if something is in stock. This has led to major time savings and greater accuracy. This year with the pandemic and supply chain issues, having immediate access to inventory has been a huge win for New Mexico Pinon. With a live inventory system, they can assess exactly how much of each product is in stock and plan accordingly.
“One of the biggest wins for us is that instead of having data and information spread in different areas throughout the company, it’s all in one place. If someone has a question we can literally say, let’s look in SAP. Having all our data in one place has saved us a ton of time.”
Bob Bruce, Director of Operations, New Mexico Pinon Coffee
With sales data readily available, New Mexico Pinon can better track their sales information as they continue to expand their e-commerce. They have integrated SAP with their website sales through Alluvia and have tied 1/3 of sales as coming through the website. With a direct view of what sales looks like on a live basis, the team can analyze customer data and order information as they continue growing.
For a small company, it is extremely important when adopting new technology not to cause a major disruption in everyday business practices. New Mexico Pinon Coffee had a swift implementation process and was impressed by Softengine’s customer service. The implementation team portrayed deep coffee industry knowledge and took the New Mexico Pinon team to go live in just a few months. By maintaining efficient communication through the help desk and account managers, Softengine continues to support New Mexico Pinon through its entire journey with SAP Business One and CoffeeOne, even post-implementation.
With help from SAP Business One and Softengine, New Mexico Pinon Coffee is now well equipped to continue its growth trajectory and pursue even greater opportunity in the future.
“This is a huge step for a company of our size. It has given us the foundation to grow into whatever size we want and allows us to work with much larger companies. We are a small company on a world-class platform.”
Bob Bruce, Director of Operations, New Mexico Pinon Coffee