NORPAC Foods, Inc., Salem, Ore., selected New York-based Infor Food & Beverage to help improve daily operations.

NORPAC, a farmer-owned cooperative that specializes in cultivating and processing high-quality fruits and vegetables, selected Infor to update and reinforce its back-end technology platform. The company sought a solution that could integrate data into a common database to help deliver better functionality to end users and help ensure that information is processed in a timely manner. By selecting Infor M3 enterprise resource planning (ERP), NORPAC plans to streamline business processes in an effort to reduce errors and enable better decision making.

As an employer of 1,500 year-round and 2,500 seasonal employees, NORPAC experiences a gradual shift within its workforce, depending on the season. Prior to investing with Infor, existing systems did not deliver the necessary edge to support this fluctuation. Infor M3 provides the opportunity to streamline data access at the user level for a highly variable number of employees, helping to run the business more efficiently by minimizing compartmentalization. As the company's workforce also includes a growing number of younger employees, NORPAC selected Infor M3 and Infor ION to branch into next-generation technology with reliable and proven functionality.

"Many of our users are long-term employees, and our business processes reflect that. With Infor, we will equip them with a better set of tools to help ensure that our business continues to operate with greater efficiency," says Sam Brown, IT director, NORPAC. "Infor provides us with enhanced visibility into our overall process, allowing us to focus attention on providing quality products to our customers."

NORPAC selected Infor over competing technologies, including solutions from other tier 1 providers, because of the evident capability of the platform. Specialized features such as mash-up screens allow information to flow from various sources to create a flexible, comprehensive data set that varies on a per user basis. The graphical lot tracking feature is also critical for NORPAC, as it enables users to visually and automatically trace the origins of a component back to the specific field from which it was grown, rather than manually re-tracing steps after the fact.

The Infor technology platform allows users to connect, configure and customize their use of Infor M3. This level of customization applies to role-based portals, user interaction, application development and configuration of business communications. Infor M3 provides support for administration, deployment, monitoring, security and performance.

"NORPAC sought to bolster its underlying technology platform to help improve its flexibility and provide actionable insights within its workforce. Infor Food & Beverage can help boost overall business efficiency without interrupting NORPAC's current operations," says Mike Edgett, industry and solution strategy director, process manufacturing, Infor. "We look forward to growing our relationship with NORPAC and continuing to help supply NORPAC with the tools it needs for sustained growth and success."