GoldFinch Case Study: Beyond Better Foods

The catalyst for Beyond Better Foods was a diagnosis of diabetes. Founder Michael Shoretz’s father got the diagnosis and Michael got the bug to help people live healthier lives.

Becoming a personal trainer, Michael saw first-hand how people’s lives would carom from excess to atonement, from binging on ice cream to showing up at the gym to try to work it off. What seemed like balance to his clients, was recognized as imbalance by Michael. He thought about trying to convert them to “lite” alternatives, but often that meant the product used sugar instead of fat or was filled with artificial ingredients.

So he put his creativity, his family and his friends to work creating Enlightened ice cream – low in calories, fat and sugar, high in protein.

That began the journey and the mission of Beyond Better Foods. Today, BBF is a multi-million-dollar developer, manufacturer and distributor of Enlightened ice cream and chips, Cloud 10 snacks and super treats, and Bada Bean Bada Boom snacks. Every product helps people live healthier lives, and enjoy every bite.

BBF also believes in doing good and doing well. True to their mission to bring better health to individuals, communities, and the planet, they have created an amazing organization working together to build a brighter future.

Jen Haberman, BBF’s Vice President of Sales, was kind enough to walk us through their story of success with GoldFinch:

Prior to adopting the 100% native Salesforce GoldFinch Cloud Solutions, each department worked in its own silo. They did use the tools of the G-Suite to organize and potentially share information, but mostly the information stayed within the department that generated it.

They did have an order management tool, but sales, production and finance had no access. Everyone was basically on their own to figure out what the other departments were doing and what the effect was on the business.

Most everything was manual, which meant it took a lot of time. For instance, the data came from different sources and required a few steps to get it into a usable format. There was some time lag – none of the information was real-time. Plus, manual entry caused multiple errors.

While working with a financial consultant on growth plans, they realized that with a cloud based ERP system on the Salesforce platform, they could have all information and all processes on one platform. Sales for CRM would be connected to order management, to finance, to production.

They had thought that growth would bring them to an ERP, but now they realized they needed the ERP to manage their growth. GoldFinch Cloud Solutions put it all together.

Learning a new system is extremely hard. There are many departments and teams, and many workflows that need to be adjusted. It took time not only to learn the basics of the system but to have the system really integrated into the business.

“The GoldFinch team helped us optimize. It made all the difference to have a partner that understands the food industry and that this is a process. They came in with a plan and a timeline, and were always very responsive to our needs. Now, if there is a question, they are on top of it.”

“Onboarding was a thoughtful, smooth process”

– Jen Haberman, BBF’s Vice President of Sales

Business partners had also been urging them to move to Salesforce for all marketing and sales activities. They found it to be a powerful tool, not just for its CRM, but also for its extensive range of partners. With GoldFinch unifying Salesforce CRM with ERP processes everyone is getting a 360 degree of the business, 12 weeks into onboarding, everyone was comfortable (they are now up to 35 users), and GoldFinch began to really deliver.

The first benefit from having one platform with the right information is automation. BBF had an inkling of the impact of human error, but now they see the impact, starting from packages going to the right address to having accurate data going in the right place. Errors have dropped significantly. Many of the Excel spreadsheets have been eliminated.

“We estimate saving ‘six figures’ (at least) from eliminating these errors:”

– Jen Haberman, BBF’s Vice President of Sales

Having everything on one platform with accurate informa­tion available to all departments also drives better manage­ment with improved decision-making. Finance and operations can now see costs and results. BBF has also seen measurable improvement in promotion and forecast effectiveness.

“BBF has realized two big benefits from the adoption of GoldFinch:”

1. ‘Six figures’ saved from eliminating errors
2. 60%- 70% time saving

“We are using these benefits to refocus on revenue-generating activities for our future. We are always looking to be better – to make better tasting more nutritious foods by evolving our brands and innovating.”

– Jen Haberman, BBF’s Vice President of Sales