Ken’s Foods

“As it is an integrated solution, SYSPRO allowed us to shift from just doing daily tasks to performing meaningful analytics so that we can measure our changes and see the results.”

Art Sebastiano – Ken’s Foods, Chief Information Officer

SYSPRO Sets Up Ken’s Foods for Future Growth

Customer Profile

A family-owned business, Ken’s Foods was established in 1958 out of a restaurant called Ken’s Steak House in Framingham, Massachusetts. The restaurant became known for its delicious salad dressings, and today Ken’s Foods manufactures over 300 products across its retail and food service industry product lines.

The Mission

The Ken’s Foods leadership team realized that the company required a system with the capability to scale in line with its ongoing growth.

The Solution

The team looked at a number of systems before selecting the fully-integrated SYSPRO Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution.

“When we looked at the features, functionality, modules and capability that were brought to the table, as well as the interface our staff would be using, we felt that SYSPRO was the better fit,” says Art Sebastiano, Chief Information Officer of Ken’s Foods. “Quite simply, it was the purest food manufacturing product on the market.”

The Outcome

With the integrated SYSPRO solution, Ken’s Foods is able to slice and dice information, and this leads to recommendations for operational as well as strategic enhancements. With the previous system, this was difficult to achieve.

Why SYSPRO?

For the implementation, Sebastiano elected to partner with Crawford Software, an experienced SYSPRO value-added reseller and a company that he had worked with for several years.

“Crawford brings a methodology and an approach that delivers tangible benefits, and they also have a true desire to help their clients be successful,” he says.

Meeting the Need for Growth

Ken’s Foods’ legacy applications were not integrated; rather, the company had evolved into a situation of having multiple silo systems that were loosely tied together. There was a distinct need for a company and a solution that could handle its current volumes as well the future
volumes anticipated with continued growth.

“As it is an integrated solution, SYSPRO allowed us to shift from just doing daily tasks to performing meaningful analytics so that we can measure our changes and see the results,” Sebastiano says. “We can now do analysis around where and how information is being consumed, what the associated costs are, what improvements can be made, how to measure our changes – and then see the results.”

Looking to the Future

Sebastiano says SYSPRO offers Ken’s Foods a standard set of features that enable new employees to quickly make a positive contribution to the company. “As we move forward with SYSPRO and Crawford Systems, we are confident that we have partners who understand our dynamics, our challenges, and our culture,” he says. “Knowing that we have partners who can do that for us is critical as we look to make the most of whatever opportunities the future may bring.”

“We can now do analysis around where and how information is being consumed, what the associated costs are, what improvements can be made, how to measure our changes – and then see the results.”

Art Sebastiano – Ken’s Foods, Chief Information Officer