Foodware 365 For Business Central SaaS is Here

Months of preparation followed by a quarter of really hard work with a dedicated team. Together we are working on the next generation of Foodware 365 for Business Central - SaaS (Software as a Service). A new generation of solutions means not just a different way of programming, but a different way of thinking, approaching, describing and resolving issues that companies in the food industry have. By now, we’re at week 13 of Project Texel and we are ready for the next step, the first release week of our new solution.

Written by: Benny Dor, Schouw Informatisering

Foodware 365 for Business Central - SaaS is built up from separate extensions (apps). In comparison to the existing products where the Foodware code, Microsoft code and code of third parties are completely entangled, working with apps has a modular mindset. The apps are independent of each other, which simplifies the growth of the product. A lot of attention has been paid to how we build the apps, so that a solid foundation has been created for Foodware 365, where we can continuously implement improvements and features.

Focus on the usability of the software

In the release week, our Foodware 365 apps are brought together and tested simultaneously. With over 25,000 automated test scripts that are run through the database to check the stability. These are both Microsoft and Foodware 365 test scripts with the goal to find out about any issues as soon as possible. However, the software is just a part of our solution. More than ever, we are focusing on the usability of the software. This is not only reflected in a well-thought-out user experience, but also in an extensive documentation set. This set contains work instructions, demo scripts and use cases for our international resellers, so they too are able to implement any country or customer-specific extensions on top of Foodware 365. All this functional documentation, next to the technical documentation, is finalized in the release week and made ready for publication.

Use of the whole Dynamics 365 Power Platform

Foodware 365 is a solution on the Dynamics 365 platform where Business Central plays a role, but there are also other apps in the Power Platform. Foodware 365 is more than just Business Central, and makes use of Flow, PowerApps, Power BI and other components of the platform. This gives us more freedom and possibilities to use the best application for each issue. These possibilities are here because of the Dynamics 365 Platform and ensure a seamless integration of all the different components. For example, Power BI dashboards are shown in Business Central and Flows can be built between events in Business Central.

Making realized extensions available

At the end of the week everything is ready: software, documentation, data bases. The realized extensions will be available for a select group of partners, so that they can give us feedback first. We have put our years of knowledge and experience in the food industry into this product and we expect that we have realized a nice first set of extensions, employable at food companies worldwide. We are proud of what we’ve achieved and with the feedback of our partners we can further optimize the extensions.

The first food modules

While our partners are getting busy with exploring the extensions Advanced Attributes, Customer Item Catalog, Extended Vendor Item Catalog, Inspection Status, Expiration Management and Packaging, we in Project team Texel will continue to work on the next release with even more food specific functionality, which is planned in July 2019. Towards the next milestone in the success of Foodware 365.