Novameta chooses Epicor
One of the world’s largest producers of customized stainless steel solutions for commercial kitchens chooses Mindbox’s offer to implement the Kinetic ERP system to support production management.
Novameta, a Lithuanian company, manufactures specialized kitchen equipment tailored to customer requirements from all over the world: islands, worktables, carts, food service systems, dishwashing equipment, and many other solutions essential for a commercial kitchen. Founded in 1997, the company now employs over 250 people and produces more than 4,000 products per day across 4 factories.
Novameta is growing dynamically, embraces innovation, is not afraid of change, and invests in cutting-edge technologies. The new ERP system is expected to support its rapid growth and further geographical expansion.
The preparations for selecting and implementing an IT system had been ongoing at Novameta for several years. A specialized consulting firm was hired to prepare a very detailed set of requirements that the solution needed to fulfill. The project began with documenting all processes within the organization. Based on this, requirements were created for individual areas, including finance, procurement, production, and quality control. In total, the list of requirements presented by Novameta to potential vendors included 2,000 items. Each one referred to a specific system function, not only named but described in detail.
Even preparing a proposal in response to such a detailed and extensive request was a challenge. It was necessary to verify which of the functions described by Novameta were available out-of-the-box in the Epicor Kinetic ERP system and which would need to be custom-developed. An additional challenge for the proposal team was the requirement to provide approximate pricing at this early stage, factoring in the scope of implementation and custom development work. This required asking the client several follow-up questions.
Based on the initial offers received, Novameta created a shortlist of vendors who were invited to the next stage—detailed presentations.
“At this stage, we conducted several system presentations, each lasting several hours, during which we demonstrated the available functionalities and responded to additional questions from potential users. Sometimes, separate meetings dedicated to specific areas were needed. We convinced the client not only with the solution itself—its openness allows practically unlimited integrations—but also by addressing their questions and follow-ups in detail. The company’s representatives admitted that being heard gave them confidence that they were dealing with experts with deep knowledge in individual functional areas. As a result, they were convinced that Mindbox could deliver the project at the highest level, aligned with their expectations,” said Piotr Krzyszto, RPA Practice Director at Mindbox.
“At the same time, the company understood that it could treat us as a partner to advise them on how to use the system in the best possible way. Implementing an ERP system is not just about meeting client expectations, but also suggesting ways to achieve their goals more efficiently. In the final stage—just like in many other projects—we jointly decided with the client to reduce the scope of the project. Novameta chose to implement standard functions in several areas instead of developing custom solutions. The company, which is rapidly growing in global markets, decided that although it previously used a different process, it was open to exploring industry ‘best practices’,” added Piotr Krzyszto.
Kinetic ERP is a system used worldwide by many manufacturing companies. Based on Epicor’s experience gathered from these clients, standard functionalities are developed. Novameta decided that in certain areas, it wanted to see whether changing a legacy process would bring some benefit—or at least would not significantly impact the company’s overall operations, reduce service quality, or decrease profitability.
As a result, the number of planned customizations was reduced. Despite this, the implementation of Kinetic ERP at Novameta remains a highly complex project, involving the creation of several hundred custom functions.
“This approach—where we focus on the most important elements in the first stage of implementation and postpone the final decision on less critical customizations—works very well in the projects we implement. Clients don’t fully understand how the system works right from the beginning. However, after using it for a few months, they often conclude that although a customization initially seemed necessary, in the end it might not be needed at all. In some cases, they even discontinue the custom solutions they previously used,” said Piotr Krzyszto.
“Our implementation and consulting competencies are confirmed by references,” he added. “Novameta representatives contacted our clients, including those in Lithuania and other countries in the region, and received excellent reviews. That’s something we’re proud of—we are a trusted partner not only technically but also from a business perspective.”