4P Foods, a public-benefit corporation that delivers in-season produce, meats, dairy, and value-added goods from independent farmers in the Mid-Atlantic region, has committed itself to building a more equitable, resilient, and regenerative regional food system. They reached out to the EastBanc Technologies team to carry the foundational task of updating its technology infrastructure to allow scaling and support of the many partnerships 4P Foods needs to achieve its mission.
When we embarked on this project, Eastbanc Technologies faced significant technical debt. All company data was scattered across various systems, making it inaccessible and unconnected. This disjointedness required hours of manual effort to combine into useful information, leading to time-consuming and frustrating activities for employees and customers. The manual processes hindered 4P Foods from expanding into new lines of business and growing its customer and supplier base.
4P Food’s technology infrastructure lacked:
To achieve 4P Foods’ financial and business goals, the company needed to manage all its partnerships and logistics seamlessly. The IT architecture requires supporting many partnerships, which is only possible with a robust public portal that offers external APIs.
For 4P Foods, meeting financial and scaling goals was crucial. EastBanc Technologies recognized the importance of a collaborative approach to minimize disruption and ensure cost-effectiveness. Together, we developed an IT infrastructure roadmap that aligns with 4P Foods’ immediate business requirements, paving the way for future growth and success.
The solution involved three distinct layers to enhance system integration, data consistency, and decision-making capabilities within the organization. These layers include the Foundation, Internal Infrastructure, and Partner Integrations.
Foundation:
Internal Infrastructure:
The modular ERP connects new software 4P Foods opts to either custom-build or license and provides an interface for employees to access operational systems easily in a single place.
In March 2024, EastBanc Technologies delivered an MVP for 4P Foods’ foundation and internal structure layer. The foundation included the creation of a data lakehouse using MS Databricks, developing integration adapters to receive raw data, designing a data model, and implementing a three-level (bronze, silver, gold) data storage/data refining process. EastBanc Technologies also configured MS Power BI, connected it to the data lakehouse, and built vital reports and dashboards for data visualization. Concurrently, EastBanc Technologies integrated the data between their third-party applications to create a cost-effective, flexible, and modular ERP. Additionally, our team researched e-commerce systems, authored a tailored RFP on 4P Foods’ behalf, and guided their selection of suitable vendors to replace their existing system.
With the foundational layer and part of the internal structure layer in place, 4P Foods has experienced significant improvements in its sales, procurement, warehousing, and delivery processes. Tasks that used to consume many hours daily, such as planning a delivery route or loading trucks for optimal capacity, now take mere minutes. This efficiency has resulted in more timely deliveries with less fuel and fewer trucks, leading to cost savings for 4P Foods. The staff is also happier and more productive in their roles. As EastBanc Technologies continues to implement the rest of the roadmap, 4P Foods can look forward to further increases in operational productivity and the opening of new revenue channels, all within their schedule and budget.