One of the largest processors of wild mushrooms and fruits, Valenzi GmbH & Co. KG from Suderburg in the Lüneburger Heide, has chosen GUS-OS ERP. With this investment in business management standard software, the company management want to automate the previously manual processing steps and to make the IT environment more homogenous. By using GUS-OS ERP, Valenzi want to increase their efficiency and to ensure that, in the future, they can reliably fulfill the high quality requirements both of commercial trading and of legislation. 
Since their foundation Valenzi have had a stable rate of growth. The roots of this SMB company go right back to fish retailing which then quickly expanded to the specialist wholesale trade. The name Valenzi came about during their expansion when they were involved with portion packs of lemon juice – the lemons originated from the region around Valencia in Spain. In the following years they continually extended their range of products: peanuts, popcorn and mushrooms were soon included. Due to the good contacts they made with producers in the Lüneburger Heide this soon became their core business. In 1969 they built a new production factory in Suderberg near to where their suppliers were located. A subsidiary in Poland ensures that Valenzi have the resources to satisfy a growing market. In Suderburg, Valenzi have 100 employees and 30 people are employed at Konservy in Poland.
The most significant reason for selecting the GUS Group was its competent consultancy for converting the EU Law 178/2000 and the International Food Standard (IFS) into company practice, as well as the functional capability and the ergonomic advantages of the software. 
By using GUS-OS ERP, Valenzi will be able to achieve the degree of IT integration, the transparency of processes and a comprehensive, IT-supported quality orientation for all processes that will comfortably fulfill all the future requirements of the company. The standard of quality checks for raw materials will also be markedly increased. GUS-OS ERP also brings with it many advantages when it comes to monitoring such as consistent lot tracing and where-used lists. Other optimizations that should be achieved are:
- improved coding of raw goods in order to achieve IFS conformity
- guaranteeing the FiFo principle (first in, first out) at incoming goods and the outgoing goods according to IFS
- management and documentation of remainders in the system
- reliable error avoidance when transferring data
- machine optimization (reduced set-up times)
- fast reporting of production orders (also on the shop floor)
- costing and planning of batches and lots
Valenzi is running GUS-OS ERP on an IBM xSeries Windows server. The GUS Group is supplying this server as well as installing the radio and barcode equipment for the logistic processes. Within the framework of the implementation project the company from Lower Saxony can have, as well as software services, the option of consultancy for quality management, IFS, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) and logistics. Loading master data is also a service offered by the GUS Group and this gives the customer the opportunity to save their own resources.
After GUS-OS ERP goes into production, Valenzi are planning to implement GUS-OS Productpass in a second project phase. Planning, development, modification of products using workflow control, documentation of all the relevant tasks as well as control and release procedures will all be improved using this solution.
Only four months after its official announcement, GUS-OS ERP has already found favor at several customers. As a third generation ERP system featuring high functionality and the use of platform-independent Internet technology, the software impressed Valenzi. The highlights of the completely new development are the modern user concept with ToDo lists to process user tasks quickly and the control centers as management overviews. GUS-OS ERP can be accessed from any browser-capable client. This means a high mobility and that partners and external employees can securely access the company solution. Other outstanding innovations are the linking of ERP business processes to quality management, extending business processes with support for prospective validation.
