“Sustainability through regionality” is the company credo of Querkopf GmbH. The start-up from Hamburg has found an innovative way to transform regional ingredients into high-quality food according to its own recipes. The merchandise management software HS Auftragsbearbeitung (order processing) from HS – Hamburger Software provides a solid basis and consistent sales processes.

Christian Frank, Marcus T. R. Schmidt and Andreas Lemke share a passion: they love good food. With more than 75 years of combined experience in the international management of consumer goods, they founded Querkopf GmbH in early 2020. The start-up offers modern, regional products according to its own recipes – completely without preservatives or other flavour enhancers. The steadily growing portfolio includes fruit spreads, honey, cooking oils, soups, pesto, dips, sauces, soups and spirits. The products are distributed exclusively regionally, either directly or through upscale food retailers.

Currently, Querkopf manages and organizes the production and sale of twelve premium products. The plan, however, is to expand this and gradually ensure nationwide distribution. “In order to be able to serve a growing clientele even as a small team, we need an efficient merchandise management system,” says partner Christian Frank. “For consistent processes and a high level of transparency in our day-to-day business, we have been relying on order processing from HS – Hamburger Software since this year.”

One of the most important selection criteria was that the solution can be obtained completely as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) from the cloud. “We want to continue to concentrate on our core business and not waste our capacities by still having to take care of software, infrastructure, maintenance and backup,” explains Christian Frank. “With HS, we now have a cost-efficient and future-proof cloud solution where we can scale the services up or down at any time.” The user only pays for the licences and computing power used. The server runs on the cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure, where the services are stored in German data centres in accordance with existing data protection law. The cloud enables flexible interaction and use of the entire HS product range, including human resources, financial accounting and the like.

HS´s partner Toowoxx IT GmbH takes care of the customized provision from the cloud. “We immediately felt we were in good hands with HS. The support is extremely competent and you always get help quickly,” assures Christian Frank. “Via the referral to Toowoxx, we then had an initial consultation in which it was clarified which processes were important for us, how these could be mapped, and which price model would come into question.” The result: there are no major one-off investments. For a relatively low monthly fee, the company receives exactly what it needs for its daily business. The experts at Toowoxx take care of availability, back-ups and updates.

“With HS, we are always flexible and can adjust the costs at any time,” notes Christian Frank. “At the moment, we don’t need 24/7 cloud access, which makes it even cheaper for us.” The fixed time window is then billed according to minute or hourly rate, he adds. “If only for liquidity reasons, this is ideal for us: should we grow dramatically in the near future, we can easily buy additional licences and set up permanent access. So, the costs remain manageable, and this is extremely important for a young company.”

The introduction went just as smoothly: “We gave the expert at Toowoxx our licence and customer number, and he then customized the HS application for us in the cloud. It took less than a day, and in the end it looks as if I had the solution permanently installed on my own computer.” Then, the Querkopf team was explained how the system can be controlled remotely. “For our sales business, it is essential that we can also access our data flexibly while on the road or at the customer’s site,” Christian Frank emphasizes. “Using the remote desktop app, we can now conveniently log into our ERP via tablet or smartphone and, for example, check in real time how much of the desired goods we still have in stock.”

Another important reason for the decision was that the solution already covers most business processes as standard. Subsequently, however, it should also be possible to connect a deposit solution to the system, for example. HS already supports the entire process from order entry to invoicing.

The solution can also be used to map different price lists and customer structures. This is an important criterion for the “Querköpfe”, as they not only supply different supermarket chains, but also provide gift packages for companies and want to enter the wholesale business as a further goal. “The solution helps us to process orders quickly and enables consistent communication and documentation vis-à-vis our customers,” says Christian Frank. “Using the feature search, we get all the information we need at the touch of a button. We can compare individual customers and sales markets and have access to detailed offer and product group statistics.” Thus, for example, targeted sales campaigns can be carried out for different customer groups.

“All in all, we now have an intuitive, user-friendly software that will sustain our growth in the long term,” Christian Franks concludes. “Once set up, we learn something new every day. Basically, it is really easy to create new items, customers or suppliers or to adjust the individual pricing models.” He would also always recommend young companies to go to the cloud. “Not only because of the lower costs, but because the solution just runs, and you don’t have to worry about issues like security and maintenance yourself.”