Company Information
Business Type: Food Manufacturing and Distribution
Industry: Food Manufacturing
Location: Lancaster, CA
Number of Users: 15
Former Solution: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (On-Prem, Version 18)
New Solution: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Cloud, Version 24)
Company Description
Harvest Farms Solutions is a U.S.-based food manufacturing and distribution company founded in 1947. The company offers a diverse range of food products including boxed meals, sliced lunch meats, breads, snacks, sliced cheeses, and a wide range of additional food options tailored to customer requirements.
Harvest Farms serves highly regulated industries including healthcare, education, disaster relief, corrections, non-profits, entertainment venues, and national foodservice distribution networks. These sectors require strict compliance, detailed inventory traceability, accurate production planning, and multi-location distribution control.
With growing operational complexity and regulatory requirements, Harvest Farms requires a scalable, modern ERP system for food manufacturing and distribution to support financial management, inventory tracking, production operations, and long-term growth.
Executive Summary
Following its separation from a parent organization, Harvest Farms needed to establish an independent and fully supported ERP environment. Licensing limitations within its existing Business Central on-prem system made a compliant standalone deployment impossible.
To ensure business continuity and long-term scalability, the company transitioned to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud. The migration was completed in seven months, eliminated upgrade-related infrastructure costs, and positioned Harvest Farms on a secure Cloud ERP platform designed to support future growth.
CHALLENGE
Core Challenge: Microsoft discontinued new licensing for BC18, preventing a compliant on-prem deployment.
As Harvest Farms Solutions separated from its previous parent company, GS Foods, the organization began the process of carving out its own operational and financial data from the shared Business Central on‑premises (BC18) environment. The goal was to establish a fully independent Business Central on‑prem instance dedicated to Harvest Farms’ operations.
During this transition, a critical challenge emerged.
Microsoft no longer issues new licenses for unsupported versions of Business Central, including BC18. Licensing is only available for currently supported versions, which at that time was Business Central version 24 (BC24).
This licensing restriction made it impossible for Harvest Farms to deploy a compliant BC18 on-prem environment under its own ownership. As a result, the company faced several immediate operational and strategic concerns:
- Inability to deploy a compliant, licensed on‑prem BC18 instance
- Risk of operational disruption if the ERP carve-out could not be completed on time
- Growing limitations of outdated infrastructure, restricting scalability, integrations, and security
- Need to modernize to ensure long‑term support and alignment with Microsoft’s cloud‑first roadmap
These challenges led Harvest Farms Solutions to seek Calsoft Systems’ expertise in guiding them through a Business Central upgrade and cloud migration path.
Client Testimonial
“Calsoft’s team made the transition from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to Business Central Cloud smooth. Implementation and ‘Go Live” was seamless and fast.”
Timothy Novy, General Manager
Solution
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud (Version 24)
To resolve the licensing constraint and ensure long-term stability, Harvest Farms transitioned to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud.
Rather than recreating its previous on-prem environment, the company implemented a fully independent, cloud-based ERP platform designed to support financial management, operations, and future growth.
This approach allowed Harvest Farms to:
- Establish complete operational and financial independence from its parent company
- Eliminate reliance on on-prem infrastructure and manual upgrade cycles
- Move to a fully supported Microsoft SaaS model with automatic updates
- Improve system reliability, performance, and scalability
- Reduce internal IT overhead and long-term maintenance risk
The migration preserved essential business processes and reporting capabilities while modernizing the underlying ERP foundation.
By leveraging Calsoft Systems’ structured cloud transition methodology, Harvest Farms successfully moved from a legacy environment to a secure, scalable cloud platform aligned with Microsoft’s long-term roadmap.
Implemented Solution: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud (Version 24), deployed using Calsoft Systems’ CloudShift roadmap to enable a structured and secure data migration from the legacy on-premises BC18 environment.
Modules: General Ledger (GL), Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), Bank Management, Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, Assembly, Manufacturing, and Security.
Integrations: Upgrade of existing functional customizations and customized reports from BC18 which were developed by prior implementation vendor.
Results Achieved
The migration from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises to Business Central Cloud (Version 24) delivered immediate operational and financial impact for Harvest Farms.
By moving to a fully managed SaaS environment, the company eliminated the need for on-premises infrastructure and manual upgrade cycles. This reduced upgrade-related costs by 100%, while the company gained long-term cost predictability and system stability.
The project was completed and went live within seven months, meeting an aggressive separation timeline and ensuring uninterrupted business operations.
Most importantly, deploying a standalone Business Central Cloud tenant enabled Harvest Farms to operate independently from its parent company. The organization gained full control over its financial data, system administration, and long-term technology strategy.
Harvest Farms now operates on a scalable, cloud-based ERP platform that supports continued growth, improved reliability, and alignment with Microsoft’s future roadmap.
- 100% elimination of on-premises upgrade-related costs
- 7-month implementation and go-live timeline
- Full operational and financial independence from parent company
- Transition to cloud-supported SaaS model
- Improved system reliability and scalability
Why They Chose Calsoft
Harvest Farms selected Calsoft Systems as their ERP implementation partner based on a combination of accessibility, value, and proven expertise.
- Proven Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central cloud migration expertise
- Calsoft’s CloudShift roadmap, a structured methodology designed to streamline ERP transitions to the cloud
- Time zone alignment and direct accessibility throughout the project
- Competitive pricing without compromising delivery quality
- Ability to execute complex ERP migrations within an aggressive timeline
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