Food Distribution & Agency Management System
The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank plays a critical role in fighting food insecurity across the Bay Area. With hundreds of partner agencies and programs serving thousands of households, they needed a modern system to streamline operations, track engagement, and enable self-service for partners.
As demand grew, so did the complexity of the Food Bank’s operations. Their existing systems created roadblocks:
Disconnected Data: Key information was scattered across spreadsheets and siloed databases, making reporting and coordination difficult.
Manual Processes: Staff spent hours handling agency orders, tracking program attendance, and approving applications.
Agency Engagement: Partner agencies had no self-service tools, relying on emails and phone calls for basic tasks like placing food orders or submitting attendance.
No Real-Time Insights: Their CRM and ERP systems operated independently, leaving gaps in inventory visibility and slowing down decision-making.
Scaling Limitations: The legacy approach could not keep up with the Food Bank’s rapid growth and evolving digital needs.
To modernize their operations, the Food Bank partnered with Vertical Lift to:
Deploy Microsoft Dynamics 365 as a central hub for agency relationships, case tracking, and program management.
Build a secure, user-friendly Portal where partner agencies can:
Browse and order food products
Submit attendance reports
Log and track support cases
Integrate with their ERP system using KingswaySoft, ensuring agency and order data flows automatically and in near real-time between systems.
Automate workflows for approvals, alerts, and data validation to reduce staff workload and increase consistency.
70% reduction in manual data entry through automation and self-service tools.
Faster, more accurate reporting across programs and inventory.
Improved agency satisfaction with real-time ordering and tracking.
Stronger visibility across teams thanks to CRM–ERP integration.
Scalable infrastructure ready for future growth in programs, volunteers, and donors.
“Vertical Lift is more than a vendor, they are a true partner every step of the way! Their team brings a vast amount of knowledge, creativity, and problem solving skills, helping us develop and implement our first D365 CRM and portal solution. They were deeply engaged and committed to our success with the solutions always keeping in mind that it wasn’t just about the technology, it was how the technology was going to create a positive impact on our community. We definitely would categorize Vertical Lift as our preferred partner for current and future development needs, and feel confident recommending to any organization.”
~ San Francisco-Marin Food Bank
To learn more about our partner KingswaySoft, please visit www.kingswaysoft.com
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