Connected systems. One real-time view of your food stock.
Order entry says one thing, the accounts system says another, and the figure everyone trusts sits in a spreadsheet on somebody's desktop. Lot and expiry data stops at the warehouse door. A grocery customer wants EDI you are half-keying by hand. When the numbers disagree, it lands on you. Only 61% of UK food and drink businesses have their warehouse and forecasting systems integrated. Integration is the problem, and a UK partner will own it for you.
Achieve every one of these with Infios WMS and iPaaS, delivered in the UK by Balloon One.
One change does the work: connect the systems once, properly, so data moves because the stack is joined up rather than because someone typed it twice. Balloon One implements the WMS, runs the integration platform and holds the certifications.
Connected once, properly
Pre-built connectors mean most of this is configuration rather than a development project, and it extends the life of the systems you already run.
One live view across three zones
Chilled, frozen and ambient in a single real-time picture, accurate to the minute and including short-dated stock.
Lot and expiry travel with the stock
Batch and expiry data carries across every system instead of stopping at the warehouse door.
A UK partner owns the risk
Balloon One holds ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 and runs the platform. At six in the morning it is our problem, not yours.
Delivered by Balloon One, exclusive UK partner for Infios WMS since 2005 and a SAP Business One Gold Partner.
Four symptoms, one cause, and all four end up on your desk.
None of these are IT's fault. All of them become IT's problem. You defend numbers you did not produce, in systems you did not choose to keep apart, and the reconciliation work becomes a permanent job nobody budgeted for.
Three systems, three stock figures
Order entry, accounting and inventory each hold a version of the truth. Someone spends their week reconciling them, and the business trusts none of the three.
Nobody can see today's stock
The report was accurate when it ran. Since then stock has moved, so sales promise product that's already gone, or already short-dated.
Lot and expiry stop at the warehouse door
Batch and date data exists in one system and nowhere else. So a routine customer question turns into a project, and someone goes digging.
EDI held together by rekeying
Grocery and foodservice mandates met by hand, every week. It works until someone mistypes a line — and then it's a chargeback with your name on the ticket.
Every one of these systems was bought to do its own job well. Nobody bought the joining-up, so people do it by hand at every handover. Your data is wrong because it is being copied. Every manual re-entry creates a second version of the truth, and no single system owns stock. Fix the connections and one number is left to trust.
Balloon One's Out of Date research found that a lack of integration between systems (33%) is the second-largest contributor to avoidable food waste, behind outdated technology (37%). Only 61% of businesses have their warehouse and forecasting systems integrated, and over 60% still rely wholly or partly on legacy, spreadsheet-based or manual processes. The average system in use was last upgraded nearly six years ago.
Out of Date · Balloon One research into the UK F&B supply chainWhat it looks like when the stack simply agrees with itself.
No heroic reporting, no reconciliation spreadsheet, nobody asking you which figure is right. The data moves because the systems are connected rather than because someone typed it twice.
One number, quoted by everyone
Sales, finance and the warehouse all read the same stock figure, because there is only one, and it updates itself as stock moves.
Accurate to the minute, short-dated included
Live stock across chilled, frozen and ambient, with remaining shelf life visible, so what's about to go short is a decision, not a discovery.
Lot and expiry travel with the stock
Batch and date data carried through every system that needs it, so customer service can answer a traceability question without raising a ticket.
IT is the enabler, not the bottleneck
EDI runs without rekeying, integrations are owned by a partner with the certifications to back it, and your team is free to do work that moves the business.
UK food and drink businesses running WMS, ERP and EDI as one stack.
Balloon One has been the exclusive UK partner for Infios WMS (formerly Körber, formerly HighJump) since 2005, and is an SAP Business One Gold Partner: which is why the WMS-to-ERP join is routine work here rather than a first attempt. We also built the food-specific modules that carry lot, batch and expiry properly, and BOX, the platform the connections run on.
Wing Yip
The UK's largest oriental grocer, running WMS and SAP Business One together. Weekly stock checks are now consistently accurate, with better traceability and more streamlined processes.
Classic Fine Foods
Fresh, frozen and pastry to the world's best restaurants and hotels, with three systems joined up across a short-shelf-life, multi-temperature operation.
Birchall Foodservice
A national foodservice operator running ambient, chilled and frozen, with full warehouse transparency and traceability across the estate.
Huel
One of the UK's fastest-growing food and drink brands. Infios WMS was brought in to support in-house warehousing through a global expansion strategy.
Connect the systems once, properly, and stop the copying.
You need a connected stack with one master of stock, not another system to reconcile. We deliver Infios WMS in the UK alongside SAP Business One, joined by BOX (Balloon One Xchange), our cloud integration platform, plus the food-and-drink modules we've built on Infios over 20 years for FEFO, expiry control and cold-chain. Here's how that answers each of your questions.
“Our order entry, accounting and inventory don't talk to each other. How do we connect them and carry lot, batch and expiry across all three?”
Centralise the data flows through an integration platform, and make the WMS the master of stock.
BOX is Balloon One's cloud iPaaS, built to centralise data flows across a supply chain stack rather than wire systems together one pair at a time. Order entry, finance and inventory each connect once, and the batch, lot and expiry captured at goods-in travels with the stock into every system that needs it, instead of being re-entered, or simply lost at the warehouse boundary. There's a growing library of pre-built integrations, and custom ones where you need them, so most of this is configuration rather than a development project. Just as importantly, it extends the life of the systems you already run instead of justifying their replacement.
- ERP
- SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics and more
- WMS
- Infios (formerly Körber) and more
- Ecommerce
- Shopify, Amazon, Magento, Wayfair and more
- Carriers
- DHL, UPS, FedEx, DPD, Evri and more
- TMS & robotics
- Geo2, Zebra and more
- Centralised data flowsEach system connects to the platform once, rather than to every other system separately.
- Lot, batch and expiry carried throughCaptured once at receipt, then available to finance, order entry and customer service alike.
- Built on Microsoft AzureAzure-grade protection, transient data handling, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified.
- Keeps your existing investmentExtends the life of current systems and migrates you off legacy without disrupting operations.
“Why can't anyone see accurate, up-to-the-minute stock across chilled, frozen and ambient, including what's short-dated?”
Because the figure is assembled after the fact. Capture it as stock moves and the view is live by definition.
Infios WMS records every receipt, put-away, move and pick as it happens, on the scanner, across all three temperature regimes. That makes stock live rather than reported: the number doesn't need assembling because it was never taken apart. And because Balloon One's food modules hold date codes and expiry alongside every batch, remaining shelf life is part of the same view: you can see what's about to go short while there's still time to sell it, and sales can stop promising stock that's already committed or already ageing.
- Live stock across all zonesChilled, frozen and ambient in one view, updated as the work is done rather than overnight.
- Shelf life in the same pictureFEFO and expiry control mean short-dated stock is visible, not discovered at write-off.
- One master of stockThe WMS owns the quantity; everything else reads from it instead of keeping a rival copy.
- Analytics on the moveInfios exposes real-time supply chain analytics from a browser, tablet or phone, not just the warehouse office.
“…or send the EDI our grocery and foodservice customers demand?”
Map the formats once, connect the trading partners, and let the documents flow without a keyboard.
Balloon One has long-standing EDI and systems-integration capability, and grocery and foodservice are among the most format-fussy trading environments in the UK. We map the document formats your customers mandate and connect each trading partner through the integration layer, so orders, ASNs, invoices and labelling flow automatically. The rekeying stops, and with it the typo that becomes a chargeback. Where a customer changes a requirement, it's a mapping change on our side rather than a new manual routine on yours.
- Trading partner onboardingGrocery and foodservice customers connected to the formats and standards they mandate.
- Documents, not data entryOrders, ASNs, invoices and labelling exchanged automatically instead of retyped each week.
- Lot data in the messageBatch and expiry can travel out with the document, which is what most retail mandates now expect.
- New mandate, not new projectA format change is a remap we handle, rather than a workaround your team maintains.
“And when it breaks at six in the morning, whose problem is it?”
Ours. That's the point of using a partner rather than building the integration in-house.
Integration projects frighten IT because of what comes after go-live: carrying the risk alone. Balloon One owns the integration end to end: we implement the WMS, we run the platform it connects through, and we hold the certifications that your auditors and your board will ask about. Twenty years of UK food and drink implementations means we've met most of these problems before, including the awkward ones specific to date-coded, multi-temperature stock. Your team stops being the last line of defence for data quality and starts being the department that made the operation faster.
- One accountable partnerWMS, ERP and integration under one roof, so there's no vendor gap to fall into.
- ISO 9001 and ISO 27001Certified processes and information security, on Azure-grade infrastructure.
- Phased, not big-bangDelivered in stages that fit your operation, rather than one high-risk cutover weekend.
- Low demand on your teamAn integration platform means the connections don't become another codebase for you to maintain.
The things you're actually wondering.
Our order entry, accounting and inventory don't talk to each other. How do we connect them and carry lot, batch and expiry data across all three?
Each system connects once to BOX, our cloud integration platform, rather than being wired to every other system individually. Lot, batch and expiry are captured at goods-in by the WMS and then carried through to finance, order entry and customer service, so the data exists everywhere it's needed without anyone re-entering it. There's a library of pre-built integrations for the common ERPs, which is what keeps this a configuration exercise rather than a development project.
Why can't anyone see accurate, up-to-the-minute stock across chilled, frozen and ambient, including what's short-dated, or send the EDI our customers demand?
Because the number is currently assembled after the fact, and the EDI is currently produced by hand. Infios WMS records movements as they happen across all three temperature regimes, so stock is live rather than reported, with remaining shelf life visible alongside it. On the EDI side we map the formats your grocery and foodservice customers mandate and connect each trading partner through the integration layer, so documents flow without rekeying.
Do we have to replace our ERP?
No. The platform is explicitly designed the other way round, to extend the life of what you already run. There are pre-built integrations for SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Sage and Microsoft Dynamics among others, so your finance system stays where it is. We're also an SAP Business One Gold Partner if you're considering an ERP move separately, but that's a different conversation from this one.
How much of this lands on my team?
Less than a bespoke integration would. The point of an integration platform is that connections are configured rather than coded, so they don't become another codebase for you to own. We implement and run it, and pre-built integrations plus a phased rollout keep the demand on your people to a level that fits around business as usual.
What about security and compliance?
BOX is built on Microsoft Azure and uses transient data handling, and Balloon One holds ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certification. That's usually the detail that matters most when this goes to your board or your auditors, so it's worth having in front of you early, and we can walk through the specifics on the scoping call.
What if the integration we need doesn't exist yet?
Custom integrations are supported on request, and if the one you need turns out to be in wider demand, Balloon One will subsidise part of the cost after assessing that demand. A niche trading partner or an unusual line-of-business system gets connected.
Will this work across ambient, chilled and frozen?
Yes. Mixed-temperature operations are exactly what the food modules were built for, with FEFO and expiry rules and cold-chain monitoring configured per zone. Several of our clients run all three regimes into the major UK retailers and foodservice wholesalers on this platform.
Book an integration scoping call.
A short, no-obligation session with someone who has joined these systems together in UK food and drink before. Bring the messy version: the spreadsheet everyone actually trusts, the EDI routine held together by hand. If integration is the fix, we'll show you what it involves. If it isn't, we'll say so.
What we'll cover- Your current map: which systems hold stock, and where the data is copied by hand
- Lot, batch and expiry: where the trail breaks today and what it takes to carry it through
- Pre-built vs custom: which of your connections already exist in the library
- Sequence and risk: what a phased rollout would look like, and what it asks of your team
Pick a time on the calendar. It takes about 30 seconds and a confirmation goes straight to your inbox. Want to see what already connects before you book? Have a look at the integration library.