Vitablend, an innovative producer of food ingredients and premixes, has grown since 2001 from a small team developing recipes to an international player that leads the way in quality, safety and innovation. From their locations in the Netherlands and Singapore, they serve customers throughout the food industry – from baby food to sports nutrition and functional food.
With that international growth came increasingly complex requirements: recipe development, allergen management and customer documentation had to be flawless, efficient and fully traceable – crucial requirements in the food industry where compliance and quality assurance are non-negotiable.
The old system couldn’t handle that complexity. There was a need for software that could handle the complexity and grow with the company’s ambitions. “We noticed we were getting stuck in the old situation,” says Jeroen Verra (Senior Product Developer – Vitablend). “The software was hardly more than a digital archive – useful as a reference, but inadequate for daily practice. Recipe development, customer documentation and internal registration often had to be maintained manually.”
But it went beyond just technical limitations. “There were some disagreements about the cost and the relationship with the former software provider wasn’t great,” Andy explains. “We couldn’t see eye to eye or couldn’t reach the right terms of working together with the existing supplier.”
In Codeless, Vitablend found a partner who truly understood what real collaboration means.
The wish was clear: an intuitive system that could support recipe development, enable archiving and at the same time provide careful customer documentation. Usable internally and externally, plus future-proof.
Codeless came on board with their Copy To Innovate approach. “I just remember the first time I sat with Codeless,” Andy recalls. “I was trying to describe something to them and they just started coding right in front of me, right next to me. ‘Is this what you want?’ And I said: ‘Yes.'”
With results: within three to four weeks there was a first working system – a basic solution that was immediately functional and also future-proof. “It enabled us to do the basic architecture of designing a recipe, providing a basic set of documents for our customers and enabling us to record all of our recipes and index what we’ve done,” Andy explains. “I think we can still find recipes back to 2006 on there from the very first version.”
From the beginning, Codeless did more than what was asked. They consistently took an extra step and thought along. New wishes were analyzed based on the question: “Is this what you want, or is this what you need?” By repeatedly asking this question, stronger processes and an increasingly complete software package emerged.
“At Codeless they always think ahead,” says Jeroen. “You put something on paper, and they come back with a template or suggestion that you hadn’t thought of yourself. They’re always sort of having these sparring sessions with you on how to really manage the request. And that’s just lovely and makes you sort of think outside the box a little bit more. That makes the collaboration so valuable.”
Over twenty years, the system grew exponentially under Codeless’ leadership. A major milestone was the big upgrade in 2016-2017. “We really upscaled the software package from some kind of MS-DOS version to a more modern version,” Jeroen explains. “That was really, really a big update.”
For that upgrade, Codeless came on-site for a full week. “We had them on site for a week and we really, well, crushed numbers, really got somewhere. They nearly performed magic in that week,” Jeroen recalls. “We got the whiteboard out and we put all things on the whiteboard and said, OK, we have thought about this, we have thought about that, we should still think about this. It was always sort of questioning the question, getting back, back and forth, installing.”
Integrations with safety databases and production software, allergen management, analytical functions, multi-regional support and ERP connections – new extensions were added every year and these were consistently supported. Manual tasks have been replaced by automated processes and there is continuous renewal where necessary or not necessary, but helpful.
A crucial part of the success is Codeless’ systematic approach. “They have sort of this development-acceptance-production profile in place,” Jeroen explains. “They do the development on their bit. They test it and they say, okay, we can now install it on your acceptance client. Then they do the installation. Then I test, well, just do all my things I need to do. And then once everything is green and tick the boxes, I say, okay, we can now release it for production.”
This approach means upgrades go smoothly. “I’ll take the environment offline for an hour, install it, bang. And everyone should be able to do their job again with the new update installed. That works just perfectly.”
The collaboration has only become more intensive over the years. “It doesn’t feel like we are customers and they are suppliers,” explains Jeroen. “Within this collaboration we can just call, brainstorm or even make mistakes without fingers being pointed. We really form one team.”
That personal bond makes the difference. “I would feel completely comfortable with just calling customer support and asking can you help me with this? And they would just sort it like that,” says Andy. “They have truly become part of our team.”
The Vitablend software system has now become so integrated that it is indispensable. When they implemented ERP in 2019-2020, the question arose whether to say goodbye to the Codeless system. “I said, well, don’t go there. Whatever you do, don’t go there because we would be so far behind,” Jeroen tells. “Everything is registered in there. It’s basically Vitablend in a software package.”
And even now Codeless challenges Vitablend to think about new developments. “Codeless showed us during a live session how AI applications could work concretely in our process,” says Andy. “During that meeting they spit out a 20-page run on how to create an energy premix. Of course, you need to feed it, but it could definitely work for us. Those kinds of suggestions really open new doors for us.”
The practical collaboration is streamlined. “In case I require an update, I send them a file with the explanation of how I see the update happening,” Jeroen describes the process. “Then we have a call. We discuss it. We align on it. Bang. And it’s ready and perfectly managed. From my end, there would not even be an option to look for an alternative now.”
“I don’t imagine Codeless are the cheapest,” Andy acknowledges. “But I think we get very good value for money from them. They’re just incredibly nice and incredibly fair.”
Would Vitablend recommend Codeless to other companies? “Absolutely,” says Jeroen. “What makes Codeless special is that they really think along with you and don’t just execute what you ask. They understand the question behind your question. Through this approach, we have not only become more efficient, but we have also discovered possibilities that we would never have thought of ourselves. With Codeless, that ultimately saves an enormous amount of time and money.”
Andy adds: “What I appreciate about Codeless is their custom approach. They build something completely tailored for you and your specific needs, rather than trying to fit you into a standard package. It’s not like purchasing an off-the-shelf software solution where you’re limited unless you buy additional modules.”
“If I had to grade Codeless, I’d actually give them a 10, because working with Codeless is not only result-oriented, but also a lot of fun.
But we like to keep room for future improvements, so therefore a 9+.” – Jeroen Verra
