Alimento

Smart Company Project: Alimento

Alimento is a sector fund for the food industry. The organization plays a crucial role in promoting expertise within the sector by offering training, HR and organizational advice, financial benefits, and supplementary pensions. Alimento not only organizes training sessions at a reduced cost for companies and employees in the food industry but also provides financial reimbursements for external training programs.

Young woman in a bakery environment carefully inspecting cakes on a rack, wearing protective gear – symbolizing quality control and training in food safety, supported by Alimento.

What was needed?

Alimento had been using an outdated back-office application to manage training and financial reimbursements. After years of service, the system no longer met modern technical standards, and the current developer could no longer guarantee its maintenance. The application was End-of-Life. Alimento needed a new solution that could not only replace the existing features and support their business processes, but also grow with the organization’s future needs. It was crucial that no data would be lost during the transition.

Male food production worker using a tablet in an industrial kitchen setting, representing digital administration and on-the-job training facilitated by Alimento’s platform.

What did Sirus do?

Sirus was brought in to replace the outdated back-office application with a new, modern web-based solution developed on the Azure Stack. Starting from the input provided by The Master Labs—the partner responsible for analyzing and defining the platform’s requirements—Sirus developed a new application called DALI (Dossierbeheer Alimento). This new platform fully supports the management and organization of training sessions, registration handling, and the payout of financial support.

Data migration and synchronization

In addition to developing the web application, Sirus focused heavily on data migration and synchronization. A key part of the project was migrating historical data from the old system to the new platform, ensuring that no data was lost. Moreover, the old and new systems had to be synchronized, as Sirus needed to gradually transfer certain functionalities from the previous platform to the new. As the application needed to remain operational throughout the process to minimize impact on Alimento’s operations, the old and new systems ran in parallel for a period of time.

Female worker in a lab coat and hairnet using a laptop in a food production facility, highlighting the integration of digital tools and training systems in the food industry via Alimento.

How is the platform structured?

The application was developed with a focus on usability and practical integrations.

Back-office for Alimento employees

At the heart of the platform is the back-office application, where Alimento staff can define training sessions, validate registrations, track attendance, and manage suppliers. Once a training is completed, the financial flow is triggered—either through a reimbursement or an invoice to the end customer.

Integration with the Alimento website

The new application integrates with Alimento’s website. This means that training sessions managed in DALI can automatically be published on the website. Registrations via the website are fed directly into DALI for further processing.

Integration with Exact Online for financial support

For financial processing, we integrated a standard online solution (Exact Online) in DALI. This integration enables invoicing directly through the platform. In cases where a reimbursement needs to be made to a food company (after an external training session), a payment instruction is sent from DALI to Exact Online, thus supporting Alimento’s financial operations.

Integration to validate company data

Companies registering for a training need to validate the data they’ve entered. That’s why Alimento’s back office can now generate a temporary link to send to the company in question, allowing them to verify their details.

Technicalities of the project

  • Oracle Database
  • Microsoft On-Premises Data Gateway
  • Azure Logic Apps
  • Azure Storage Container
Catering staff member cleaning food trays in a professional kitchen, representing operational training and hygiene standards supported through Alimento's sector initiatives.

What does the future hold?

The web application opens the door to many future integration and optimization opportunities. One example is linking the platform to the Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen. Currently, company details (e.g., registration numbers, addresses) are entered manually. A direct link could reduce administrative workload. A similar integration could be considered for employee data. By connecting to the RSZ, it would become easier and more accurate to validate whether employees are employed under the correct sector-specific joint committee (paritair comité).

What did our Sirus developers think?

"This project was a challenge due to the complex data migration and the need to gradually replace an outdated system without disrupting Alimento’s daily operations. But the result is a future-proof platform we’re proud of."
Gert Becque, team lead van het .NET team bij Sirus
Gert Becqué .NET Team Lead at Sirus

What did the customer think?

"Alimento worked with the same management system for many years. The switch to DALI was therefore quite intense and challenging. We’re still in the middle of the transition, but what DALI already offers is functional and meets our needs. DALI looks modern. And most importantly for our employees: DALI is user-friendly and pleasant to work with."
Inge Treuttens
Inge Treuttens Coordinator of dossier management at Alimento
Representation of interconnected gears with icons, depicting technology systems and solutions.

Smart Company Project

At Sirus, innovation is at our core. We strive to help build the Smart Companies of the future, and Alimento is now part of this innovative future. We are proud to be a part of this collaboration, and if you are to – be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for updates!

Interested to be a part of projects like the Smart Company Project for Alimento? Learn more about Sirus’ Smart Company Approach and don’t hesitate to take a look at our careers page!

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