Law pushes companies to integrated software
buying integrated software to manage and track products through
their supply chain, reports Ahmed ElAmin.
Enter Ross Systems, a company that says business has picked up in the food industry, which is hungry for software that integrates theiroperations, manages their supplies and above all, makes them compliant with the EU's requirements on traceability.
The EU's 2002 general food law sets out requirements on food safety for the bloc. The requirementson traceability came into force from 1 January 2005 and applies to all food and feed, all food and feed business operators. Food processors are required to trace food, feed and ingredients through allstages of production, processing and distribution.
Traceability is a key tool in ensuring the withdrawal of foods found to be contaminated. Member states have until 1 January 2007 to amend their existing food laws and procedures in compliance withthe EU's regulations .
Adrian Leaman, Ross' marketing manager for the UK, told FoodProductionDaily.com that food companies have become more interested in the company's products since the traceability requirements cameinto force.
The detection of Sudan in food earlier this year also boosted interest in the company's iRenaissance EPM software suite, he said. Sudan, a banned food dye, was detected in a batch of Worcestersauce, sparking off the biggest and possibly the most expensive food recall in the UK's history.
The application's main function is to enables processors to monitor and adjust sales and customer service performance using real time information. Product traceability is part of the programmingand has become a selling point for the software.
Retailers have also started choosing their suppliers based on whether they have a method of tracking their food products, Leaman said.
"We are gaining one new customer per week globally," Leaman said.
Ross targets mid-sized to medium-sized companies for its products, those within the £50m (€72m) to £3bn (€4.3bn) sales range.
Ross's UK office concentrates solely on selling the company's software to food companies. Other units throughout the rest of Europe also market to the non-food industry.
Over in the Netherlands the food industry makes up 70 per cent of the company's sales. The chemicals and life science sectors make up the rest.
Jan Willem Steenbakkers, Ross's manager of business solutions in that country, said food traceability became a big issue in January.
"The general food law is driving our business," he said. "Most companies realise that this is the moment in time in which to put a system in place."
Many businesses are currently stuck with legacy systems made up of bolted together software from a variety of suppliers, such as Microsoft, Exel and Exact. Integration of various business functionsthen becomes a problem.
"Many companies grew rapidly 10 years ago and became too big to plan properly with systems like Exel and Microsoft," Jan Willem said.
By replacing such systems with Ross' iRenaissance software the issue of compatibality is removed. iRenaissance works to integrate the production area, planning and the finance as one package,helping to trace product.
The software's strength lies in its ability to generate different planning scenarios based on a wider variety of algorithms compared to older systems, he said.
The Netherlands unit recently sold the software to Foppen Eel and Salmon, which has a 50 per cent market share in the country. In a statement the company said it selected Ross to improve itsmanufacturing processes, support overall growth and comply with food safety regulations.
The company sells branded and private-label eel and salmon products to retailers, wholesalers, catering services and industrial enterprises in the Netherlands and internationally.
Over the past few years, the company grew quickly and built an additional manufacturing facility to support order volume. The building separates production lines into eel and salmon and is designed to adhere to food safety, hygienic regulations and environmental regulations, specifically Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and BritishRetail Consortium (BRC) regulations.
"To maintain our leadership position, we needed an integrated business system to ensure our manufacturing processes were working at optimal levels," said Evert Malestein, aspokesperson for Foppen.
Standardizing its software systems through iRenaissance allows Foppen to integrate production, logistics, administrative and financial processes, he said. The software also provides an operationalsystem of record keeping that supports bi-directional lot tracing and accurate product labeling.
Foppen said it expects to complete installing the iRenaissance software by the end of this year. The system will also support the introduction of radio frequency identification (RFID) if Foppenlater chooses to implement a more focused tracking system
Ross Systems is a subsidiary of CDC Corp., a China-based company.
