Ready for a Fresh Produce ERP Created Specifically for the Industry?
Working with fresh produce and perishable foods can be difficult, especially when you’re using an ERP solution that can’t accommodate this industry’s nuances. Luckily, our food and beverage solutions were developed with the fresh produce industry in mind and offer tons of fresh-specific functionality. The Fresh Produce Industry Is Challenging. Make It Easier.
Ask anyone working with fresh produce and they’ll tell you: the constant concern of looming expiration dates, possible surpluses or shortages and ever-changing regulations can make this industry extremely difficult to navigate. Of course, being nimble is vital; you need actionable insights derived from your data to empower you to act with agility, increase efficiency and achieve results. From matching your supply to meet consumer demand and ensuring compliance with health standards to managing the traceability of all your products, the list of crucial considerations for any fresh produce business is long.
You also need the tools to properly manage consignments, the associated financials and the many partners you work with in your supply chain. You don’t just need an ERP solution that accommodates the fresh produce industry—you need one that’s been created around it. One that gives you control from farm to table and allows you to maximise efficiency while still prioritising food safety. How Does Farmsoft’s Food and Beverage Solution Better Equip Your Fresh Produce Business? Our fresh produce ERP solution has industry-specific functionality ready to help you keep up with consumer demand, adhere to safety regulations and maintain sustainability efforts while retaining a healthy bottom line.
Track the ownership and activity of parcels of land and the crops grown on that land. Manage farm activities via integration with fixed assets, control contracts and forecasts with growers, and take advantage of reliable harvest forecasting. Gain visibility into producer activities through a collaborative forecasting and planning module with a quality view, pack-out view and advanced shipment notifications. Trigger additional quality checks using time-based, calculated or conditional tests which are then automatically served to quality operatives on mobile tablets on the shop floor for real-time data entry.
Realise every detailed cost—haulage, labour, machine costs, duty, rework and more—and revenue from the outset to assess expected profitability of any given receipt, then pay growers based on the results. Manage the enormous number of product variations required by the industry such as variety, region of origin, grade, class and packaging specification—all with our food dimensions functionality.
Success in the Fresh Produce Industry:
Fossa Eugenia Implemented Farmsoft Food & Beverage ERP to Better Position Themselves for the Future in the Fruit and Vegetable Trade as a grower's association, a one-size-fits-all solution just wouldn't cut it. After years of collaboration and success, chose Farmsoft Food & Beverage ERP for increased insights and to build a platform for future growth.
Unlock Fresh Produce-Specific Features and Get the Farmsoft Fresh Produce ERP Advantage
Ready to explore all the ways in which Farmsoft Food & Beverage ERP will help ensure your business’s operations with purpose-built tools for your unique challenges?
Most Fresh Produce ERP solution vendors will be more than happy to provide you a price quote on request, but it’s important that you’re able to convey your needs and expectations clearly so that their teams can produce a realistic and accurate figure. In this blog post, we dive into the key considerations you need to make prior to filing your request for an ERP quote, as well as how to best carry out the process.
Achieving All-Around Excellence in Fresh Produce with ERP Technology
Food industry professionals review information on a tablet in the field.
The development of powerful new technologies and their incorporation in production, processing and supply chain processes has given rise to “Industry 4.0,” a new era of more intelligent operations. This paradigm shift is leading to considerable improvement of outcomes across a variety of industries, including fresh produce.
Because this sector is so resource-intensive and requires great attention to detail, employing cutting-edge smart devices, artificial intelligence, automated procedures and IoT-enabled machinery can be a game-changer. Organizations see positive impacts with the adoption of these advancements in terms of better results and a healthier balance of responsibilities for human workers.
That being said, the right foundation must be laid before these tools can become a part of your business’s digital transformation. The ideal backbone is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that ties it all together, uniting all departments of your organization and integrating with the advanced equipment you’re putting in place. Read on to discover how a fresh produce ERP system can help your company achieve excellence on several key fronts.
Ensuring Best Practices in Fresh Produce ERP
In the past, fresh produce businesses like yours may have managed to get by on home-grown software and manual record keeping. But the demands of today’s dynamic marketplace make outdated setups and methods like these a serious liability. You need a fully digital, cross-functional platform for your organization to ensure that information siloes are eliminated and all departments are on the same page.
An ERP solution is perfectly suited for this purpose. These systems act as a single source of truth across the entire organization, keeping important figures and metrics up-to-date and highly visible for all users and serving as the go-to interface for completing key responsibilities and tasks. It’s vital, though, that you seek an industry-specific ERP for your fresh produce company. A generic offering is unlikely to have the specialized features you need—like consignment tracking and grower relationship management tools—and won’t necessarily have been developed with best practices in mind.
By contrast, we’ve put decades of experience and best practices from the fresh produce sector to use in the development of the Farmsoft Fresh Produce ERP, positioning it as a best-in-class option for enterprises that want to modernize for optimal outcomes.
Improving Fresh Produce ERP Product Quality
With consumers having become more discerning on quality and safety than ever before, there’s pressure on your fresh produce business to bring only the absolute best products to market. Leveraging technology to make sure that your fruits, vegetables and other produce goods are as delicious and appealing as possible is necessary to keep up with the competition.
It starts with monitoring of growing conditions using smart sensors and scales integrated with your ERP system to ensure that moisture, nutrient and temperature levels are ideal for the cultivation of your crops. AI-driven imaging devices can also be used to assess results, as the ideal characteristics in terms of color, shape and texture can be identified through machine learning and readings can be assessed according to your brand’s standards.
This means keeping tabs on the key factors influencing product quality can also be applied during storage and transportation. Connected thermometers and humidity controls can pipe readings into your ERP system in real time so that deviations from the acceptable ranges can be flagged and rectified. This should maximize the chances that your products arrive at stores and foodservice outlets in top-notch shape, improving your customer satisfaction.
Maintaining Healthy Profit Margins
We mentioned before how resource-heavy the production of fresh produce can be, and that makes efficient use of materials and finances crucial for maintaining profitability. You must find the right balance when purchasing your inputs and managing your inventory so that you have enough product to meet demand but also avoid loss through spoilage.
A produce ERP platform built for organizations like yours can help you understand what to expect in the seasons to come with robust forecasting tools. The analytic functionalities of the software can also bring inefficiencies in your process to light. Making more informed, data-driven decisions is vital for getting the most out of what you have, which makes all the differences when it comes to margins.
Fresh produce ERP can derive actionable insights from historical sales and pricing figures as well, which will help you tweak your product lines to align with consumer tastes and preferences. By focusing on what sells best and rethinking your underperforming offerings, you can remain confident in your success despite the ever-changing nature of the industry.
Becoming More Sustainable
There is a reason “sustainability” is on the tip of everyone’s tongue—today’s consumers see it as an even more critical matter than a year or two ago, with 82% stating that sustainability is more top-of-mind now than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Think with Google. For this reason, your efforts on this front could have a dramatic impact on your brand reputation.
Water, energy and land usage are important considerations for fresh produce companies like yours, and your stewardship of these resources will make a big difference in protecting our planet and minimizing harm to natural ecosystems. That being said, dialing in your approach to the matter takes having a holistic view of your operations, and that’s where ERP solutions come in.
With the right system on your side, you’ll be able to accurately quantify your environmental footprint and determine how to adjust your approach to make your operations leaner and greener. You’ll also have excellent inventory management features at your fingertips that can help minimize waste and facilitate a first-expiry, first-out (FEFO) product picking approach.
Finally, it’s also worth noting that a fresh produce ERP platform can also facilitate the introduction of new suppliers and vendors for more sustainable options on the market for sourcing, packaging, materials and transportation. This added level of flexibility in your supply chain lets your organization make real change without having to interrupt daily operations.
Unlocking Your Fresh Produce Business’s Potential
We’ve established that an industry-specific fresh produce ERP can kick your efficiency, profitability, sustainability and overall organizational effectiveness up a notch, but considering the many available solutions on the market and the complex deployment process, you may still have questions and concerns about getting underway with your digital transformation.
At Farmsoft, we understand that such a change initiative can seem daunting at first, but we’re proud to act as a guide and partner during your systems assessment and implementation phases. We’ve successfully put our platforms in place for thousands of food and beverage customers, and our in-depth knowledge of the fresh produce industry ensures that we “speak your language” and can help tackle the unique challenges you face.
Better still, our offerings are built on the framework of Microsoft Dynamics 365—so you know the software is consistently updated and equipped with the latest integrations—and can be deployed from the cloud for greater reliability, accessibility and security. We also have dedicated IT teams at the ready to help troubleshoot any issues that occur.
Produce and Fresh Produce ERP Grower
Every plot and seed must be accounted for from sowing season to harvest season. From end to end, produce growers require maximum visibility into their operations. With unparalleled features, simplified reporting and seamless navigation, Farmsoft Produce remains a trusted companion throughout the lifespan of your crop.
Produce Packer/Shipper
For Produce Packers & Shippers, maintaining a sharp inventory operation is key to success. That’s why Farmsoft Food has cutting-edge inventory management functionality with the ability to seamlessly track, store and move products throughout the warehouse/greenhouse at the drop of a hat.
Produce Trader
Farmsoft Produce works wonders for produce traders who typically do not own their farms, instead they traditionally buy outright or contract farm growers to produce a crop they aim to buy or sell. It is imperative for produce traders to have the ability to track and trace the product from its original plot on the farm to the point at which it is purchased at the local greengrocer.
All of our Farmsoft Food industry solutions are powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This means that you have Microsoft's premier ERP solution powering your industry-specific operations 24/7.
Business Central works with one convenient database. BC allows you to seamlessly access data in real time, so you know exactly where your business stands at any given time. Business Central can also evolve to fit your needs, whether that means you require less or more funcionality, BC is in your corner every step of the way.
Choose Cloud, On-Premise, or both.
It's your choice.
Supports Produce Traceability Initiative.
Manage food safety.
Prepare for mock recalls and regulatory inspections with confidence
Proactive approach to Food safety +
A mock product recall is designed to test the effectiveness of your procedures in the event of a real situation in which an ingredients or products are affected.
3 simple steps to complete lot traceability
With Farmsoft Produce, your team can track all ingredients, work-in-progress through to finished goods with an easy to use forward and backward traceability system that provides a complete visibility of the supply-chain in seconds.
Prepare with confidence
Farmsoft offers a highly flexible track and trace system. You determine what lot attributes to set on all incoming goods: country of origin, supplier, brand name, production or expiry date, etcetera. The choice is up to you. With Farmsoft you can be confident that you have the measures in place to protect your company and brand reputation in the event that a real food emergency happens to you.
The only Fresh Produce Software you'll ever need
Easy-to-use Produce software designed for you
Farmsoft specializes in designing and engineering specific food industry software so you can get up and running fast. Whether you run your own farming operations, vertical farm, or work with multiple growers and partners to process and distribute fruit, vegetables, or nuts; Farmsoft has created dedicated solutions for the different stages of the produce supply chain reducing the need for costly customizations out of the gate.
Single integrated hub for all your farm data
Keep close tabs on your business' precious data throughout every phase of production, from seeding to harvest to the dining room table. Leverage all of your data from one simple, easy to use database. We know that growing food is a commitment every day, so we believe that our support should be there when you need it most, without delay. Once you come on board with Farmsoft, our customer support team is there for you at any hour of the day. Whether you simply have a quick question or an issue to resolve, our team is always on hand to help.
Zero maintenance & hardware
Say good-bye to hardware woes and maintenance. Because Farmsoft Produce Software is managed in the cloud, we look after all software upgrades and releases automatically. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we receive and test any new releases two months ahead, allowing for a seamless transition to our customers.
Integration with MS Office, e-Commerce and APIs
Enjoy working with familiar MS office applications such as Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and Teams directly linked through your ERP software. Farmsoft can set up your own e-Commerce platform or link to a third-party provider such as Shopify. Connect to other applications without difficulties through open APIs.
Why Your Fresh Produce Business Needs a Specialized Produce ERP
Grower/producer portal – Get a complete picture of producer activities and take advantage of collaborative planning modules that capture quality view, pack out view and shipment notifications. With the right system, you can even access important contract information easily directly through the interface.
Advanced projection tools – Preparing for the future is key, so having reliable demand forecasts, as well as models that can use weather data to project your production, is critical. With that information at your fingertips, you can make decisions with confidence based on accurate estimations.
Farm administration functions – Keep tabs on the ownership and activity on parcels of land, including the crops grown there, to make sure your sourcing records are as accurate as possible. And easily integrate with all facilities so that you have a clear understanding of their assets and forecasts in real time.
Full mobile access – Your employees need to be able to input data and retrieve key information whether they’re on-site, on the road, in the field or at the farm. And because internet connectivity can’t be guaranteed at some remote growing locations, the system should automatically update with new information collected offline as soon as the connection is restored.
The Farmsoft Advantage
If you’re looking for a produce ERP that checks all of these boxes, you need not look far—Farmsoft Food & Beverage ERP delivers everything you need. Designed by a team of industry experts who know the challenges that fresh produce businesses like yours face, it comes with all of the above features out of the box. This means you don’t have to waste time, effort and money customizing a general solution to your needs. Instead, you can be up and running in no time, gaining benefits from day one and ROI as quickly as possible.
Don’t settle for a generic system that only covers some of your bases. Get the edge on the competition by choosing a platform that will have you prepared for the future, no matter what it may hold.