You want to look further into food safety & traceability software solutions. But where should you start? Download the Food Safety & Traceability Buyer’s Guide for an evaluative framework to apply to prospective solutions.
When buying new software for managing something as important as your food supply chain, it is essential to outline your unique needs. You need to be able to identify vendors, compare features, and ultimately select the best solutions to meet your business’s specific requirements based on your timeline and budget. In our Food Safety & Traceability Buyer’s Guide, we’ll dive into critical items to consider during your due diligence process.
It’s easy to overlook certain functionality or system requirements during the software buying process. The Buyer’s Guide will walk you through how to evaluate the following key areas of supply chain management:
- Supplier Management: How much time do you spend managing your suppliers? With new regulations like the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), supplier verification and required documentation submission practices are more important than ever.
- Document Management: How quickly can you review all required documentation, determine how many of these documents have expired, and gain a clear picture of upcoming expiration dates? Increase efficiency by ensuring maximum visibility into and control of these key pieces of information, as well as by communicating needs with supply chain partners.
- Audit and Assessment Management: Are your auditors mired in spreadsheets and burdened phone calls? Or does your team need to perform ad hoc assessments at the drop of a hat? Make sure the software you purchase enables you to track the progress of your auditing team and know where your suppliers stand.
- Quality Incident Management: How do you currently manage quality incidents and associated credit requests? Your food safety and traceability software solution should streamline these processes and reduce the time it takes to manage quality incidents. You need to be able to understand exactly where you are experiencing quality incidents and have insights into how to prevent future occurrences.
- Supply Chain Traceability: Do you have full end-to-end traceability and visibility into your supply chain? Stitch together the Critical Tracking Events (CTEs) that make up your products’ journey to get a real-time visualization of your supply chain. Learn what to look for so you can get access to the data you need to take swift action when faced with a recall or outbreak.
- Recall and Withdrawal Management: Are you ready for a major recall? Initiate a recall or stock withdrawal across all your locations simultaneously, using automated email, phone and text notifications. Learn what to look for so you can standardize communications across your supply chain, and institute automatic escalations if actions aren’t taken within a specified period of time.
- External Data and Integration: Will the system you’re evaluating create yet another data silo? Whether you use a consumer-facing loyalty app, temperature monitoring sensors, inventory management platforms or grocery delivery services, your software solution should act as a centralized technology platform that connects to many complex data sources and reduces redundancies through integrations.
- System Security and Design: The protection and integrity of your data is of utmost value. When identifying the software solution that’s right for you, ensure that it safeguards Personally Identifiable Information against loss, access, use, modification, disclosure or other misuse.
- Implementation, Training, Support: What level of customer support do you and your team need and expect? Few things are more frustrating than the lack of customer enablement and training. Make sure it’s feasible to transition onto new software you adopt.
We understand that evaluating a new solution provider can be a lengthy, intensive process. While the list of evaluation criteria may seem limitless, these key questions help to strategically define the priorities your business has and identify which providers match them. Download Food Safety & Traceability Buyer’s Guide to help you evaluate which food safety and traceability software solution best fits you and your team’s immediate needs.
DOWNLOAD THE BUYER'S GUIDE
