The decision to partner with a technology provider for supply chain management, transparency and traceability is one that requires a well-thought out process based on pre-established criteria such as business need, ROI and scalability. As a result, it’s important to assess the overall value and key advantages that the solution(s) you’re evaluating bring to the table. By nature, cloud-based solutions often offer a range of benefits that accompany and extend beyond their core functionality and product scope. As the leading cloud-based, SaaS food supply chain management, traceability and recall solution, FoodLogiQ Connect is no different in this regard. Below, find some of the additional areas in which the Connect platform provides value, as well as how to unlock and leverage these benefits across your supply chain.
FoodLogiQ’s Global Network of Suppliers
With approximately 146,000 international supplier and brand locations linking the food chain within FoodLogiQ Connect at time of publication, the solution hosts an extensive and active global network of suppliers. Of these locations, an impressive 31,000 are international, spanning 133 different countries. Not only have thousands of suppliers completed onboarding onto FoodLogiQ Connect, but they also continually utilize the platform to collaborate with some of the world’s largest food and beverage brands, and comply with their food safety and quality programs. This is in addition to ensuring compliance with evolving national and local regulations.
To date, suppliers on the Connect platform have leveraged the software to share over 304,000 documents and engage in over 38,000 workflows to support approximately one million brand and supplier products. They have also contributed to the discovery and resolution of over 904,000 quality incidents within the supply chain. And the best part is that, just as FoodLogiQ’s global network of suppliers continues to expand, these numbers continue to grow every day.
As a FoodLogiQ partner, access to this extensive community of suppliers translates into enhanced efficiency experienced in onboarding, program implementation and ongoing supply chain management success. In many cases, FoodLogiQ customers find that the majority of their supplier base is already active within the platform, which leads to shorter ramp-up and execution times. In addition, this network of suppliers contributes to smoother and more consistent process management, as well as stronger data practices. For example, the ability to upload documentation once and share it across multiple organization’s communities, also known as designated, branded spaces for collaboration, ensures that the right data reaches the right individuals in minimal time. As a result of these key factors, your brand achieves greater, more immediate visibility into the inner workings of your supply chain, allowing you to actively manage supply chain partnerships, reduce risk and make more informed business decisions.
Centralized and Consolidated Core Data
Directly relating to the advantages brought by FoodLogiQ’s global network of suppliers is that of centralized and consolidated core data. Suppliers that use the solution to comply with partnering brands’ food safety, quality and traceability standards have already uploaded key product, business, location and process data into the platform. For example, this might include relevant documentation and certifications, assessments, product specifications and affiliated custom attributes, such as those pertaining to products or locations.
Through FoodLogiQ Connect, you not only have the opportunity to access data that pertains to your suppliers, including those already engaged within the platform and those currently in the onboarding process. Your supply chain data is consolidated and centralized within one space, creating a single source of truth you can rely on. This is crucial to understanding the scope of your product, supplier, location and business data, as well as where it is located – so that you can readily access and apply it based on your supplier management, incident, traceability and recall needs. FoodLogiQ customers have been able to reduce the time needed to access required documentation from hours to minutes, and have also seen 30-50% increases in the percentage of suppliers who are compliant to their QA, food safety and business standards.
Open API Access
Another crucial factor to consider when determining how to maximize the value you’re getting from a supply chain management software lies in integration opportunities. How will you ensure that necessary data from internal systems and third parties “talks” with data related to supplier management, quality incidents, traceability and/or withdrawal resolution? How can you ensure that you get access to the full picture? Furthermore, what does availability, security and frequency of data transfer look like?
FoodLogiQ’s open API enables partnering enterprise food brands to enhance their business processes by introducing a strong, secure data flow that leverages data in existing systems. As a FoodLogiQ customer, the latter allows you to achieve seamless interoperability between the data systems you’re already using, whether that’s an internal database, ERP or common reporting tool, such as Google or Tableau. Access to FoodLogiQ’s REST API allows your business to integrate with external systems to ensure the right data gets to the right places, saving time, reducing data entry errors and simplifying data communication processes.
Product Enhancements, Updates and Releases
As a service partner, it’s FoodLogiQ’s responsibility to deliver the highest standards of products and services, as well as to enhance the FoodLogiQ Connect platform on a regular basis. In addition to introducing frequent updates and product enhancements, FoodLogiQ delivers on this responsibility by updating Connect each quarter. Releases include the introduction of new features, extension of functionality, solution enhancements, UX improvements and additional resources based on product roadmap, strategic priorities and customer feedback.
Customers have various opportunities and spaces to provide input and insights surrounding the Connect platform, as well as to engage in open communication surrounding future product updates. In fact, this discourse is heavily encouraged. Furthermore, customers also receive the opportunity to preview features and updates included in each release firsthand prior to deployment. This experience provides FoodLogiQ customers with ample time and information for internal preparation surrounding upcoming improvements. Collectively, this work reflects FoodLogiQ’s industry-driven focus and involvement, agility, continual growth and customer commitment, and encompasses a substantial benefit to partnership.
User Access, Authentication and Authorization
Another main benefit of FoodLogiQ’s SaaS solution is a lack of user restrictions. As a FoodLogiQ customer, Connect is available to an unlimited number of users across your team, whether internal or external, including suppliers or third parties, like food safety auditors. Unlike many other software providers, FoodLogiQ has found that opening up access to your community supports a higher likelihood of success and overall greater compliance across your supply chain. This access, of course, is configurable according to your needs, organizational structure and goals. As a result, you, your suppliers and other key players have configurable, role-based access to centralized supply chain data without the constraints of a limited user base – or the direct costs of one.
Additionally, FoodLogiQ provides the opportunity to introduce dynamic, enterprise Single Sign-on (SSO) capabilities for authentication and authorization. This allows internal members of your team to use pre-existing credentials that are already used among other internal systems, making for a simple, smooth user experience.
SSO is also advantageous from a security standpoint, and enables FoodLogiQ customers to easily manage user access from within active directories instead of resorting to manual data entry within Connect. FoodLogiQ’s SSO functionality offers dynamic authorization to configure users’ roles upon entry to the platform, which allows you to map user roles and permissions to specific individuals and teams.
Distinguished Support for Ongoing Customer Success
To ensure the ongoing success of food safety and quality, traceability and recall programs, FoodLogiQ offers continual support, which takes several different forms for added convenience. FoodLogiQ’s Technical Support team provides overall support to all FoodLogiQ customers and their suppliers, who can submit inquiries via email, phone or through the Connect platform. Users receive 24/7 support for basic needs, such as password resets; and for additional support, the Technical Support Team is available Monday-Friday between 7 am-7 pm EST. In addition, this team often leads webinars and varying presentations for common FAQs and issues.
As a FoodLogiQ customer or supplier, you also receive expert guidance and support from the Customer Success team throughout the software implementation process. Following the completion of implementation, enterprise customers have the opportunity to continue working hand-in-hand with the Customer Success team, which acts as a hands-on strategic ally, assisting with best practices, guiding strategic initiatives and planning, introducing new product functionality, and helping to ensure ultimate success. Lastly, FoodLogiQ’s Knowledge Base also provides constant support and updated how-to knowledge to drive you and your suppliers’ success.
Leveraging FoodLogiQ Connect across Your Supply Chain
Evaluating the overall value, and the direct and indirect benefits of your partnering supply chain management solution is a critical process. FoodLogiQ Connect provides a whole host of opportunities for integrating added value across your supply chain. From a lush global supplier network, to open API access, unlimited user availability, continual support and more, FoodLogiQ offers a leading enterprise software solution with a variety of extended advantages. And with vast opportunities for solution flexibility and system configuration, the question is not what you will leverage to introduce added value across your supply chain, but how.
