Information Technology: Intelligence Super Tools of the Trade

Events that HorizonScan can track include microbial contaminants, pesticide residues, mycotoxins, allergens, genetically modified organisms, heavy metals, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, residues of veterinary drugs, adulteration, and fraud.

Advanced search capabilities; graphs, trends, data and analytics; the ability to identify high-risk suppliers; the latest news feeds, including the newest events from the last 48 hours and original event reports are all afforded by HorizonScan, Cohen notes.

“The benefits of HorizonScan include the ability to identify hazards posing the greatest threat to one’s supply chain and demonstrate compliance with Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) rules,” Cohen says. “Users get customized email alerts and they can research suppliers, worldwide. The software facilitates ranking analytical priority for a wide range of hazards and it provides access to 15-plus years of historical data.”

Great Lakes Cheese Co., Inc., Hiram, Ohio, recently starting using HorizonScan, according to Julie Simcox, the company’s senior manager of corporate quality regulatory and food safety.

“We chose HorizonScan to facilitate our ingredient and supplier risk assessments as part of our FSMA compliance work,” Simcox relates. “HorizonScan provides a dynamic risk assessment tool that allows our organization to stay head of emerging risks and identify risks of concern to our organization in raw materials/suppliers we may previously not been aware of.”

End-to-End Sourcing Tool

If you love free stuff you might want to check out the ReposiTrak MarketPlace, launched in March 2017 by Park City Group’s ReposiTrak Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, a provider of compliance management and trace and track solutions for the grocery and food service industries. Park City Group is a software-as-a-service provider.

“ReposiTrak provides food retailers and suppliers with a robust solution to help them protect their brands and remain in compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act,” says Randall Fields, CEO of Park City Group. “But, it’s really a platform for managing compliance across all vendors, both food and nonfood, as documentation such as W-9s, supplier agreements, proof of insurance, and audits are required by all trading partners.”

MarketPlace enables ReposiTrak’s retailers and wholesalers to search its community of 40,000 plus compliant supplier connections, and bring new products to market in a fraction of the time, Fields relates.

“MarketPlace is easy to use and free to all suppliers,” he notes. “The goal was to automate and guide the sourcing process from end to end, and go beyond discovery to include supplier qualification, order negotiation, and the on-boarding of a new supplier.”

The ReposiTrak MarketPlace enables new supplier sales in what Fields calls four steps.

1. Search. “Buyers can search the MarketPlace by supplier, product, theme, geography, or category,” Fields says. “It’s a powerful search engine, and when a buyer is interested, they can simply request a sample or an appointment from within the app.”
2. Curate. “The MarketPlace app can be used to negotiate order terms and to collect a supplier’s documentation in order to meet the buyer’s business and safety requirements,” Fields notes.
3. Order. Once a supplier has met requirements, the buyer can use the app to place an order.
4. On-board. “Once a supplier accepts the order, their item data can be sent to the buyer’s system with just a single click, saving weeks of time and reducing or eliminating electronic data interchange expense for both trading partners,” Fields elaborates.

A big plus of MarketPlace is its inclusion of diverse types of suppliers, Fields adds. “To keep up with consumer demand, companies’ needs include smaller, local suppliers which can be hard to find,” he explains. “Then, there are the short-term suppliers that supply product specifically for holidays, events and themes, and lastly there are the suppliers needed to replace those who can’t or are not willing to comply with your business and/or safety requirements. MarketPlace includes many such specialty suppliers.”