Anglia Business Solutions has been named as a finalist in three categories at the Channel Network Awards, and in a category at the British Computer Society (BCS) Awards for 2008.

Now in their seventh year, the Channel Network Awards are regarded as the Oscars of the ICT Channel.

Anglia has been named as a finalist for the Enterprise Vertical Market Solution and the Innovative New Application Solution categories, with a project encompassing the deployment of LINKFresh, its food supply chain business management solution for Produce World Group. In addition, an innovative mobile warehouse and quality control management solution deployed at Capespan UK Ltd has also been shortlisted in the Mobility Solution category.

The awards ceremony takes place on October 16, at the London Hilton Hotel, on Park Lane.

Anglia has also reached the finalist stages in the 2008 BCS Awards. The same LINKFresh solution for Produce World Group has been named as a finalist in the Business to Business Award category. The winners will be announced at the BCS Gala Dinner, which takes place on December 4, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

David Hurley, managing director for Anglia Business Solutions, said: “The current harsh economic conditions mean that companies have to rely on their business management systems to provide them with any competitive advantage that they can gain.

“The innovations incorporated into the shortlisted solutions have provided both companies with highly refined business processes. These have led to significant efficiencies in their supply chains, together with an impressive degree of commercial agility. It is gratifying that their effectiveness has been recognised at national level by being shortlisted by two such prestigious organisations.”

David Clarke, BCS chief executive said: “It is rewarding to see that IT is continuing to lead through innovation and deliver real business benefits. These projects reflect the fact that technology is an integral and expected part of everyday life and is at the heart of literally every business - even farming.”

The LINKFresh business management solution will also be making its first exhibition appearance in the US at the forthcoming PMA Fresh Summit 2008 International Convention & Exposition.

LINKFresh is a sophisticated but easy-to-use end-to-end supply chain system specifically designed for the fresh produce industry.

Visitors to the show will be able to experience a live demonstration of the LINKFresh suite, which includes finance, planning, live inventory management, quality control, packhouse management, manufacturing, business intelligence and integrated mobility technology. Visitors can discuss with Anglia’s industry experts how LINKFresh can ensure compliance with the new COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) regulations recently released by the US department of agriculture. Visitors to the stand can also take part in Anglia’s daily mini-golf competition, with a prize giveaway every day.

At the show, Anglia will be supported by representatives from its local US-authorised LINKFresh reseller, Florida-based iNECTA LLC.

The PMA Fresh Summit 2008 takes place on October 24-27 at the Orange County Convention Centre, Orlando, Florida. For more details, please visit www.pma.com/freshsummit

XSENSE FOR STEPAC

StePac has launched a web-based cold chain management system to monitor produce freshness and quality as it travels through the supply chain.

The modified atmosphere and modified humidity (MA/MH) specialist, part of DS Smith Plastics, has developed the Xsense Perishables Quality Monitoring Program to provide information about the quality of products pre-shipment, in-transit and post-arrival.

Xsense monitors both actual produce temperature and that of the surrounding environment.

The system uses disposable tags that are placed within the packaging and begin to monitor and collect temperature and relative humidity data, as soon as they are activated.

For land transport, this information is transmitted in real time, using proprietary technology to StePac’s Xsense server centre. For seafreighted products, the information is logged and then downloaded upon arrival at the harbour. The exact location of products in transit can be tracked using GPS data. If there are any problems, the system immediately notifies all those concerned with an email and/or text message.

A key feature of Xsense is its ability to analyse data and draw conclusions about product quality and safety.

StePac has just completed a series of successful customer trials in Israel and across Europe. The system was found to reduce the need for the manual input of data and outputs only the most relevant data.

StePac Israel ceo Ben Tzur said: “These trials have exceeded our expectations. Xsense has proved to be a technological breakthrough.”

BLOG FOR FRESH-CUT

Key technology has announced the launch of its new blog to provide information and insight of interest to fresh-cut produce processors around the world.

The leading designer and manufacturer of process automation systems, integrated electro-optical inspection and sorting and processing systems hopes that the new blog will encourage the expansion of visionary ideas through collaboration within the fresh-cut industry.

The blog will cover news, trends, commentary, first-hand experiences and lessons learned, digging deep to focus on specific operations within fresh-cut production processes.

The fresh-cut blog, keytechfreshcut.key.net, comes from Teri Johnson, Key’s fresh-cut industry manager. Intended as a participatory website, visitors to ‘Teri’s Fresh Food for Thought’ are invited to share their ideas, ask questions and engage in dialogue by posting comments.

John Boutsikaris, senior vice-president of sales and marketing at Key, said: “As an industry innovator and technology leader, we help customers improve their operations to maximise product quality and food safety, while increasing yields and reducing costs.

“We hope our new weblog engages the fresh-cut community in conversations that fuel collaboration and spark thought-provoking ideas that address the business and operational challenges our customers face,” he added.

LINKFRESH PROVIDES VALLEY GROWN SALADS WITH SIGNIFICANT EFFICIENCY GAINS

Valley Grown Salads (VGS), based at Roydon in Essex, supplies locally grown and imported tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers to three leading supermarkets.

The company occupies a 30,000sqft packhouse on a 2.5-acre site in Roydon, with a further 10a of glasshouses in the Lea Valley and 600a of growing area in south-east Spain. This ensures year-round supply of produce to its customers. VGS operates its own fleet of refrigerated transport and is LEAF marque accredited.

The firm’s main business need was to use information technology as an aid to productivity throughout the business. Its legacy systems were struggling to cope with the regulatory and traceability issues now demanded of the food industry.

The company operated a variety of disparate paper and electronic applications to manage the movement of produce throughout the organisation. This led to significant duplication of data. Apart from the increasing administration costs, it was becoming difficult to gain access to useful management information on customers and products. The ideal scenario was to have rapid access to stock information in real time. In addition, there was a need to monitor the performance of growers as a means of improving quality. Furthermore, the company wished to reduce waste and increase efficiency.

Having carried out an extensive market evaluation, VGS chose the Microsoft Dynamics NAV based LINKFresh solution from Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Anglia Business Solutions. The solution encompassed the LINKFresh modules for foundation, supply chain and logistics during the initial phase. These were augmented during the second phase by the integration of advanced mobility applications. These dynamically recorded all stock transactions as the produce moved through the supply chain.

The previous method of sales order processing represented a major challenge to the VGS administrative team. As there was no interface from the EDI system with any of VGS’s systems, these were re-entered manually to the required areas of the business. This highly labour-intensive, error-prone manual process was replaced by the sophisticated order-handling facilities within the LINKFresh suite. The solution directly links to the EDI system and a single data entry automatically disseminates information throughout the company.

A key element of the VGS procurement, sales and production cycle was the VGS stock control sheet. This Microsoft-Excel based system was used to collate all the required operational stock information for each week. While the sheets provided the required critical operational information for each week, it was a static information grid. There was no integration with any of VGS’s other data systems and it had to be updated manually. The management of this spreadsheet took up a significant part of each employee’s day. Anglia deployed its LINKFresh Warehouse Management module to replace all manual and paper-based systems.

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV based LINKFresh Mobile Warehouse Management solution was implemented to refine this vital element of the supply chain.

VGS sends small quantities of produce to market for market trade at open price. Although making up a small percentage of the firm’s total business, it was time-consuming to administer, as recording was manual. Today, the LINKFresh solution provides a sophisticated but easy-to-use application for the open price sale of consignments to the market trade. This enables VGS to manage, monitor and report profitability on all of its market trade operations. Additionally, designated suppliers can also supply VGS on an open price basis. The LINKFresh Trading Board shows all inbound and outbound stock movements and current stock position on a single screen, while facilitating the buying and selling of stock.

Ian Parrott, VGS operations director, said: “Visibility of dynamic stock information on the trading screen has provided us with a very useful aid in reducing waste. We can immediately see when we have to react to potential stock surpluses and reduce our write-off exposure.”

Prior to the introduction of the LINKFresh suite, the production department had no software-based operational system. To meet the production challenges within VGS, the standard LINKFresh Supply Chain and Operations Granules were deployed for the full data capture and automation of the production cycle. These replaced the various paper-based processes with a single, fully integrated solution. The production manager can see all of the day’s orders from the production summary screen. This information can be for a single day or customer or a range of days or customers.

VGS is required to deliver daily to between four and 12 depots. It undertakes the haulage of both its own and third-party produce. Previously, all logistics were planned by hand and processed manually. The LINKFresh Logistics Module was deployed to provide for all load planning and transport schedule requirements. The transport manager can see all of the ‘requests for transport’ from the sales team.

“The integrated LINKFresh logistics system has greatly improved how we manage our delivery processes,” said Parrott. “Better planning means fewer road journeys. This has minimised our expensive fuel costs, while helping the environment.”

To manage its financial system needs, the VGS finance department previously used the intellect financial system. However, the system was not integrated with VGS’s other systems or processes. It was estimated that an additional five to six hours a week were consumed in the re-keying of invoices.

The implementation of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Core Financials totally eliminated all requirements for duplicate entry. The financial solution has also provided comprehensive reporting and management accounts information in real time.

The introduction of the warehouse management and trading board element has enabled VGS to significantly reduce wastage and to manage stock more efficiently. Parrott said: “Replacing the VGS stock control sheet has completely removed the requirement for duplicate data entry. Our stock controller previously spent 25 per cent of his time manually managing the Excel Stock Control Sheet. The introduction of the LINKFresh solution has eliminated this workload.

“VGS also wanted to make its operations as environment-friendly as possible. The LINKFresh Transport Management and Logistics Module allows us to ensure that every time one of our vehicles takes to the road, its load is optimised for the maximum number of deliveries using the most efficient route possible.”

Parrott added: “The LINKFresh solution has enabled us to greatly improve efficiency. We have reduced administration costs, improved stock management, refined our packhouse operations and become more environment-friendly.”

VGS managing director Jimmy Russo said: “Changing our whole internal way of operating to become more efficient was never going to be an easy task. However, the partnership between David Williams, VGS IT manager, and Anglia worked tirelessly to achieve an excellent business-led solution that was delivered within budget. We are now very well placed to compete in a very demanding sector, using LINKFresh as a commercial aid.”