A software company, founded in protest against the actions of another, is now set to take the fresh produce sector by storm.

Barrie Astbury, md of Optimise Systems Ltd, said: “Our company was founded in protest at what another IT company was doing with its own software.”

The story begins back in 1987, he said, when a software suite was developed, on the Unix platform, for the fresh produce industry.

Stewart Computer Systems, based in West Bridgeford, wrote all the systems originally, said Astbury. “That software became known as Prodigy and very quickly became the number one system for everyone in the field.”

The suite changed hands over the years before more recently being bought by Affinitus, said Astbury. “As a result of it being sold so often it suffered from lack of development, which is essential if any company is to keep pace with the changing times and demands of the user base.

“Affinitus wanted to take it on to get rid of the software, but retain the system’s customer base,” he explained. “However, we felt there was a lot of mileage still left in the software.”

Astbury parted company with Affinitus over the issue, and said at the same time most of his team also handed in their notice in protest at the company’s plans.

As a result, Optimise Systems was founded in November last year to provide sophisticated suites of software to the fresh produce, seed, trading, contracting and clothing industries: “Since November, we had a battle to buy the intellectual property rights to the source code for Prodigy, and last Friday, we secured those rights,” he said. “I think Affinitus recognised, at the end of the day, it would be better if the software was in our hands.”

Optimise Systems now owns the rights to the system and has a customer base of around 50 companies, many of which operate in the fresh produce sector. He said. “We’re now working hard to get out and around the industry to let people know we’re not dead.”

He said the main task going forward is to reassure the existing customers that business will continue as normal. “I’m going around our customer base to try and calm nerves. It’s understandable people will have jitters, as the software has changed hands three times in the last five years.”

He said the company has lost some of its customers, which was only to be expected due to the uncertainty surrounding the software’s future but added, that future was now looking extremely positive.

“We’ve lost some business to some of our competitors, but I’m not prepared to lose any more.

“We’re very excited that this will be a success, we’ve put an awful lot of our own money into the venture and are very committed.

“We accept that there needs to be some work done to update the systems, but it’s still a very powerful piece of software.”

The system itself is extremely comprehensive, said Astbury, ranging from full accounting packages through to sales order processes with EDI functionality. “It has all the functionality required for companies in the fresh produce business.”

There is also a range of add-on modules to further enhance the suite, he added. “It was the first of its kind in the industry and it’s an extremely powerful suite of software.”

He said the company, going forward, is now putting together a road map to develop the software, but said there is no intention to move away from the Unix platform.

“We’re looking to deliver what our customers want,” he added.

Optimise Systems is now looking to expand its customer base, and Astbury points to the strength of experience the company’s team has in the fresh produce industry.

“We have a huge amount of knowledge within the business, and in actual fact have between us all, nearly 100 years of experience in the fresh produce industry.”

PRINTED TAGS PROVIDE CHEAP SOLUTION

The world of printed radio frequency tagging is set to be explored at a conference next month.

A two-day Impact Forum, organised by research consultancy Pira International, will look at the possibilities offered by emerging new technology to produce printed RFID tags.

The conference will explore the future of RFID tags, looking at the potential for the tags to be printed directly onto packs and the use of conductive inks to allow pack converters to print complete chips at high speeds.

A spokesman said: “This means RFID tags would then be a fraction of the price and suitable for an almost unending range of low cost applications. Pack intelligence and item level tagging would not just be a possibility, it would be inevitable.”

The technology is not just science fiction either, in some applications printed antennae are already taking the place of copper ones and research and development in this area is already focusing on printed power sources, printed transistors and also printed internal circuits.

The rate of progress is startling, with some researchers already claiming to have printed tags ready at pilot level.

The spokesman said: “Pira’s comprehensive new forum is the first ever event to address this exciting new technology. Our line-up of leading industry experts will give you a first hand insight into progress to date and developments for tomorrow.

“Our series of Impact Forums have been created to provide a snapshot of the cutting edge, conceptual technologies shaping and dictating the future of our industry.”

Topics to be covered at the event, which takes place on May 10-11 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, Gatwick, range from emerging applications for printed RFID and the robustness and reliability of printed antennae to the fact and fiction of printed and low cost power sources and the advantages and challenges of conductive inks.

Speakers at the event are made up of leading industry players and academics involved in the field of RFID printing, and include Dr Aimin Song from the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Manchester, Tom Judge, director of ink suppliers Precisia UK and Chris Hopper, EMEA product marketing manager with Printronix UK, among others.

The spokesman added: “With leading silicon suppliers, the world’s first RFID chip printers and a host of technology developers and academics, this programme brings you an unrivalled opportunity to assess printed RFID and what it might mean for your business.”

A QUESTION OF OUTSOURCING

The topic of IT outsourcing has been very much in the news recently with many companies experiencing the upsides as well as the downsides of this method of operating.

In the UK, the IT industry has experienced severe job losses as a result of the outsourcing of software development to the Far East for economic reasons.

At corporate and government level, many organisations have simply given up trying to manage their large IT installations and have outsourced the task to specialist management outfits.

In general, the upside has been reduced operating costs but service levels may have been adversely affected.

In addition, in a number of instances vital business knowledge has been lost in the transition.

While this change has affected the larger operations, similar moves to outsource IT have gained ground in the mid range. It is easy to understand the attraction of this approach.

The requirement for integrated solutions as a means of competing in today’s global market has placed significant strains on existing teams in medium sized companies.

These solutions demand a myriad of IT and business skills to implement and support. Furthermore once deployed, the systems become mission critical to the business whose fortunes depend on its continued operation.

In response to this demand, a number of initiatives have been launched by the IT industry to fill the gap.

These range in scope from purchasing e-mail services from a specialist outsourcing company to having the entire IT function managed remotely by an application service provider.

However, in the business management systems arena, there has been a marked reluctance by companies to move to this model. Apart from the concerns on security, one of the key drawbacks has been the “one size fits all” philosophy of the service providers in this sector.

This involves the customer having to change his business to fit a specific industry template. Compromising on functionality can introduce inefficiencies that can far outweigh any potential savings.

A new model is now emerging in the mid market which is a compromise between total outsourcing and operating within rigid templates.

This involves using IT service providers to host all of the IT infrastructure elements. However, all of the applications run on that platform are specific to the customer.

This means that the customer has access to his total information system without the need to manage all of the underlying operating systems, servers and communication devices.

Dependent on the scope of the contract, the service provider undertakes the task of looking after the resilience, security and day to day operations of the system sited at their premises. Engineers are summoned to resolve on site hardware issues. Firewalls are deployed and updated to repel hackers. Virus protection software ensures that damaging worms or virus are prevented from infecting the system. Security back-ups are taken regularly with restore procedures in place to validate the saved data.

Anglia Business Solutions has already successfully implemented a powerful solution based on this model with impressive results.

Inchcape Automotive Services needed to deploy a highly sophisticated MBS Navision based supply chain management system that serviced all of their eight sites located throughout the UK.

Anglia’s personnel designed and implemented an advanced infrastructure solution that serviced the needs of 240 concurrent system users.

This was located at an application service provider site where their staff carry out the routine servicing of the server platform.

This proven model enables companies to focus its scarce IT resources on the refinement of solutions that really can make a difference to the fortunes of the business.

With recent UK research indicating a shortfall of around 150,000 IT resources needed to meet the current demand for the deployment of new projects, this approach is likely to find favour with many organisations.

In the words of a famous supermarket slogan “every little helps”

NATURE FINDS ITS WAY WITH IT SOLUTION

A fresh produce packer and distributor has taken the LinkFresh route with Anglia Business Solutions.

Nature’s Way Marketing has now implemented the company’s Microsoft Navision based LinkFresh business management system.

Developed specifically for the fresh-produce sector, the fully integrated Microsoft Navision 4.0 based solution will handle finance, distribution, warehouse management, despatch and quality control.

The deployment will also include mobile remote access to the solution to provide for the real-time update of stock movements and consignment traceability.

Stephen Barnes, managing director of Nature’s Way, said: “We recognised that our old IT systems represented a barrier for the growth of the business.

“We had a variety of disparate systems in operation which were becoming difficult and expensive to maintain. We wanted a fully integrated and proven solution not only to accommodate our current needs, but also to grow with us.

“Crucially, we needed dynamic access to accurate financial information on product and customer trends.

“We also wanted to take advantage of emerging .NET mobility applications to give us that competitive edge. The combination of the Microsoft Navision based LinkFresh system with Anglia’s fresh produce experience matched our needs perfectly.”

The 30-user solution will be deployed at the state-of-the-art purpose built temperature controlled facility in Chichester.

Anglia’s managing director, David Hurley, added: “We are pleased that Nature’s Way has joined our fast-growing list of fresh produce customers.

“The LinkFresh system has rapidly become an established fresh produce solution since its launch in 2004. Our strategy of building an industry specific solution on the global leading MBS Navision foundation has proved highly popular within the fresh produce industry.”

Nature’s Way Marketing was formed in 1991 by Barnes and David Langmead, initially to market locally grown produce from the Chichester plain.

The company has grown substantially since inception into one of the largest packers and distributors of fresh produce within the UK.

It supplies a full range of fresh and prepared produce to the major supermarkets, food processors and wholesale markets throughout the UK.