Iteration2 software tracks food ‘from field to fork’

Mateusz Perkowski
Freelance Writer

Source: www.capitalpress.info

From avian flu to bioterrorism, the potential threats to the U.S. food supply have made “traceability” a widespread buzz word in agriculture.

The ability to track food could be critical in preventing or containing an outbreak of disease, but one simple obstacle often stands in the way: record-keeping.

“Getting people to record their transactions is the hardest part of traceability,” said Eric Shuss, an industry analyst at the Iteration2 computer software firm, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. The company’s customized add-on to Microsoft’s Axapta suite of business software, a program called Grower Management Solution, makes traceability easier by automating farmers’ record-keeping processes.

“Every inventory move is traced. Even if 10 pounds are pulled aside for samples, you’ll know that,” said Shuss. “You’ll know what farm lot the product was grown on, where it was shipped from, what added processes it went through and even what other food it touched during shipping.”

Using this system, lot numbers attached to raw materials enable growers to follow transactions and monitor the inputs each step of the way. The software doesn’t just automatically record the time and location a crop was grown, harvested, processed and shipped — it also keeps tabs on such specifics as fertilizer levels, storage temperatures and delivery routes.

“The packaging of the food will have unique identifiers on it, so they can basically scan it into a traceability system,” said Bill Allen, a partner account manager at Microsoft. “This will link back through the whole chain of events.”

Allen manages partner companies like Iteration2 who help develop and distribute Microsoft computer software. In this case, Microsoft’s Axapta program served as the platform on which the farmer-oriented GMS add-on was built. “It’s a big business management package and Iteration2 has taken it and tailored it to growers,” said Allen.

Microsoft’s decision to partner with Iteration2 to create the GMS software module was based on anticipated changes in the food industry. As traceability becomes a priority for food growers and processors, the company realized that the time was ripe to fill the void by designing programs especially for agribusiness.

“Microsoft looks for strategic industry segments where there’s a lot of change going on that’s going to impact technology,” said Allen.

Because it is rooted in broader enterprise management software, GMS has a full range of capabilities beyond traceability. It automates all information transfers, so mundane tasks such as copying numbers from invoices onto spreadsheets become unnecessary. This is especially effective in organizations where many individual farms supply the food. Each grower’s contribution is automatically registered by the software, so there is no backtracking when it comes to divvying up revenues.

“Otherwise, the grower accounting department would sift through the information to see who was owed what,” said Bruce Haskin, an Iteration2 account manager who works with growers around Salinas, Calif. “This way, everything is already in the system.”

Other components of GMS include crop yield and price forecasting, contract management and transportation scheduling. Projects like quarterly reports are simplified because the software is able to navigate through the sea of numbers in a company’s database and plug them into the appropriate analysis programs.

Many accounting duties are made obsolete, thanks to GMS, but the goal is “not really to get rid of people, it’s to get the people on to the value-added tasks that make the company money,” Allen said.

Although the price will depend on the size of the operation, Allen estimated the average cost for the software to be about $50,000 with another $100,000 tacked on for service, training and implementation. Microsoft aims for a payback period of six months to two years. Although the faster GMS is incorporated into the computer system, the faster the software will pay for itself, many companies prefer to phase it in slowly to avoid disruptions.

“They wouldn’t go and try to boil the ocean, so to speak,” Allen said. “They put all the software in and activate certain features, modules and configurations (as they’re needed).”

Because the software requires a substantial investment, GMS is most appropriate for companies with gross annual revenues in excess of $20 million, said Greg Sad, Iteration2 marketing director.

GMS is geared to fresh fruit and vegetable producers who grow, harvest, and ship, but the software module is also accessible for other sectors of the food industry. “Although we specialize in growers of fresh produce, other food processors and production companies can benefit from the solution as well,” said Sad.

Iteration2’s objective is to provide growers, processors, and distributors with a structure within which they can cohesively interact. As the channels of communication open, problems facing the industry — such as traceability — become less convoluted.

“Because the grower industry is often so specialized, there typically isn’t one system that can track food from start to finish, but many non-integrated systems,” said Sad. “Iteration2 and Microsoft are changing this by introducing specialized software for growers and processors to manage their growth from field to fork.