Fresh Produce ERP Systems

These guys are top of the list as I worked with them for many years and have many happy memories of the projects we worked on.  We worked on some interesting developments such as document imaging/data storage ("scan and shred"), voice picking systems, M&S MOS, TESCO ASN's/Shipments, touchscreens and robotics.  A lot of these were trail blazers at the time but have become mainstream for most ERP suppliers these days.  The original systems were written in UNIX which proved to be ultra reliable and configurable all backed up with exceptional ODBC links to enable the user to export data into Excel (in real time) or to Crystal reports.  I was loosely involved with the development of their Enterpro systems which they needed to develop to stave off the competition who were all touting windows based click and select systems.  To this day I still firmly believe that in certain production environments, the use of a keyboard either the tab or enter keys is significantly quicker than moving a mouse around and scrolling down through lists, the market has deemed otherwise.  Everything was always fully integrated and real-time.  The QC system, utilising touchscreen tablets, is something that I always really rated as a top notch product and I happily demonstrated it to potential customers of Rubicon.  The support and backup teams are also to be commended.

This was always on the fringes of my radar and I came across them infrequently during my travels around pack houses in Kent.  I was invited to a demo of their new system for a client of ours and, I have to say, I was really impressed with what they showed.  A really comprehensive and well thought out integrated solution with some interesting features that can be used in the "field".  The android technology used by their mobile devices has low overhead and is a real advance on anything powered by windows and I can see why this route was taken.  (Rubicon use windows based devices and the constant application of windows updates was a real pain and often corrupted the ERP software on the device).  The guys demonstrating the software had actually worked in pack houses and warehouses and their practical knowledge does show through in how the software has been developed.  They have all the bases covered and there were some useful features which were obviously developed based on actual issues they had come across in the real world.

I only very recently came across these guys, having never heard of them before in all my travels around various pack houses.  I managed to obtain a "Zoom" demo of the system and, again, was impressed.  All the bases appeared to be covered and it's a really easy to use ERP and pack house/warehouse system.  The strength is in the field based crop systems.

This is one that I've heard lots about but never actually used or seen, other than briefly when a Supermarket chose it for their in house system to manage their service provision business.  Users who joined businesses I've worked for, who had used Prophet, gave it mixed reviews (some raved about how good it was, others moaned).  As a supplier on the end of a supermarket who used it for stock control I can only say that either is was misused or not fully understood by their staff as we were often not invoiced for fruit we had been supplied with. We could never really understand why the supermarket couldn't easily identify un-invoiced fruit.  Their staff moaned about the system but I can't honestly substantiate why.

Went to several of their demos and their customers raved about the system.  Personally, I never came across a system that was fully complete but I liked the look of their mobile QC offering.  Always make a great play of being in the "Microsoft" family with all the advantages that brings in terms of software development and support.