Ben B. Schwartz and Sons, a wholesale distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables, launched its custom-built enterprise resource planning platform, Ben B. Access.
Expanding on its legacy Produce Pro system, the platform is helping expedite orders, deliver with greater precision, automate administrative tasks and analyze data that helps the company better predict future purchasing decisions, according to a news release.
According to the release, Ben B. Access brings together:
Supply Chain Planning — Ben B. Access leverages transportation management system software to manage purchase orders based on a variety of factors such as mileage, temperature, pallet count and weight, and then sources, assigns and pays carriers directly for loads, eliminating cumbersome, administrative steps in the purchasing process. With this feature, staff also receive real-time notifications regarding team truck driver locations and internal truck temperatures to guarantee on-time delivery and peak product freshness.
Third-Party Integration — Ben B. Access has the agility off-the-shelf options don’t, integrating with third-party solutions such as Samsara, Project44 and MacroPoint to track owned and third-party trucks using GPS or ELD to flag late deliveries, providing greater visibility into freight movement using trusted and industry-leading tools.
Real-time Delivery Status & Driver Updates — With Slack integration, Ben B. Access allows team members to connect directly with drivers for real-time updates on delivery status to maintain a high-level of customer service, as well as record and report safety and health issues for complete transparency and make procedural improvements as quickly as possible.
Actionable Data Insights — Using both internal data about purchasing patterns and external factors such as market indicators, Ben B. Access helps the company evaluate commodity performance and predict demand to adjust volume ordering with greater accuracy and stabilize pricing for customers.
“Technology is key to staying competitive, but we felt the options available today are limited because they only deliver certain, isolated features that won’t significantly move the needle for our business,” said Bill Loupée, chief operating officer for Ben B. Schwartz and Sons. “That’s why we built our own platform, one that could execute and absorb all of the functions needed to future-proof our business, satisfy our customers and keep things moving. We’ve been operating at a high standard for nearly 120 years, and Ben B. Access elevates our performance yet again — giving us the opportunity to continually build out a system with the latest tools to address operational and customer pain points as they arise.”
Additional features of Ben B. Access are slated to roll out later this year, including tools for sales forecasting. Stay tuned to learn more about how Ben B. Schwartz and Sons is integrating cutting-edge technology solutions to drive efficiency.
