PRODUCTS
Software Goals
Mission – Reliable and Immediate Customer, Vendor, Product, Process Profitability
Prophet has succeeded because it serves an industry faced by very low margins, very high volume and highly variable patterns of cost – down to the growing origin, weather, supply chain handling etc. No two consignments of the same product are actually the same. This mean that Fresh Produce demands very accurate control of the inventory as small mistakes are amplified massively by the very high volumes. Using standard cost or averaged cost for inventory use and using variances from actual performance hides all of the day to day detail that allows a profit to be made, or more importantly, a loss to be avoided - in Fresh Produce there is so much noise – so many variances. And the speed of the businesses means the control has to be immediate and the data pinpoint. While an ERP offers breadth across many functions, in Fresh Produce this means deep software implementations are essential – the software has to be used in real time for all of the tasks involved in planning, trading and operating.
Achieving Deep Implementations - Key Components
Configurable Workspace User Applications for All Core Activities
Configurable Rules Engine to apply data and automate choices
Configurable Data Exchange Services- capable of Integration with supply chain systems, other software, warehouse and manufacturing machinery
Any Device User Interface – for Desktop, Mobile and Web use
Fresh Produce Essentials - Inventory Centric, Activity Based Costings, Consignment Accounting
Prophet keeps transactional records as to quantity, weight and value by lot item and allocated sales order line to lot item. This ensures that a live stock system (quantity and weight) is recorded to the pallet/box/bin within lot item level (including how that product is used and created in works orders or by sales orders). Works order records account for product used and product created at this level –what pallets within lot item in made what quantity of product out at this level– and this lot item linking threads through any number of such downstream works order or picking processes. This makes all mass balance calculations a necessary feature of what is a closed system at the most granular level. The architecture is forced to record all expected and actual financial values to these lowest levels - with powerful rules engines to drive automated expected costs and full financial ledger integration to apportion actual ledger postings for costs and sales down to these levels.