Every year the list of software and technology companies that are providing technology offerings to help food and beverage companies improve productivity and gain efficiency grows longer. Because of this, sifting through the technological offerings to find the right technology, for the right job and at the right price, gets more complicated with each passing year.
For 13 years, Food Logistics has done the heavy lifting for our readers by surveying the software and technology companies that specialize in products designed to address the unique challenges of the food and beverage supply chain. The result is the FL100+, a key industry resource listing the companies whose products and services ensure efficient transportation and warehousing, minimize waste, facilitate safe operations and assure regulatory compliance.
To see the entire list of FL100+ providers and their capabilities, click here.
360data
Website: www.360data.com
Year Founded: 1999
Number of employees: 30
Number of food/bev customers: Varies
Solution name(s): 360data B2B Integrator, 360data TMS, 360data OMS
Worth noting: 360data software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions are web-based and secure, and thus accessible from anywhere, including mobile applications. The 360data B2B Integrator offers data cleansing and reconciliation, in addition to scalable solutions to integrate internal and external systems. Each implementation is tailored to meet the customer’s needs, to optimize supply chain efficiency and realize savings.
3GTMS
Website: www.3gtms.com
Year Founded: 2013
Number of employees: 55
Number of food/bev customers: 6, plus 3PLs in food and beverageSolution name(s): 3G-TM
Worth noting: The 3G-TM solution allows customers to configure the solution to their own business needs. 3GTMS believes the ability to configure the transportation management system (TMS) to a company’s specific needs and fine tune it as the company evolves enables customers to strengthen their competitive advantage and support their growth.
AFS Technologies
Website: www.afsi.com
Year Founded: 1985
Number of employees: 439
Number of food/bev customers: 1,000
Solution name(s): AFS ERP, AFS Warehouse Management System (WMS) , AFS Order Management System, AFS Electronic Proof of Delivery, AFS Retail Execution, AFS G2 Analytics, AFS Gateway
Worth noting: AFS Technologies offers single-scan traceability, with GTIN and PTI capabilities, to help with inventory management and product recalls, as well as a mobile version of its software to maximize productivity in the warehouse. AFS recently introduced actionable analytics via an alerts system, which notifies key personnel to urgent business situations that violate guardrails.
ARMADA
Website: www.armada.net
Year Founded: 1890
Number of employees: 425
Number of food/bev customers: 30
Solution name(s): Armada Supply Chain Planning, Armada Supply Chain Technology, Armada Warehouse Solutions, Armada Transportation Solutions, Armada Global Logistics
Worth noting: The biggest challenges facing supply chains are the three Vs of data: volume, viscosity and validity. Armada’s integration platform they say addresses all three. Armada’s platform can handle legacy data in batched formats, as well as real-time data transactions. Additionally, the platform is architected for high availability and redundancy to scale as these attributes increase.
Bastian Solutions
Website: www.bastiansolutions.com
Year Founded: 1952
Number of employees: 500
Number of food/bev customers: 300
Solution name(s): Exacta, ZiPline Quiet Conveyer
Worth noting: Integrator Bastian Solutions can custom-fit a blend of solutions for various vertical industries and company sizes, from small and simple applications using conventional equipment to multi-million dollar automated food processing lines. Hardware and software solutions are based on the client’s current and future objectives.
Boreas Nitrogen Cooling Systems
Website: www.boreassystems.com
Year Founded: 2013
Number of employees: 30
Number of food/bev customers: 60
Solution name(s): Boreas Nitrogen Cooling System
Worth noting: Fueled by liquid nitrogen, the Boreas Nitrogen Cooling System emits zero emissions during operation. The environmentally friendly system is virtually silent and eliminates the need for a pre-cool period, reduces temperature pull down time, and allows for consistent temperature control throughout the length of the trailer.
CAMS Software Corporation
Website: www.camspro.com
Year Founded: 1998
Number of employees: 20
Number of food/bev customers: 20
Solution name(s): CAMS Prospero, CAMS Profiler, CAMS Tour Builder, CAMS Multi-Site Director, CAMS Backhaul Optimization, CAMS Salvage Optimization
Worth noting: CAMS Software calls itself the leading supplier of dispatch and driver payroll software to the grocery industry. It was designed and developed exclusively for the grocery industry and is not used outside of grocery. Since 1997, CAMS has been implementing its products at distribution centers (DCs) across the United States, with they report a 100 percent success rate for deployments.
CaseStack
Website: www.casestack.com
Year Founded: 1999
Number of employees: About 250
Number of food/bev customers: 1,000
Solution name(s): CaseStack’s Retailer Consolidation Program
Worth noting: CaseStack’s WMS allows full data security and 24/7 visibility of a suppliers supply chain processes. Its web-based platform gives each customer the ability to place orders, track shipments, monitor SKU levels, specify item and order attributes, dictate inventory levels, and forecast future needs, ensuring every customers’ supply chain distribution network is handled efficiently and in a secure environment.
Demand Management Inc. (Demand Solutions)
Website: www.demandsolutions.com
Year Founded: 1985
Number of employees: 34
Number of food/bev customers: 153
Solution name(s): Demand Solutions
Worth noting: Demand Solutions is one of the first software vendors in the supply chain management market to offer a cloud supply chain management solution with complete, end-to-end planning capabilities. Customers do not need to invest in hardware or software, and IT support requirements are greatly reduced. Maintenance and installation of updates are handled by Demand Solutions.
Elemica
Website: www.elemica.com
Year Founded: 2000
Number of employees: 100
Number of food/bev customers: 15
Solution name(s): Elemica QuickLink, Elemica SmartLink
Worth noting: Elemica’s SmartLink applications include solutions for customer, logistics, sourcing and supplier management. Elemica has identified and addressed specific areas traditionally fraught with double entry of data, phone calls and faxes, and email conversations, replacing them with capabilities proven to remove administrative effort and lower transportation costs.
FoodLogiQ
Website: www.foodlogiq.com
Year Founded: 2006
Number of employees: 11-50
Number of food/bev customers: 3,500
Solution name(s): FoodLogiQ Connect
Worth noting: FoodLogiQ tracks and analyzes the complex food supply chain on an interactive supplier dashboard, so it is able to pinpoint the root cause of an outbreak or quality issue, and trace tainted food’s exact location in real time.
Infratab Inc.
Website: www.infratab.com
Year Founded: 2002
Number of employees: 25
Number of food/bev customers: 50
Solution name(s): Infratab Freshtime
Worth noting: Infratab solutions is able to quickly customize their tags, software and reports to the customers’ current processes, while providing insights as close to real time as possible when goods are handed over. Infratab solutions also offer smart data that compares growers, transporters and routes, knowing how much freshness was used in each step and the number of consumer days left.
Interlink Technologies
Website: www.thinkinterlink.com
Year Founded: 1986
Number of employees: N/A
Number of food/bev customers: N/A
Solution name(s): Warehouse-LINK
Worth noting: Warehouse-LINK WMS supports specific needs in the food industry, including multiple date tracking; first in, first out; detailed audit trails; environmental controls; recall management; efficient space utilization; location management; cycle counting; and just-in-time processes. Interlink believes its solutions are all-inclusive and implement 100 percent of the functionality.
iTradeNetwork
Website: www.itradenetwork.com
Year Founded: 1999Number of employees: 305
Number of food/bev customers: 10,000
Solution name(s): iTradeNetwork Order Management System (OMS)
Worth noting: iTradeNetwork’s logistics solutions leverage a foundation of synchronized data to help reduce the total costs of transportation. Configured as a many-to-many network, iTradeNetwork’s logistics solutions span the entire planning, procurement and execution processes. All logistics solutions fully integrate with the iTradeNetwork OMS to ensure efficiency and to provide a holistic view across all transactions and trading partner relationships.
Johanson Transportation Service (JTS)
Website: www.johansontrans.com
Year Founded: 1971
Number of employees: 90
Number of food/bev customers: 150
Solution name(s): FreightOptixx TMS
Worth noting: JTS’s cloud-based FreightOptixx TMS gives users access to details in their supply chain data in one online location, with complete visibility to all their freight communications from start to finish. Users are able to easily track their shipments, request instant spot rate quotes from multiple carriers displayed on one screen for comparison, create and change freight orders and more.
LeanLogistics
Website: www.leanlogistics.com
Year Founded: 1999
Number of employees: 225
Number of food/bev customers: 52
Solution name(s): LeanTMS
Worth noting: Connecting shippers, carriers, supplies and third parties has been a challenge for most supply chains, but LeanLogistics believes with its transportation system, the connection of those parties can be established instantly. LeanTMS customers use the data in the transportation network to analyze performance against both organizational goals and industry norms. The benchmarking information comes from the ecosystem created by a SaaS-based environment, which becomes more powerful as new participants join the network.
NECS Inc.
Website: www.necs.com
Year Founded: 1987
Number of employees: 30
Number of food/bev customers: 1,500
Solution name(s): entrée
Worth noting: The latest version of NECS’s popular entrée software for food distributors offers power, speed and ease of use. The new dashboards, enhanced search screens, ribbon menus and more allow customers to do their job faster while providing new visual insights to complex data. NECS says they are continuing to innovate with both desktop and mobile solutions and currently are working on dramatic new software modules to be released in 2017.
NiceLabel
Website: www.nicelabel.com
Year Founded: 1993
Number of employees: 110
Number of food/bev customers: 1,000+
Solution name(s): NiceLabel Label Management System (LMS)
Worth noting: NiceLabel’s global innovation for SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) users is the so-called SAP ABAP package—a native, interoperable technology inside SAP that allows an easy connection from any of the company’s existing SAP solutions. Through its soultion, NiceLabel says companies can streamline their entire label processes, increase consistency and accuracy along their shop-floors, reduce costs enterprise-wide, and save valuable time.
Omnitracs LLC
Website: www.omnitracs.com
Year Founded: 1988
Number of employees: 1,000
Number of food/bev customers: 1,999
Solution name(s): Omnitracs Roadnet
Worth noting: Omnitracs was the first to create solutions for connecting delivery asset and driver to the fleet manager and back office applications. Their data and analytics teams heavily invest in research and development to cut costs, improve performance, enhance driver satisfaction and productivity, and create a strong network of technologically savvy fleets armed for competing for the best customers and growing their businesses.
Optricity Corporation
Website: www.optricity.com
Year Founded: 2005
Number of employees: 15
Number of food/bev customers: 25
Solution name(s): OptiSlot DC, Slotting Optimization Software
Worth noting: Holding patented and patent-pending optimization processes, Optricity offers advanced intellectual capital and innovation, with the ability to modify the math to fit the problem. The underpinning mathematics of OptiSlot are based on a high degree of research, while the software design promotes use in real environments.
ProCat Distribution Technologies
Website: www.procatdt.com
Year Founded: 2001
Number of employees: 18
Number of food/bev customers: 175
Solution name(s): PickRight, ReceiveRight, LoadRight, ShipRight, ReturnRight, CountRight, StockRight, CodeRight, TaxRight
Worth noting: The ProCat solutions suite offers total operational control, enhancing every aspect of the distribution center from receiving, cycle counting, WMS, order picking, truck loading and delivery. PickRight’s simplicity, combined with a variety of sophisticated features, makes it easy to implement, easy to learn and easy to use.
Quintiq
Website: www.quintiq.com
Year Founded: 1997
Number of employees: 1,097
Number of food/bev customers: 10
Solution name(s): Quintiq Solution
Worth noting: Quintiq’s platform is unique in that it is configured to optimize against the different constraints that may exist within each organization. The platform has the capability to plan from the strategic level down to day-of-execution operations. Plans can be adjusted in real time and optimized dynamically as changes occur.
SafetyChain Software Inc.
Website: www.safetychain.com
Year Founded: 2011
Number of employees: 100
Number of food/bev customers: 100
Solution name(s): SafetyChain FSQA Management Platform, SafetyChain Supplier Compliance, SafetyChain Food Safety Management, SafetyChain Food Quality Management, SafetyChain Regulatory/GFSI Compliance & Audit Management, SafetyChain Mobile
Worth noting: SafetyChain offers a comprehensive food, safety and quality assurance (FSQA) management platform designed to help food and beverage companies more effectively manage and continuously improve their FSQA programs. Programs of interest consist of supplier compliance and vendor management, food safety program execution, quality assurance oversight, regulatory and non-regulatory compliance, and inquiry/audit management.
Safeway Management Group
Website: www.smgsafety.com
Year Founded: 2004
Number of employees: 14
Number of food/bev customers: 55
Solution name(s): Quality Management System, Food Safety Systems, Awareness Review Training, Alcohol and Controlled Substance Management, Health and Safety Software, Transportation Safety Systems, Electronic File Maintenance, Document Control
Worth noting: Safeway Management Group offers comprehensive and effective process management software for health and safety, quality control, fleet safety file maintenance and training concerns. Safeway solutions can help a company establish effective programs, utilizing tools for incident prevention, continued improvement, trending and evaluating performance.
Seagull Scientific
Website: www.seagullscientific.com
Year Founded: 1985
Number of employees: 150
Number of food/bev customers: 4,000
Solution name(s): BarTender by Seagull Scientific
Worth noting: Seagull Scientfic was awarded Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 Best Practices Award for its food safety software barcode labeling system, BarTender. The award is presented to companies who have encouraged significant growth in their industries, identified emerging trends before they became standard, and created technologies to catalyze and transform industries.
Sensitech
Website: www.sensitech.com
Year Founded: 1990
Number of employees: 950
Number of food/bev customers: 25,000
Solution name(s): TempTale, ColdStream
Worth noting: TempTale GEO provides real-time visibility for temperature and location to support both logistics and quality. Sensitech believes its software gives an advance indication to all supply chain partners where product is located and when it will arrive, as well as reducing risk by enabling active intervention to address correctable temperature deviations before they impact product quality.
SkyBitz Enterprise Fleets
Website: www.skybitz.com/enterprisefleets
Year Founded: 2002
Number of employees: 50
Number of food/bev customers: 2
Solution name(s): SkyBitz Falcon GXT3000, SkyBitz Gemini GLS400, SkyBitz Cargo Sensors, SkyBitz InSight
Worth noting: SkyBitz as a Service (SBS) is a simple monthly subscription designed to provide customers comprehensive trailer and asset information management. By eliminating the upfront investment requirement, SkyBitz believes the SBS platform removes the barrier to entry for asset management purchases and provides a quicker return on investment (ROI).
SmartDrive Inc.
Website: www.smartdrive.net
Year Founded: 2004
Number of Employees: 630
Number of Food and Beverage Customers: 26
Solution Names: SmartDrive SmartIQ Transportation Intelligence Suite
Worth Noting: SmartDrive Systems is a leader in driving performance solutions that reduce collisions and improve fuel efficiency within the transportation and logistics industry. The company provides innovative video-based safety programs to customers across a variety of sectors, including food and beverage. SmartDrive developed the SmartIQ Suite, a solution that leverages SmartDrive’s video analytics platform to link a driver’s behavioral data to an enormous amount of vehicle system data. This solution helps fleets harness Big Data from a multitude of disparate systems to create breakthrough, actionable insights, The suite offers customizable and actionable operational metrics, management KPIs, interactive visualizations for advanced analysis, reports and dashboards for managers, and the ability to export and integrate data into an existing intelligence stack.
SSI Schaefer Systems International Inc.
Website: www.ssi-schaefer.us
Year Founded: 1937
Number of employees: 10,000
Number of food/bev customers: 100
Solution name(s): WAMAS, WAMASGo!
Worth noting: The SSI warehouse management and material flow system (WAMAS) solution offers an easy integration to existing systems and turns warehouses into waveless fulfillment engines in both manual and automated environments.
Technology Group International
Website: www.tgiltd.com
Year Founded: 1990
Number of employees: 30
Number of food/bev customers: 250
Solution name(s): Enterprise 21 ERP
Worth noting: The Enterprise 21 ERP system is developed, sold, implemented and supported directly by TGI. No aspect is outsourced to third-party companies or overseas, providing customers with a single source for all software, implementation, programming and technical support needs.
The Raymond Corporation
Website: www.raymondcorp.com
Year Founded: 1922
Number of employees: 2,000+
Number of food/bev customers: N/A
Solution name(s): iWAREHOUSE Essential, iWAREHOUSE Enterprise, iTRACK, iWAREHOUSE GATEWAY, iWAREHOUSE Evolution
Worth noting: iWAREHOUSE effectively streamlines multiple display hardware on lift trucks into one unit, thereby increasing operator visibility and minimizing the number of instruments with which the operator needs to interact. The new display offers operators the ability to toggle between lift truck operations information and a height-tilt indicator, giving users a more complete visualization of existing lift truck data to run better and manage smarter.
Top Vox
Website: www.top-vox.com
Year Founded: 2006
Number of employees: 420
Number of food/bev customers: 80+
Solution name(s): Voxter, Voxter-Scan, Voice Wear, BlueMaster, LYDIA
Worth noting: Top Vox’s Lydia is a speech-based system that frees the user from unnecessary work steps, such as the handling of picking lists of barcode scanners. Written instructions on paper or screen are replaced by spoken work directions via a headset.
Transplace
Website: www.transplace.com
Year Founded: 2000
Number of employees: 1,550
Number of food/bev customers: 15
Solution name(s): Transplace TMS
Worth noting: Transplace provides a variety of offerings and flexible solutions based on each customer’s unique requirements, desires and strategies. Transplace’s core verticals, include consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, manufacturing, packaging and chemical. Transplace’s other business units also provide value to customers who use the technology to operationalize logistics networks.
Transportation Insight
Website: www.transportationinsight.com
Year Founded: 1999
Number of employees: 417
Number of food/bev customers: 32
Solution name(s): Technology-Driven, Multi-Modal End-to-End Supply Chain Solutions
Worth noting: Transportation Insight is one of the largest full-service, multi-modal 3PLs in North America, delivering custom logistics solutions to more than 1,000 corporate clients. Its service and technology offerings provide carrier sourcing, logistics-related cost reduction, parcel shipping solutions, a web-based TMS, freight bill audit and payment services, and supply chain analytics and business intelligence reporting.
UltraShip TMS
Website: www.ultrashiptms.com
Year Founded: 2001
Number of employees: 58
Number of food/bev customers: 8
Solution name(s): UltraShip TMS, LoadFusion Optimizer, UltraYMS
Worth noting: Ultra’s development, training and support is geared toward continuous improvement in the service of high volume shippers, exclusively. Ultra acts as an extension of customers’ logistics and IT departments, permitting the customer far greater influence over the product roadmap. UltraShipTMS offers provider-delivered training, ensuring success through superior system adoption and utilization.
VAI
Website: www.vai.net
Year Founded: 1978
Number of employees: 163
Number of food/bev customers: 45
Solution name(s): S2KEnterprise For Food
Worth noting: An independent case study conducted for Imperial Bag & Paper Co. LLC, a large, independent distributor of food service disposables and janitorial supplies, found that Imperial Bag & Paper experienced 100 percent ROI after deploying VAI S2K Enterprise Management Software, with a complete payback in 1.1 years and an average annual benefit of $1,194,353.
Wolters Kluwer Transport
Website: www.transwide.com
Year Founded: 2000
Number of employees: 250
Number of food/bev customers: 38
Solution name(s): Transwide
Worth noting: Transwide’s modular solution plan and SaaS “cloud” delivery/business models are designed for shippers who are looking to take advantage of the benefits of automating their transportation and logistics operations and processes. The company offers a “pay as you go” option, which enables customers to organize a TMS solution at a speed that will not overtax their logistics, operational or IT resources.
