Supplyit is a cloud-based platform that helps companies manage all aspects of their food service operations. Specifically designed for convenience stores, bakeries, and quick service restaurants, Supplyit provides all the tools necessary for managers to develop and execute an end-to-end food management plan. The platform supports everything, from production planning, order forecasting and inventory recording, to recipe management, waste tracking and business reporting. Since no two food service companies are alike, Supplyit’s platform needs to be flexible, so it can support each customer’s unique on-site processes and culture. The platform is currently deployed in over 50 kitchens, at more than 4,300 stores in 7 countries.
In 2018, an opportunity arose for Supplyit to enhance the value it could offer customers by expanding its services to product labeling. A new federal regulation took effect that year, requiring all food service chains with 20+ locations to adhere to the Menu Labeling Final Rule. The Rule states that businesses must provide nutritional data to consumers on demand, including ingredients and allergen information. By incorporating labeling information into its platform, Supplyit could help customers improve food safety processes by managing freshness and stock rotation. In addition, the data gathered from every label printed and scanned could provide valuable insights to aid in forecasting production and waste tracking. In 2019, Supplyit seamlessly integrated Loftware Cloud into its platform to provide an ideal cloud-based labeling solution for its customers.
Prior to implementing Loftware Cloud, Supplyit had some level of integration with customers’ existing labeling systems, but there was a lag time between label printing and Supplyit’s production planning interface. In other cases, customers needed to use multiple systems to manage labeling and production processes, which was inefficient and time-consuming. Supplyit was looking for a label printing solution with an API it could integrate against. Loftware Cloud connects directly with Supplyit’s food service management solution making the integration invisible to the customer, who can access all functionality through one interface. As Thomasin explains, “All our customers know and care about is the fact that they press the print button, and it works.”
Being a cloud-based company ourselves, adopting Loftware’s cloud-based labeling solution was a natural partnership that helped advance our platform to make it an easy one-stop-shop solution for customers managing their fresh food programs.
Thomasin LaMachia
Operations
Before Loftware Cloud, Supplyit worked closely with each customer to develop a food service plan based on detailed forecasting. If the plans were executed correctly, the customer’s merchandising and profitability would improve. Now, Supplyit has integrated production execution with labeling; every time a label is printed it sends an indicator to the system that a product has been produced. This provides Supplyit with greater visibility into plan execution, enabling collaboration with customers to evaluate a plan’s effectiveness for their business. Customers benefit because they now have one place where they can track and store data in real-time. They can see what has been done, what needs to be done, what is coming and what has been thrown away.
Supplyit wanted a labeling solution that would enable the company to control label changes globally and function as an account label printing administrator for its customers. With Loftware Cloud, Supplyit can manage multiple customers through one instance of the labeling platform. Each customer has a dedicated folder, where the Supplyit team uploads its labels. Since many nutrition labels share similar formats and type of information, Supplyit can efficiently reuse certain label designs across multiple customers, resulting in considerable time savings. When there are changes to recipe or nutrition information, the Supplyit team updates the labels in the database, ensuring that the changes are instantly reflected for every user.
Centralized control also helps Supplyit deploy faster, error-free printing for its customers with a sole source of truth for label content. The Supplyit team can monitor the printer status at each customer’s location in real-time to help them troubleshoot any issues, address them promptly, and ensure a smooth, efficient food production process.
One of Supplyit’s unique selling points is that it works across a wide range of label printers and tablets. This provides customers with flexibility, allowing them to choose their preferred hardware vendors or keep their existing equipment. The only requirements are that their printers and tablets can access the Internet and have a modern web browser. This meant Supplyit needed to find a labeling solution that would work well with any printer. Loftware Cloud works seamlessly with cloud-connected printers and features an industry-leading family of print drivers that ensure customers can print to any device, including color printers and coding and marking devices, and still get the same label. This also meant Supplyit could deploy standardized printing to its customers in all their store locations.
