The secret to success with Safefood 360°

It doesn’t take much to become convinced of the many benefits of purchasing Safefood 360° for your food safety & quality management system. Where else would you find such a comprehensive suite of software tools from HACCP Planning through PRP Control to Supply Chain Management and just about everything else in between.

Frequently our new customers will ask us how they should approach the implementation of Safefood 360° to ensure its long term success. Introducing a brand new management system into your organization is not without its challenges, nor should its significance be understated. And when it comes to an application which reaches so many different departments including Hygiene, HR, Maintenance, Quality and Production it really needs to be planned carefully. Get it right, and you’re on the road to a much better place. Get it wrong, and you’ll be making all sorts of excuses as to why you don’t need Safefood 360° when your next renewal is due.

The first thing you need to know is that success with Safefood 360° is your responsibility, not ours. As the customer you ‘own’ the decision to purchase the product and for all the right reasons. Therefore it is up to you to ensure that your time and financial investment pays off and that you don’t find yourself with a project failure on your hands in a matter of months. The Safefood 360° team does everything in its power to help you through this process, and we make it as streamlined for you as possible. For some customers this might simply be having access to the customer service team 24/7 to answer questions and provide setup support. For others, we completely setup the system from start to finish.

Another important point to understand is that Safefood 360° is not a robot nor does it possess artificial intelligence (although I believe the product team is working on that as we speak). It doesn’t take command of your quality management system from day one allowing you to sit back and put the feet up. It requires time, effort and input to get it up and running. I guess you are surprised to hear a software company tell you that?! Even with all the help in the world it will still need your continued care and attention to make it successful. Furthermore, certain things may, at least initially, take longer to complete in Safefood 360° than simply doing it on paper. When it comes to your line manager scribbling their initial on a piece of paper versus logging into an iPad there’s rarely any competition. However it is the bigger picture where the astronomical benefits come from.

You must understand these points and what you are getting yourself into before embarking on the Safefood 360° journey. With acceptance of this you will have a significantly greater chance of success. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that it’s all work and no play. There will be plenty of fun along the way and especially as soon as you and your team start to realize the benefits of your new system. We simply want to be honest with you and make you aware of the road ahead. All too often software companies will over promise, under deliver and are less than honest with their customers when it comes to the effort required to get a new software project off the ground. Safefood 360° is different. Our entire team is made up of food safety professionals from the industry who have felt your pain as we worked in your roles.

The following advice particularly pertains to our smaller clients who often decide to do much of the implementation work themselves while leaning on our professional services team only when they need to. And I am pleased to say that the key solution is much easier than you may think.

Choose one thing and make it hugely successful.

Time and time again we have seen clients take this approach and it is a pleasure to watch their systems grow and mature at the appropriate pace bringing everyone along with them. This ‘one thing’ could be your biggest pain point, which for many customers is getting control of all their food safety documentation. We have customers who did nothing else for a year but to establish a robust Document Control system across the entire organization which everyone came to know and appreciate. Others choose Corrective Actions or Supplier Control. Whatever it is, identify it, put a plan in place for its implementation and put the blinkers on so that you do not become distracted by anything else in Safefood 360° until you have made this a success.

With an early win such as this, you have already validated your decision and are seeing quick return on your investment. Now you can take your next 2-3 pain points and start working on those. In time, you will get through the whole system or as much of it as your operation requires. This may take a couple of months, a year, maybe several years. It doesn’t matter, because there is no hurry. It’s better to do it right than to do it quickly and put everything at risk. Accelerating the implementation of a software project beyond its natural pace is one of the biggest causes of project failure. Our professional services team can help you establish a workable implementation plan which is aligned with your own objectives, resources and timelines.

Safefood 360° is a superb, evolving platform which is supported and developed by a passionate team of food safety experts. We’re in this for the long haul and so should you be. Unlike older software systems which had a definitive lifespan before they keeled over, Safefood 360° is permanent. It is a living, breathing and growing software application which will always be alongside you supporting your food safety and quality needs. As a food company having Safefood 360° arrive at your facility is like winning money! The question is what you do with it. Do you take it to the nearest bookies and put it on the next football game? Or do you invest it in the stock market and watch it grow over time ultimately providing a mega return on your investment.

In summary, here are the secrets to success with Safefood 360°

• Do your homework and know what you are getting yourself into.
• Accept that responsibility for project success is yours.
• Think big, but start small.
• Put a plan in place and execute.
• Look at it as a long term investment.

If you are a new or existing customer and would like to discuss the above with the author or any of the team, please get in touch.