Posted: 26/07/19
2019 Trade Interchange User Group Round-Up
Trade Interchange hosted the second edition of its annual ARCUS® User Group last month, allowing users of the supplier management platform to see the latest product updates, industry-specific case studies and guest speakers, and the opportunity to provide direct feedback in an interactive workshop session.
A total of 29 people attended the User Group, which was hosted at the Ambassadors Hotel in Bloomsbury, London. The wide-ranging audience included a variety of ARCUS® users, industry experts and Trade Interchange partners across a number of industries and departments, including procurement, quality/technical, and supply chain professionals.
The session was kicked off by Mike Edmunds, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Trade Interchange, where the latest updates to the ARCUS® supplier management platform was presented and then demonstrated.
These included revisions to the user interface and the responsiveness of the platform, ARCUS® Connect and its new APIs, new functionality within the Product Information Management (PIM) module, and supplier map dashboards within ARCUS® SIM.
TGI Fridays presented the first case study of the day, with Maria Loftus (Senior Technical Manager) and Stuart Bradford (Supply Chain Manager), alongside Mike Edmunds, showcasing how the world-renowned casual dining restaurant chain utilises ARCUS® SIM and PIM to manage supplier and product information.
You can download the TGI Fridays case study to find out more about the integration between the PIM module and Fourth’s Recipe Management & Engineering solution, and how this has led to increased supply base confidence across the procurement, technical, supply chain and food development departments.
We were then pleased to welcome Lynne Regent, Anaphylaxis Campaign CEO, as our industry speaker to present on the critical issue of allergens in food products, and what allergic consumers need from the industry to minimise the risk of being exposed to these.
The passionate and informative talk was then followed by a short question and answer session with Lynne, who later commented on Twitter that “it was great to present to such a receptive audience”.
Following a quick coffee break, Claire Ballantine, VP Policy, Process and Deployment, Global Supply Management at Sodexo, presented a case study on how ARCUS® Connect allows seamless integration between the Sodexo NorAm’s internal systems and the supplier on-boarding process.
Claire also went onto discuss Sodexo Global Supply Management, which covers 80 countries, and how ARCUS® Connect integrates this with the risk rate tool, NAVEX Global. This has helped to create a go/no-go gateway for potential vendors, with positive vendors then being automatically invited to answer Sodexo’s full supplier on-boarding questionnaire.
After lunch, the User Group was concluded with an interactive workshop session, allowing users of the ARCUS® supplier management platform to provide us with direct and actionable feedback.
A variety of questions were discussed, including common pain points faced by the procurement, technical and supply chain departments, as well as what new features and API connections would further enhance the usability of the ARCUS® platform.
Summarising the event, Mike Edmunds said: “Building upon of the success of last year’s event, it was great to see more than double the amount of people in the room! Additionally, we know that the feedback we received, which has come directly from our users, will prove to be invaluable in further improving the ARCUS® platform, and will form an integral part of our future road-maps.”