HighJump Happenings

HighJump Software was recently named to the annual Food Logistics 100. The FL100 is a listing of technology solution and service providers selected by the editorial staff of Food Logistics magazine that are helping food, beverage and CPG companies gain a competitive logistical advantage.
 
“HighJump Software empowers food manufacturers, distributors and retailers to tackle a number of critical challenges, including increasingly complex regulations, rising costs and slim margins,” said Timothy Campbell, President and CEO, HighJump Software. “We’re honored to have been recognized by Food Logistics once again as a technology provider of choice for the food industry.”

Read the press release to learn more about how HighJump Software helps food and beverage companies with supply chain improvement.

HighJump Software announces the latest release of its market leading mobility solution for mobile sales and mobile delivery. HighJump Mobile Sales Advantage, HighJump Virtual Cooler, and HighJump RouteXpress have been enhanced based on evolving technology and industry needs.

The HighJump mobile suite for direct store delivery (DSD) extends the route accounting system into the field for real-time visibility of sales and customer data. HighJump’s mobile products help integrate selling, marketing and delivery efforts across the organization. The HighJump mobile delivery system combines order processing, delivery, peddle sales, invoice management and comprehensive settlement capabilities to streamline daily delivery activities.

Read the full press release.

Since launching our blog earlier this year, it’s been exciting to watch the number of visitors to the blog soar since its inception. As we close out 2009, it’s fitting to take a look back and see which posts were the most popular in terms of page views.

1. What Makes a Good Metric?

2. When Choosing Metrics, Start at the Top

3. Be Careful What You Ask For With ERP Based WMS Warehouse Management Systems

4. What Really is in a WMS to ERP interface?

5. When Metrics Turn Evil

6. My Friends Are Getting Old, Your WMS May Be Getting Old Too!

7. Is RFID Dead? Should it be?

8. Don’t Underestimate the Value of an Integrated Manufacturing and Warehouse Solution

9. Is SKU Reduction Good for Consumer Goods Supply Chains?

10. Another Logistics Service Provider Chooses HighJump

We’ve enjoyed providing insights on supply chain best practices and hearing your thoughts and opinions too. Here’s to more great conversation in 2010! 

HighJump Software just announced the dates for Innovation 2010, which will take place at the Fairmont Scottsdale in Arizona. Mark your calendars for HighJump's user conference, October 24-27.

HighJump Innovation gives our customers a chance to network with industry peers and gain valuable insights into how to better leverage their HighJump solutions to achieve ongoing success. Attendees expand their understanding of successful supply chain management best practices in today's demanding environment.

Visit the Innovation website for more information.

HighJump Software today announced the appointment of Robert Martin as Vice President of Corporate Development. Martin will lead HighJump Software’s worldwide acquisition efforts.

Growth through acquisition is a critical component to HighJump’s corporate strategy. In his role, Martin will be responsible for identifying acquisition candidates that align with HighJump Software’s strategy, negotiating merger and acquisition transactions and ensuring acquired businesses are successfully integrated to meet strategic objectives.

Read the press release.

• Improving implementation quality and speed
• Empowering both executives and staff with graphical, actionable business intelligence data
• Allowing customers to select which capabilities to include in each application upgrade

Since wine and spirits distributor Empire Merchants implemented HighJump Warehouse Advantage, HighJump's WMS warehouse management system, in its distribution center, the company has seen improvements across its operations. The HighJump solution has enabled Empire to implement just-in-time (JIT) replenishment, ousting its previous paper-based replenishment process and virtually eliminating wait times in its pick lines.

“We couldn’t have picked a better software package and implementation partner than HighJump Warehouse Advantage and CIBER.” says Tony Magliocco, COO, Empire Merchants. “The software is working as the project team designed it. As a result, our fill rates have increased and our distribution costs have decreased dramatically.”

Read the full story here.

Built with supply chain management best practices in mind, HighJump's supply chain logistics software helps companies optimize complicated distribution operations.
 

Last night's Universal CityWalk event was a huge hit. View photos from the event here.

Innovation 2009 is wrapping up this morning with breakfast and customer and executive roundtables. Throughout the rest of the morning, attendees will meet for roundtables with other customers using similar products and in like industries. 

Innovation 2009 has been a huge success!  Customers rave about the event as being a great time to network with other customers, spend time with HighJump employees, learn about new ways to leverage their HighJump solutions, and meet with HighJump Partners.

Thank you to all our attendees and sponsors for another great conference!
 

This year’s conference features nine customer case study presentations, giving customers an opportunity to share the cool things they’re doing with their HighJump solutions.  John B. Sanfilippo and Sons (JBSS), the makers of Fisher Nuts, presented this afternoon on how they use the HighJump WMS warehouse management system to manage its manufacturing operations and allergen and contamination prevention.

Keeping the nuts from comingling is serious business, and the HighJump WMS enables JBSS to enforce a strict allergen control program, including put away logic by nut type.  For example, the system doesn’t allow a worker to put away any nut that isn’t an almond on top of an almond.  These specific rules prevent contamination of allergens.

The system also enables work order processing and picking in the company’s manufacturing operations.  The system tracks the nuts all the way from the supplier through the manufacturing and distribution process.

Thomas Kirkham, Director of Systems Implementations, John B. Sanfilippo & Sons, Inc, highlighted the following benefits from implementing HighJump Warehouse Advantage.

·         Reduced physical inventories from quarterly to annually

·         Inventory accuracy over 99% - up from 80%

·         Service levels up from 90% to 99.5%

·         Picking efficiency increased 50% and rising

·         Inventory levels at record lows

·         Audit scores have increased

·         Food safety has become a selling point

 Watch this video to see the HighJump WMS in action at JBSS.

Last night, Innovation 2009 attendees enjoyed some networking, appetizers and drinks in the Partner Pavilion before heading out to enjoy some free time at the resort and Universal Studios.  You'll find more photos from the evening here.

HighJump customers packed into the Introduction to HighJump RouteCenter session Tuesday morning to hear more about HighJump's newest next generation route accounting system. The session turned quickly to an interactive discussion between the group and the presenters, Chris Senden, Senior Account Manager, and Bill Antoszewski, Technical Product Manager. Customers fired off question after question about features and functionality they'd like to implement into their own organizations.

HighJump RouteCenter is HighJump’s newest route accounting system with complete functionality for beer distributors, soft drink bottlers, and wine and spirits distributors. Key functionality in the system includes order management, inventory management, route settlement, pricing, promotions and integration to HighJump Software’s mobile software suite. HighJump Software recently announced the release of HighJump RouteCenter On-Demand, a Software as a Service (SaaS) version of the system.

Senden said that customers love the feature-rich HighJump RouteCenter because of its ease of integration and robust flexibility.

One customer summed it up on his way out of the session with, "Wow."

Cal Petty of CIBER continued the discussion of thought leadership in the supply chain with a great presentation on apply best practice benchmarking in warehouse operations. In his presentation, Cal highlighted three required components in driving continuous improvement in warehousing.

1.       A quality measure of current operational performance (baseline metrics)

2.       An understanding of what is possible based on the nature of the warehouses involved (best practices benchmarks)

3.       A roadmap for planned movement from baseline to best practices

How long after implementing a best practice can you expect to see savings? Cal says it’s best to be patient. It can take from one to three months to see changes. 

Here are three resources Cal suggests for benchmarking data:

WERC: Warehousing Education and Research Council

CSCMP: Council for Supply Chain Management Professionals

APQC: American Productivity and Quality Center