Neogen Analytics - Learnings from IAFP, Part 2

TITLE CARD: Neogen Analytics

[Music]

TITLE CARD: Learnings from IAFP 2023 Pt. 2

TITLE CARD: David Hatch, VP, Digital Solutions Marketing, Neogen

[A screen shows videos of David Hatch and Dan Dwyer speaking.]

Dan Dwyer: Dave, as we saw at IAFP, there are a lot of providers offering digital data solutions for food safety professionals. What should food safety professionals be looking for in a digital data solution?

David Hatch: Well, Dan that's a great question there are a ton of solutions coming to market. Now we're seeing a real sharp increase in the adoption curve of digital with food safety teams at food producers.

[A screen is shared of five icons. In the middle is a cylinder labelled "Digital Platform". The other icons are connected to the center icon by double-headed arrows. The four outer icons are labelled "Lab Management", "External Lab", "Operations Management", and "Internal Lab". Videos of David Hatch and Dan Dwyer speaking are on the side.]

David: What I'd like to do is just share a few screens and ideas that came to mind after being there at IAFP and kind of seeing the whole range of what's out there. One of the first things that I would advise is to ask the solution providers about their connectivity. And by that I mean, what is the approach and strategy they have to connect to different sources of information? Do they have an open digital platform or is it tied to a specific data source? Will that company, will that solution provider, integrate data from their competing labs? From a mix of your internal and external labs if it's not them? Will they integrate data from the devices you're using? What about the historical information and data that you want to put into the platform so you can see trends and and hot spots and things like that from day one? So that's one concept I think that's uh that's really important.

Dan: What questions should food safety professionals be asking when looking at a digital data solution?

David Hatch: Well, you know, there's more questions than just the connectivity question.

[A screen is shared of four icons bound within a cloud-shaped border. In the middle is a cylinder labelled "Cloud-based Data Platform for All Applications". The other icons are connected to the center icon by double-headed arrows. The three outer icons are labelled "Environmental Monitoring", "Product Testing", and "Sanitation Testing". Videos of David Hatch and Dan Dwyer speaking are on the side.]

David: Another important point to consider is to ask about the completeness of the solution. A point solution can be limited. So, if it's just an application for one type of testing, for example, that can be a problem when you want to start to do more and more with the platform. Today's modern digital solutions should be a platform approach where testing and sanitation are all unified together. It should also be a cloud-based solution that does not burden I.T. with yet another application in another data set to manage. And, most importantly, it should be offered by a company that is in the business of developing and servicing software technology platforms.

Dan: Dave, what should food safety professionals be looking for in a digital data solution provider?

[A screen is shared of three columns. The first column has an image of a floorplan with dots for testing points labelled "Dynamic Floorplan". The text reads "See: Automate the collection and visibility into the food safety program." The second column has an image of bar and pie charts labelled "Integrated Analytics". The text reads "Understand: Determine the root causes and recurrence of problems." The third column has an image of data tables labelled "Actionable Information". The text reads "Act: Document actions to lower risk, improve up-time, gain efficiencies." Videos of David Hatch and Dan Dwyer speaking are on the side.]

David: Really the the company itself should be one that goes beyond just capabilities, but actually can talk about their vision for what they're trying to do and where they're going. You don't want to just see what's going on and we have a nice floor plan map here on the left. You want to be able to then understand what all of this testing data and sanitation and incidents that get reported. What does it mean? How is that trending? Where are your hot spots? Show me a heat map. How do I get at and understand the information? And then finally, even more importantly, is it actionable? Right? Can I take action? Can the software help guide me through my corrective action? So I'm following my protocols; I'm not missing any steps; and, in the end, I've got a consistent conformance to my own policies.

[A screen is shared of company logos including 8th Avenue, Blue Diamond, Denali Ingredients, H.E.B., Laterra Fina, Rich's, Sargento, ADM, Borton Fruit, Dairy Farmers of America, Hilmar, Lindt, Rosina, Sheetz, Smithfield, Bakery Barn, Café Valley, Friendly Grains, IFF, McCormick, Rudolph Farms, VitaQuest, Barilla, Chobani, Gifford's, John Soules Foods, Joseph Farms, Sabra, Wyman's, Deluxe, Biery, Colorado Premium, Glanbia, Ken's, Salad and Go, U.S. Waffle Company, Bimbo Bakeries, U.S.A., Danone, Great Lakes Cheese, Kunzler, Post, Saputo, and Zentis. Videos of David Hatch and Dan Dwyer speaking are on the side.]

David: Does the company and provider actually have an established set of customers? Do they have scale? Are they delivering that solution today? Have they done this before or are you going to end up being the guinea pig? Right? There's a lot of new solutions out there that are being offered by companies that are not actually software development companies and they're trying to service and support something that their company's not set up to do and they've only done it at a handful of experimental customer accounts. You want to be working with a company that's got a broad set of customers that works globally, has their product translated into languages. As you and your company grow, you want this company to be there to grow along with you.

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TITLE CARD: Neogen Analytics