e-Cert - the innovative multifunctional software for use in inspection and certification management. The software introduces a new standard of reliable inspection and certifi-cation procedures for safer food worldwide.
1. e-Cert offers a new license model with low prices
2. Welcome to NASAA, the new e-Cert client
3. Improve your services with e-Cert web
4. e-Cert Internal Audit (e-Cert IA)
5. Organic Services GmbH now worldwide sales partner
6. BioForUs now represents e-Cert in Spain
7. Brief update from e-Cert users
8. Benefit from a guided tour …
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Dear friends and colleagues,
New clients! We had a busy time after BioFach 2006 in Nuremberg where we had the opportunity meeting many of you at our presentation or booth. As in every other business we got again more interest than signatures, but the e-Cert family is developing: NASAA Australia can be welcomed as new client, read more below.
And new profiles! In an effort to make e-Cert more accessible for very small and medium sized inspection or certification bodies we worked hard to implement the experiences won with our first e-Cert users: bio.inspecta, Austria BioGarantie, Naturland. e-Cert is from now on offered in a single user application (which at any time can be upgraded to more users or functionalities) including full workflow. Check out whether this may be an interesting option for your certification programme, be it organic or any other quality management system. By the way, when speaking about quality management: another new tool offered is e-Cert Internal Audit for Quality Managers in organisations or companies, read more below.
I wish you success,
Gerald A. Herrmann
g.herrmann@ organic-services.com
Mobile: +49 (0)177 552 14 60
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1. e-Cert offers a new license model with low prices
e-Cert is continuously growing in functionality due to numerous specific needs differing from client to client and from country to country. In order to meet low budgets of small and medium sized CBs e-Cert GmbH recently launched an additional e-Cert licence model which is based on the number of work stations operating with e-Cert.
Even starting with a single workstation several people can work using different logins. This assures that the electronic workflow can be fully applied. Additional user licences can be booked at any time. The possibility to limit the system to a small number of users opens the possibility to reduce the licence fee dramatically. e-Cert is now affordable also for very little CBs and inspection bodies.
The recommended starting setup includes
- management of master data (persons, animal, fields, products)
- inspection
- certification
- guideline designer
- electronic workflow (predefined checkpoints, deviations, sanctions and deadlines
- correspondence
Of course additional modules like “invoicing”, “combo guideline designer” etc. can be booked at any time.
To reduce side costs such as training, customizing etc., standard settings are already integrated into e-Cert ASP such as animal tree, product tree. In addition standard checklists and standard reports will be integrated. e-Cert ASP comes along with a 2-day training session including customizing the reports, checklists etc. to the needs of the CB. To reduce further on-site time of our IT people, online training courses are offered in addition.
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2. Welcome to NASAA, the new e-Cert client
NASAA, Australia: Straight after BioFach 2006 the specific requirements of NASAA were defined and documented during a blueprint workshop in Munich, Germany. Since beginning of August e-Cert is up and running at the office of NASAA in Adelaide. Brad Nott, project manager of NASAA: “We had an intensive implementation phase with the IT people of Intact (comment: Intact is the software house behind e-Cert) to get our processes into e-Cert, who provided excellent, world class customer support. With some hard work several databases were integrated into e-Cert and at this very early stage, NASAA can see a return on its investment and is looking forward to being able to grow into e-Cert and utilise its total potential.”For further information please see www.nasaa.com.au
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3. Improve your services with e-Cert web
Certification data that are collected and created in e-Cert may be of value for several target groups. The public in general, clients (operators, processors) or buyers of products of your clients might be interested in up to date information on the organic status of a specific product, product line or even a specific lot. With e-Cert a certification body can offer these data on its website or send each change of status to a defined mailing list. Whether a service fee will be charged for this information or whether this is just an additional service which underlines the good service of your organisation can of course be decided individually by you. Contact us for more information and cost of e-Cert web.
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4. e-Cert Internal Audit (e-Cert IA)
In the first place e-Cert was developed for third party inspection and
certification. When Coop Switzerland (see2. above) got interested in working
with e-Cert it became evident that e-Cert can perfectly be used for any
other audit management system as well. Most organisations and companies
are nowadays certified according to one or several quality management
standards. Internal audits shall assure that every department, outlet
(shop) or profit centre meets the company’s quality management goals.
If documented electronically, data can be analysed according to pre-defined
criteria.
e-Cert IA allows for extensive benchmarking analyses which can be for example the basis for proper and efficient internal or external training sessions on specific topics within a company resulting in a continuous improvement process.
e-Cert IA normally runs on one workstation – the desk of the quality manager. If applicable offline tablet PC’s can be used for on-site documentation. Contact us for further information services and price.
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5. Organic Services GmbH now worldwide sales partner
Due to the good and successful cooperation Intact and Organic Services agreed Organic Services to be its worldwide sales partner for all Intact software programs except Austria and Switzerland where Intact will continue to further develop business. Intact the software house who developed e-Cert offers other quality management systems such as
- NutriWeb™ – The online documentation and benchmarking system for agricultural production.
- FlowWeb™ – The tool for tracing, tracking and quantity monitoring across the supply chain
- ControlNet.EUREPGAP™ – Auditing made simple
- TraceNet.ERP™ – internal traceability and business software
As well as e-Cert all other software programs provide cutting edge technology in their area. They are implemented, proven to deliver in practise and can be seen in real time at our clients. The authentic knowledge of agriculture, quality management and software development as well as the good cooperation with current clients enable the Intact team to develop software in superior quality. Contact us to get more information!
For more information please see also http://www.intact.cc
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6. BioForUs now represents e-Cert in Spain
Immediately when getting introduced to e-Cert and other software programs of Intact Consult LMS GmbH Mr. Josè Luis Martìnez knew that he wanted to cooperate with e-Cert and Intact. Recently Organic Services GmbH, the international sales partner of Intact and BioForUs signed a sales contract with BioForUs for Spain (see 7).
BioForUs started as an independent project in 2003 offering various services to companies and professionals working in the organic market in Spain and Latin America.Main objectives of BioForUs are to assist the sector in professionalising, to promote production and commerce, to increase consumption, to modernise industries and rural prosperity, and, in short, anything contributing to the development of organic farming and a healthier and more respected planet.
After ICS, sales partner for the US, BioForUs is the second contracted sales partner. Welcome!
For further information please see http://www.bioforus.com
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7. Brief update from e-Cert users
e-Cert founders: Founders of e-Cert IT GmbH (Austria Bio Garantie, Austria; bio.inspecta, Switzerland; Intact Consult, Austria; and Naturland, Germany) have been working with e-Cert since the beginning of 2005. Time these companies previously ‘wasted’ on administrative procedures is now used for core business activities such as “processing applications from new clients”, “inspections” and “certification” and better servicing clients in general. The benefit of e-Cert becomes highly evident for financial management. Before implementing e-Cert, invoicing to clients according to complex fee schedules and license schemes were a time consuming challenge. The integration of this functionality into the automated e-Cert procedures results in efficiency and as a consequence to a timelier and consolidated cash-flow.
e-Cert is more and more regarded as an integral part of the organisations’ strategies. Paid services (see also below 4.) additionally offered as well as strategic cooperation with other organisations are possible with a strong and reliable database which guarantees best practice at daily work.
International Certification Services (ICS), USA: After implementation in October 2005, ICS was concentrating on adapting internal procedures to e-Cert. During a training and consultation workshop in June 2006 next steps were decided to implement additional tools of e-Cert. Implementation of e-Cert’s electronic workflow has started by now and will facilitate follow up of sanction and deadline management. At the same time it will provide the necessary information for invoicing to be implemented during the next step. Implemented and running services such as inspection, recertification, and product approval will generate a specific billing rate that is booked to the e-Cert account of each client. All billing rates are ready for printing at any time (monthly, quarterly, yearly etc.). For further information please see www.ics-intl.com
Coop, Switzerland: Coop is using e-Cert for its internal audit management system, including audits of all suppliers and outlets. Supplier and product data are automatically transferred from the internal Electronic Resource Planning (ERP) system (SAP software). The quality manager now works with an efficient tool enabling him to analyse critical points whether in general or at a certain outlet. Benchmark analyses according to specific checkpoints (entrance area, fresh fruit presentation etc.) as well as to the number and kind of non-conformities directly result in proper and efficient training sessions on specific issues and will consequently lead to a continuous improvement process (see also 5. below).
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international organization that has developed guidelines and procedures for the accreditation of certification bodies. These accredited certification bodies are authorized to carry out assessments of forest management and timber processing or trading companies according to FSC Standards, and to issue FSC certificates.
To make the system transparent and to allow the end consumer to check where their certified product is coming from FSC is providing an online data base where information of the FSC certificate holders is available. To facilitate the time consuming data entry for the FSC accredited Certification Bodies operating worldwide, FSC is developing an online data base system based using the e-cert technology. It is expected that the FSC data base will be finalized in October 2006. For further information please see www.fsc.org
agroVet, Austria: Founded in 1998 by the entrepreneur Dr Mattias Grill, agroVet offers a wide range of certification services in conventional agriculture mainly within the veterinary and livestock sectors, such as beef labelling standards, HACCP and hygiene inspection. agroVet offers ‘GMO free’ and EurepGap certification since 2003. e-Cert is appreciated as a management tool that increases efficiency especially when more than one certification service (standard) is applied. For further information please see www.agrovet.at
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8. Benefit from a guided tour …
Do you want to learn more about the functionalities of e-Cert? Fix a date for a “guided tour” right now! This is a free service offered by Organic Services! e-Cert provides a demo-system that is accessible via internet, displaying all the functionalities of e-Cert and showing how to make use of them in your company. No matter where you are located and what the time difference is between your location and European time – we can fix a date and can lead you step by step and topic by topic through the software. Following on from the data-conference, a phone-conference completes the technical set-up to discuss all questions on the spot. If you are interested please contact us to arrange a private meeting.
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“e-Cert News” is published by Organic Services. Gerald A. Herrmann, Director of Organic Services is responsible for international business development of e-Cert. We welcome comments.
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