By Todd Cohen
Chicago

The Second Harvest national food bank network is streamlining its inventory process, thanks to a new software system it will use at its headquarters and nearly 200 affiliates.

The Adage system, purchased at a 90 percent discount from SCT Corp. in Malvern, Pa., is the cornerstone of Second Harvest's "enterprise" initiative, which aims to speed the flow of food throughout the network.

"We're feeding hungry people," says Melinda Resser, associate director of information technology at Second Harvest. "Anyway we can do that faster and better is what we want to do."

The new software, known as an "enterprise resource-planning package," is designed to track inventory. It can handle data on distribution, accounting, planning and manufacturing - although Second Harvest has little need for the manufacturing function.

Adage does not handle fundraising or payroll, but will allow individual food banks to integrate some fundraising data with information managed by the new software.

"The ultimate goal is to get streamlined operations," says Resser, "saving time in our distribution functions, and also to get better data so we can make better decisions as a network."

In connection with the new software, Second Harvest is instituting a "uniform-number initiative" requiring all affiliates in the network to use common numbers to identify food categories and products, as well as demographic data.

"We can't share data unless we're all using the same language," Resser says.

The new software and numbering system will replace the network's crazy-quilt system of computers and software - some of which are obsolete. Given the size of the network, change was overdue.

Second Harvest, the largest hunger-relief organization in the U.S. and its sixth-largest charity, delivers 1 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products a year to about 50,000 agencies that feed 26 million hungry Americans.

Four food banks - in Charlotte, N.C.; Colorado Springs; Hillside, N.J.; and Indianapolis - already are using the new software system. They are among 42 food banks that have enrolled in the project so far and are expected to be using the new system by the end of this year.

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina in Charlotte, for example, is using Adage for inventory and, initially, for some financial record-keeping.

The Charlotte group paid $15,000 to buy the software from Second Harvest, and spent another $6,000 to $7,000 to upgrade equipment.

Anne Register, executive director of the Charlotte affiliate, says serving as a lab for Second Harvest, helping to work out any kinks in the system, can be a challenge - but that the payoff is the more efficient and effective distribution of food.

"We are grateful we've had this opportunity," she says. "You struggle when you are designated a pilot, but there are some cost savings and we hope some of the learning we've had as a pilot will benefit some of the other food banks down the line that will be receiving Adage."

Three other companies have contributed technology to Second Harvest to support its enterprise initiative. Hewlett-Packard provided $94,000 worth of computers, printers and other equipment for Second Harvest's headquarters and a handful of affiliate food banks. Microsoft donated $1.5 million in software, including operating systems, databases and productivity tools, such as word-processing, spreadsheets and desktop publishing. And Lotus contributed $250,000 in software to strengthen e-mail capabilities throughout the food bank network.

Todd Cohen can be reached at
tcohen@mindspring.com