RedBlack launches CyBake v3 smart software for bakers
YORK, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 14, 2009 – RedBlack Software announces CyBake v3, a brand-new version of its popular bakery management software solution.
New functions in this major CyBake release include specifications management, allergen tracking, advanced invoice management, invoice matching, ad hoc sales queries, day-to-day sales ledger, credit control, supplier relationship management and celebration cakes management.
Partly in response to the growth of RedBlack's larger customers, CyBake v3 now has a completely revamped Microsoft SQL Server/.NET architecture for increased scalability and improved business intelligence capabilities.
The York-based bakery business specialist has also announced a new intelligent ordering module. The new module interfaces with EPOS systems to let head office collect sales data directly from its bakery shops' tills. Order-takers can now analyse shops' orders as they come in, make recommendations and adjustments with their shop managers and tighten up on the ordering process, saving money in terms of both waste and under-ordering.
RedBlack Software managing director Jane Tyler says: "I think CyBake v3 marks a definite gear-shift up from the solution's more traditional capabilities like prep sheets and recipe costing. Its new architecture means that it can store and process far more data than before. And the system's advanced customer and supplier relationship features allow bakers to seriously up their game when it comes to marketing and supply chain management. I believe that CyBake is now the most sophisticated cost-efficient option for bakers in Britain and Ireland."
Specification and allergen tracking
CyBake v3's new specification management function is useful for any bakery that supplies multiples and therefore has to provide specifications of its products. To facilitate this, specifications can be linked within CyBake v3 to product mixes as well as to finished products and ingredients.
Tyler explains: "If anybody asks to see the specification of a product, the bakery sales office can easily identify it without having to go to the technical team to dig around trying to find it."
CyBake v3's new specification management function also allows a bakery's technical team to identify absent ingredient specifications for compliance purposes.
"If you are trying to conform to quality and food safety standards such as BRC, SALSA or EFSIS, you usually need to set up specifications for your finished products as well as acquiring specifications for all of your raw materials," she says. "So for quality control and quality management, CyBake helps you see at-a-glance whether any of those specifications are missing."
While a specification may list allergens, CyBake v3 now actually tracks them so bakeries can specify what allergens are in each ingredient and therefore identify which finished product contains those allergens. CyBake's new allergen-tracking process links allergens to ingredients along every step of the process.
Tyler says: "If you are typing in your quantities on the CyBake order screen and a customer asks whether a product has egg in it, for instance, you can just click on a button and the system lists the product's allergens. It makes relevant technical information accessible to the people who are processing orders and managing clients."
Better invoicing, invoice matching, ledger and reports
Bakeries have to generate huge numbers of invoices because of the quantity of orders that they manage and the quantity of lines on each of those orders. CyBake already generates invoices easily and the new version 3 system now allows users to preview batches of invoices before they are printed.
CyBake v3's new advanced invoice management function allows bakeries to pre-generate all invoices, review them, check them for anomalies, decide which invoices need to be sent by post or email, check their frequency (daily, monthly etc) and even rewind the whole process if there is a snarl-up when they are printed.
CyBake v3 also features a new invoice matching system. Bakeries have a constant stream of raw material deliveries. Incoming invoices, often covering multiple deliveries, then need to be matched with the delivery notes from the supplier.
"Invoice matching is quite complex for bakers so we have developed a tool that easily allows you to check that what you are being charged by the supplier is correct," says Tyler. "Once you have confirmed that it is correct, then that financial information can go over to your accounts system."
Historically, CyBake customers processed sales receipts via accounts packages such as Sage. In CyBake v3, however, customer payments can now be processed through CyBake itself. The solution functions as a day-to-day sales ledger allowing for completely up-to-date customer account balances and credit limit information. CyBake v3 now also features credit control functions with account alerts and reminders.
CyBake v3's conversion to the latest SQL Server technology means it is much easier to access vastly more historical business data without the need for archiving. A new on-screen ad hoc sales query tool means bakeries can instantly analyse customer or product sales data.
Tyler says: "The new ad hoc query tool is very good for management meetings when people want to know how the business has done with a particular customer or a particular product. It’s also good for trouble-shooting because you can actually drill down into your data. It’s a dynamic management tool as opposed to traditional management reports which are often just spreadsheets."
New supplier management and celebration cakes feature
CyBake users already benefit from tools that help them communicate with their client base, prospects and suppliers. Having customer relationship management (CRM) and mailing tools embedded in CyBake along with customer data makes it extremely easy to send marketing communications such as e-mailshots out to clients. Now, CyBake v3 features a new CRM feature, celebration cakes management.
"What you can do now is manage your consumers the same way as your wholesale customers," explains Tyler. "As you would expect, the system logs the order for, say, a birthday cake and sends the specifications off to the production team but now CyBake v3 encourages you to capture and store the details of that particular end-consumer in order to market to them next year and so on."
CyBake v3 features brand-new supplier relationship management functions. RedBlack's CyBake team have found that some retail bakeries have limited use for client contact history as their customers are essentially their own shops. However, these bakeries are very keen to keep such information on suppliers because supply management is all-important in terms of quality and cost control.
Tyler says: "We’ve mirrored all the functionality that was on the customer side onto the supply side, so you can have any number of documents associated with suppliers, you can have any number of contacts on suppliers and you’ve got the full contact history in CyBake v3 of all your conversations with them."
Availability
CyBake v3 is available now as a complete package or as an upgrade for existing CyBake users. CyBake v3's new intelligent ordering module for EPOS systems is also available now as a chargeable extra feature. RedBlack Software offers free, no-obligation demonstrations of CyBake v3 either on-site or online.
For further information, please contact:
Seamus Quinn
Cue Communications
seamusquinn1@yahoo.co.uk
07846 102 192
or
Martin Coyle
RedBlack Software
martin.coyle@redblacksoftware.co.uk
01904 622888
About RedBlack Software
Over 60 bakers across the UK rely on CyBake to enhance, automate and control their business processes. We customise CyBake to our customers’ individual needs and to provide a secure, easy-to-use platform for their future plans. Established in 1995, RedBlack Software also offers a full range of support, training, web development and e-business services. You can find out more about RedBlack Software at http://www.redblacksoftware.co.uk. You can find out more about CyBake at http://www.cybake.co.uk