The development of a system and methodology for implementing a “regional food provenance verification, and trading platform” for the County Kilkenny and possibly other counties in the region

Tender description

Kilkenny LEADER Partnership and its partners in the Kilkenny Food Strategy Steering Group, inlkcuding Kilkenny Local Enterprise Office, propose to develop a system to build trading relationships and mutualised commercial benefits between participating producers, retailers, hospitality businesses in County Kilkenny initially, but with a design to allow scaling to the near region and beyond: see attached Overview document for futher context. A key objective driving the initial concept of the larger project is to verify the provenance of food sold in the retail and hospitality sector. This objective will remain a flagship of the project, in addition the overall objective of the system will be to bring wider benefits in one or more of the following areas. 1) Help to increase sales. 2) Help to increase Trust and Quality control in the local food businesses. 3) Help to reduce business costs and inter-group trading costs. The system will be ICT 'cloud-based' model accessed by smart-phone or equivalent, and will have the following primary objectives: 1) To encourage and help local food companies in the Kilkenny region to trade together more effectively. 2) To provide a “Go To” site for visitors to the Kilkenny region in terms of “all things food”. 3) To assist in building and promoting the Kilkenny brand as a premier food destination in Ireland. 4) To improve the trust and transparency of genuine local food products in the Kilkenny region. Tendering parties should include all costs of the research, development, implementation/ commissioning, technical support for 5-years, and necessary upgrades (to protect core functions) in their proposal. The system should include the following modules: • Sales Order Entry • Purchase Order Entry • Inter-Group Verification Module • Traceability Module • Quality Module • HACCP Module • Menu Management • Users On-Line Store module • Inventory Management • Production Management Module • Planning Module • Reports and Analysis