SBIR Phase I: SaaS-Based Procurement and CRM Systems for Local Food Markets

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发工具，为当地种植的食品提供在线市场。 目前，美国有200万个中小型农场难以利用当地食品需求的增长。销售额和利润率的增加使买家难以找到新产品并以有效的方式进行交易。这种低效率的市场是每周330个中小型农场倒闭的原因之一。该项目将提供一个三方面的解决方案：（1）为当地食品市场开发一个创新的基于软件即服务的互联网交易网站;（2）将基于软件即服务的客户关系管理平台纳入该交易网站，以创建一个统一的系统来进行和监测交易;以及（3）许可这种统一的基于SaaS的系统。新鲜食品现在是市场增长最快的部分。购买当地食品的速度很快超过了有机食品，成为食品的新趋势，因为客户看到了更新鲜的产品的价值，增加了品种，减少了对环境的影响，同时支持了当地社区。来自Whole Foods Market，Wild Oats和Byerly Lunds等市场领导者的轶事证据支持当地生产的产品对有机产品越来越重要。每家商店每天都会显示当地产品的数量，但没有提供类似的有机食品数量。不幸的是，尽管对当地生产的粮食的需求稳步增长，但没有建立农业供应链网络来支持这一需求。大型食品分销商现有的供应系统仅适用于大规模农场运营。当地生产商，主要是中小型生产商，仍然依靠过时的方法报告产品、供应、定价、质量和安排交货时间表。由于需要花费大量时间从多个买家那里获取信息，买家通常会转而从知名的大型分销商那里在线订购，从而无法充分利用当地生产商。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to develop tools to enable an online marketplace for locally-grown foods. Currently, two million small and mid-sized US farms struggle to take advantage of the increase in demand for local foods. Increases in sales and margins make it difficult for buyers to source new product and conduct their transactions in an efficient manner. This inefficient market is one reason why 330 small to mid-sized farms go out of business every week. This project will provide a three-fold solution by: (1) developing an innovative Software as a Service (SaaS)-based internet trading site for local food markets; (2) incorporating a SaaS-based customer relationship management platform into this trading site to create a unified system for conducting and monitoring transactions; and (3) licensing this unified SaaS-based system.Fresh foods are now the fastest growing sector of the market. Buying local is quickly outpacing organic as the new trend in food as customers see the value of fresher products, increased variety, and reduced environmental impact while supporting their local community. Anecdotal evidence from market leaders such as Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats, and Byerly Lunds supports the increasing importance of locally produced products over organics. Each store displays a daily tally on the number of local products offered; a similar tally for organic foods is not provided. Unfortunately, despite this steadily growing demand for locally produced food, no agricultural supply chain network has been developed to support this demand. Large food distributors have existing supply systems that are suitable only for large-scale farm operations. Local producers, predominantly small and mid-sized, still rely on outdated methods for reporting offerings, availability, pricing, quality, and for arranging delivery schedules. Buyers, overwhelmed with the time-consuming tasks of juggling information from multiple buyers, typically revert to ordering online from their known large distributors, and thus under-utilize local producers.