Smithfield, RI – Maine Coast, a leading, global distributor of North Atlantic live lobster and CAI Software ― developers of Seasoft, the industry-leading ERP software for seafood processors ― today announced that Maine Coast has improved inventory visibility and minimized global distribution costs with Seasoft.
Founded in 2011, Maine Coast’s state-of-the-art 30,000 square foot facility at its headquarters in York, Maine holds 160,000 pounds of live lobster and offers value-added lobster products to its global customers. The company’s live lobster facility on the Boston Fish Pier includes a 5,000-square-foot facility with the capacity to hold up to 30,000 pounds of live lobsters. Maine Coast provides rapid-ship delivery worldwide via Logan Airport and specialized service to Boston and Southern New England area customers as well as customers in more than 30 countries worldwide.
Prior to implementing Seasoft in the summer of 2017, Maine Coast had been using a combination of spreadsheets, Google Docs and QuickBooks accounting software to run the business. As the company grew, the disjointed applications, files and documents limited visibility into sales, inventory and other key areas, and generally made accessing essential business information on demand and when needed a challenge.
Mike Delahanty, CFO for Maine Coast had come to realize that they needed to upgrade their business software to gain more control over inventory. “We went as long as we could with our legacy software and we knew that we needed industry specific software that could meet the specific needs of a large seafood processor. We evaluated several options and spoke to others around the industry. After speaking with the folks at CAI Software and evaluating the system up close, we knew Seasoft was the right decision for our company.”
“Since our go-live on Seasoft just over 25 months ago, the software has paid for itself in enhanced productivity and cost savings,” Delahanty continued. “By working with the team at Seasoft during the implementation process, we were able to configure a software system that feels like it was designed specifically for our business model. If you need new software, Seasoft should be at the top of your list.”
Pat Gannon, vice president of sales for CAI said, “Seasoft is the number one choice for high-volume lobster and shellfish processing. The opportunity to work with industry leaders like Maine Coast has helped us develop a range of convenient production and distribution tools that are a perfect fit for these businesses. From our convenient digital whiteboard that improves inventory visibility to comprehensive lobster grading tools, Seasoft is the choice for lobster and shellfish fisheries looking to maximize productivity and profits.”
“Seasoft’s digital whiteboard has been a real game-changer,” Delahanty said. “The digital whiteboard shows everyone the daily total number of pounds of lobster and the specific lobster sizes on-hand at each site, so we always know what’s available for sale. We also get a snapshot of incoming and allocated inventory over any defined period of time, and because everyone is working with the same, real-time information, our sales team can confidently fill the orders they are taking.”
Comprehensive Lobster Grading Helps Evaluate Supplier Profitability
Seasoft also includes comprehensive lobster grading capabilities that help Maine Coast evaluate profitability based on the source of the product. Seasoft captures and displays historical data for each lobster supplier over a period of time. Maine Coast can determine the size and quality of the lobster runs each vendor has been providing, along with the percentage of discards and the sales margins achieved for each vendor ― and this helps Main Coast better manage profit margins.
Managing Delivery Costs to Its Global Customers
As a major exporter, Maine Coast has built a sophisticated network of carriers to deliver its products to its customers overseas. To help manage these transportation partners and accurately track delivery costs, including rebates and commissions, Seasoft worked with the team at Maine Coast to develop an export-specific packing slip that itemizes individual box numbers within each international shipment.
“We’ve developed a series of unique partnerships and methodologies involving multiple, independent freight carriers,” Delahanty said. “Seasoft’s Export Packing Slip lets us designate a combination of transportation partners as a single carrier. This simplifies freight rate analysis and control, and helps us to cost-effectively deliver our products to our international customers.”
About Seasoft
Seasoft Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software is an on-demand, turnkey business management solution that helps seafood processors and distributors operate more profitably through increased efficiency, reduced costs, enhanced inventory controls, improved the accuracy of yields and costs, elimination of unacceptable shipping delays, and the ability to respond quickly to food safety issues.
About CAI Software, LLC
CAI Software, LLC is a recognized leader in the delivery of on-demand enterprise resource planning (ERP) and management systems, software, network integration and business consulting services to market-leading companies in the building materials, food processing, precious metals and discrete manufacturing/distribution industries. We are headquartered in Rhode Island, USA.
