June 25th-30th we’ll be fine-tuning the new site in preparation to do a trial run for the July 1st-6th Shopping Cycle. Below you’ll find a timeline of how the implementation will unfold, as well as a checklist to complete to ensure you are ready to go on the new system. Please note that during the trial run we will be using both systems--we will direct a select few customers to the new software web link to participate in the trial run. If you have product listed on both systems and enter your inventory on the new system, you will need to check BOTH systems on July 4th-6th for delivery on July 6th.
Timeline:
June 24-30 Producers continue to register on the LFM software. Producers and SRM staff edit and refine product listings on new software. SRM staff will be working on uploading photos--this may take a few weeks to be complete.
June 30 Continue on the old system as normal. Producers update prices and inventory on the LFM system to participate in the trial.
July 4th Shopping Cycle closes. Login to both (if you have completed the checklist below) systems to print “Pick Tickets.”
July 6th Delivery Day. Matt and Jennifer will begin as the main SRM Management contact for shopping issues. Meadow will continue to help with software conversion issues as needed.
July 7th www.sixriversmarket.org/.com will be redirected to the new software. The old software will still be live for informational purposes at a new link. We will share this link with you when this happens. All inventory must be updated to show up for sale on the new system. Customers will no longer access the old system for orders.
July 8th First official shopping cycle starts on the new system.
July 11th Shopping cycle closes on the new system. You will receive an automated email with your order detail.
Checklist--You MUST complete all these steps!
1. Go to the new software site and register as a Farmer.
2. You'll receive login instructions when you are accepted as a Producer.
3. Please read the Producer Help Guide and follow each of the steps to enter in your farm info. The Producer Help Guide is also located just above the TASKS menu when you login as a Producer. Email your farm photos (2 max) to info@sixriversmarket.org.
4. Please read the Producer Help guide again : )
5. You may now start Adding/Editing your products. Use the Producer Help Guide to walk you through the process. Please review all the product categories so you will know where to search for your products. I changed some of the product categories to simplify the lists and hopefully provide more exposure for some of your products. Email Meadow at info@sixriversmarket.org. if you need help. As part of my testing process, I have added a few products for a few of you, and I will continue to do so as I add photos. Please be sure to compare both your new system product lists with the old system product lists.
A note on entering products: I have entered and categorized all 2000+ products that were on the old system as of 2 weeks ago. You will basically be searching for these products by category and adding specific items in those categories to your offerings. I categorized products based on their names only, I know there will be some mix-ups and a few deletions (we had to work through each product individually--tedious!).
Please try to work with what is in the system. You may choose any product that is in the system, even if it wasn’t originally your product on the old system and edit it specifically to your farm--it will still be there for anyone to use. If you absolutely cannot find your product, email me first if you think it might be lost, from there you can add it as a new product and SRM management will categorize and add it for you. If you have suggestions for category changes, please wait for us to work with the system a bit and make those suggestions in August or so.
To see an example of how other systems on the software enter in products, go to:
http://www.colocalmarket.com/ProductList.aspx?categoryId=4&subCatId=31
6. Edit your prices and inventory. This is now a separate process away from each individual product edit. This makes it a much quicker weekly process to maintain. Please note that the price you enter is what you want to be paid from SRM for that product. SRM takes care of all mark-up and sales tax. Variable weight products must now be entered in for a flat rate, with an average weight listed for customer reference. You may also sell by the pound, which is very simple for the customer to adjust quantity.
We expect that we will all be adjusting prices for a bit.
You will need to re-enter your inventory each week for the first month or so on the system. By default this is how the system knows to list your products that are available. After we have all adjusted to the system we will change the default to automatically apply inventory from the previous cycle’s ending inventory and any adjustments made in the meantime.
7. If you have product photos, for now you must send them to info@sixriversmarket.org. or place them on our Picasa site to make the process quicker. I will send all Producers a welcome email to the Picasa site on Monday or Tuesday. You can find the Picasa site at: Producer Photos.
Please know that uploading all the photos will be a very labor-intensive process for me and I will continue to plug away at it on a volunteer basis as fast as I can in my spare time, it may take a few weeks after the site is live. Matt and Jennifer will work on all new photos as they come in once they are adjusted into their role.
8. Any new products you add will now be added after being individually updated by management. Management immediately receives an automatic notice of your new listing. Any changes to old products (prices, inventory, description) will occur automatically without any management intervention.
9. If you have your products and inventories entered in by June 30th you may participate in the trial run July 1st-6th. On July 4th you will receive an automated email with your detailed order. You may also login to see your order in progress (it’s right there, front and center) make adjustments there or by viewing that week’s order under “Harvest Info.”
10. Please try out the new system yourself and order. To order, you can just start shopping or login at the top right hand corner of the site, using your same username and password as your producer login.
11. You will no longer have customer labels, just bring your product clearly distinguishable with your farm info (a bag of greens or package of meat from one farm may look just like the next guy’s) and we’ll work on checking you in on quantity. If it’s not clearly distinguishable, we’ll have to slow down your check-in and divvy up by customer. This process will be a work in progress for awhile until we all figure out what works best with the new printouts.
12. All product and info (except photos) must be entered in to the new system by July 7th to go live on the new release. We will redirect the sixriversmarket addresses on the 7th and notify you of the link to use to access the old site. We will work with you to help you make the transfer later if you don’t make it in time, just know you won’t make any sales until then.
13. Have patience as we work through all changes in the new system. We'll be promoting it as fast as we can as soon as it is all worked out! Thanks for all your work to make this conversion happen as smoothly as possible.
FAQ's
Q:Can I alter the products listed to keep them in the system but not have them live as before?
There is a new meat processing ruling from FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service - part of the USDA). You can read the entire ruling at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Frame/FrameRedirect.asp?main=http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/2008-0039F.htm.
Essentially this means that it will be legal for state inspected/certified meats from Montana to be sold here in Idaho after eveything is in place, perhaps mid-June). This will be true as well for sales to retail outlets such as Winter Ridge.
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