Prophet Brings Practical AI and Produce-Built Planning to the IFPA Global Produce & Floral Show; Bryan Barsness Comments

ORLANDO, FL - I like to think of IFPA’s Global Produce & Floral Show as the most extensive runway in fresh produce. As companies build toward new program launches, solutions, and refreshed messaging for today’s customers, the show creates opportunities for the industry as a whole to take off—to new horizons and more. As we quickly approach this year’s event, October 14–16, I connected with Prophet North America, a software provider for the fresh food and horticultural industry with extensive experience in fresh and chilled perishable produce, to discuss what the runway looks like for them as we look to Orlando.

Bryan Barsness, Business Development Director—North America, did not just give me a sneak peek; he shared a mindset and a strategy...

I'm always curious what a team chooses to lead with at the Global Show, especially now that AI is part of so many conversations on the floor. What message is Prophet bringing to Orlando this year, and which programs are you most looking forward to sharing?

Bryan Barsness, Business Development Director—North America: Our message this year is simple: practical AI and smarter planning that make every day easier for produce teams. Everyone has heard about AI by now. What our customers care about is whether it actually saves their people time on a Tuesday in the middle of a busy season, and everything we are bringing to the Global Show is built around that question.

The headline is Prophet Pulse, a CRM built specifically for produce. On a typical morning, a sales desk might receive orders by email, WhatsApp, text, and phone, and someone has to retype every one of them into the system. With Pulse, AI reads those messages and turns them into sales orders automatically, dropping into the same box as EDI orders, so the salesperson spends that time with customers instead of on data entry with multiple systems.

We are also launching Prophet Insights. Instead of waiting days for someone to build a report, a sales manager or controller can type a simple question, such as 'Which customers bought less from us this month than last month?', and get the answer back with a chart and real numbers from their actual data.

Visitors will also see our MRP built for produce, which helps a packing operation plan days and weeks ahead so the right fruit, packaging, and crew are ready when the orders arrive. Rounding things out are two tools that quietly take work off people's plates. AI purchase matching checks every supplier invoice against what was ordered and what arrived at the dock, so the accounts payable team only reviews the ones that don't line up. Our dock scheduling tool lets drivers check in by text, so the warehouse knows who is on site and trucks spend less time waiting. It is a packed show for us.

Produce has some of the most innovative people I know, and it's exciting to see technology finally catching up to them. What makes Prophet stand out, and what do you think it opens up for the teams running a packhouse or a sales desk?

BB: Produce companies have usually had to choose between software with decades of produce knowledge running on older technology and modern software that has never lived through a short crop or a rejected load. Prophet is the only produce-specific ERP in the U.S. and Canada that offers both. The product includes more than 35 years of produce experience and runs on cutting-edge Microsoft development technologies with powerful yet functional AI tools.

Our MRP is the clearest example of that depth, and no one else in our industry has an MRP built specifically for produce. MRP stands for material requirements planning. Put simply, it works backward from what your customers are going to need based on historical information and internal planning and tells you exactly what you need to have on hand, how much of it, and when. It is a lot like planning Thanksgiving dinner. Once you know how many people are coming, you can figure out how many potatoes to buy, how many pans you need, and when each dish has to go in the oven without having to guess. Yes, experience helps, but our industry is more data-driven than ever.

Most systems in our industry stop at the work order, which tells the packing line what to run today and tomorrow. That matters, but a work order is the last step of a plan, not the plan itself. Prophet's MRP looks ahead and includes contracts in the equation. If a retail program calls for 3,000 cases of clamshell strawberries next week, Prophet works out how much fruit is needed from which growers, how many clamshells, labels, and cartons need to be in the building, and when each one has to arrive.

Tell me more. What are some other specific examples of how a produce-specific MRP anticipates the needs of today’s perishables companies?

BB: Because it was built for produce, it handles things a generic MRP was never designed for. It tracks more dates, including harvest, pack, and best-by dates, so the right product moves first. It forecasts both sides of the business, meaning what customers will order and what the fields will actually deliver. It allows more approved substitutions in the bill of materials, which is essentially the recipe for each finished product, so when a size or variety comes up short, the planner already knows the acceptable alternatives.

It plans packaging alongside the fruit, so a missing roll of film or a box of labels doesn't stop a line. And because every lot and date is connected from the field to the finished case, food safety and traceability are tighter from the start.

To learn more about the specific challenges inspiring Prophet’s solutions and the unique team of veterans and up-and-comers preparing for the IFPA GPFS floor, please read the full interview here, as I had many more questions and they had some amazing answers.

Attendees will find Paul Stofberg, CEO of Prophet ERP North America; Tony Zuccato, COO; Bryan Barsness, Business Development Director; Caroline Valentine, Senior Implementation Manager; and Shannon Fauconnier, Project Coordinator, at booth #3935 for the Orlando event.

We will see you all there.