Choosing a PIF portal is a simple decision – but one that can have noticeable impacts on the efficiency and accuracy of your business’s data management, and on your trading partnerships.
BASF Australia is part of the global chemistry company BASF Group, which saw sales of €59 billion in 2020 with products across industries ranging from nutrition, agriculture, coatings, manufacturing, and mining sectors. The company recently moved to PIF Manager™ to manage and share all its PIFs online.
“We started out with another V6 PIF portal, but as more of our customers move to the online PIF V6 it became very clear to us that we needed a locally-supported PIF portal,” said John Thomas, Quality and Regulatory Affairs Manager, Nutrition & Health at BASF Australia.
“Completing a PIF has never been never straight forward – there are so many important details, and it’s a business-critical communication with your customers that has to be completed within a definite timeframe. It’s essential that if an issue arises we can get in touch with our portal provider and have our questions answered immediately. We made the move to Bizcaps PIF Manager™ and the Help Desk there in Sydney is always very quick at getting back to us.”
In good company with PIF Manager
One of BASF Australia’s important customers, baking ingredients manufacturer Australian Bakels, had been using PIF Manager for over two years now. “I could see that as well as Bakels, many other Australian & New Zealand food companies were moving to PIF Manager, and this was an important consideration for us. We don’t want to spend precious time and resources setting up our V6 PIFs on a system that isn’t widely adopted and well-maintained across the region,” said Thomas.
As Australia’s food standards evolve to keep up with technology and innovation, the old Excel-based PIF V5 is out of date – and it is no longer updated by the Australian Food & Grocery Council (AFGC). John Thomas believes this will prompt an increased number of companies making the transition to the PIF V6. “Over time we will continue to see more and more companies making the move to online PIFs. As this happens the system becomes increasingly efficient for everyone. In the meantime, PIF Manager gives you the option of generating a V5 PIF if you need it, which comes in very handy.”
Efficiency and traceability at the right price
The PIF Manager pricing policy means the company has certainty about the costs involved into the future.
“With PIF Manager we pay a monthly usage fee which is based on the number of non-archived PIFs we have. We currently have several V6 PIFs, and we expect this number to remain steady, so there’s no uncertainty about what managing and sharing our PIFs will cost us,” said Thomas.
“I’ve been using PIFs since they first came out over a decade ago in Microsoft Word format. The move to online PIFs has certainly made things easier for the industry. The V6 PIF is so much easier to update, and the Bizcaps User Guide even has videos to step you through the process. Plus we now have confidence that the PIF is always up to date with the current standards and regulations.”
BASF Australia particularly welcomes the traceability afforded by the online PIF. Its QA and regulatory affairs teams can access a clear record of all PIFs sent to any customer at the click of a mouse – without having to manually create database records or storage folders. When a product detail is changed, they can easily update every customer who receives that product. “Previously we needed to ask the product Account Manager for a list of all customers who receive the product, then double check this on the database. With PIF Manager it’s all set out and instantly visible.”
“For me, it’s an efficiency gain that gives us vastly better traceability.”