Nu Connexions Nutrition Software News
Issue # 2: February 16, 2001

Food Smart's "End-to-End" Market Approach

This Issue Written and Edited by Steve Kinsley, RD

Welcome to the second issue of the Nu Connexions Nutrition Software News!  If you are a return visitor, thank you for your interest in this periodic online publication.  As I said in the opening issue of this newsletter last Fall, there are exciting new developments happening in the world of professional nutrition software.  The goal of this newsletter (indeed, of this entire web portal to the world of nutrition-related software) is to keep food and nutrition professionals informed about some of the key developments in one easy-to-access location.

And now for this issue's feature article....

Food Smart's "End-to-End" Market Approach

Sasquatch Software Corporation has always had as one of its central tenets, the goal of affordably addressing the nutrition software needs of a wide variety of market segments, from member of the general public to professional.  This is reflected in the various editions of Food Smart, currently ranging from the Home, through Fitness and Business, to Professional Editions.  The market span of Food Smart is slated to be widened once again in the very near future, as they release new higher-end editions aimed at addressing the needs of healthcare institutions.

In the nutrition software industry, only a small number of companies have chosen to go the route of addressing the needs of both consumers and professionals.  This is especially so if their primary source of revenue is the healthcare institutional market, currently targeted by the "high-end heavyweights".  If any of the high-end companies have chosen to develop a consumer-level (or "lower-end" professional-level) product, the data formatting does not allow for easy importing/exporting of the data between products   (or maybe even not at all for many of the data fields).  In Food Smart, moving data between their various recent editions, and even into their upcoming healthcare management editions, is as easy as:

• Clicking on the application's Backup button. 

• Installing the new edition. 

• Restoring the former edition's data into the new. 

The software programming effort behind this seamless integration between editions is far from trivial, indeed being years in development.  Why has Food Smart chosen to be so flexible in addressing a wide range of market segments?  Sasquatch Software Corporation has always affirmed the need and value of the general public being served by qualified dietitians.  They also recognize that some of the more "mundane" data entry tasks (like entering an intake record) could be done by the general public, maximizing the value of the counselling time spent with a dietitian.  Innovative dietitians can take advantage of this way of working with their more computer-savvy clients in a number of ways:

• Through the use of Food Smart's various editions (Home Edition for the client, and Professional Edition for the dietitian). 

• Food Smart's current desktop software's "Active Community" Internet-based data sharing capabilities. 

• In particular, its upcoming web-based software will allow a counselling dietitian to view and work with information in client's data set up under the dietitian's Organization ID.  Clients, however, will only have access to their own information.