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Food Safety Gets a Digital Transformation

The Challenge

The Food Applications Registry Management (FARM) system is the essential conduit that enables the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to accept, process, and assess applications from the food industry for safety review.

FARM was becoming an increasingly frustrating user experience. It had been built on an outdated, unsupported technology stack, and even the most basic user expectations (like the ability to submit electronic applications) were not being met. Previous vendors had been brought in to try and alleviate the situation, but to zero effect.

VersaTech in Action

Within 13 months, VersaTech was able to complete a full redesign and re-architecture of the FARM application, successfully cleaning up the system’s legacy data, upgrading all the technologies within the system, and replacing unsaleable commercial off-the-shelf products with custom code. The re-designed system better enabled:

  • The human and pet food and supplement industry to securely submit their data electronically for FDA review, no more scanning in or mailing in applications
  • FDA reviewers to easily access, search, and review industry submissions and conduct analyses
  • FDA reviewers to cross-validate and cross-visualize FARM system data with other FDA systems data

VersaTech also established a help desk to ensure FDA and industry system users requests are reviewed, prioritized, and monitored from submission to implementation, ensuring statutory deadlines and SLAs are met.

Since the initial overhaul, VersaTech continues to proactively ensure that the FARM system remains future-ready. Ongoing initiatives have included a full cloud migration, cybersecurity and compliance modernizations, and the full digitization of more than 100 years of FARM system records—all resulting in significant system-wide cost savings and efficiencies.

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CONFIDENCE Delivered

VersaTech’s re-engineering of the FARM system saved the government more than 3,000 man hours that would have been lost to bottlenecks and consulting fees in the first year alone.

Since then, our 5-Star Project Leadership™ and management of the system has resulted in 99.9% availability (excluding planned downtime), while customer surveys consistently show high praise from the system’s end users. The project also led to professional recognition for the FDA’s in-house FARM team in the form of the FDA CIO’s Center of the Year Award as well as two FDA Honor Awards.

But the ultimate value is that the system simply works. From dietary supplements to breakfast cereals, our nation’s food supply is safer because today’s VersaTech-enabled FARM system delivers on its promise.

  • U.S. Food & Drug Administration CIO Center of the Year Award
  • Two FDA Center Honor Awards for Human Foods Program
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