Recycling software helps companies large and small with compliance, weigh-and-pay, process automation, and more. Regardless of commodity, there’s something for everyone. These ISRI members have staked out claims to their corners of this highly competitive space and are evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of customers.
Cofounder David Kane is proud of a new mobile app that allows for mobile grading of materials, works with the firm’s overseas shipping system, and is integrated to do physical inventories. “[A customer] can send 10 people out into their yard with mobile phones, and they can scan everything that’s in the facility,” he explains. 21st Century’s work-in-progress system can accommodate production like a car shredder with real-time costing and inventory controls.
Kane likens his tablet-based system to “the In-N-Out Burger model,” where the auto attendant at the scale can record weights without human interaction. In business since the 1990s, Kane says his experience working in a yard helps him appreciate customers’ challenges. “I’m probably one of the few people in the business that can sort your aluminum by sight and can tell you the difference between ‘61 and ‘63,” he says.
Another 21st Century product is ROM Infinite, a hybrid cloud system that allows instant communications and updates between drivers and dispatchers. “We think it’s leapfrogging the competition in terms of GPS-based technology, tracking of your bins and materials, and your drivers,” he says. The primary user interface is delivered via web browsers like Chrome, Safari, or Edge.
The company has enrolled between 700 and 1,000 users in its ROM University, where users can learn the ins and outs of the program at their own pace.
President and CEO Shon Duty has worn many hats: military police officer, insurance adjuster, minister, and software company owner. He has traveled to over 1,000 yards, installing and training new users of his programs. In addition to ScrapRight, the company offers iScrapRight, an iPad-based program.
“We started offering cloud-based [data storage] in 2018,” he says. “Probably 80% of our new clients select the cloud.” The Azure environment that houses the ScrapRight application software is comprised of multiple servers to allow for optimal response, security, and performance. The basic infrastructure is designed around web services talking to backend SQL servers in a Microsoft Active-Directory security model. The company has moved into Australia and New Zealand, with servers based in Asia-Pacific.
The company moved from a single server for each client with a mirrored backup server to “load balancing” on several servers. Without load balancing, applications, websites, databases, and online services would likely fail when demand gets too high. In February, the company released SRX—ScrapRight Executive—a complete management tool for the iPhone and Android. “They’ll have access to every bit of information that they need, plus access to their customer records, accounts payable—it’s going to do a boatload of things a manager in the recycling industry needs to do, regardless of where they’re [physically] at,” Duty says.
The company’s ScrapRight University will be a self-installation and training tool that customers’ information technology local leads can use to connect equipment and that buyers can use to be certified and require less service.
WeighPay Group Inc., formerly known as PopScrap, delivers an enterprise resource platform (ERP) for the front-end of the recycling and waste management industries. CEO Stacy Duty, Shon Duty’s brother, says the firm’s Hybrid-Cloud ERP Agnostic Platform is hyper-focused on the global metal recycling industry. “We built this solution in the cloud in 2010; it’s not some 20-year-old product that was renamed and shoved into the cloud,” he says.
The unique solution employs a mobile-first strategy with hybrid online/offline technology. There’s also a local database at the client-application level integrated with the cloud, which allows the platform to operate in real-time when the internet is unavailable.
WeighPay partnered with a business intelligent (BI) reporting company to give its enterprise clients the ability to repurpose their full-time IT employees back into sales, operations, and other areas. WeighPay is about to unveil its WP 2.0, an industry-specific enterprise program designed for Tier 1 ERP, extensive, highly customizable systems typically implemented by multi-location, international companies.
“Our new Hybrid-Cloud Platform offers a multi-status perpetual real-time weighted average inventory across the entire enterprise in a single online application,” Stacy Duty says. “It offers material type, group, and item level averages. The solution stores inventory in seven statuses so you can view your inventory across the enterprise and in any unit of measure.”
Meet the Vendors
At ISRI2022, software companies including 21st Century Programming, AMCS, cieTrade Systems, ReMatter, ScrapIT, ScrapPortal, ScrapRight, SharedLogic, TranAct, TruckPay, and WeighPay will be exhibiting and demonstrating the capabilities of their platforms. Here is a listing of companies and a map of the exhibit hall. Find the latest information on ISRI Connect.
Photo courtesy of Christopher Gower on Unsplash.
Additional Resources
