Looking to sell a surplus stock of carrots or buy a quantity of soft fruits?

Then why not visit www.cropway.com, a new website launched this month that boasts an up-to-date design and user-friendly applications - without silly gimmicks or commissions, say the website’s team.

The company specialises in achieving contacts between buyers and growers of produce, creating greater access to crops throughout the UK and making sourcing contacts and crops easy.

The Cropway strategy is fairly straightforward. Farmers and growers advertise their produce on the new website completely free of charge.

By using simple step-by-step instructions, they can add all the relevant data, which not only includes crop variety, but also quality and tonnage. These are entered along with the contact details, enabling buyers to get in touch directly.

Cropway then introduces UK buyers to a very easy route to sourcing produce. It guarantees to save everyone time, but also creates those valuable out-of-region contacts.

The process all sounds very simple, but getting produce at a competitive price and at the right quality has always proved to be a difficult juggling act, as creator and Cropway founder Judy Yarwood, pictured, knows all too well.

Having worked in the agriculture sector for a food company for some 14 years, Yarwood has first-hand experience of the complexities of buying the right produce, at the right price.

She said: “Recent years have proved to be an especially difficult and worrying time for farmers and growers.

“With growing costs, changing markets and extreme weather all proving to be a costly nightmare for food companies and traders, I wanted to simplify the process and take out the hassle of trying to sell and buy produce at the best price for the right products and to achieve that ‘win-win’ situation for both traders and farmers. Judging by the initial response to the website, I really think Cropway.com could just be the answer.”

Yarwood added: “Cropway ensures that there is less time taken up sourcing produce. Buyers, for a small fee, can view farmers’ produce nationally and contact them directly. Any type of crop can be added, from cereals to straw.”

ONE STOP FOR CHILE

A new one-stop-shop website providing centralised communication for the Chilean produce sector and information to help the industry make daily decisions is now live.

www.portalfruticola.cl is accessible free of charge with no need to register.

Gustavo Yentzen, president of Yentzen Consulting in Santiago and creator of the site, said: “This new free website is an online tool, which gathers all the latest industry-related news in one place. We wanted to make it easy for anyone involved in the Chilean industry to find the most current and complete news and trade information without having to search multiple places.”

At www.portalfruticola.cl, users can freely access daily updates of produce-related news. Additionally, portalfruticola.cl offers reports on market prices, economic market data, weather in every growing region, port information, online translation, a currency converter, and many other tools and data that will allow Chilean industry members to make informed decisions and assist in the daily management of their business.

Yentzen said: “This idea was born a year and a half ago, after we realised that, in order to get the necessary daily information to run their businesses, executives and owners of growing and exporting companies had to visit many websites and waste a lot of valuable time. Our mission is to facilitate the export business in Chile and this website fits right into that objective.”

Importers across the world can reach growers and exporters in Chile through the website as well. “They can list their information in our supplier directory or they can choose to post their own banner,” said Yentzen.

FUJITSU SIGNS AT M&S

Some 600 Marks & Spencer stores in the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands are to receive in-store IT support from Fujitsu Services, following the signing of a seven-year contract between the two companies.

The two firms already have a 30-year relationship. The new contract will see Fujitsu take responsibility for installation and IT support of systems from different vendors, as well as looking at cost-saving measures that can be taken.

Improving technology has been a large part of M&S’s modernisation programme that has seen 70 per cent of its stores improved in the past few years.

The retailer has also expanded its IT deal with Computacenter, making the latter responsible for operations at the head office and telephone service desks in a bid to improve its time to market for IT systems.

STEERING A PATH THROUGH THE SOFTWARE-HARDWARE COURSE

This month, Tony Rose, integration director at Anglia Business Solutions, discusses the current choices available for hardware, software, processors and operating systems.

just when life should have been getting simpler, the whole hardware and software arena seems to be awash with versions, updates and, in some areas, new kids on the block.

So just what are the current versions and options for standard processors and operating systems?

Starting with the laptop; there are a limited number of processor options. The initial choice is between the primary vendors, Intel and AMD. Broadly, both of these manufacturers offer competing products in this area, and thus your choice may be guided more by your preferred manufacturer and model availability rather than performance.

Most Intel offerings are Core Duo, with processor speeds ranging from 2.0Ghz to 2.8Ghz (generally the higher the clock speed, the faster the processor). AMD is offering similar processor speeds.

Laptop choice after this is likely to be guided by disk space or monitor capabilities. Hard disks are generally in the 160GB to 250GB range, while monitors can vary in both size and resolution.

In general, laptop decisions are most likely to be made based on the frequency of travel for the user and their preference for travelling light. In broad terms, the larger the monitor, the heavier the device and the shorter the likely battery life.

Desktops follow a similar pattern to the laptop in terms of processor, although manufacturers are not constrained by power considerations. Also with desktops, the processors can extend beyond 3.0Ghz.

Graphic cards can be of much higher importance when selecting units, and this is particularly the case if the user has a high graphics requirement (CAD, photo imaging design, etc). Usage in these areas may be so high that a separate graphics card may be called for, or even a specialist “workstation” rather than PC.

Having selected the hardware, the next significant question is the operating system. Assuming Microsoft is the preferred vendor, there are still two possibilities. Despite repeated efforts, Microsoft has been unable to withdraw XP Pro in favour of Vista. It is now likely that the Vista successor (currently named Windows 7) will be released in 2010 and XP Pro may be extended until that time. An initial look at the product reveals a Vista look and feel but with higher performance.

In the server market, the choices become even more complex. The choice of manufacturer’s chips is more prevalent than in the PC market, with AMD providing significant competition to Intel. Another choice that enters into the equation is the power consumption of the chip, and thus speed of processing is often linked to power consumption. Many of the chips in use are multi-core and have various levels of on-board cache, which enhances the overall server performance. Although most of the chips are 64-bit capable, thought needs to be given as to whether a selected application such as Exchange Server 2007 demands a 64-bit processor and operating system.

Again, the choice of operating system is not straightforward. The current offering from Microsoft is Windows Server 2008 and this can be purchased in Standard, Enterprise or Data Centre Editions. Both the standard and enterprise versions can be purchased with or without HyperV and all can be installed in either 32- and 64-bit formats. Options also exist under certain licence permissions to downgrade these products to align with existing Windows Server 2003 installations.

Choices between 32- and 64-bit will be dependent upon a number of features, including what software applications are to be run on the server; but thought must also be given to such extraneous items such as printer driver, and backup versions available in 64-bit version.

And what about virtualisation? This is the buzzword of the moment. Should you embark on this with all the additional power available from the enhanced processors outlined above?

The answer to this lies in looking at the demands of the business and setting out a policy that determines which, if any, areas of the business can benefit from virtualisation. Benefits can range from reduced space required for servers, improved administration, better disaster recovery options and lower power consumption. Sometimes uses may extend to the ability to host ageing operating systems such as Windows NT, which cannot be supported on current hardware, but are required for legacy applications.

It should not, however, be assumed that virtualisation is the panacea for all applications. The old maxim applies that with IT, you never get “something for nothing”. Virtualisation will have significant benefits in areas such as file and print server and will possibly increase the ease of disaster recovery in the case of exchange server. However, with heavy database applications that make very particular demands on the hardware, it is unlikely to be entirely suitable.

There are also a set of decisions to be made when selecting a virtualisation solution. Originally there was one market leader and the choice was easy. However, in the last three months, two other significant contenders are making inroads into this marketplace. VM Ware has, for some time, been market leader, but Citrix XEN Server and Microsoft HyperV are both now serious contenders in the SME space.

In short, choices of hardware and software combinations have become more complex over the last 18 months. This is partially because both are in a state of transition between 32-bit and 64-bit products, but also because new vendors have entered the marketplace with competing products.

Choices should be based on fully understanding the needs of the business requirements and that of your chosen applications. In most instances, organisations will benefit from discussing these requirements with suitably qualified organisations that have a proven track record of dealing with such issues.

CERTIFIED TO DISTINCTION

Anglia Business Solutions has announced that its food supply chain business management system LINKFresh is now certified for Microsoft Dynamics, the highest standard for partner-developed software with the Microsoft Corporation.

Solutions ‘Certified for Microsoft Dynamics’ have demonstrated development quality and compatibility with the Microsoft Dynamics product on which they run. The LINKFresh solution has passed rigorous VeriTest software solution testing for Microsoft Dynamics.

Anglia was also required to provide more than 10 reference customers who are successfully using the LINKFresh solution and are willing to recommend it. All partners with ‘Certified for Dynamics’ solutions must also be a Gold Certified Partner in the Microsoft Partner Program; Microsoft’s highest partner accreditation.

Doug Kennedy, vice-president of Microsoft Dynamics Partners, said: “By requiring both the software solution and the partner to meet our highest standards, Microsoft is assuring customers that these certified solutions work with their investments in Microsoft Dynamics.

“Microsoft congratulates Anglia Business Solutions on achieving the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics status for LINKFresh by demonstrating its success and commitment in delivering a leading Microsoft Dynamics solution.”

In January 2005, Anglia set up its specialist independent software vendor (ISV) operation. This investment was designed to produce leading-edge vertical applications, based on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV platform.

Anglia’s ISV director, Mark Nixon, said: “Anglia has always been committed to software excellence, and achieving this designation for LINKFresh is a reflection of that commitment.”

Meanwhile, Anglia has also announced that MMD (Shipping Services) Ltd in Portsmouth has extended its LINKFresh business management solution to include the LINKFresh mobility suite.

The fully integrated LINKFresh .NET mobility solution will be deployed to enable the management of quayside, warehouse and quality control operations via handheld scanning and recording devices. The project is phase two of the LINKFresh deployment, that began last year. The handheld mobile devices will operate in any MMD location where stock is stored.