Flowerbuyer.com has announced that it will be launching an internet auction site, where florists in the UK can buy fresh-cut flowers, on October 1. Already a success in North America, the online e-auction trading system flowerbuyer was launched 10 years ago, in Canada.

Now, no fewer than 16,000 flower shops in the US, Canada and Mexico place their orders daily by means of the Flowerbuyer internet auction system.

Frans Nieuwland, European director at Flowerbuyer, is convinced that the initiative will also rapidly get off the ground in western Europe. “We are starting with our online cut flower auction in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. After the starting period, this trading system will be expanded to the other western European countries,” said Nieuwland.

The online auction system considerably shortens the supply chain by skipping several intermediate steps and any third-party profit margins. It can also save the customer money; there is no need for any unnecessary product movements and no loss of time due to traffic congestion. Flowerbuyer.com guarantees delivery within 24 hours of purchase, due to special arrangements with FedEx, which has won its spurs with super-fast customized flower transport in North America.

Florists can take part in this online auction for free; register via the site, www.flowerbuyer.com and receive a free access code with no obligations. Orders can be placed 24 hours per day, every day of the week. Digital auctions will start at 2pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and are controlled from Flowerbuyer’s administrative base at Rijnsburg, the Netherlands. The internet site also gives extensive information about the various ways of online flower buying. The buyer will be able to purchase via the digital auction clock, but will also have the option of offering a price in advance.

“A total of 850 European florists have already registered. Also, English florists are joining in on the project. We are convinced that, with the experience acquired in North America over the past 10 years, Flowerbuyer will rapidly become a familiar concept in Europe,” Nieuwland said.

NETDESPATCH LINK BRINGS BLOSSOM TO PLANTS4PRESENTS

NetDespatch is playing a key part in the growth of Plants4Presents, one of the UK’s most successful online retailers. The Sussex-based company, which pioneered the idea of selling plants as gifts over the internet, has been able to expand nationally by using NetDespatch to seamlessly integrate its internet shop orders with nationwide parcel services provided by APC Overnight.

NetDespatch’s Velocity web shipping and tracking platform automatically converts Plants4Presents’ shopping cart orders into barcoded parcel labels and online web bookings for the local APC Overnight depot. This means that order details are entered only once: by the customer when they place an order. With up to 400 orders a day in peak times, the re-keying of addresses has been eliminated and, as an added benefit, NetDespatch web software automatically checks addresses to ensure first time delivery success once in the hands of the carrier. This will enable customers to track the progress of their purchase from order to delivery.

“Since integrating our website with NetDespatch, our business really has taken off,” saidIsobel Rae, founder of Plants4Presents. “NetDespatch has allowed us to expand freely and provide excellent service thanks to automatic label printing and the online tracking of deliveries.”

As well as an online gift delivery service, Plants4Presents has launched plants4promotions and plants4events websites, and also offers tailor-made services for corporate clients.These range from large plants for new offices, plants for events, which have included support of campaigns for The National Geographic Channel, CocaCola, Schweppes, and Dole.

GATEWAY OPENS FOR FARMERS ONLINE

Applied Research Forum (ARF) launched a new web-based resource. The Soils Information Gateway focuses on soil solutions forged by farmers, to bring benefits for both business and the environment.

The resourcebuilds on years of research carried out by soil experts and champions the soil-related achievements of more than 15 pioneering farmers. It also highlights tips, solutions and strategies that address problems such as erosion, compaction and poaching.

Examples of profitable and innovative solutions to common soil-related issues have been drawn from across the farming sector and contain valuable pointers for other farm businesses. Strategies are outlined, and the experts themselves highlight not only how problems have been alleviated, but how the businesses involved have tailored the solutions to boost profitability tie in with local objectives or fit a business restructure.

LINKFRESH DEPLOYMENT ACHIEVES PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS FOR LFP

Anglia Business Solutions reports on an ntegrated solution deployed within four months and to budget.

Spalding-based Lincolnshire Field Products Ltd (LFP) is one of the UK’s leading fresh produce growers and producers. The company has an annual turnover of £100 million and farms in excess of 12,000 acres. LFP is principally focused on the production, procurement, packing and distribution of fresh vegetables to a range of high street retailers.

It had invested significant resources in refining its legacy system to meet specific needs. However, LFP felt the technology was no longer capable of responding quickly enough to the business challenges of a rapidly growing organisation. As a result, many processes were handled outside of the core business management system, which led to duplication of data, increased administration costs and inefficient working practices.

The business need was to free up valuable manpower from the task of running a variety of disparate systems to enable them to add value to the customer experience. By focusing on quality assurance, purchasing control, price negotiation and closer monitoring of stock movements, LFP could ensure that it could improve customer service, while protecting the commercial interests of the company.

LFP IT manager Paul Witherington explains: “What we wanted was to incorporate all of our disparate systems and processes into one centralised information system. Our overall aim was to improve efficiency while taking cost out of the business. The solution also had to be flexible enough to meet our current needs, while enabling us to respond quickly to changes in our customer requirements. We also needed a system that could be rapidly implemented and within budget. We had some aggressive milestones to achieve that we didn’t want to miss given the seasonal nature of our business.

“We went through an extensive two year evaluation period where we assessed a wide variety of alternative options before selecting the LINKFresh suite,” he says. “What impressed us was the depth of specific fresh produce functionality incorporated within the package. It was clear that it would meet most of our requirements within the standard LINKFresh and Microsoft Dynamics NAV functionality. The system could also be rapidly configured to cope with our way of working. This was important as we wanted to take the opportunity to change the previous business processes imposed by the legacy system to reflect best industry practice as part of the new solution.”

A combination of powerful LINKFresh fresh produce functionality seamlessly integrated with the global leading Dynamics NAV ERP suite from Microsoft were used to meet the full requirements of the company. The LINKFresh deployment handles all of LFP’s financial and supply chain requirements in one central, fully integrated and easy-to-use solution. LFP needed to manage and track stock information. Simple user-friendly interfaces were configured that allowed LFP personnel to rapidly book in produce arriving from the field. This captured details on the grower, field, plot and gang labour. This provided LFP with the required information to be able to self-bill and track and trace receipts of produce at any time.

The introduction of the LINKFresh Supply Chain modules allowed LFP’s supply personnel to manage supply and demand more efficiently. The functionality within this powerful application facilitates the raising of cut instructions, complete with ‘display until’ and bagging instructions for pack in the field. The solution also provides for the automation of all required documentation directly from the core system. In addition, using LINKFresh Consignments and Purchase Order Management, LFP are now able to manage their total supply chain, both from their own farm and field. This covers their extensive range of UK contract farms and growers, and their many overseas suppliers. It also facilitates the traceability of produce down to the level of lot, consignment, grower, field and plot.

The deployment of the LINKFresh Replenishment functionality enabled LFP to completely automate the allocation of their sales order demand across their extensive network of both internal and external packhouses and suppliers. The replenishment granule allows LFP to pre-specify a series of sophisticated rules which determine how sales order demand will be allocated to its various supply channels. “Alternate Rules” specified by date range to allow for seasonal variations, and “Daily Exception Rules” to cater for one-off variances is also incorporated.

This has enabled LFP to completely define its replenishment and fulfillment business logic.

The company has now automated their EDI sales order processing. As orders are received late each evening, LINKFresh EDI order processing imports the raw EDI order file. According to a number of optional settings, the system automatically translates and splits the orders according to delivery depots and replenishment requirements.

It also releases the orders, issues requirements to the pack houses via email, raises purchase and packing orders and receipt goods into the warehouse.

This degree of automation has had a significant impact on productivity, Witherington says: “The process of managing and processing the incoming EDI orders was a major daily task. It occupied most of the working day for both the supply managers and other members of the sales team. Most of it is now done automatically in a matter of seconds, and has released the team to focus on client service initiatives.”

In addition to the implementation of the LINKFresh solution, LFP had a number of financial and administrative requirements. The solution was enhanced to provide an invoice register and management system, and a number of configured facilities. These include supplier self bill; packhouse labour self-bill, consolidated payment runs and a host of other features.

“The financial aspects of the system have helped enormously,” explains managing director Robin Hancox. “Cash management is so much easier; reporting much quicker and getting information to our growers has been greatly improved.

“In addition, periodic reporting is simpler, which has provided us with access to information that was not available with the legacy system. In an industry littered with failed system implementations, it is gratifying to report that the solution was successfully delivered within budget and against a very challenging deadline.”

The company now has a leading- edge modern centralised business management solution that manages all of its operational processes, says ABS.

This has replaced a variety of disparate systems that were expensive and difficult to manage. The main benefit has been a significant reduction in data duplication resulting in reduced administration costs.

Overall, the LFP solution has provided the company with an extensive range of product and customer information directly from the system. This level of management information has enabled the company to quickly react to client or product trends issues.

“The previous LFP system had been significantly tailored over a period of 10 years to meet the very specific needs of the company,” commented Anglia’s managing director David Hurley. “To totally replace and subsequently exceed the requirements of such a system operating in a £100 million business in less than four months, on time and within budget, has been a major achievement.

“It is a tribute to the LFP team and the innovation and deployment expertise of Anglia that such a solution could be successfully implemented in such a short period.”

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