Vogelaar Vredehof
Vogelaar Vredehof ready for the future
Vogelaar Vredehof chose the ERP software package Microsoft Dynamics® NAV to integrate and automate its logistics processes and its financial administration. "Some specific aspects within the organisation made it difficult to find a suitable package", administrator Hermen van der Meijden explains. Schouw Informatisering in Etten-Leur, the Netherlands carried out the project.
Vogelaar Vredehof was originally a family company, specialised in cultivating fruit where all activities took place at the Vredehof farm. In the early 1970s when the supermarkets were established, the demand for pre-packed fruit began to increase. In that period Vogelaar Vredehof began to concentrate on commercial trade and logistics services such as storage, sorting, packaging and the transportation of fruit. These days Vogelaar Vredehof is a well-known name in the fruit world and most of its clients are the supermarket chains at home and abroad.
The first computer
It was becoming more and more important for Vogelaar Vredehof to distinguish itself from similar companies. At an early stage the company realised that IT was becoming an increasingly important instrument for the structured growth of the business. "Our first computer was a punch card system, but that was before my time", Van der Meijden says. "The first real system was purchased in 1986 and ran under the UNIX operating system. It was a package for the financial administration which was further customised to our needs at that time. To start with the system worked well for us, we had better insight into our expedition department and the inventory management was greatly improved. In addition we could create goods receipt documents and sales invoices and we could check them", according to Van der Meijden. After a while Vogelaar Vredehof outgrew this system, it worked too slowly, and the company continued to expand.
Information expansion
During the 1990s there was more and more need for an IT system which matched the business processes properly in order to manage the whole range of activities. Also the increasing attention for food safety issues such as traceability and HACCP mean that it is more and more important for a wholesale company to have a good information system. In 1996 Vogelaar Vredehof started to work with EDI and besides receiving orders, issuing distribution orders and invoices now also has to ensure that there is sufficient inventory in the distribution centres. The big question now is: who should we ask to help us? Vogelaar Vredehof contacted different IT companies but did not find what it was looking for.
Choice of supplier
In 1998, however, the first contact was made with Schouw Informatisering. In the mean time Vogelaar Vredehof had a substantial list of requirements which the new software package should meet. In the first place, the system had to be millennium-proof, it also had to support the flow of goods and of course the package should be able to cope with the future, in other words, it should be expandable and flexible. Schouw Informatisering introduced Vogelaar Vredehof to Dynamics NAV. This package offered a basic system to manage the business processes. In addition Schouw Informatisering offered the expertise to create extra modules to meet the IT requirements of the ’non-standard’ parts of the organisation. After completion of the feasibility study, during which the working practices at Vogelaar Vredehof were compared with the functionality offered by Dynamics NAV, the project started in May 1999. In the mean time, the drive for Vogelaar Vredehof to distinguish itself from the competition had become even greater. The demands placed on them by their customers are always on the increase, not just concerning the product, but also the organisation behind the product. Schouw Informatisering arrived just at the right time with its systems to enable Vogelaar Vredehof to improve matters in the area of IT.
Reconciled books
The project started by taking an inventory of all the business processes. In this phase an assessment was made of where and which information is documented. Initially the system was implemented in the offices. All purchase, sales and financial transactions then took place in the Dynamics NAV package. The second step was to integrate the logistics processes - goods receipt, storage, packaging etc. In order to maintain the administrative side of these processes in a simple manner the choice was made to work with wireless barcode equipment. The barcode terminals are mounted on the forklift trucks and on the pallet trucks. In practice this means that as goods are received the packaging units (pallet, crate, etc.) are labelled with a barcode. Each step in the process, such as storage, movement to another location or issue, is scanned. In this way Vogelaar Vredehof can track a batch of fruit from the moment it is received through to the time it leaves the warehouse for delivery.
Flexibility and adjustability
Why did Vogelaar Vredehof actually choose Schouw Informatisering? The answer to this question is not difficult for Mr van der Meijden: "The advantage of Dynamics NAV is that the functionality of the basic package is extensive and it is a very user-friendly system. Due to the flexibility and adjustability of our company’s specific situation we now have an information system that actually does what we expect it to do. The continuity of the package is always guaranteed, that also puts us at ease. We have also experienced Schouw Informatisering as a very enthusiastic company where the people certainly know what they are talking about, and in particular about the Fruit & Vegetable sector. With our IT solution we can now face the future with full confidence!"