"We need to merge five different software programs to all-in-one ERP platform"

Leading growers are looking for ways to streamline their processes to be more efficient and effective. Flevoplant is one such company: a leading propagator of young strawberry plants. We visited this innovative company in Ens and spoke with managing director Anton Koops about their organization and why Agriware 365 is a good fit.

Since 1958, Flevoplant has been active in the propagation and growing of strawberry plants. They turn their experience and expertise daily into making the best strawberry plants for our customers throughout Europe. Flevoplant has a wide range of short-day and everbearing varieties in all plant types.

Delivering the same quality every day is the aim. Choosing the right growing substrates and growing methods to make the perfect plant for every customer. Increasingly with organic fertilization and the use of biological control. Not because they have to, but because they can, and it is better for our plants and the environment.

"We grow about 70 million plants on a yearly basis, 35 million tray plants and 35 million of bare rooted plants", says Anton Koops, director at Flevoplant, while showing us around in one of the greenhouses. 50,000 square meters of tray plants surround us: an impressive sight. "This is where we propagate our plants. We set up the mother plants in February, we cut the plants in July, and make the tray plants as you can see here."

Five different programs that don't really fit together
"Until this moment, we were using about five different management programs. I am talking about separate programs for logistics, stock, sales, finance, and customer care, to give some examples. Most of these programs don't really fit together, so, unfortunately, errors sometimes occur." Anton continues: "This was the reason we started to look for a new system and started to see what new opportunities there are in the market. There were colleagues elsewhere who already worked with Agriware 365 at that time, so that was one of the reasons why we thought: let's see what Agriware can bring us."

The advantages of business insights
"The best part of Agriware 365 for us, it that it is one program that fits all; finance, logistics, stock, sales, and customer relationship management. To have all of that together in one system, is the most important thing to us. Apart from that, it provides us with business insights. You can see how we are performing, what the actual costs of the products are, where the products are, and in which stage of their growing process. This way, we keep track of our progress. It gives us a lot of data that we can analyze with a helpful tool like Power BI, the basis of Agriware 365 Analytics."

2023 demands a digital transition
"At this moment, Flevoplant is in a transition. The company has been growing fast in the last couple of years, so things are going really well. Now we have to focus on optimizing." Anton gives some examples: "We want to optimize the processes, the organization, get the best results when it comes to our plants, and optimize our customer satisfaction. We think that with all the insights Agriware 365 can give us, it will help us to be successful. We won't be the largest propagator in The Netherlands, but we want to be the best. A good management program like Agriware 365 is the solution for us to achieve this goal."