Fruit exporter thrives with proven ERP solution

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Published on the 29/04/2016 | Written by MYOB

AT A GLANCE

Jace Group

INDUSTRY

Horticulture

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

Improve information visibility and accuracy
Deliver management reports as required
Scale with growing business.

SOLUTION

MYOB Greentree

BUSINESS BENEFITS

‘Single version of the truth’
Immediate access to accurate information
Complete business management system.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

MYOB//
E: biggerbusiness@myob.com
NZ: 0800 696 239
AU: 1300 555 110
https://www.myob.com/

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MYOB Greentree’s accuracy and ease of use bring major benefits for kiwifruit grower and post-harvest company Jace Group…

A key player in the kiwifruit industry has long looked to MYOB Greentree for reliable, performance enterprise resource planning software, equipping it to compete effectively in a sector which one of New Zealand’s multi-million-dollar export successes.

That company is Jace Group, which requires seamless accounting and reporting of the production from dozens of kiwifruit orchards, and from its packing facilities.

Jace Group owns 77.5 canopy hectares of orchards, mainly in the Bay of Plenty and South Auckland, and leases another 125. The kiwifruit grower is also one of the largest privately-owned kiwifruit post-harvest companies in New Zealand, packing more than eight million trays per year, primarily for export.

Situation
“We pride ourselves on quality performance and attention to detail,” says Lee Weatherley, accountant at the company. “We consistently achieve above industry returns for our growers. Given there is only a limited window of opportunity to harvest the crop from the vines, it is vital that all operations from logistics through to our accounting & reporting functions to growers run seamlessly.”

Weatherley explains the importance of a business system to the company’s operations. “Because we have to cover from the growing of the crop right through to harvesting, storing and packing, we need a business system that is able to capture all that data and report on it in a wide range of ways,” she explains.

Solution
Meeting that requirement, she says MYOB Greentree was the choice of the Jace Group from the day the kiwifruit company started operations in 2006, but Weatherley’s connection to the software vendor goes back much further than that. She previously worked for Seeka, another long-time MYOB Greentree user, and was instrumental in bringing the ERP system to the Jace Group.

Her personal experience of working with the software meant she had complete confidence in its ability to manage the entire supply chain.

That’s because MYOB Greentree integrates financials, job costing and transactional analysis.

At the time of the ERP implementation, Jace Group was also introduced to AutoScan, a tool for uploading data from multiple locations.

Results
A variety of widely different reports are easily compiled, large seasonal payrolls are managed accurately, and databases are simple to update.

MYOB Greentree has to break down the growing costs and returns for each individual orchard, and for each variety of fruit; Jace Group therefore makes extensive use of Job Costing and MYOB Greentree’s transactional analysis capabilities to differentiate between each growing season and variety.

“MYOB Greentree is flexible enough to meet all our requirements across a wide range of activities that we do, and its reporting is exceptional.”
Lee Weatherley, Accountant, Jace Group

And when the industry was struck by the disease Psa, configuring MYOB Greentree to handle new varietals of kiwifruit presented no challenge at all.

“It’s so easy to extract data – you just push a button and it’s done,” enthuses Weatherley. “Our data is all live and automated, it’s accurate, and our checks and balances all take place in MYOB Greentree.

She explains why live visibility is important. “Our managers out in the field need to know where they’re tracking against their budgets.”

More than that, she says the ERP system integrates across the entire business, including its packing and cool stores in the Bay of Plenty and Auckland. During the picking and packing season, which runs from mid-March through to September, as many as 900 people, many of them transient workers, may be employed.

At this time, Jace Group’s facilities operate 6 to 7 days a week, up to 21 hours a day, driving up the necessity of a performance ERP system which can be depended upon. During these busy periods, the capability of the solution is further demonstrated: finger-scanning software is used to record attendance in the packing sheds and the data is automatically uploaded into MYOB Greentree Payroll.

Meanwhile, AutoScan has delivered further benefits. “Because we have office sites at three different locations and accounting staff at all those sites, we can source data from wherever we happen to be and information on who has entered the data,” Weatherley says.

“MYOB Greentree has enabled us to develop sophisticated uploads for lots of data, eliminating human error data entry issues. We have nine or so operating companies within our group, and it’s a tremendous help for me to be able to monitor performance for consistency,” she adds.

AS the kiwifruit continues to expand, Weatherley is assured that the Jace Group has an ERP system which positions it for performance. “We’re heading towards higher volumes of fruit and are looking to expand our facilities. We’re confident that MYOB Greentree will continue to grow with us and we’re always looking at ways to work smarter with it, to meet any challenges ahead.”

Source: This article was originally sourced from MYOB