Introduction

Elders, one of Australia’s leading agribusiness brands and leaders in products, services, and technical advice across the agriculture supply chain, were seeking to upgrade their existing systems, with the aim of providing advanced benefits for their suppliers who wanted to see real time visibility at stores to be able to better service Elders and their customers.

The Challenge

The systems previously required multiple entries for each piece of data, with no synchronization or transparency for the operator, frustrating for both Elders and their suppliers. Elders wanted a change. Implementing a system that could provide better tracking of consignment stock and report on daily sales at the retail store was paramount. Key to this was the need to reduce double entry of stock sales in their current Point of Sale (POS) – the elimination of which would help to better manage the supply chain, and better meet the logistic and production demand of their customers.

Shane Barnard, Manager of Farm Supplies Operations at Elders, spoke on the need to revise their management systems: “The majority of issues we faced could be attributed to manual input errors or delay – human error, essentially. Delays in data entry also meant extra manpower costs and, in the long-term, data insight that could have benefited our business in real-time was not collected or implemented. Combined, this was resulting in a measurable commercial impact.“

“We approached Proagrica, as a well-established global provider of integrated data solutions in the agribusiness sector,” added Mr Barnard.  “Following this, Proagrica delivered their customized Agriculture Inventory Management System (AIMS), specifically to work with our existing systems.” AIMS is an integrated platform that combines stock movement and inventory data management, to enable efficient and transparent financial transactions. Because AIMS is its own central platform, this could effectively eliminate repetitive data entry, synchronizing inputs and ensuring services align with one another.

Elders is the first retailer to be part of AIMS Buyer Integration (ABI), a supplier funded industry initiative in Australia that integrates the AIMS platform with a retailer’s own POS system.

The ABI has resulted in more accurate, efficient and timely recording of sales activity for suppliers of consignment inventory. “We have reduced the commercial impact caused by delayed data entry,” added Mr Barnard. “Our network sales personnel are now freed from having to enter the same data over and over. This doesn’t just cut down on human error – it boosts morale and makes for a more dynamic working environment. They’re especially impressed by the automated recording of products which have had no sale within the month. Identifying unsold products was once a stressful and time-consuming process. Now it’s automatic. Our systems now work with us more than before – it’s a relief for us and creates more value for our suppliers.”