Customer Case Studies
Sun Valley Foods. A major poultry producer owned by Cargill that operates a large integrated production facility near Hereford. Following an extensive search for a state of the art and proven Agricultural Business Solution, they have implemented a fully integrated software solution from Cal Software. There are integrations between Compac Gold, the DSL Mill Process Controler, Precia Molen weighbridge software, Truckstops transport scheduler, JDE financials and Format formulation application.
The Feedmill supplies feed to private and company poultry growers, the birds from these farms are processed in Sun Valley's processing plants and sold on to retail and food service customers.
This is a round the clock operation with a resilient systems infrastructure comprising a Windows 2000 server and an NT server running Citrix Winframe and both local and remote user access.
Provimi Ltd. Based in Lichfield they are a manufacturer of Animal Feed Supplements and Animal Health products. Through a process of going out to tender for a new system they short listed 3 major UK Agri System suppliers, whom they put head to head to see who could demonstrate the best fit for their business with an emphasis on traceability and production control. Cal Software's bid was successful and a fully integrated solution comprising Compac Gold, the DB Brooks Process Control Software and Open Accounts was deployed across a medium sized NT network with internal and external email facilities.
Dodson & Horrell Limited (D&H). Headquartered in Ringstead, DHL is a long established manufacturer of specialist horse feed and pet food, which is bag rather than bulk orientated. The business comprises 3 sites, two of which are manufacturing and all of which are now using Compac Gold and Summit Accounts. They use Compac Gold intensively for Sales Order Processing, Cash Sales, Purchase Contracts from both a self bill and non self bill perspective and they sell to Japan, France, Belgium, Falklands and Saudi Arabia making full use of the multi currency facilities inherent in the software. Both packages are part of an overall integration, which includes transport-scheduling software and operates on a medium sized NT network using Terminal Server for remote connections.
When D&H started researching the marketplace for suppliers of agricultural software packages they were already well versed in the advantages and considerations of technology. This was established through an independent Consultancy, which had been the incumbent supplier and had a good relationship for many years with D&H through the supply of a bespoke system, which met their business needs. The package evaluations were very thorough indeed, lasting over a year before Cal Software was awarded the contract.
North Eastern Farmers Limited (NEF). They are a well known co-operative covering the whole of Northern Scotland and serving members and customers with a complete range of co-operative services. They have made a series of phased decisions starting with the Grain implementation of Compac Gold in the grain trading operation and extending through to feed manufacture and other trading activities. Integration to Summit Accounts completes the overall system deployment. One key factor in selecting Compac Gold over other potential system suppliers was the fact that its wide ranging functionality fitted in well with the traditional broad spread of services supplied by NEF. To illustrate the flexibility required the package had to accommodate Groups and Pools, which NEF operates on behalf of their members and they handle the intricacies of Forward Book from a fiscal and physical perspective. The system itself runs over a medium size NT network with Terminal Server remote connections to an outside store. They have been active members of The User Group and have used their expertise to drive the functionality forward, making it the system of choice for Feed, their next deployment.
DLF-Perryfields (PHL). Based in Inkberrow, PHL is the largest and fastest growing grass and wildflower seed specialists in the UK. It is also a market leading producer and supplier of game cover crops to the retail trade. PHL as part of the evolution of their business systems committed resource along with other Seed Industry companies via a unique Seeds Club to assist us in the development of Generation, the only UK Windows Seeds Package designed for the industry by the industry. One of PHL's parent companies is DSV in Germany, the others are SCATS Agriproducts, Countrywide and NEF.
An acquisitive strategy has seen them buy Johnsons Seeds where they add, "box lawn seed" to their wide ranging product set and gain B&Q and Sainsbury Homebase as new customers. Generation is running in an NT environment over Terminal Server, with remote access out over a WAN to Perth. PHL believe that systems are integral to their business and to reducing administration and inefficiency, so are also supporting Seedwise, our sister product to enable the industry to have secure access over the Internet.
Germinal Holdings. From their Head Office in Northern Ireland the group is made up of British Seed Houses, David Bell Ltd, Samual McCauslands, Joseph Mortons, Coburns and Germinal Ireland. Each of the companies within the group contracts, processes and markets cereal, oilseed, pulses and grass seed varieties. Furthermore they produce grass mixtures to customer requirements and own brand mixtures. IT, is integral to their business and they have been instrumental in the development and support of Generation and its Internet sister product Seedwise. Generation is running in an NT environment for intended group-wide rollout.
Barenbrug. The UK operation is part of a world wide Dutch based company. They specialise in the breeding and production of grass seed and are one of the biggest grass seed producers in the world. The UK operation mainly markets Barenbrug varieties and mixtures in the UK with the processing and testing aspects of their business sub-contracted. They are a founding member of The Seeds Club and have been instrumental in Generation's design, which we then deployed across their business on an NT LAN. As with other member of The Seeds Club they are also backing Seedwise which is Generation's Internet sister product.
