4 Top Reasons for Growers to Adopt an End-to-End Business Management Solution

According to a report by Precedence Research, between 2021 and 2030, the global commercial greenhouse market size is projected to grow more than 125% at an annual rate of 9.52%. If you plan to expand your horticulture business to seize on this trend, a great place to start is an end-to-end business management solution.

The technology gives you the flexibility to maximize workflow efficiencies and produce more plants with fewer resources. Working more efficiently and doing more with less aren’t just trends. They also enable you to gain advantages over your competitors while protecting your bottom line.

Arm Your Team with a Solution They Can Learn Quickly

The simplest way to achieve these objectives is to arm your team with a system they can learn quickly and which consolidates all your data. This gives them immediate access to that elusive “single source of truth” for producing accurate, real-time reporting dashboards. They can then analyze key performance indicators—such as the true cost of production and the expected output of each greenhouse location—and make decisions on how to run daily operations more effectively.

The benefits for your business also make a strong case. Here are the four top reasons why greenhouse growers should adopt an end-to-end business management solution:

#1 – To Enhance Inventory Management

With an ERP platform that integrates inventory with your customer ordering system, your warehouse team can reduce or eliminate the use of manual processes and spreadsheets so they can more efficiently manage your available inventory. They get real-time views into the plants in the growing areas that have been earmarked for customer orders as well as what’s expected to based on ‘ready date’. If any corrections are needed to fulfill orders, they can find out in advance while there’s still time to rectify issues. Your managers can also improve racking and packing rates and balance the workload of the warehouse staff.

#2 – To Optimize Financial Management

Your CFO and your accounting team will also appreciate an end-to-end business management solution. With views into sales, inventory, and production, they can accurately project cash flow and the financial health of the business. They can also improve cash flow by quickly analyzing the status of payables and receivables. Another important capability is comparing projected costs and sales to actual results—to determine if changes are needed for the next planting season.

#3 – To Improve Strategic Planning

For the owners of the business and the senior leadership team, an integrated ERP solution gives them a high-level view of how well each business unit performs. It’s a platform to understand what customers are interested in, what they’ve done in the past, and use it to plan for the future.  With this information, ownership can determine what to grow based on which plants and quantities retail customers want to buy. They can then plan how to optimize limited greenhouse and warehouse spaces based on what the business will grow.

#4 – To Streamline Production Management

Another key benefit of an end-to-end business management solution is the ability to streamline production management. In addition to growing and procuring sufficient plant quantities to meet customer demand, this includes cost analysis to ensure the business earns enough margin to generate a sufficient profit. Production managers can also monitor consumption rates and product popularity while tracking machine usage and labor rates. Other key capabilities include monitoring waste and scrap to more effectively select vendors and projecting production schedules based on growing times and life expectancy.

Tapping Into Future Market Growth Requires Planning Today

Over the next 10 years, the horticulture  industry is expected to experience tremendous growth while also dealing with uncertain supply chain costs. Tapping into that future market growth and generating a profit requires planning right now. It’s time to ditch using multiple systems and spreadsheets to run your business and turn to an end-to-end business management solution that pulls data in real time and allows you to identify trends so you can pivot when necessary.

Many growers have found the answer by implementing SilverLeaf powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This combination gives you the foundation of a world-class ERP platform with workflows and features tailored specifically for the grower industry.

In this on-demand webinar: Maximizing Efficiency in Greenhouse Growing: Ditch the Multiple Spreadsheets and Streamline Your Business, Todd Waterman dives right into the software and shows listeners different ways greenhouse processes can be optimized.