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If your greenhouse business misses out on revenue opportunities or experiences workflow delays, the cause could be poor analytics.
Common signs that analytics do not provide the required insights include challenges in planning resources and inconsistent information as data flows from one team to another in the production lifecycle. The cause is usually isolated data that does not flow through the business in real time.
People may also not have access to all applications, or they track activities on spreadsheets that no one else in the business can readily see. People might even use pen and paper on clipboards, or simply keep key information stored inside their heads.
All this adds up to a poor analytics scenario. You can’t analyze key performance indicators without a constant flow of data. Without analytics, your workflows bog down, and you miss opportunities to sell more flowers, plants, and trees.
Siloed data, outdated reports, and manual tracking contribute to operational inefficiencies because the management team has limited insights for decision-making. Sometimes, they rush and make the wrong decision. In other cases, they delay their decisions, waiting for correct information. But by the time the data finally arrives, it may have already changed out on the frontlines of the greenhouse.
The relevance and accuracy of analytics rely on real-time data. Without it, decision-makers are at a disadvantage. This can lead to crop failures due to not being picked on time or taken care of properly. The lack of real-time analytics can also lead to over-shipping or under-shipping orders to big-box consignment stores.
The greenhouse is also likely to go through more iterations than necessary when forecasting seasonal demand—a very time-consuming process when handled manually. The management team may miss trends such as decreases in product viability, pest outbreaks, and changes in customer preferences.
Delayed analytics can impact growers in multiple ways. For example, not knowing production and shipping schedules in advance leads to growers sourcing too much or too little labor.
In the pest management arena, if scouting occurs but the data isn’t reported on, the operations team must rely on spot-checking physical field reports or communications from individuals conducting the scouting. The delayed insights can lead to possible outbreaks or failed crops.
During harvests, when the grower team grades product—splitting between greenhouses or pushing out crop-ready weeks—but no one updates the information, downstream impacts occur. These include inventory availability for pickers or the sales team placing orders against incorrect product-ready dates.
All these situations affect profitability and customer satisfaction. Crops may die due to limited information about their health and viability. If cuttings arrive too early or too late, but no one is aware, this can cause disruptions in production and to customer demand forecasts.
In addition, growers may be forced to provide last-minute substitutions or remove products from sales orders—leading to confusion and dissatisfaction among customers.
For greenhouse growers ready to transition from outdated analytics methods (spreadsheets and manual tracking) to an advanced ERP solution, here are a few key steps to help you prepare:
As you collaborate with your IT partner to build a data analytics solution, focus on scalability. Ensure your technology stack can handle business growth increasing data volumes. And don’t forget about cybersecurity. Implement multi-factor authentication, encryption, and AI-driven threat detection to protect your data as well as your customers’ data.
To solve the challenge of improving analytic capabilities, many greenhouse growers have turned to SilverLeaf. Running on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP system, SilverLeaf solves data analytics challenges for growers of all sizes by centralizing data and providing real-time analytics. Using Microsoft Fabric to report on various analytics, all the data resides within a single data lake—which eliminates discrepancies between systems with differing data.
Data from third-party applications can also be pushed into the Fabric data lake. SilverLeaf lets you connect data with system data such as environmental controls, replenishment projection tools, and weather. SilverLeaf also provides dashboard reports with actionable insights that help growers make decisions quickly.
Plus, growers can customize out-of-the-box starter dashboards to meet their specific workflow needs. These include sales by product category, genus, and % growth by customer. The operations team can also tap into dashboard reports for the number of orders ready to pick as well as the number of racks and dock space those orders will require for shipping to customer locations.
Growers gain various advantages by leveraging SilverLeaf such as space capacity planning, cost by square foot, labor planning, racking and truckload management, supply chain management, and inventory turn analytics. SilverLeaf is the ideal solution to streamline data management, improve decision-making, and drive growth.
Saunders Brothers had reached an inflection point. Without better data and more efficient production processes, the wholesale nursery, orchard, and farm market nestled in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, could not maintain rapid business growth.
One particular challenge presented by the nursery’s legacy software systems was reporting. The management team had to manually piece together multiple reports, which took a lot of time. In addition, Saunders Brothers wanted to improve cybersecurity—a major concern given how many businesses get hijacked and lose access to their data.
To take on these challenges, Saunders Brothers turned to Velosio. Velosio scoped the project to understand the business needs and recommended deploying SilverLeaf.
An ERP solution built for the horticulture industry, SilverLeaf runs on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud. Saunders Brothers appreciated how they did not need to customize the solution since SilverLeaf comes with out-of-the-box capabilities specific to horticulture businesses.
With SilverLeaf, the management team can produce reports in minutes, and the staff can now go home about an hour earlier each day. Running on Microsoft technology, SilverLeaf also presents a logical interface that makes workflows easy. Users can quickly get actionable data to make strategic decisions. And in addition to providing stronger security, SilverLeaf frees up time for the operations team so they can focus more time on helping customers, which will enable the business to keep up its rapid growth trajectory.
Watch: Saunders Brothers’ Success with SilverLeaf and Dynamics 365 from the perspectives of CEO Robert Saunders and Sonya Westervelt, Director of Sales and Marketing.
To get a sense of the types of analytics that SilverLeaf can generate for greenhouse growers, check out this webinar, 10 KPIs Every Greenhouse Should Be Tracking. Presented by our experts in technologies that help growers run their operations more efficiently, the webinar covers analytics spanning the entire lifecycle of greenhouse operations—from space capacity to production, costs, labor efficiency, and pick-pack-ship processes.
And for more information on how SilverLeaf can help you run your greenhouse operations more efficiently, contact Velosio today. We’re glad to assist!
Talk to us about how Velosio can help you realize business value faster with end-to-end solutions and cloud services.