Velosio Case Study: SO natural Orchid Growers
Download “SO natural Thrives with Dynamics NAV and Agriware”
About the Company
With the cultivation of 14 million orchids per year, SO natural is the largest pot orchid plantation in the world. The family company is cultivating orchids since 2004, but started growing lettuce and tomatoes in 1959. SO natural is lead by the 5 Smaal brothers (second generation) and two Managing Directors outside the family. The orchid grower has solid ambitions, a keen eye for new developments and close contact with customers. In January 2015 SO natural was named Entrepreneur of the year, in the category of big business in the region of Mid-Holland. SO natural employs 255 people.
The Challenge
- Need to manage the biggest orchid grower in the world, producing over 10 million orchids a year across 4 companies
- Manually managed many business processes through the use of excel and spreadsheets, resulting in lack of control and increase in human error
- Needed analytics to include financial integration with other systems
- Multiple systems needed to be integrated as a result of a business acquisition
The Solution
Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Agriware
- Leveraged Microsoft Dynamics NAV’s flexible interface to integrate existing solutions used by SO natural and the company that they acquired, Delta Orchids
- Actively involved in the development of the Agriware solution to ensure that it fit the exact needs of a nursery
- Implemented Agriware over time to ensure process alignment and user adoption – latest feature set added was Packing Planning
- Added CRM functionality to communicate with customers directly from the system and streamlines the order through payment process
Client Success
- Gained an overall view of the organization including 4 locations, 40 acres of greenhouse space, and 5 acres of distribution space
- Automatically track the growth of each individual plant in each location for better stock management, ordering and invoicing
- Production activities and growth schemes are tracked in their young plant nursery for better inventory optimization down the road
- Financial and operational activities are tracked at both a company and corporate level so there is a consistently accurate, real-time picture of availability and planning
- Supported business growth enabling SO Natural to become the largest grower of orchids worldwide
