Background

Bell-Carter’s Field Department was relying on a 20-year-old home-grown system to track Growers,  Orchards, Varieties, and Grower payments. Olive Growers are paid based on quantity delivered, variety, grade (size), and quality of the raw fruit.

The Challenge

In 2015, California ripe black olive processers were required to enter raw olive receipt information into a new centralized web-based system operated by the California Olive Committee (COC).  This system was designated as the system of record.

This required Bell-Carter to perform double entry and double maintenance to record olive receipts and pay Growers.  Manual audits and reconciliations were required to keep the two systems synchronized.

Bell-Carter had recently implemented JD Edwards for their accounting, manufacturing, and distribution needs but Grower receipts, statements, and payments were generated from the home-grown system.

The decision was made to eliminate the home-grown system and engage Azmera to move those functions to JD Edwards Grower Management and Grower Pricing and Payments modules.  In addition, the system had to be implemented in time for the upcoming harvest which was less than four months away.

The Solution

Azmera was engaged to implement the Grower solution for Bell-Carter.  We quickly gathered Requirements and prioritized them with the focus on delivering a solution in time for harvest.  With the high volume of grower deliveries, we made sure the fruit receiving process functioned as efficiently as possible.  With our in-depth application and agribusiness knowledge, we designed a solution that closely matched Bell-Carter’s existing processes, with no double-entry required, and very few JDE customizations.  One of those customizations was an interface to the COC database that pulls grower receipt information and automatically creates receipts in the Grower management system, eliminating the need for double entry.

In cases where an automated solution would have to be built, but would not be ready in time for harvest, we developed manual business process solutions to satisfy requirements.  We also created custom harvest reports and Grower receipt statements using Bell-Carter’s existing reporting software – including email delivery of receipt statements.

We developed and delivered user training and training guides to the field and accounting staffs as well as two weeks post-implementation “hyper care” support with Azmera resources on-site to help with process and application questions.

The Results

The harvest deadline was met!  The system and staff were ready and able to receive fruit into inventory on the first day of harvest.  Most importantly, there was no disruption of business activity, and the 20-year-old system was retired, simplifying the IT landscape.

Cody McCoy, Bell-Carter’s Field Manager states, “We use the Grower Management implementation as the model for how future systems should be implemented.”

Contact us at info@azmeraconsulting.com to talk about how you can experience similar results!