Unleashing the potential in your business

Implementing broadly focussed technology solutions into your business can dramatically improve your operational efficiency. In this article, we take a quick look at how DataDIGEST worked with a South African company to improve operational efficiency, financial performance, customer satisfaction and overall company competitiveness.

Our client is in the South African agriculture sector, providing material to farmers. Their business model is effective, but relies on managing relationships with farmers, agents, suppliers and logistics providers.

DataDIGEST was initially engaged to perform a business process analysis of the company’s operations. Over the course of several weeks, working closely with the operational staff and management, we found that the current processes were largely manual and disconnected. The company was unable to deliver market leading customer service and the existing logistical staff were overworked and suffering from low morale.

As well as submitting our report at the conclusion of our analysis, we suggested to the company executive team that the business as a whole would benefit from a technological investment to streamline their processes, automating as much as possible so that staff could focus on delivering great service to clients. With approval from the executive team we then embarked upon an exercise of selecting a suitable technological solution to the problems the company was facing. Whilst an ERP solution seemed to be the obvious solution, the products on the market at that time were not feasible for our client due to the significant financial and time investment those products entail. As such we proposed, and the client accepted, a custom solution that could be implemented in a tactical, phased manner.

The implementation of the solution involved a software development and implementation project that was successfully delivered on time and at a fraction of the cost of a fully fledged ERP solution. 10 years later the system remains fundamental to the operations of the company, having delivered the following benefits:

Improved efficiency

A 10x growth in tonnage handled by the company was supported by a 2x increase in headcount.

Operational risk reduction

Critical improvements were made in the accuracy of client billing and supplier payment. Managing these relationships effectively was key for our client to become a market leader.

Improved visibility of operational data

Clients experienced higher levels of service since their queries could be accurately answered. Management benefitted from having timely access to the data which aided their decision making.

Our consulting team can help you realise great improvements in your business. From process analysis, vendor selection and management, migrating to the cloud or identifying the need for a custom solution. Start the conversation today.