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Does your supply chain lack crucial data for your procurement team to supply the best fresh produce to your customers?
There are a million things that can go wrong for a procurement manager working with fresh produce. They have to constantly juggle the multiple variables involved when supplying, to their retail or manufacturing customers. From volatile weather, pests, diseases, yields, pack-out rates, storage issues to transport delays; the list goes on. If procurement teams can master this balancing act, the rewards can be great; either through increasing business with their existing customers or gaining new ones. Here are some ways to make that happen:
Data blind spots
With the explosion of technology and increasing data availability, it’s time to identify the data blind spots in your procurement teams. There is a wealth of information that exists between the farm data, found in Farm Management Software (FMS), and the product & financial data, found in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. For many procurement managers, variable quality and yields for product grown in uncontrolled environments can have major financial impacts. Data that gives your procurement team insights and alerts, earlier, enables your business to stay agile and profitable in challenging times.
It is common for procurement managers to not have the information they need or to think the data is not available in the first place. Working with a restricted view of supply means they cannot get ahead of their supply decisions or share that information proactively with the customer.
Communication is key for customer relationships
For procurement teams, the core of their role is to be responsible for planning the volumes and profitability of product supplied to customers. Of course, communication is key to any successful relationship, so if the information being shared with customers is lagging or has blind spots, this can create mistrust. More and more, we are hearing procurement managers want to show their customers they have their finger on the pulse and know what is coming upstream from their suppliers.
Pressure comes from when the product is scarce or it’s in abundance. When the pressure is on, procurement teams need information, fast. Many calculations are involved, such as knowing what stock is ready from multiple suppliers to delivery prices. There is information and data out there but it doesn’t necessarily all come together in the same place, at the right time.
A single online view
We are in the midst of the digital revolution in agriculture, with more information moving from an offline, paper-based, system to a digital, online, one. For your business to stay ahead of the curve, it’s time to imagine having all your supply and supplier information online and updated in real-time, for the whole of your business to use. Procurement teams will make more informed decisions by having eyes on the full supply chain. They can see previously hidden opportunities for prompt action to deliver consistent quality and reduce waste.
Keeping your business data in sync often requires integration with your ERP. Integration is both a technical solution and a mindset for building smart supply chains of the future. That’s why from day one, KisanHub has had open API integrations available with ERP systems and FMS such as Farmplan’s Gatekeeper.
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a way for different systems to communicate, understand each other and share data, saving data entry time and improving data quality in both systems. Data is shared securely and seamlessly between systems, and in real-time.
An online platform like KisanHub collects data from upstream suppliers and connects it to your ERP data for a single source of truth, this means procurement is now data-informed. At KisanHub we understand the blindspots commonly experienced by procurement teams. By targeting the wealth of information not in the EPR, we are removing data blindspots to give teams greater visibility, so they can make more informed decisions before products arrive at the factory.
Our downloadable reports allow you to easily share information with your customers, to strengthen trust in those relationships. We understand the importance of sharing specific information at different times of the season, so we made it possible to easily customise your reports and share them by email.
To present these reports with information from your suppliers captured at source is a game-changer for meetings with your customers. This shows your customers that you are working with the best suppliers and what about due diligence we hear you cry? Operation records and certificates are easily uploaded by suppliers and your team. Then shared with your customers via email through KisanHub, to save precious time and provide digital transparency from seed to sale.