Integration expertise empowers automation at FarmRight

Twenty years ago, a small group of ex-farmers from the South Island of New Zealand decided to share their extensive knowledge in the agricultural business and started an organisation that provided services and support to dairy farmers.

Since inception, FarmRight has grown exponentially; from the original three managed dairy farms to around seventy properties across New Zealand and Tasmania including dairy and beef farms, orchards, vineyards and hop gardens. Today, FarmRight focuses on providing a full range of investment and management solutions to long term investors, including specialised consultancy, farm management, development and administration.

Business challenge

In order to efficiently manage each owners’ investment, FarmRight used an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that could operate multiple entities within the one platform. Microsoft Dynamics GP provided the organisation with the financial planning and reporting requirements effectively; however, the process of entering and approving invoices was entirely manual.

As the business expanded, FarmRight realised the need to automate their processes in order to keep up with the volume of farms managed and subsequent increase of transactions entered. The organisation identified a new third party solution that could extract data from a PDF invoice, but their current Microsoft partner’s solution to integrate with Dynamics GP was not suitable.

Robert Read, Technology Manager at FarmRight, decided to go to market for a new Microsoft partner. Robert explained, “As we were using this new tool, we thought it was the right time to also look at the vendor that was going to implement this into our technical ecosystem and that’s when we went out to market.”

Solution

After an extensive review, FarmRight selected DXC Eclipse, the Microsoft practice within DXC Technology, as their technology partner to manage the solution integration as well as support Dynamics GP moving forward.

“We evaluated the technical expertise of different vendors and found that DXC Eclipse had worked in similar projects before. The more we looked at DXC Eclipse during the selection process, the more we were comfortable with changing vendor. Changing a technology partner is quite a big thing, but with what I know now - I’m so glad we did it!” Robert said.

Working with DXC Eclipse meant FarmRight had a trusted partner who supported them throughout the entire delivery process.

Robert said, “We put over 1,500 invoices through the test system which meant that when we went to go-live, it was actually reasonably stress-free; it just worked! The whole project was completed on time and on budget.”

Outcomes and benefits

The integration project delivered immediate benefits to the business. By automating the injection of data into Dynamics GP and eliminating manual processes, FarmRight saved time, reduced costs, reached higher accuracy and improved operations.

Following this success, FarmRight transferred their ongoing maintenance contract to DXC Eclipse and today, benefits from ongoing support to ensure the IT environment continues to improve in response to the business growth.

Robert said, “When we put in a support call, the service desk team is very responsive. It’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and I’ve been doing this for thirty-plus years now - so it’s refreshing!”

With future digital transformation projects on the horizon, FarmRight can now rely on their partnership with DXC Eclipse to support and provide expertise on their business vision and strategic direction.

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