Anglia Business Solutions

IT Services Company Improves Supply Chain Management with Mobility Solution

Anglia Business Solutions, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, wanted to improve supply chain management for businesses in the fresh-produce industry. Inefficient manual data-handling processes contributed to product loss and large fines because of labeling errors. The problem was particularly acute for smaller businesses in an industry with low profit margins. To improve efficiency, Anglia designed a solution based on the Windows Mobile® version 5.0 operating system and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 Compact Edition database software that integrates with its enterprise resource planning system. Now companies make better decisions faster with immediate access to data from any point in the supply chain. Automated data management reduces error and makes it easier to fulfill customer requirements. As a result, businesses can be more competitive, and consumers have better information about products.

Situation

If you’re getting several £50,000 fines a year, that’s a lot for a company that makes a 2 percent profit margin. So implementing a mobile solution that helps eliminate them is an obvious choice.  Richard Jones Development Director Anglia Business Solutions

Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Anglia Business Solutions, based in Cambridge, England, is a software and IT consultancy company established approximately 25 years ago. The company’s 44 consultants implement business management solutions for customers in a variety of industries, including automotive, retail, manufacturing, and fresh produce. The company specializes in supply chain management, helping businesses implement or improve systems for delivering products or services from suppliers to customers.

Since 1997, Anglia has delivered solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV, formerly Microsoft Business Solutions—Navision®, a family of integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. “Microsoft has invested heavily in building a powerful, highly secure platform for building line-of-business applications,” says Richard Jones, Development Director for Anglia. “Our role as a partner is to take this investment the last mile by developing tailored customer solutions.”

Seeing an opportunity in the fresh-produce industry, Anglia set up an independent software vendor division to design a solution for the worldwide market. The result was LINKFresh®, an ERP system built on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The system manages activities such as finance, distribution, manufacturing, inventory, and dynamic trend reporting, and it automates key business processes within a single relational database.

However, the LINKFresh system alone did not meet the needs of the highly mobile workforce typical of the fresh-produce industry. Mobile employees needed to quickly send and receive information about products and customers from their worksites. Jones explains, “The majority of employees aren’t sitting behind workstations in offices. They’re actually people out in the fields picking crops, grading products, or performing other agronomy-type operations.”

Moreover, in an industry based on agronomy, problems are as likely to arise outside an office setting as they are within it. Supply chain disruptions at any location have an adverse impact on most companies. However, the fresh-produce industry, which depends on high sales volume to offset low profit margins, is especially vulnerable. Produce must be delivered from supplier to market quickly, typically within two to three days. This means that quality control problems need to be addressed immediately because by the time produce reaches the market, it is usually too late. However, inefficient information management processes make immediate response difficult.

Manual data handling was a problem that affected the whole supply chain, from buyers to workers grading crops. Data was usually collected in handwritten notes and later filed or typed into an ERP system or other software. By the time these handwritten notes were reviewed, the produce might already be loaded on a truck on its way to a supermarket.
 
Manual information management processes were also error prone, which meant that problems did not end when the produce reached the market. For example, product mislabeling was a common occurrence with serious repercussions, particularly for small companies. At best, the result was profit loss; at worst, a business might fail completely.

Freshness is such a concern that supermarkets in the United Kingdom require suppliers to attach colored labels to produce to indicate the “best before” date. Mislabeling produce is treated as a serious infraction that incurs a penalty called an Emergency Product Withdrawal (EPW). The penalty for an EPW is a £50,000 (nearly U.S.$100,000) fine. In addition to the fine, the supplier is also responsible for removing the product from the shelves. If a supplier receives three EPW penalties, it is not permitted to sell produce again that season. Jones explains, “If you’re an onion producer in the heart of the United Kingdom and that is your only crop, if you make three mistakes, you’re out of business.”

Product traceability was another quality control issue compromised by inefficient information management. In general, consumers increasingly want to know more about the goods they purchase. They want to know where products come from, who made them, and under what conditions. These questions are especially pertinent to consumers of organic produce, investigators who might need to trace defective products, or auditors at any point in the supply chain. However, they were difficult to answer without access to current, accurate information.

The fresh-produce industry needed better tools for collecting and sharing information. Businesses needed a solution that could automate data handling and that could be adapted to a variety of roles and activities throughout the industry.

Solution

The .NET Compact Framework lets you build at the speed of customer demands.... Ideas can be quickly visualized and worked into something expediently without compromising quality.  Richard Jones Development Director Anglia Business Solutions

Anglia decided to extend its ERP system with a mobile solution based on the Windows Mobile® version 5.0 operating system. The fresh-produce industry in the United Kingdom is diverse, with many small growers and niche markets. The companies follow different quality procedures and have different warehousing and stock environments. Anglia wanted to deliver a solution that could be tailored to the diverse needs of its customers and the different roles of employees in each company. For example, while one employee might load trucks, another might collect soil samples. Jones says, “The challenge for us was to create a solution that operates in the broader industry, but that we could adapt to a different set of user roles at each implementation.”

Jones heads the Software and Development Team, which designs software and e-commerce solutions based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, a programming model that includes precoded solutions and a run-time environment. Because the team was already familiar with the technology, it was easy to develop applications with the .NET Compact Framework for mobile devices. “We wanted to create a core component that was trusted and reliable, but that we could still tailor to satisfy customer specifics,” Jones says. “So we’re heavily invested in the .NET Compact Framework.”

By working with the .NET Compact Framework, Anglia can quickly develop applications that target niche markets such as the fresh-produce industry. “The .NET Compact Framework lets you build at the speed of customer demands,” says Jones. “The rapid production and construction of mobile applications using industry standard techniques just takes the pain out of innovation. Ideas can be quickly visualized and worked into something expediently without compromising quality.”

Jones and his team also use the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 development system, which he calls the “workbench of the application developer,” to design custom applications. Visual Studio provides an integrated development environment with multiple programming languages. Developers can use a common set of tools to quickly build mixed-language solutions. “An environment like Visual Studio sits open on the developer’s desk day in and day out,” says Jones. “It’s a trusted and solid environment that promotes creativity and lets the developer focus on the task at hand, whether it’s a mobile, desktop, or Web-based solution.”

Anglia took advantage of Microsoft development tools and technology to address some of the most critical challenges facing its customers in the fresh-produce industry. For example, the LINKFresh mobile solution includes LABELCheck, an application designed for the pack house or field environment that companies can use to scan barcodes and radio frequency identifier (RFD) tags. Barcodes are placed on products at their points of origin and then scanned and tracked through the entire supply chain with handheld mobile devices. “We realized that if you can track products all the way to delivery, you will have a good chance of identifying all the processes that happen along the way,” says Jones. “Of course, that idea lends itself particularly well to the world of Microsoft mobility.”

Customers can use any mobile device with a Windows Mobile operating system that meets the requirements of their market niche. Anglia, in turn, delivers software tailored to each customer’s needs. “We can customize our solution to collect data on forklift trucks, weigh bridges, or at a point-of-sale terminal,” says Jones. “With Windows Mobile, we can target lots of different markets with the same software.”

Although markets and employee roles vary, the procedure for using the mobile solution is simple. Information can be scanned or typed into the mobile device. When a label is scanned or information is typed, a relevant screen opens that directs the employee through a series of steps. For example, an employee might be asked to compare a product label with standards mandated by a supermarket. The employee answers questions about the product, such as the color of its label or the “best before” date. The mobile device, which is synchronized with the LINKFresh ERP system, delivers an alert if a problem is detected.

The collected data is stored on the mobile device using Microsoft SQL Server™ Compact Edition database software technology. SQL Server Compact Edition provides Anglia with a secure, reliable database running directly on the mobile device. Because SQL Server Compact Edition provides programming models common with other SQL Server editions, Anglia developers were able to apply their existing skills and avoid a lengthy learning curve.

Data is transferred through a unique solution called Drizzle Technology, for which Jones won the British Computer Society’s IT Developer of the Year award in 2006. Drizzle delivers data invisibly between the mobile device’s SQL Server Compact Edition database and a central SQL Server 2005 database whenever the device makes a connection.  Only changes in data are transferred, and employees do not need a constant connection to the ERP system to continue working.

The data transfer technology makes the mobility solution more appealing to small businesses because deployment is typically easier and cheaper. With Drizzle, encrypted data can be transferred in a highly secure manner across any kind of network that has Internet access, even public telephone lines. Customers can thus use existing infrastructure and do not need to set up a virtual private network. “For many small producers with only three or four acres of fields, the cost of putting in a mobile communications infrastructure would otherwise be prohibitive,” says Jones.

Windows Mobile support for multiple languages also makes the solution easier to deploy for companies with global operations. For example, a customer recently wanted to check product quality on produce prior to shipping from Spain to the United Kingdom. Rather than adapting the ERP system in Spain to handle the inspection, Anglia shipped employees’ mobile devices installed with Spanish-language subscriber identity module (SIM) cards. SIM cards are removable smart cards for mobile phones that identify the user to a cellular network. “The workers simply unboxed the mobile devices and immediately checked the product quality,” says Jones. “The results uploaded automatically to the ERP system in the United Kingdom.”

Benefits

With a better data collection solution based on Windows Mobile, companies in the fresh-produce industry can extend the LINKFresh ERP system through the whole supply chain. The mobile solution helps companies reduce errors and cut costs, and it gives them the means for more effective process management. Businesses are more competitive, and employees are more productive with better data collection tools.

We can customize our solution to collect data on forklift trucks, weigh bridges, or at a point-of-sale terminal. With Windows Mobile, we can target lots of different markets with the same software.  Richard Jones Development Director Anglia Business Solutions

Reduces Costs

The mobile solution helps companies cut costs by reducing errors and improving efficiency. Some of the biggest savings are realized by reducing labeling errors and the associated delivery failures and fines. “If you’re getting several £50,000 fines a year, that’s a lot for a company that makes a 2 percent profit margin. So implementing a mobile solution that helps eliminate them is an obvious choice,” says Jones.

Jones points out that an efficient supply chain solution with integrated mobile support also helps Anglia customers reduce costs. “If a supplier is able to effectively collect data through the whole operation, it can almost eliminate cost duplication.”

Improves Supply Chain Management

Before, with paper-based quality insurance inspection, there could be as much as a four-hour gap between the time employees record and respond to a problem. By that time, the product may already have shipped. With the LINKFresh mobile solution and automated failure alerts, employees can take action immediately when a problem is detected.

For instance, if a field is flooded, the information can be delivered electronically to the ERP system, which quickly identifies an alternate product source. As a result, says Jones, “with automated data handling, you can deliver what you’ve been asked to provide, and the opportunity for error is far less. If you do encounter a problem, you have much more time to fix it.”

Strengthens Competitive Advantage

Anglia customers can strengthen their competitive advantage with a Windows Mobile–based extension of their LINKFresh systems. They can manage their supply chain more effectively, which helps them meet the strict standards of major customers such as supermarket chains. “If supermarkets see you are taking steps to ensure you follow their processes, it puts you in a better position when you negotiate contracts and bid for further work.”

Jones points out that mobile technology can also help a new company win business. Sales representatives can initiate a discussion immediately, without the distraction of setting up a portable computer and arranging a network connection. “It can help make a sale if you simply turn on a handheld mobile device and have quick access to details like the customer’s order history.”

Improved product traceability also brings suppliers and producers in the fresh-produce industry closer to consumers. Mobile devices can capture details that matter to consumers, and the data follows the product all the way to market. Consumers have more information about their produce, and the improved customer service can help companies win more business. “People can capture details that identify the field and the farmer and that describe the product as it is picked,” says Jones. “The information follows the product all the way through the supply chain, and it adds value.”

Increases Productivity of Mobile Employees

Much of the workforce in the fresh-produce industry is transitory—for instance, they may pick produce for only one season. Workers might not speak the same language as their employer or have much experience with computer technology. Collecting data in their own language on a handheld device with an intuitive interface can make their jobs a little easier. “Employees feel positive about it because they don’t have to wander around with a soggy clipboard or retype data into some kind of software,” Jones says. “Instead, with mobile technology we can give them a reliable tool that saves them daily effort.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about Anglia Business Solutions products and services, call (01) (223) 873400 or visit the Web site at:
www.angliabs.com

Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile brings the power of the Windows® operating system to mobile devices, helping businesses and their mobile employees stay connected while on the go. Windows Mobile runs mobile versions of Microsoft programs, including Microsoft Office Outlook® Mobile, Internet Explorer® Mobile, Pocket MSN®, Windows Media® Player Mobile, and Microsoft Office Word Mobile, PowerPoint® Mobile, and Excel® Mobile. With Windows Mobile, information workers get powerful software combined with the familiarity of Windows. Combined with available service plans and connectivity options, Windows Mobile–based devices, available from 42 device makers and 68 mobile operators in 48 countries, can be used to make calls, send e-mail and instant messages, surf the Web, and access critical business information even when users are away from the office.

More information about Windows Mobile can be found at:
www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published July 2007