How Business Central & Agrio Schaap Holland Transforms

Schaap Holland has been active in the potato world for almost 60 years. What started with trading consumption and seed potatoes developed into sorting, washing, and packaging potatoes ourselves. "IT is really the foundation of the entire company for Schaap Holland," says Tom Schaap, IT manager at Schaap Holland. "AGRIO has grown more and more with us in that regard.

Foundation of the Company

"IT is really the foundation of the entire company for Schaap Holland," says Tom Schaap, IT manager at Schaap Holland. "AGRIO has grown more and more with us in that regard. We started with just the seed potato part. We had a system for this, but the support for it stopped. We then came together with a few companies to find a new program together. We already had a good relationship with Axelio, formerly Newminds, and were also at their office weekly. From that moment on, we started looking at how we could expand Microsoft Business Central with AGRIO as an integrated add-on for other purposes within our company."

Total Solution

Tom continues: "At that time, we did not intend to let the system take over everything, but this has grown over the years. With every delivery, we thought: "If this is possible, why can't the next piece be included as well?". We have the advantage that AGRIO is also used by other companies in the food sector. This creates a strong overlap, so when you look at a new feature, often only minor adjustments or expansions are needed to make it applicable for us as well."

Customization at Lower Investment

"So we actually have a customized solution, but at a much lower investment. With AGRIO, we benefit from applications developed for other users. This applies to us, but also to the other users. We all pay a part of the development of AGRIO. Systems like SAP, for comparison, are really meant for multinationals. It is an incredibly good program, very comprehensive. If you want specific features built into such a system, it is incredibly expensive. That was really not feasible for us. Our business activities are so specific that it was not an option to do this within SAP."

Complete Integration

"With AGRIO, we saw the opportunity to do it differently. For every business activity, we had multiple systems, including SAP, which was very fragmented. We wanted to integrate this so that our employees did not have to know and use six different programs. Also, financially and administratively, a fragmented approach is dramatic; you are only busy transferring information from one system to another. For this reason, we really wanted to move to one system where everything is integrated. The process with AGRIO was already underway, and we were fortunate to build on this and support the entire business process in one system."

Personal and Involved

"The involvement of Axelio and the mutual contact was so good that the decision to continue with AGRIO was made quickly. Axelio knows our company very well, and they also help us with IT matters that are not directly related to the system. There is a lot of knowledge within the company, and that gives us a very nice feeling. We may have many employees, but we are 'just' an SME. Large providers see you as a small company with a few wishes, and that is a very different collaboration than when the general director comes to sit in your office to discuss things and help with issues we are facing."

Competitive Advantage

"You can gain a lot of competitive advantage from a good system. The entire potato world, but also the entire food sector, was lagging behind in terms of IT. When I joined the company in 2017, 70% of the administration was still done in Excel. That is very dangerous! You have no control over various streams and no insight into what is going well and what is going wrong, and what costs you are incurring. Because we have now secured everything better, we are future-proof and can make much better choices. We also find the aspect of appearance to the customer very important. Because we can substantiate our choices with data, this comes across very differently to the customer."

Automating Quality Control

"Especially when it comes to quality, data is important. We have set up a sorting line where potatoes are checked at 150 different points. Together with Axelio and the company that supplies the RMA line, we have fully automated this, allowing us to have results within 3 minutes. Including a quality report that we can show to customers. AGRIO is therefore very important for our competitive position in every market we are active in."

Positive Impact on the Organization

"With AGRIO, our work processes have been significantly simplified and in some cases fully automated, such as the entire incoming and outgoing invoicing. The entire process from A to Z is in AGRIO. We have reduced our administrative staff from 5 to 3. In other departments, the impact is a bit harder to quantify. We have grown significantly, but with the same people. Had we experienced this growth without automation, we would certainly have had to hire more people. The people who are currently here can accomplish more work because they can work much more effectively and efficiently and get more done in the same time. We are a more professional and structured company and make choices based on data. This is truly thanks to AGRIO."