Ter Laak Orchids on 100% Digital: “See it as an opportunity!”
A number of growers have been preparing for 100% Digital for a while. Ter Laak Orchids is also working hard to meet the requirements of 100% Digital by the end of 2020. In this interview, Ter Laak Orchids tells us about the process, the challenges, the benefits and their experience, of course!
Can you tell us a little more about your company?
Ter Laak Orchids was founded in 1954 and is a true family business. In our two nurseries in Wateringen, covering a total of 17.5 hectares, we grow about 8 million Phalaenopsis plants annually for garden centres, florists and high-quality retailers throughout Europe. We do this with a driven and enthusiastic team of over 250 employees. Together, we ensure that consumers all over the world enjoy our product!
Are you currently working in/with Floriday?
Yes, all of our locations switched to Floriday about 2 months ago and we use the following functionalities:
- Item creation and management
- Supply management
- Direct sales
- Creation of collections
- Review of clock sales
- Fixed arrangements with buyers
- Addition of care tips
We do not use services or lot prices yet, because our customers and our sales system (when receiving an order) are not ready for this yet. We are currently working with Navision. They are creating the API, which we are involved in. We will start using it in the future as soon as our customers and the sales system are ready!
We are currently also conducting tests in Floriday with the functionality of Direct Purchasing and own packaging. We are now using quite a lot of Floriday’s functionalities! Some customers have already placed orders via Direct Purchasing. The goal for the 100% Digital lead group is to order 100% digitally through Floriday with a small number of buyers by the end of this month. We are also consulting extensively with our customers to look at the possibilities with regard to when and how they can order 100% digitally as soon as possible. This way we can “learn” and anticipate early and make adjustments whenever necessary.
Which Floriday functionalities do you want to start using this year?
This year we will be using the functionalities of lot prices, services (which we are very enthusiastic about), own packaging and supply period as well as other new features. We also have ideas for the future with regard to the Floriday platform: When we offer our customers something, it would be nice to make the offer temporarily available for these customers automatically. This still has to be done manually. We can already highlight new products, but it would be nice to promote the product even more. Consider, for example, including storytelling, POS material, etc. The exporter can then also use this in their webshop to support the product.
What do you think the benefits of 100% Digital are?
- One location where we can post our supply and from where we can sell directly.
- Correct and complete supply in a simple way.
- Real-time insight into the available supply for growers.
- Less administrative work per order for buyers and growers, which increases efficiency during the processing of orders.
- We only enter our supply once (instead of multiple times), which reduces the risk of errors.
- Buyers have insight into the status of their order.
- The efficiency allows us to pay more attention to the long-term relationship with the buyer and the joint approach of the end customer.
Why is 100% Digital important to you/your company?
We at Ter Laak believe in 100% digitisation; this is the next step in the floriculture industry. We see Floriday as a solution to allow this digital transformation to succeed and we will contribute to it. Floriday will be a platform that keeps moving, with improvements being implemented continuously. At the moment it is a functional platform, with a few teething problems of course, but it offers promising functionalities for the entire sector in the future.
Which changes do you still need to make in order to meet the requirements of 100% Digital?
We still need to establish a link between Floriday and our sales system, so that all data is sent to our sales system and released. This way we can collect the data properly. We are discussing this aspect with our software provider.
How will the floriculture sector benefit from digitisation?
Our time will be allocated differently. Before, we lost a lot of time retyping orders; we will no longer have to do that. Managing the supply will take a little more time with 100% Digital, but we expect that we will still have enough time to deal/talk with our customers about long-term relationships at a higher level instead of just the issues of the day.
To me, the most important benefit is that Floriday is set up in such a way that it offers possibilities to serve our customers and therefore their customers better. Other apps can connect to the platform, such as HortiHeat, and I expect and hope that we will be able to perform more promotional activities in Floriday.
What would you like to tell your fellow growers with regard to digitisation?
Digitisation is slightly new and unknown. But it will be the new normal in the future. See it as an opportunity! I believe that once everything is set up, things will be calmer and we will be able to deepen our customer relationships. Make the change in time and prepare your company, your employees and your customers for digitisation.
