NZ co-operative transforms rural supply

Leading rural supplies and services co-operative, Farmlands, found its own digital transformation accelerated almost overnight as COVID-19 lock-down hit, rising to the challenge with speed and agility.

Farmlands has been an essential part of New Zealand’s rural communities for more than half a century. It’s New Zealand’s largest rural supplies co-operative, with 82 stores across the country providing more than 70,000 shareholders with vital farming supplies, from clothing to seed and dog biscuits to water pipes.

In 2017, it began working with Microsoft on a sweeping organisation-wide business transformation, dubbed Braveheart. Many of the co-operative’s operations were shifted to a Dynamics 365 platform, harnessing the power of the cloud to unlock a new world of automation and efficiency for the Farmlands team.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, it changed everything almost overnight. Ahead of the countrywide lock-down, every organisation had to find a new model that would allow people to work from home, for food to reach shelves and essential workers to have the tools they needed.

As a company supplying Kiwi farmers and growers, Farmlands was a central link in the supply chain – but the lock-down meant its stores were allowed to open for pick-up only. Having previously taken their outdated e-commerce platform offline while work continued on their new online store, customers weren’t able to browse for what they needed, resorting to phone or email in the hope of checking the availability of certain items. Store workers were spending a lot of time managing phone calls, customers had no visible options to choose from and support office employees had no immediate way of knowing what was selling across the company.

Farmland chose cloud-based e-commerce platform and apps, Microsoft Teams to provide it with collaboration, communication, and tech-enabled customer service.

An essential link in the chain

To set up an online Click and Collect service in a short space of time was going to require significant collaboration. Product photos and information had to be collated, and the new ordering system integrated into D365 with a PowerAutomate tool that could automatically send orders to the appropriate store, providing full visibility from their support office. Without a reliable online meeting and file-sharing platform, there was no way it could be done with everyone working from home.

Lead by chief digital officer Richard Wilkinson, the Farmlands Technology team mobilised to roll out Microsoft Teams in just two days, so the project team had a way of co-ordinating their efforts. That paved the way for a team of 40 people from Farmlands and Datacom, all working furiously to bring the platform online in a short timeframe.

“The success of the whole program all came down to super effective collaboration and Teams was absolutely critical here. We had loads of online chats, file sharing, wiki timelines and we also used Azure DevOps to store our files,” Wilkinson said.

Supporting people without paper

During the integration journey, the Farmland Technology Team also encountered compliance issues to be resolved when staff arrived at stores.

Using pen and paper to sign-in wasn’t optimal in terms of hygiene (or time), and senior managers needed to ensure the correct protocols were being followed, while monitoring the well-being of their team members.

As a co-operative, people are at the heart of Farmlands’ operations, and paper forms didn’t allow managers to track employee well-being or address their concerns individually.

To make collection and store operations compliant with government requirements, the team used Microsoft PowerApps to create a staff health tracker to streamline sign-ins on-site and monitor the health status of employees. Pen and paper were out – instead, staff could sign in and confirm they were fit and healthy on their mobile phones, which made audits for adherence to COVID-19 protocols a breeze. Better still, store employees could add comments to raise questions or concerns with their senior leaders for faster response times.

Microsoft also advised the Farmlands Leadership Team on how set up a Teams Live event with a question and answer function that enabled employees to ask questions in real time. Along with a special channel launched on Farmlands’ intranet, where employees could share light-hearted content and enter competitions during lock-down, the apps mark how Farmlands is using its new cloud-based platforms not just for productivity but to actively monitor staff well-being.

Another app supported the switch to remote working; and a hardware registration app was developed in just two hours so support staff could take essential equipment home on their last day in the office, and managers could keep track of where things were.

Employees could simply add their contact details and log which items they were taking with a photo – which was much more effective than using a clipboard, and it took a lot of the stress out of the shift.

Leaving “business as usual” behind

While the world is returning to a new normal, Farmlands is looking beyond “business as usual”.

The success of the e-commerce platform has ensured it will remain a permanent fixture. After just one week of trading, the “Click and Collect” e-commerce platform had completed four times as many transactions as the previous platform had completed in a full year.

But it’s how technology is creating an even more collaborative culture that really has the Farmlands team excited.

“This transformation really has changed the way Farmlands looks at communications. We’ve moved from being super heavy email users to everything being driven by Teams and our new intranet,” Wilkinson explains. “There’s so much more awareness of how useful our new tools can be. Now Farmlands employees see the value in our innovations and all the hard slog they put in with our transformation program. It’s opened their eyes to what we as a business are set up to do now.”

Previously the organisation was inundated, with messages not always reaching everyone it needs to, and there can be super-long delays with emails going back and forth.

“Whereas on Teams, you can have a face-to-face virtual meeting, decide on the spot and move on, said Wilkinson. “Turn-around time to get sign-off on decisions is so much faster.”

“This is just the beginning”

Farmlands chief executive Peter Reidie said the changes will continue, as Farmlands adapts to the changing behaviours and requirements of shareholders.

“COVID-19 has a ripple effect on New Zealand’s primary sector, with further uncertainty surrounding exports and other global factors,” he said. “That is a huge change in buyer behaviour, and it remains to be seen if this will be a long-term change.”