“Peace of mind, clarity, and fewer mistakes. It brings all of that,” begins Nannette Lammerts of Berries Direct in the Netherlands, referring enthusiastically to the Freshino ERP system. These days, anyone selling fresh produce must do more than just buy and sell: they need insight, efficiency, and error-free working. With the Freshino ERP system, which started out as FRUIT voorraad (stock), Henk Jan Klok provides fruit and vegetable businesses exactly that. You can find everything, from arrival to invoices, in one system.

Freshino is widely applicable, also for top fruit

Dutch company Freshino offers fresh produce companies insight into all their business processes, from purchasing or harvesting to inventory management, packaging, shipping, sales, and invoicing. “You add information about every step in the chain to the ERP system, from uploading purchase orders and transport documents to scanning labels and sending invoices. That gives growers or traders a complete track-and-trace overview of a batch of fruit or vegetables, even at tray level. You can also find all important peripheral information, relating to, say, quality control, storage, or shelf life in Freshino,” says Henk Jan.

Direct insight into the financial data on the dashboard

No more fiddly Excel lists
Nannette purchased Freshino three years ago, when it was still FRUIT voorraad. “Back then, we used numerous Excel spreadsheets, so all the information wasn’t stored in a single system. We, thus, began searching for a comprehensive ERP package. It seemed many existing fresh produce packages quickly started to dictate operations, whereas we thrive on flexibility. Henk Jan seemed able to deliver a customized solution, and in hindsight, he has more than delivered on that promise. We’ve managed to keep our work process as it was; the package simply provides support,” she says.

Crop management
“Henk Jan’s package starts when a pallet enters the cold storage cell and ends when the client pays the invoice.” But, says Henk Jan, growers can also record data in Freshino during the final phase – harvesting – in the greenhouse or field. “Growers can even manage that based on incoming orders. For example, how many kilos of a particular product must they harvest? Using the entered data, they can get a report about things like lot and employee level.”

Range of possibilities
Henk Jan adds that users have full control of the addition of information. “An importer can, for instance, request information from the transporter, cold store, or quality controllers. Once they get that, it’s automatically recorded in the system, either as an attachment, like a PDF with a data logger’s readout,” he says.

Overview of the possibilities of Freshino

The software offers extensive possibilities. Those include sharing real-time inventory information with customers, quick invoicing in multiple languages, automatically generated shipping documents, location scanning to track stock down to the location, pallet, or crate level, generating production and financial reports, linking to accounting software, EDI supermarkets, and Office 365, and sending data to sorting and labeling machines. “We’re also working on a link with customs to forward the information they need automatically.”

The ERP program has a task list for each warehouse worker, too, including a checklist per task. These lists are customizable in consultation with clients. Employee answers are fed into the database and the track-and-trace system. It is much easier to store and find digitally entered information.

Modular and in the cloud
Freshino has a modular structure. “You don’t have to pay for modules you don’t use. Companies pay a fixed amount for a maximum number of users. If they use more than that, an additional price per group of users applies. Freshino is also interesting for small importers. It doesn’t cost them much to use a full package,” explains Henk Jan.

Traceability at package level

Everything runs in the cloud. “You don’t need a specific server, and our Dutch hosting partner has excellent cybersecurity. You can access Freshino from a phone. Although if you have many inventory overviews and pallet subdivisions, it can be quite tedious to scroll on a small screen. Tablets are more convenient. But if you want to place an order quickly, a phone is perfectly adequate.” Henk Jan adds, quite proudly, that 36 companies have already opted for this newcomer to the ERP landscape, including several overseas customers, some as far away as South Africa.

Easy to use and customizable
Nannette is one such satisfied client. “The complete automation of our administration, including communication with buyers, gives us a great deal of peace of mind and clarity. We can’t do without it anymore, and honestly, we wouldn’t want to. We didn’t even consider profitability. The question was: Does it bring peace of mind and clarity, and reduce the risk of errors? Answer ‘yes’ to that, and you know you shouldn’t hesitate,” she explains.

Nannette particularly appreciates the system’s user friendliness. “Label layout? You just specify that in the sales order, and the correct information automatically appears on the labels: variety, origin, picking date, you name it.” The system is great for staff, too. “A tablet displays the work orders in their language,” she points out. “That makes training much easier.”

Loading of fruit can be clearly monitored

But, perhaps, most importantly: “Henk Jan never says ‘that’s impossible.’ At most, he’ll say, ‘I’ll have to think about that.’ That’s worth its weight in gold. As soon as one project is done, we already have a new idea. And then he simply brainstorms with us,” Nannette concludes. He, for instance, helped develop customised quality reports for Berries Direct, including photos of each batch, directly from the greenhouse or packing station.

For more information:
Henk Jan Klok
Freshino
[email protected]
www.freshino.nl

Nanette Lammerts
Berries Direct
[email protected]