IT support in Produce & Agriculture from a provider who understands your sector
We’ve provided IT support to the produce and agriculture sector for a decade, so we understand the unique demands your industry faces.
The expectations placed on produce companies by their clients are among the highest of any industry, including IT.
You need fully operational systems and a 24/7 IT helpdesk on-hand. We don’t need to tell you about the impact of delay and disruption to the supply and delivery chain.
If you’re in the produce or agriculture sector, you need an IT partner who truly appreciates these very specific industry issues and can adapt around your ever changing requirements.
At Microbyte, our entire operation is configured around enabling our clients to keep running, around the clock, by us delivering high priority and high availability IT services, from our Azure Cloud solutions, all the way to our 24/7 Helpdesk.
"Microbyte's 24/7 Helpdesk service is invaluable to our business"
Stefan Clements, ManorFresh Find out moreIT Support from FPC members
As a sign of our commitment to the industry, we are also full members of the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) who keep us informed and up to date with changes and challenges within the industry. Not only do we have offices on New Covent Garden Market, but we also have strong links with many other produce markets including Spitalfields, Western International and Park Royal.
So if you’re looking for an IT partner with a proven track record, please get in contact using the form below to see what we can do to help your business continue doing what it does best, delivering quality produce across the UK, on time, every time.
What operational issues do the produce sector face?
The produce sector faces a variety of unique operational challenges due to time constraints, delivery of the product and intricate processes they follow.
Some typical issues we have found with IT in the Produce Sector aren’t specifically to do with the technology and the fact that they are in the food industry. Instead, the problems are largely down to the unique demands placed upon those clients i.e 24/7 support or the fact all produce has to be delivered within a certain timeframe. The demands from their clients are immense.
24/7 Service
Due to the complexities within the industry, some technology companies lack the understanding of their unique demands. For instance, a lot of IT companies proclaim they offer 24/7 service and they may well have somebody at the end of the phone who will jump out of bed to take a call at 1 am in the morning, but does that constitute true 24/7 support?
When the produce customer is struggling to get their orders out the door will someone rolling out the bed at 1 am really be able to deliver the very best support and the very best thinking to enable that client to become operational again?
Complex Processes
Another consideration technology companies must consider is the complex processes those in the produce sector must follow. For example, if a call comes in during the night and the IT company does indeed have a 24/7 helpdesk, does the business have the right standards in place to ensure that helpdesk can even fix the issue at 1 am or at least provide a workaround? It comes down to unique standards that need to be implemented. For instance, should the internet go down, has the produce company been told they should have a failsafe – a second internet connection? If not, someone has to scramble to the site to try and cobble together the first one, which means lost communication, downtime, loss of earnings and in some cases wasted product.
Operational Times
As many companies within this sector work around the clock and downtime is minimal, the ability to deliver technological solutions and implementing them within a small window of opportunity is essential. Most produce companies can’t afford down-time and IT companies do not always appreciate that. It is essential to build in resilience from the start of the journey, to make sure they can future proof and plan for changes and upgrades needed in the future.
The Solution
The process of onboarding clients in the produce sector and the development of incident response plans involves communication with key parties, auditing, and identification of technical blind spots in the organisation. The aim is to understand the system thoroughly, minimise downtime, to respond efficiently if downtime does occur, and to enable us to implement change swiftly.
When our engineers onboard such clients, as well as taking a thorough audit, they investigate potential weak links in the IT infrastructure, for example, a lack of backup power supplies or broadband connections. Any recommended improvements are then forwarded to the client.
The onboarding process also includes the formulation of processes that the client will routinely require, for example, the addition and removal of staff members (which is frequent in this sector). Having an in-depth process ensures we can all keep up.
We formulate POA plans in cooperation with the client, detailing what will occur in the event of a disaster recovery situation. The plans are centred around maintaining maximum uptime and prioritising the key delivery areas. We ensure we obtain a thorough picture of the organisation, including opening hours, key contacts, and available downtime for periodic software updates. These plans are regularly reviewed with the client.