In July 2009, the specialised “Adifo-Milas-AX” ERP package for the agro-industry was successfully implemented at the Dutch Rijnvallei cooperative.
About the Rijnvallei company
- Agricultural and horticultural cooperative L.T.C. Rijnvallei U.A.
- Location: Wageningen, the Netherlands
- Industry: agrarian
- Products and services: animal feed, crop protection, fertilisers, storage and shipping of compound feed raw materials and cowshed equipment; information and advice on the use thereof
- Turnover: 215 million euros
- Number of members: 2,300
- Number of employees: 330
- Website: www.rijnvallei.nl
Goals and challenges of implementing Adifo-Milas-AX
- Phase I of the implementation of a new ERP system: the financial modules of MS Dynamics AX 2009 integrated with the logistic MILAS3, the Arco Information document management system and the ENK software project administration system.
- Optimising the inter-company bookkeeping (15 companies)
- Optimising financial transparency and reporting
- Remodelling the administrative flow of the purchasing process
Why Adifo?
- Adifo has been specialising in the agrarian sector for years. It is familiar with the processes, which speeds up the analysis process and makes it possible to offer professional business consultancy
- Adifo profiles itself as the integrator par excellence for interfacing with third parties
- MS Dynamics AX 2009 is multi-disciplinary, seamlessly integrates financial and logistic processes, has a strong future-oriented architecture and offers strong multi-company functions
- The Adifo-Milas add-on brings together the best practices obtained from implementations carried out for more than 100 clients in the compound feed industry
- Adifo uses a standard project methodology based on the principles of PMBOK and Microsoft Sure Step
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Rijnvallei produces and supplies high-quality products for agrarian companies (animal feed, crop protection, fertilisers and cowshed equipment). The company also provides professional information and advice on the use thereof.
Rijnvallei is able as a medium-sized cooperative to compete in all fields with the biggest providers in the sector. It is able to do this purely and simply by taking that extra step each time. A question of passionate entrepreneurship. And it also proves this in terms of administrative organisation, through its innovative choice of the ERP package that combines the best of two worlds: the sector knowledge of Adifo and MS Dynamics AX, one of the most advanced horizontal ERP systems.
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For Rijnvallei, the added value of “MS Dynamics AX- Financial” came in the form of, among others, an efficient inter-company structure, a transparent logical approach and an effective opening up of management information. The combination of this with a contemporary look and feel and with the seamless connection to their workflow application provides a competitive result.
The project is implemented in different phases. The first of these, the implementation of “MS Dynamics AX - Financial”, has now been completed including client and supplier management, banking management, member administration, electronic banking, ledger, analytical bookkeeping, interest calculation, budgeting, fixed assets, consolidation and extended inter-company administration. The financial modules of AX are integrated with MILAS3, the current Rijnvallei ERP system.
“After a thorough preliminary study, our work group expressed a clear preference for the Microsoft ERP product. A good product is essential, but Rijnvallei also places a great deal of importance on having an implementer with knowledge of the sector. We were also won over by the decision of Adifo to include not just Milas 4, but also MS Dynamics AX in its assortment. This was based on a preliminary study that we were unaware of until that point in time. The result: within a short space of time we were completely live on a modern system with many advantages. “Adifo has clearly proved its added value in this respect”, said Arnold van de Kuilen, (Head of Administration) and Adri Spelt (Controller) at Rijnvallei.
“We succeeded in implementing this project – that included a number of heavy interfaces and a complex multi-company structure – in just five months without any delays at all. There are three reasons behind this successful implementation,” said Valerina De Lille, AX consultant at Adifo. “In the first place, our standard implementation methodology was based on PMBOK and Microsoft Sure Step. This guaranteed optimal preparation and planning . It was possible to adjust operations in time when the situation demanded it.
In the second place, thanks to our knowledge of the sector and the relationship that we have had over the years with Rijnvallei, we were spared the most common causes of failed ERP implementation; namely misunderstandings in the interpretation of client’s wishes and needs. And thirdly and equally important for this success, the fact that Rijnvallei dedicated a number of its strongest people to the project This meant that unnecessary delays were avoided, decisions were taken thoroughly and speedily and they were tested and adjusted in time.”