The Greenery Beats the Clock With LANSA

The Greenery uses LANSA Integrator for exchanging real-time information between its LANSA-based core iSeries system, Windows-based auction and sales systems, and external parties. The fruit and vegetable supply chain is from grower to auction house and then to trading companies and retailers. Everywhere in the chain, parties make money, but margins usually get better towards the end of the chain. The Greenery is now more focused on negotiating long-term contracts with large retailers. Large retail chains want to plan their advertising campaigns and buy in big volumes for a predictable price and contracts give growers the opportunity to plan their crop based on demand. Auctioning doesn't give control to the buyer or the seller and is becoming less popular on both sides. The Greenery's core iSeries administration system, called USVA, has been developed and maintained in LANSA since 1991. USVA manages all grower information, compensation and payments, incoming produce, invoicing and distribution. Financial modules and management of container returns is in SAP on the iSeries. A Windows-based system for crop planning collects information when the products arrive at any of the Greenery's ten warehouses. With the new GreenMate auction system, remote buyers can bid over the Internet. But just as important, the whole process of auctioning is smoother because of LANSA's fast and automated integration between GreenMate and the AS/400.