Glendale growing site

Glendale Horticulture grow a wide variety of plants in large volumes to an equally diverse range of customers. As the business had grown, it had acquired multiple, siloed legacy management systems over different sites across the UK – and thus, had no unified view of the business. Glendale needed a single, unified system that could be implemented across sites – and that could meet the stringent demands of this large and complex business. After an exhaustive review of all the options, Glendale chose Passfield.

Making the transition

In September 2016, Glendale brought in Tony Milne, a highly experienced management consultant, to project manage Passfield’s implementation across the business. This was a major undertaking that required the buy-in of everyone in the company. With this in mind, Tony placed training as a priority and over several weeks, the Passfield team delivered tailored sessions that introduced users to the new functionality and way of working. “Training helped get everybody on board and speaking the same language” says Tony.

The Passfield team also worked hard on cleaning up existing data to create one, streamlined and accurate database. Moving over to Passfield required significant changes in business processes and the Passfield team worked very closely with Glendale to ensure a smooth transition.
The goal was to go live in time for the start of the new season – and that’s exactly what happened.

The benefits

Today, Glendale Horticulture runs on a single, fully transparent database across the business. Users can view all stock and activity at a glance, and sell available stock across sites. They’re also able to:
• use Passfield’s comprehensive configuration to ensure key supply demands of each business sector are met
• set up multiple nurseries and areas to facilitate the traceability of stock across the business
• carry out instant stock updates directly on the production nurseries
• create standardised Document and Label templates, with corporate design
• create sales quotations and quickly issue purchase stock to fulfil shortfall commitments
• use Passfield picking list functionality to streamline the picking and dispatch process
• integrate with an existing business-to-consumer website
• set up a detailed general ledger/department/cost centre look-up for powerful financial reporting.
• control user ability across the business.

As Tony puts it, “Users can press a button and see exactly what’s available, in which nursery, which greenhouse, and which batch. That kind of granular detail is priceless.”