In my view, the software you use needs to mirror what you are doing in real life. If you need to start changing all of your processes to fi t with the software, it’s probably not for you. Ideally, you’ll be able to mould the software around your business – that’s a lot easier.

We attribute Prophet with contributing a great deal to our success as a company and I think it’s true to say that without the software, we would not be where we are today.

There were two things that stood out within the Prophet offer for us; fi rst was the functionality within Pr2 and second was the belief that we would be able to work effectively with the team at Prophet. Life is not always simple and we are working in a fast-turnaround environment where there is always urgency, so it’s important to know that you can have frank exchanges of views and even disagree at times, but that will not stop you working well together.

Prophet’s experience in the produce industry and desire to continually develop set them apart from their competitors. Everything in the Prophet solution was configurable – and because it was the best produce ERP system, we were able to take some of it more or less straight out of the box and tweak it to our specific requirements. The flexibility of Pr2 and the ease of upgrading, combined with their knowledge of our industry, made it the right decision for us to take.

We knew that this investment was bringing us into the 21st century in IT terms and that once we began down that path there would be no turning back. There is a huge amount of functionality available to us, which we see supporting us as we expand over the next few years.

During the development stages, we spent a huge amount of time ensuring that the information we gave to Prophet was accurate and detailed enough to allow their team to develop the software specifically to our needs. The system is so flexible, we knew we had to be very precise and in some ways restrict it, in order to know exactly what we could expect to get out of it.

Yes, we are a plants and bulbs supplier, but that’s largely irrelevant – whether you’re selling avocados, apples or plants, it’s the code and commodity that matters, not whether it is a fruit or a plant.

One of the things that stood out from day one about Prophet’s approach to its software was the notion that the software was going to keep moving forward. Initially, as an early customer, we had bought the software, but I liked the concept when Mark Peachey decided to introduce the annual license fee. It meant that we were buying into the developmental nature of the software, the commitment of the company to evolve with the industry and a company that had staff on board with the vision to develop their product, rather than follow the usual trend of bastardizing the system for each new client. With Prophet, I feel we have been and still are part of a process.

You could not run a business like this without a system like Prophet and I believe Pr2 is the best fi t available for the fresh produce industry. It’s a great system – the key is using it properly and being helped to use it properly. There are some excellent individuals working with us at Prophet. We have had a good relationship with them from day one and that has continued through some testing times.