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High Time For Our Data Standards To Have A ‘Shipping Container’ Moment
Jack Link’s
Jack Link’s is an established high quality beef jerky manufacturer that has operated in New Zealand since 2002. They create around 560,000 packets of beef jerky per week, the majority of which is exported from New Zealand.
Because of the size of Jack Links’ operation and the reach of their exports, which spans international markets like Singapore, Australia, USA, Japan and Korea, they require a software that streamlines their export process, and reduces the time spent creating and distributing export compliance documentation.
The Jack Links’ export team adopted TradeWindow Prodoc nearly 10 years ago after struggling to maintain day-to-day exporting operations. Jack Link’s describes the solution as “brilliant”.
The challenge
The challenge was to find a solution to maintain integrity for the markets they export to, namely Korea, USA, EU, and Japan.
Processes at Jack Link’s were very labour intensive, with double handling of data by users.
Outside of their document system ICOS, they would also keep multiple spreadsheets containing customer information, which was proving to be an inefficient and time-consuming process.
For product shipments, they had to cross reference tables to ensure country and customer standards were met on each order. The inefficiencies from this process drove document errors up to a rate of one-in-three shipments, with each error taking an average of 35 minutes to fix.
The solution
Jack Link’s were referred to Prodoc by another exporter and adopted it after a brief period of evalu- ation. At the time they were particularly attracted by the consistency and simplicity the solution offered.
At first, the Prodoc system was implemented in parallel with Jack Links’ legacy systems. “Once we built the interface in Navision and could pull that information into Prodoc, we were good to go,” says Mike Millett, Jack Link’s NZ Commercial Manager. It took two months for Prodoc to become integrated at Jack Link’s.
Mike says it was a smooth and seamless process to onboard Prodoc. Integration into their ERP system meant data accuracy, and a marked improvement
in the reliability of their export processes, while also saving time. Error rates and repeated tasks were previously real pain points for their team – since onboarding Prodoc they no longer double up on tasks or use inconsistent practices.
The users of Prodoc at Jack Link’s have found it simple and easy to use. “Our users care about ease of use and functionality, and this is what Prodoc provided,” says Mike.
The outcomes
The team at Jack Link’s have noticed that over the past 10 years they have been able to shift their focus to expanding to new markets and increasing operational efficiencies.
“ Our data accuracy was far higher once onboarding Prodoc, and the solution has been far easier to use, we no longer spend half an hour working to fix an issue like we did on the old software. ” – Mike Millett
A key improvement has been with record keeping required for each customer. Prodoc automatically tells the user what documents are needed. “We don’t have to assemble documents every time a new shipment is created,” says Mike.
Jack Link’s now has more time to focus on growing its business. Its teams are empowered, and Prodoc has given them the tools to reduce errors and processing time dramatically.
Any hurdles or hiccups faced in the set-up process were quickly addressed by TradeWindow, and Jack Link’s knows they can continue to rely on the Prodoc support team to answer any questions they may have.
Development partner
The relationship has pushed both companies to innovate, so that Jack Link’s can trade in the best way possible.
With trust in the Prodoc system and seeing just how streamlined they could get their processes, the Jack Link’s team wanted to know what else they could do.
- They embraced an opportunity to trial TradeWindow Cube, confident it would deliver something special.
- Integrating TradeWindow Cube (as a development partner) has removed the need for Jack Link’s to physically print and store documents, enabling it to reduce its printing and storage footprint costs.
- Keeping documents on TradeWindow Cube also ensures that their information is secure and safe, backed by distributed ledger technology.
“Cube is a secure, viable alternative to using a courier. The speed of Cube is its greatest benefit, it is simple, not complex,” says Mike.
Jack Link’s says they are looking forward to seeing the roll-out of TradeWindow’s Cube as a fully functioning end-to-end solution in the year ahead.
Mike Millett – Jack Link’s, NZ Commercial Manager
Contact us: customer-success@tradewindow.io
