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| | “We've achieved one of our main 2009 business objectives in commencing work with leading companies in the grain industry, domestically and across SE Asia, to form a local grain trading B2B community,” says Glen Andrew, F4F Australia’s managing director. “We’re also delighted to announce the first steps of expanding into New Zealand with plans to integrate a retailer and three manufacturers. This will be a significant move in mirroring our accomplishments in Australia. We aim to have many more New Zealand manufacturers and retailers trading in 2010. “But our core business is increasing the depth of applications available to our clients. We’re helping businesses with even more complex internal and bespoke web applications.” 
| | F4F Australia originally began working with many integrated manufacturers and the country’s ten dominant major distributors. The team is now working down the chain with more than 80 of the community’s smaller trading partners broadening B2B by linking them onto systems using F4F’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and file processing gateways. “Customers need to operate more
efficiently internally and externally,
including integrating with trading partners in other industries and communities such as health, hardware and grocery. We’ve
responded by broadening our span of electronic processes. For example, we’re assisting customers with internal integration encompassing systems from as
small as MYOB, Quickbooks and Arrow, through to Oracle, SAP and BPCS,” explains Glen.
The Sydney-based F4F team have also been developing web applications to solve specific business problems with the aim of streamlining business and enabling extra value to be extracted from business processes.
| These applications, typically integrated into back office systems, include SAP integrated web portals, and applications to manage online ordering with small trading
partners and the management of
consignment stock and agency distribution models. In future F4F hopes to condense some of these initiatives into common industry offerings and extend to VMI and
collaborative planning. Delivering a finished job ahead of schedule is always a proud moment, especially when the client is a major multinational company. F4F Australia assisted Syngenta
in changing its integration point for
Australia from an indirect semi manual
link to a direct SAP Processing Integration link. A complex project that involved four interfaces and six customers, it was still completed one week ahead of the schedule set at the outset of the four month project. |
| | | | | | | | | | | | F4F expansion | Web-based inventory tracking system launched to the crop protection sector F4F continues to develop new services and supply chain applications to enable partners to extract more value from community participation. The latest is an inventory tracking programme for the agro-chemical and crop protection sector. |  Welcome to the third issue of F4F’s The Hub and some great news. I am delighted to report that in the first half of 2009 our agri e-commerce business has shown a 40% increase in revenues over the same period in 2008. This growth is down to new customers joining the F4F community in all areas (Europe, Africa and Australasia) and existing customers taking advantage of more new services. Many of these services are web-based, allowing your customers or suppliers to interact with your business electronically.
The Hub details some examples of these services, for example the Oqualim project in France, which connects feed compounders and feed testing laboratories. Others include trading portals for global manufacturers and websites developed for rural retail merchants to sell on-line to farmers and country dwellers alike. And we have developed new solutions for the use of handheld PDA’s by field-based staff (see below).
In other news, the technology solution developed and owned by Adaptris, our sister company that runs the F4F communities, has now also been sold to a third community in the Graphic Media sector for the transmission of images around the world between photographers, newspapers and ad agencies. The principles and requirements are virtually identical.
Finally, thank you again for your ongoing support and custom and enjoy The Hub.
Nick Evans
Managing Director |  | | Working with a leading international agribusiness F4F has developed a web-based service to support the agro-chemical industry in tracking agency and consignment stock. The service is highly scalable and is live with agents and distributors in Australia. “Historically one of the greatest challenges in managing an agency inventory model is maintaining accurate customer and byregion stock levels,” explains F4F’s managing director Nick Evans. “Many businesses have attempted to address this through either the imposition of a proprietary system or emailing worksheets across the supply-chain. Neither of these works well due to the absence of a standard, the multiplicity of manufacturers, and the effort involved and time delays caused through emailing of worksheets.”
| The F4F service allows a forecast of product sales for each distributor to be entered at the start of a season. As a webbased system stock levels can be updated either by agents via B2B or direct entry when goods are received. “This allows actual stock balances to be reconciled on a regular basis with system generated reports used to determine required orders. The application is capable of managing any combination of individual stores, hubs and regional stocks providing the basis of a more flexible and creative agency partnership,” says Nick. The F4F service provides the basis for an industry wide system that securely supports the crop protection manufacturers and their agents and distributors. This will enable a new style of partnership between manufacturer and agent where both parties benefit from reduced levels of administration, a more efficient product |
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| | | | | | | | | | F4F Hub key to improved animal feed standards across France Improving and standardising animal feed quality across the country is at the heart of a new F4F project to connect France’s animal feed industry. Oqualim was created in 2008 by the National Union of Animal Industries (SNIA) and the animal nutrition section of the French Federation of Co-operative Societies (Coop de France Nutrition Animale). It aims to improve the safety and quality of animal feed in France by developing a common specification. Building a centralised electronic messaging platform between the manufacturers, laboratories and suppliers in the animal feed market was the first step and Oqualim turned to F4F to create such a system.
“The portal, linked to the F4F Hub, stores data on levy plans and analysis requests and results from all the trading partners. Oqualim acts as the central point of this data collection and provides statistical reports on the quality and sanitary value of all raw materials and compound feeds,” explains Vincent Le Moine, president of the Oqualim Steering Committee.
Even with F4F’s ten years of experience in similar projects across Europe, the Oqualim platform was no easy task.
“F4F had to provide a technological infrastructure that would allow electronic exchanges between more than 80 businesses, including 52 manufacturers and 28 laboratories, with more expected in 2010,” says Joachim Crombez, operations manager for F4F Europe. Laboratories indicate which animal feedstuffs they can analyse, the types of analysis carried out and even the parameters used.
The result is an improvement in manufacturer choice and final product quality, whilst reducing overheads previously spent manually searching this information.
All analysis results are transferred back to the customer electronically through the F4F Hub. An alert is automatically triggered if a results exceeds a maximum residue limit (MRL), informing both the manufacturer and the Oqualim organisation.
“In a nutshell Oqualim has the necessary tools to support the Community as it can examine all exchanged analyses, manage laboratory profiles, and check MRL values. It will require some initial effort to enrich the database, but once implemented, the platform will contribute tremendously to the security and quality of the animal feed on the French market,” says Monique Brown, business development manager for F4F Europe. | La plateforme F4F au coeur de l'amélioration des normes de l'alimentation animale en Francee Améliorer et standardiser la qualité de l'alimentation animale dans l'ensemble du pays est au coeur d'un nouveau projet visant à connecter l’industrie Française de l'alimentation animale à la plateforme F4F.  Oqualim a été créé en 2008 par le Syndicat National des Industries Animales (SNIA) et la section animale de la Coop de France. Il vise à améliorer la sécurité et la qualité des aliments pour animaux en France par l’organisation d’un plan de contrôle collectif.
La première étape était de construire un portail centralisant les messages électroniques entre fabricants, laboratoires et fournisseurs dans le marché de l'alimentation animale.
F4F a été sélectionnée par Oqualim pour la mise en oeuvre d’un tel système. «Le portail, lié à la plateforme F4F, stocke les données sur les plans de prélèvement, de même que les demandes et résultats d'analyse de tous les partenaires commerciaux. Oqualim agit comme le point central de cette collecte de données et fournit des rapports statistiques sur la qualité et la valeur sanitaire de toutes les matières premières et les aliments composés pour animaux», explique Vincent Le Moine, président du Comité de Pilotage Oqualim. Malgré nos dix années d’expérience dans des projets similaires en Europe, la réalisation d’un tel portail n’a pas été facile.
F4F a dû fournir une infrastructure technologique qui permettra des échanges entre plus de 80 entreprises (52 fabricants et 28 laboratoires, et plus encore en 2010), dit Joachim Crombez, directeur des opérations F4F Europe. Les laboratoires renseignent sur le portail les types d’analyse qu’ils peuvent réaliser, les paramètres utilisés (les méthodes, les limites de quantificat on ...).
Tous les résultats des analyses sont transmis au client par voie électronique par le biais de la plateforme F4F.
Un message d'alerte est déclenché automatiquement si un résultat dépasse une limite maximale de résidus (LMR), informant à la fois le fabricant et l'organisation Oqualim.
« En un mot Oqualim a les outils nécessaires pour soutenir la Communauté, car il peut examiner toutes les analyses échangées, gérer les profils des laboratoires, et vérifier les valeurs de LMR. Cela nécessitera quelques efforts pour enrichir la base de données, mais une fois mis en oeuvre, la plate-forme contribuera considérablement à la sécurité et la qualité de l'alimentation animale sur le marché français», explique Monique Brown, Directrice commerciale F4F Europe. |
| | | | | | | | | German F4F projects underway as more sign up to join F4F Germany has launched the country’s first sector wide B2B platform, the culmination of more than
two years of work by the F4F team establishing strong relationships with Germany’s leading agri-food suppliers
and distributors. There are now 20 members including
BayWa, RWZ Rhein-Main, Beiselen,
Agravis, Versis (Luxembourg), Bayer
CropScience, KWS (the first seed
company), Nutreco and DSM Agro.
Discussions are also underway with RWZ Kurhessen-Thüringen, HaGe Nord, Monsanto and ZG Karlsruhe about potential initial projects.
The first pilot projects involving BayWa, DSM Agro, Shell and RWZ Rhein-Main are now live using F4F for electronic document exchange. F4F projections suggest that if all the
projects go ahead 90% of the agricultural supply industry will be using F4F as their EDI partner for managing sales and logistics in the next 2-5 years. | 
| | To ensure ‘commonality’ in approach F4F holds integration meetings for the agro industry. Six have been held so far with the
seventh confirmed on 14th October
in Mannheim. “These meetings are invaluable because they allow us to discuss each partner’s business requirements, the platform functionality and the processes that we need to develop to seamlessly link the partners and their internal systems,” explains Martin Bernhard, business development manager for F4F in Germany. | “We have also held the first integration
meeting for the German market for the
animal nutrition market which was hosted by the “German Raiffeisen Association” in Bonn on 7th May,” explains Martin. “This has begun the inclusion of some of the Association’s 300 plus members.”
F4F has become the partner of choice in
the agro-market in Germany because the business has taken the time to understand the partner requirements and the market. The Hub will continue to chart the
German progress over the coming issues. |
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| | | | Measuring the business benefits of B2B | | | | | F4F works with customers in delivering real business improvement through the implementation of B2B
services.
“Companies looking to improve their
bottom line should also focus on improving or streamlining business processes rather than purely increasing sales performance,”
advises F4F’s business development director Mark Taylor.
Take this snapshot from three sectors within the agri-food industry showing actual customer-calculated savings achieved through deploying F4F B2B services: 
“The savings mainly focus on part of the order-to-cash-cycle,” explains Mark.  “What the examples fail to show are the vastly improved benefits to customer/supplier relationships, including better cash-flow from
improved invoicing and a competitive advantage because of more effective business processes.”
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| | So how about your business? Your business may be in a different sector with a different model, but if it focuses on any of the issues listed below then Mark advises that it becomes easier to measure tactical opportunities to the business of B2B services. ● What is the average length of time taken keying an order?
● What percentage of orders do not have all the necessary data?
● How much time is required to validate the order details?
● What percentage of orders are
incorrectly keyed into the system?
● How much time is taken raising a credit note?
● How much time is taken raising an
invoice?
● How much time is required to reconcile payments with credits?
● What are the extra costs in executing a goods collection and return? The above are a few examples of typical business processes where both the direct and indirect costs need to be understood. There will also be strategic considerations
such as: ● Is the ability to meet customer/supplier demands and requirements a driving factor?
● Is the timing and accuracy of the delivery of goods and services critical to your | customers/suppliers?
● Could more efficient business processes be a competitive advantage, for example more reliable deliveries or fewer credits?
● Will being ‘B2B-enabled’ allow your firm to win new business with different
customers?
● Is customer loyalty and long-term
partnership a high priority? As part of the process of helping F4F
partners integrate with their supply-chains F4F provides a forum to help address some of these points. “Without working through these issues it would be understandable why some businesses might see B2B as a cost because this is all they have quantified.
But we've actually found that the more B2B services a business deploys the greater the benefits,” adds Mark.
He advises managers to take the time to look into the cost of business processes, particularly the costs incurred when things go wrong, and the potential opportunity for using technology to streamline operations will emerge. Companies with the most efficient business processes will deliver better, faster and cheaper products
to their customers. “F4F has worked with over many hundreds of businesses in and around agriculture, across four continents, from international manufacturers to local distributors and retailers. We understand how to help identify the real costs and opportunities, and
have the experience to implement the most appropriate scale of solution,” says Mark | | | | |
| | | | F4F technologies to be replicated in paints sector The international paint and coatings industry is about to adopt Adaptris technologies to implement a near identical hub to the portal used by the global F4F agri-business community. |  
| Adaptris, F4F’s sister company, is one of the partners in this independent venture which has been initiated by Peter Becker, president at the German Coatings Association. Like F4F, the CoatingXchange portal as it will be called, will connect businesses
operating within a specific market and will bring many relationship advantages not seen in other B2B hubs.
Partners in the CoatingXchange portal will include multinational chemical companies, small and medium sized manufacturers of paint and coatings and providers of logistics services specific to the sector. “The European paints and coatings industry is made up of around 1600 companies linked to the processing industry. There is currently only very limited use of B2B integration and much of the business | administration is still manual,” explains
Martin Bernhard, business development
manager for CoatingXchange.
“The industry has a very real need for the CoatingXchange portal and because it shares a common set of business processes to the F4F agri-business sector many of the developments can be re-deployed.” However, like any vertical market, the
coatings sector has specific requirements which will be fulfilled by the Adaptris development team. CoatingXchange will have an interhub link with F4F to enable access for common distribution partners, for example the German distributor BayWa. For more information go to
www.coatingxchange.com | | 
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