Information Technology

"To provide any of our customers with first class information from any of the growers we are supplied by. This information is all key parts of our trading activity that demonstrate we have covered off food safety issues from packhouse standards to pesticide usage" - Aurel Voiculescu - Information Systems Director.

Organising your life on the move  

“Your phone doesn't just handle calls; it can also help you organise your life. You can use its calendar functions or task management and retrieve or listen to your emails while you're on the move”  

Over the last couple of months we have researched the market in order to identify the best mobile communications solutions that will suit our company’s needs. Most phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) come with a calendar, an address book and camera. We were looking for a simple phone that can also be used to access emails. Wireless, real-time email enables us to be more reactive to our customers, suppliers and colleagues and increases efficiency. Our preferred handsets are Treo 600, Nokia SPVC500 and Nokia 6600 because they combine many tasks into one device: phone, email, camera and personal organiser.

Email is a lightning fast way of communication and being able to stay in touch with our overseas companies is critical to our company. In a matter of seconds an important piece of information sent from South Africa is accessible to our mobile devices, while a copy of the email will be kept for our return to the office.

Whether you are setting up your PDA, laptop or phone for email, you'll need your email username and password and you can get these from your email provider.  

If you are setting up your mobile phone for emails you will need an email enabled phone and we recommend GPRS (General Packet Radio Service that is part of the GSM standard and delivers "always-on" wireless packet data services to GSM customers, providing packet data speeds of up to 115 kb/s) to access your email.  

If you would like any further information or guidance about email on the move or any other mobile communication, please contact the Information team on +44(0)1386 832 926 or email us at  infowellpict-european.com

Grower Approval System - G.A.S.

Our new Grower Approval System is live since March 2004. Using the Internet as a method of delivery, the new system provides our customers with technical information from any of the growers we are supplied by.

Growers’ awareness is a very important factor and the system provides at a glance the stages of development for each of our growers.

The system has been proven a big success in UK, Northern Europe, Spain and Portugal. The next step is implementing the system in South Africa and USA.

Free website for our P.O. growers

With over 5000 hits a day Well Pict European Group (http://www.wellpict-european.com ) is one of the busiest websites in the soft fruit industry. You could be part of our success story by having your website hosted on our server.

While keeping your existing email address, your new website address will be:

YourFarmName.wellpict-european.com

You could have as many pages and pictures to present your farm (i.e. introduction, people, products, contact, job opportunities). The local and overseas pickers will be able to find information about the farm and the jobs opportunities at the farm, much easier than before.

Also the personal website will include:

• Technical Developments and Research

• Comprehensive information about the product specification

• Newsletter

Market research

Benefits:

Comprehensive information about the market

Sound statistical analysis of the retailing business

Features:

1.Retail Prices analysis

• 52 weeks prices (for each product line)

• Detailed retail prices analysis

• Comparison with other supermarkets

2. In–store analysis of:

• Product placement

• Display type

• Method of display

• Average shelf size

3. In-store Features

4. In–store:

• Product presentation

• Product quality

5. WASP analysis (red-amber-green):

• Appearance

• Texture

• Taste

• Overall

Implementation of Prophet 2000

Integrated stock management system able to deliver:

• physical information about product
• financial information
• quality control management information system
• traceability

contact: Aurel Voiculescu aurelwellpict-european.com