Global Pig Farms Inc. is the second largest pork producer in Japan. GPF is a swine producer cooperative and serves the needs of their members by providing breeding stock, feed, veterinary services, and sales of market pigs.
The technical services they provide include data processing for each farm, and a unique benchmarking system which includes data from outside users. They also provide technical support for producers who use Porcitec on their own farms.
Business Situation
The data processing bureau at GPF has 4 full-time and 3 part-time staff members. It provides data entry, data analysis, software training, and technical support to its members and independent producers.
“The transition was much smoother than we initially anticipated. The support provided from Agritec was terrific and in a very timely manner. We experimented in the data conversion with a few sample farms’ data and compared the outputs with the ones with former software. We felt very comfortable with the technical support and the outputs, and eventually all the farms’ data was converted”
Izumi Ishida, GPF
Previously GPF used a different USA software application. They had cooperated with the University of Minnesota to further refine and improve the software and had been the exclusive agent for the Japanese market.
“The former package had limited capabilities, due primarily to its closed database platform. Computer technologies have been advancing constantly, and computer packages should have the features needed to incorporate those improvements. We decided to adopt Porcitec because of those improvements, and smooth data exchanges with other based packages and internet technologies can be accomplished and appreciated.” says Izumi Ishida, GPF
Solution
When GPF switched to Porcitec, the Porcitec user interface and reports were translated to Japanese so users could easily jump into Porcitec. At first, a few test farms were converted and the data and outputs were compared to those obtained with the former software. Eventually all the farms’ data was converted into Porcitec.
Benefits
- Open architecture
Porcitec platform and open database architecture allows for smooth data exchange with other software, including GPF’s own data representation using EXCEL and SQL. For example, GPF has its own in-house software to manage financial data which can now be incorporated with Porcitec production data.
“Due to its open database architecture, the communications with the other packages are much simpler and smoother, and we now have unlimited use of the production data.” says Ishida.
- Excellent technical support
“Support from Agritec via email was helpful and prompt, usually within 24 hours. All technical difficulties encountered, for example, displaying 2 bit Japanese characters, were solved efficiently.” says Ishida.
- Flexible software to meet all needs
Global Pig Farms serves 90 independent producers and 11 outside users from different corporations, each of them of different size and with different needs. They also have 7 in-house veterinary consultants serving their members. Because of Porcitec’s power and flexibility, the software has met the needs of this varied group of users.
“We feel that our relationship with Agritec is not simply as customer and supplier, but also a partner for further improvements. In fact we are learning new things from Porcitec and Agritec has adopted some of our suggestions and requests. We hope this relationship will continue in the future for the sake of mutual benefits.”
Izumi Ishida, GPF