Genus PLC builds a best-of-breed business solution with Dynamics 365

Good problems are still problems

Any business aims to drive growth but, to do so, needs its software infrastructure to keep pace. Genus was growing rapidly, as farmers sought to meet the rising demand for animal protein, and as result, was working with 15 disparate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and multiple discrete software solutions on five continents. Different tools and databases were also being used in various parts of the company, which hindered effectiveness and undermined efficiency.

Outgrowing tools and systems is one of the “good” problems that companies sometimes experience as they develop. Genus recognized the issue and the need to invest in change. The company needed a modern, intelligent, adaptable solution that would deliver actionable insights on demand. It was time to build a centralized, cloud-based solution that would grow with the business.

Turning to technology

Genus partnered with Microsoft to deliver this digital transformation, under the banner of the “GenusOne” program. 

The company began by introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources in 2019, followed by a multi-phase implementation of Dynamics 365 Human Resources, Finance, and Supply Chain Management. Sales and Customer Service was implemented for key operational locations in 2020, with the roll-out to other regions beginning in 2021. Locations have been prioritized according to business needs, with 15 country locations now live. 

Engineering for success

An organization can’t make use of data it can’t see, but when data is visible and becomes information, there is a whole world of potential uses. For Genus, bringing all data into one system and integrating it allows the team to address some ‘pain points’, ranging from visibility of inventory to tracking of transport costs, pricing controls to consistency of processes. Each area of the business has experienced significant improvements using Dynamics 365.

“Implementing Dynamics 365 is enabling Genus to harness the power of our data to foster smarter decision-making, and open significant opportunities to create operational efficiency on a global scale. We can now more effectively tap into data-driven insights to inform strategy and ultimately grow the business enabled by an integrated, secure, future proof platform,” says Dave Anson, CIO of Genus PLC.

Genus PIC

Keeping track of more than 100,000 pigs in motion is no easy feat, but it’s exactly what the North America team needed to do to submit its monthly inventory for performance reporting. Before Dynamics 365, three or four people spent two days every month counting the stock of pigs. They often reported a variance, which could have a significant impact on revenue. With Dynamics 365, each pig is assigned a batch number that corresponds to its birth date and follows the animal at every stage, from growth to sale and transportation. Now tracking the pigs’ movements and inventory is simple and accurate. The team has reduced its monthly variance to just 1% and, with this level of accuracy, inventory counts now take place just once per quarter, saving many hours of work.

Building on this success, the team turned to improving the capture and allocation of transportation costs for appropriate billing. Before Dynamics 365, costs were typically estimated and not verified. Dynamics 365 allows for capturing the true costs of environmental fees and regulatory taxes, fuel, and distance at each step of the transportation process. Now when a pig is sold and transported, the batch number is pulled in to build the customer invoice. A Power Apps canvas app automatically identifies the batch for each animal to be transported, including weight, distance to travel, and other key information. Dynamics 365 uses this information to record related costs and calculate fees, which are presented to customers in an easy-to-read, itemized invoice.

Genus ABS

ABS supplies genetics to farmers around the world and many Sales teams meet their customers face-to-face to discuss the bulls they are interested in, based on their characteristics and genetic merit index score, and to take orders.  

Before Dynamics 365, it was difficult for the Genus ABS team to track bull scores and inventory, or to see what stock was available. Salespeople received a paper printout of the day’s inventory in the morning and set out to visit customers’ farms. Without real-time visibility of the changing inventory, a salesperson might call in their customer order only to be told that the available stock had already been promised to another farm. Today, the Sales team has a Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile app with accurate data about each bull, projections of stock and near–real-time inventory, which enhances the speed and quality of customer service.

“Implementing Dynamics 365 has built increased efficiency and accuracy into our pig farming operations.  We have already been able to accelerate transformation in those areas where the solution is live, and we look forward to realizing more benefits as we continue to optimize the technology alongside our business goals,” says James Coates, PIC Global Genus One Process Manager.

A bonus the team hadn’t considered before the rollout involves onboarding employees. The field of agricultural genetics and biotechnology is quite specialized, and there’s much for new employees to learn, especially for customer-facing roles like Sales. Since so much historical sales data and documentation is now available on demand in the cloud, getting new Sales staff up-to-speed is becoming much easier. Capturing this information so that it is easily accessible will be especially important as the team grows, more new employees join, and long-serving colleagues begin to retire.

Finance

For Finance, with entities in 20 countries all running discrete ERP systems in siloed databases, getting an accurate picture of each location’s performance, compliance, and projections was challenging. It typically required emailing multiple Excel workbooks and manually manipulating the returned data to create specific reports. Finance team members were often asked to create reports for other departments as well, adding to their workload and with limited tools to provide detailed analytics.

Since implementing Dynamics 365 Finance and eliminating data silos, the finance team is now starting to gain wider visibility into the company’s business data. They’re assessing internal processes for ways to simplify, standardize, and automate them. For example, they can now set up and run reports in just a few minutes. Genus is also focusing on a Power BI and data literacy program across the business to enable users to understand and utilize the tool for a more data-driven approach to their decision making and output.

These changes allow the team to refocus on managing risks, supporting business decisions, and providing meaningful insights. Jason Hill, Senior Manager, FP&A, at Genus, says: “Now that we have consistent, shared, near–real-time data, we’re finally all speaking the same language.” 

Optimizing for the future

The implementation and embedding of Dynamics 365 is still in progress, however, the Genus team can already see huge potential for putting data to work in ways that weren’t possible before.

The latest Microsoft integration is a new Azure data lake for Sales and Finance, which will reduce report latency from 2–4 hours to near real-time. In addition, a whole range of data will now be available within the system, which wasn’t possible on the previous platforms. 

“We haven’t tapped the full potential of GenusOne yet, but it’s already been a real transformation. Dynamics 365 is helping us drive the change we know we need to make for the future success of our business,” says John Sedman, ABS Global Genus One Process Manager.

Other future projects include making improvements to the vendor portal, building a new customer portal, and using Dynamics 365 Sales to strengthen management of customer relationships.

While Genus continues to help farmers meet the growing demand for animal protein more efficiently and sustainably, Microsoft looks forward to supporting the company with tools that help it achieve its goals and grow its business.