Case Study: S&A Produce makes better informed decisions since implementing mProdigy® enterprise mobile management site

S&A Produce needed to collect data direct from its strawberry fields in Herefordshire and Kent using handheld computers. The company produces over 10,000 tonnes of fruit each year. S&A also required help to manage the 4000 people that work for it during the main harvest season: mainly university students from Eastern Europe. The mobile devices had to be suitable for everyone, even those with little or no IT knowledge i.e. a tool that is easy to use and very reliable.

S&A’s strawberry pickers are now equipped with ruggedised handheld devices managed by mProdigy and running an application called Pick-it. As the students weigh pickings at a portable weighing station, the device records the weight and is used to scan the barcode on the picker’s i.d. tag, together with the tray’s unique barcode. This information is sent automatically from the device to S&A’s data centre in Hereford using mProdigy’s GPRS capability.

mProdigy was used initially to commission the devices, setting up the appropriate configuration data and uploading updates to the Pick-it application. Once opperational, mProdigy allows the devices to be managed remotely and kept up to date. If problems occur, the devices can be rebooted from S&A’s IT operation centre.

“With such comprehensive management information, we can now offer an excellent level of service to our customers, giving them highly accurate and timely information on the goods we supply to them.”
– André Simon, IT Manager, S&A Produce