OVERVIEW
Country or Region: UK
Specialty: Arable Farm
Customer Profile:
Will Bradbury, Farm Manager for over 7 years at The President Estate Farming Partnership, farms over 3,000 acres of arable, grass and woodland in North Northumberland. The family-owned business grows crops including wheat, barley, poppy and oil seeds.
Customer Challenge:
Everything in Will’s office linked back to a server where all the farm data was stored. That meant data and documents could only be accessed from the office. In addition, saving the data to the server meant the customer’s information was vulnerable and not as secure as they would have liked. What the customer needed was a secure hub to store data that all employees could access wherever they were located.
Solution:
The Hardware and IT services department at Farmplan helped the customer set up Microsoft SharePoint for advanced document management and Microsoft OneDrive, enabling uploading, sharing, and syncing of files to the cloud. In turn this provided the business access to its data from any device. The aim was to create a secure hub where employees could access and share data and documents from anywhere, as well as being able to work on documents simultaneously.
Benefits:
- Increased flexibility
- Improved data security
- Seamless transition to new system
- Issues can be remedied remotely
How Farmplan improved data security and accessibility for a Northumbrian arable farm
“We have a big grain store three miles down the road where we can now access our files and emails from”
Will Bradbury, Farm Manager
Executive Summary
Farmplan’s Hardware and IT Services department provide complete IT support and solutions for small, medium, and large agricultural businesses. Having the right hardware in place can help farmers protect their data and improve business efficiency.
This case study explores how Farmplan improved customer data security and accessibility, resulting in more efficient and flexible ways of working.
Customer Challenge
One of Will’s main challenges was the original set up of his farm office, where he had one computer linked to a server storing all his data and files, such as documents and spreadsheets. The setup meant that anyone who wanted to access the information had to be present in the office and log in to the PC. As the business grew, more PCs were purchased, and more people were accessing the information. This created additional opportunities for unauthorised access or human errors that could compromise security. Also, storing more data on one server posed a risk of potential security breaches.
“Being able to access data from anywhere, not just the office, is a significant improvement“
Will Bradbury, Farm Manager
Solution
Will approached Farmplan who were already familiar with his office set up as they had installed it originally. He mentioned the challenges he was facing that naturally appeared as the business grew. Farmplan advised him to adopt Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft OneDrive to improve the security and accessibility of his data, as well as making collaboration easier.
To illustrate the ease of team data access from any location, the owner of the farm estate often works from the Netherlands. With the new system in place, he can effortlessly access data, including live documents, from this remote location. The new set up also enables the team to work collaboratively on these documents at the same time.
The development of the new services was seamless. The team at Farmplan started the process remotely, then they visited his farm to complete the set up. The entire process was concluded in less than a day.
Glenn Arnold, System Engineer at Farmplan, further highlights the support that customers like Will can expect.
“As dedicated and experienced system engineers, we are on hand to support and connect farm businesses of all sizes across the UK. We provide a holistic hardware support service, offering customers everything from help with sourcing new hardware to advice on a range of topics including data connectivity, network installations, data security and software.”
Benefits
Increased flexibility
Will’s team no longer need to be in the office to access data, they can access and update documents, spreadsheets, and files from anywhere.
Improved data security
Saving data to a secure platform like Microsoft SharePoint protects data security by preventing unauthorised access to information.
Seamless transition to new system
Farmplan’s systems engineers have the expert knowledge to guide customers through an easy transition to using new hardware and software that will benefit their businesses.
Issues can be remedied remotely
Farmplan’s Hardware and IT services department can resolve 90% of issues via a quick remote login or over the phone, avoiding downtime and stress for busy farmers.