Royal Lemkes grows to new heights.

Transparency and insights help employees, customers,
and partners flourish

How does an organization improve transparency and insight of business processes that are intertwined with more than 700 suppliers and 2,500 customers around Europe?

Royal Lemkes has relied on Dimensional Insight’s Diver Platform for data management for many years.

The Dutch plant service — partner to some of Europe’s largest retailers — recently performed an upgrade of the platform.

For more than 130 years, Royal Lemkes has connected plant growers to retail organizations such as supermarkets, garden centers, furniture shops, and hardware stores. The family business helps its customers determine what plants to have on sale, and arranges timely delivery at the highest quality and the lowest costs. The company offers additional services, varying from business intelligence (BI) and automated replenishment to sustainability consulting.

Royal Lemkes relies on data to service the entire supply chain while ensuring healthy internal operations. The vast amount of data comes from many different sources including inventory, delivery and contract management systems, and individual points of sale.

“We operate in the very heart of the supply chain and therefore feel the need to prove our value add,” says Michiel van Veen, Director of Supply Chain & Operations. “Data allow us to show accountability to customers and to ourselves. We aim to do better every day and for that we need to know how we’re doing right now, financially and operationally. Hence our interest in data. Only the objectivity of data allows us to further improve our operations.”

“With the newest version it is a lot easier to find relevant data. No IT or BI skills needed. Even our customers and business partners are able to use the platform, which fits our strategy of transparency.”

Michiel van Vee

Director of Supply Chain & Operations, Royal Lemkes

Royal Lemkes, headquartered in one of Holland’s main horticultural regions, is a long-time user of Dimensional Insight’s Diver Platform for data management. Royal Lemkes recently chose to redefine its approach to technology. “We and our partners use business intelligence to convert data into actions,” says Rob van den Berg, BI Manager.

“Users should be able to use the data management platform in any way they prefer,” says Van den Berg. “This goes beyond generic reports, focusing on certain roles throughout the supply chain. Internal teams, customers, plant growers, suppliers, and logistics partners all have access to information from the system.” Furthermore, Van den Berg points out, the business requested more in-depth analyses of key performance indicators like turnover, margin, time to delivery, and sustainability.

The new approach and functional requirements led Royal Lemkes to decide to upgrade to the newest version of Diver. It includes faster database technology and options for group-specific log-in screens and permissions. The system was installed onto a new Windows server environment, with production and tests running on separate hardware.

“Corporate culture at Dimensional Insight resembles ours at Royal Lemkes. We enjoy working with them, as they understand what we are looking for. For us, this is a very important aspect of any business relationship.”

Rob van den Berg

BI Manager, Royal Lemkes

Migration

Royal Lemkes carried out most of the software migration by itself, after building up relevant expertise. The team received support from Dimensional Insight to kickstart the project. “We consulted their project manager on the set-up, principles, conventions, and working methods,” explains Van den Berg. “He was very helpful and a real communicator, making sure all relevant questions were asked and answered. It is comforting to know that we get immediate response to any support question we have.”

The results of the migration project have been positive. “The update has made Diver much more intuitive,” says Van Veen, who is responsible for information technology within the company. “I use Diver myself and find it a lot easier to find relevant data. No IT or BI skills are needed. Even our customers and business partners are able to use the platform, which fits our strategy of transparency. Transparency is a real driver of customer satisfaction.”

Saving time

“This tool is very user-friendly,” adds BI Manager Van den Berg. “It’s easy to connect sources such as ERP applications, aggregate their data, and deliver powerful insights. We save a lot of time. It now takes less than a day to build new data models. The daily data synchronization time has dropped by 50% and average report loading time has decreased from 8.6 to just 1.6 seconds.”

It may come as no surprise that everyone at Royal Lemkes is enthusiastic about the new Diver release and about the support from Dimensional Insight. “Corporate culture at Dimensional Insight resembles ours at Royal Lemkes,” concludes Van den Berg. “We enjoy working with them, as they understand what we are looking for. For us, this is a very important aspect of any business relationship.”