What They Do:

Farmacy PLC is a crop management and environmental consultancy firm. They employ specialist consultants who advise farmers and landowners on how to take full advantage of their land through effective management. By helping farmers evaluate their current working practices and looking at alternative ways of using their land or planning their work, they are encouraging environmentally friendly ways of working which, in turn, helps them access government funds.

The Brief:

Because this is such a specialist area, there weren’t any software packages in existence tailored to the work of Farmacy. The software in use needed updating to fit in with current working practices and, as much of their work was still paper-based, they needed a completely new system to encompass compiling reports and work schedules. This included calculating ‘points’ on a complex system used by the government to allow landowners to apply for funding.

What We Did:

Enhancements were made to the existing software in line with suggestions made by Farmacy to make it more user friendly.

Brand new software systems were designed, based on example reports and information provided by Farmacy, to do the following:

• Assess their clients’ current environmental working practices in relation to the size of the farm, legal requirements that must be in place and the government targets they should be aiming to meet.
• Make recommendations, according to current legislation and requirements needed to access further government grants, of best uses and management practices for their clients’ land.
• Plan work schedules to make it easier to put these recommendations into practice.
• Calculate the points they are entitled to according to government guidelines.
• Produce reports that help make the filling out of grant applications easier.

At Farmacy’s request, systems were designed to operate in a similar way to existing software. This reduced the need of further training for consultants.

Time Taken:

From client brief to roll-out across Farmacy’s employee base, time taken was around three months.

Ongoing Support:

ACUTEC continue to provide IT support for all of Farmacy’s applications, whether they were previously supplied or adapted by us.

Systems are continually updated to stay in line with changing working practices and legislation.

Systems are added to or adapted as required by Farmacy to further tailor the system to their needs and make it more user friendly.

Client Feedback:

“Having this new software makes gathering required information so much easier.

“Anything that can speed the process of accessing government funding for farmers along, as well as benefit the environment, is very welcome, especially at a time when British farmers are finding it difficult to increase their income from food production alone.

“Since applying the new systems, neither our consultants, nor our clients, have looked back.”