FF Skagen: A longterm co-operation about continuously being strategically ahead
It is about a relation built on strategy trust and a common understanding of the challenges facing the business when CEO in Notora, Thomas Blak, and FF Skagen have co-operated in roughly 20 years. This because the continuous growth and development also requires current demands for IT-solutions and is about being ahead with the development in a company growing in several directions.
For a company with such a complex production commerce and export like FF Skagen the IT systems must run 24/7 and be supported all year around. Besides the present ERP-solutions the company must continuously look ahead towards future IT-implementations and be strategically ahead. This is why Notora works closely with FF Skagen in a strategic long-term development process. IT manager in FF Skagen Jan Gram says:
”The IT-co-operation is essential to our company – Industries are generally becoming more and more dependent on IT and thus also of our IT suppliers. So we need to know that our systems can operate continuously and that we are changing the systems on time. Also eventhough we have not chosen to co-operate with a big ERP-house.
A large fish in the ocean
FF Skagen is one of the world´s biggest producers of fishoil and fish flour. The products which are exported to more than 60 countries are used to amongst others animal food in agriculture, mariculture minkbreed and petfood.
Through half a century FF Skagen has developed the Group through acquisitions and mergers. The Group thus includes a variety of specialized subsidiaries including a transporting company and Scandic Pelagic, which is leading within herring products for consumption.
Thus the Group FF Skagen operates within different industries which also include natural complexities.
”One of the industry´s primary challenges is the delivery of commodities. Our delivery planning can be affected by EU overnight so we must me able to navigate between different international business routes” Jan Gram explains.
Being part of a global import- and export sector with plentiful regulations hence requires survey, data storage, project management tools and many other digital focal points.
Good chemistry and mutual understanding
Besides good chemistry the long-term co-operation is due to the fact that the employees involved
at Notora understand the mercantile problems and can translate them into IT -systems. That Notora so to speak knows “both sides of the table” as Jan Gram puts it. He continues:
”The employees at Notora whom we work with understand what we say and the reality that we operate in. Also from the perspectives of our employees which are the end users of the ERP-solutions. This understanding can thus amount into concrete IT.
Concerning the co-operation with FF Skagen Thomas Blak states:
”Our co-operation with FF Skagen has always been that of an open- and honest dialogue and both present and former colleagues have always appreciated the co-operation with FF Skagen. The Group uses NAV an ERP solution which we at Notora have worked with for decades as we have always had employees which have had foodware particularly fish as their core competence”.
And eventhough no long term co-operation is constantly trouble free and without challenges Jan Gram emphasizes exactly the ability Notora has when it comes to challenging them.
”We can be challenged on some of our existing processes through the co-operation with Notora. We do not always incorporate the challenges they propose but it is an essential part of the co-operation that they have the competences to challenge and develop us.”
