Stack Digital Case Study:
EastPack
EastPack is the largest Post Harvest Operator (PHO) in New Zealand. It is a co-operative owning and operating pack houses and cool stores across seven sites in the Bay of Plenty. As a grower owned cooperative, EastPack is single-minded about the success of its growers. And packing over 700,000 trays a day, it has some of the most sophisticated equipment in the industry.
The challenge
With the kiwi fruit industry forecast to grow significantly between 2020 and 2030, EastPack needed to ensure they would be ready to support their growers. The EastPack Board initiated discussions on how to embrace this market opportunity through digital technology that would realise value. With a longer-term vision in mind that the consumer would be the first person to touch a kiwifruit, the Board initially focused on how to apply digital technology to support their immediate strategic themes focussing on operational excellence.
How Stack Digital helped
Stack Digital (formerly known as Techspace Digital), an independent technology advisory business, was engaged to help support EastPack’s Senior Leaders and Technology team on how to use technology to deliver improved operational efficiency and achieve EastPack’s business goals, with the end goal being on quality produce delivered to the consumer.
Digital framework
Stack Digital followed a rigorous process of interviews, site visits, team meetings and workshops to involve all EastPack stakeholders, utilising Stack Digital’s Digital Framework to create a Digital Business Plan (DBP). Stack Digital has developed the Digital Framework through which a company can develop a comprehensive digital strategy. It is equal parts technology and business strategy and takes a company through the thought processes needed to develop a sound technology-based roadmap that is outcomes-based.
Digital framework
The Digital Business Plan is a framework of documents, models and plans that positions a business to best utilise technology to support its future operating plans. The Stack Digital DBP takes a company’s business strategy and vision, and defines the technology enablers that are required to achieve these.
The purpose of the DBP is to use technology to improve customer engagement either through delivering new or better services through improved processes, developing new markets through identifying opportunities, or generating new revenue streams from digital technologies. By identifying the areas that need to be focussed on to achieve business goals, the DBP defines a list of initiatives that will allow this to be realised. The DBP is followed by the implementation of some or all the initiatives.
The DBP for EastPack details the foundational initiatives required to support their future goals, as well as developed application roadmaps that move toward a centralised cloud-based means of delivering functionality. Also included was a future organisational chart with defined roles and responsibilities, and identified future technologies needed for EastPack to achieve its long-term vision.
| DBP Features | DBP Benefits |
|---|---|
| Highly skilled trusted advisors that translate between technology and business | Engagement with Techspace personnel, with their expertise matched to the business. |
| Practical proven approach utilising the Digital Framework | The process was transparent and aligned to business objectives, ensuring technology as an enabler to ensure value was added. The structured process means being able to quickly narrow down the options to identify what is important to the company. |
| Outcome-focussed deliverables | A clear defined roadmap of priority initiatives for EastPack with supporting resource and budget requirements. |
| Wide ranging assessment tools | Nothing gets left out. |
| Agreed future vision | A challenge model for the future of the company supported by technology. |
| Current state assessment | Clear visibility of the current state of the technology landscape. Identifying current state issues and risks for the executive. |
| Strategy on a page | Clear and simplified view of the future direction for technology. |
The results
All actions from the DBP have been highly endorsed by the Executive Team and the Board, with implementation of the first initiative under way.
What our clients say
The process with Stack Digital allowed EastPack to identify the key initiatives that would allow us to take advantage of technology to achieve our business objectives. The DBP has provided us a clear and defined roadmap at a practical level. In effect, how we can quickly adapt and grow with the industry changes that are forecast.