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Emydex Customers grow via Acquisitions and Expansions

Emydex’s existing customer base has grown significantly over the past 18 months, with Emydex customers adding 10 new sites to their existing food processing operations. Whether a sign that Irish & UK based Agri-food industries continue to perform strongly in a global market downturn or a sign that food processors that invest in Emydex systems continue to be successful or both, it is certainly a positive development for all parties involved.

Most recently the Kepak Group announced the take-over of ABP’s beef processing facility in Ballybay, Ireland (formerly Silvercrest) on the back of winning the Burger King contract to exclusively supply burgers to Burger King Restaurants in Ireland and the UK1. The acquisition safeguards 125 jobs at the Ballybay facility.

Also announced in the past few months, Euro Farm Foods are to extend their beef abattoir processing facility in Duleek, Ireland by adding a new boning hall operation that will create 50 new jobs for the region2.

In addition a recent Emydex customer Kavanagh Meats in Co Wexford, Ireland has begun work on a new project with Emydex to build a new Beef and Lamb abattoir to add to their existing Beef and Lamb Boning hall operation in Enniscorthy. Meanwhile in Scotland, Vivers/Scotlamb this month (July 2013) announced their intention to extend their Emydex lamb kill line system into their existing Lamb boning hall operation in Dumfries.

All these developments follow a series of expansions and acquisitions by two of Emydex’s largest group customers over the past 18 months. The Dunbia group last month opened a £12m revamp of their Lamb processing facility in Llanybydder, Wales that includes an innovative de-boning operation provided by Emydex in conjunction with SF Engineering3. This follows the Dunbia Groups’ acquisition of the G Woods pork processing operation in Mansfield, England in March 20134, as well as the acquisition of Heathfield Foods in Crewe, England in November 20115.

The Dawn Meats group, one of Ireland’s largest food processors opened a new €14m facility in Carroll’s Cross, Ireland in June 20126. The 40,000 square foot facility was purpose built to service a €300 million contract to process up to 18,000 tonnes of Irish beef annually for McDonald’s. The beef processing facility produce up to three million hamburgers per day, which are exported abroad to McDonald’s markets throughout Europe. This new plant follows the Dawn group’s acquisitions of West Devon Meats, England in April 20127 as well as Duerden Meats, England in September 20118.

References

  1. http://www.irishtimes.com/burger-king-signs-deal-with-kepak-1.1402663
  2. http://www.independent.ie/regionals/droghedaindependent/news/factory-to-create-50-new-jobs-as-extension-approved-27167807.html
  3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22813800
  4. http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Business-News/Dunbia-aquires-family-pork-processor-G-Wood-Sons
  5. http://www.dunbia.com/Default.aspx?ResourcePath=Heathfield%20Foods
  6. http://www.dawnmeats.com/index.php/latest-news/item/84-an-taoiseach-enda-kenny-officially-opens-%E2%82%AC145-million-beef-processing-facility-in-waterford
  7. http://www.dawnmeats.com/index.php/latest-news/item/89-dawn-meats-acquires-west-devon-meats
  8. http://www.dawnmeats.com/index.php/latest-news/item/100-dawn-meats-acquires-beef-abattoir-in-the-english-lake-district

 

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Emydex Customer Satisfaction at an all-time High across the board

Emydex’s latest customer satisfaction survey conducted during April 2013 shows all time high scores across all metrics measured. Feedback is received from at least one person from every live customer, and at least 2 people within our larger group customers. In all cases the people surveyed are in Emydex-facing roles, and deal with Emydex staff on a regular basis. The latest survey includes feedback from 26 people working for Emydex customers, and covers customer satisfaction with:

  1. Quality of the system – performance, usability, bug free etc.
  2. Execution Timeliness – adherence to agreed project deadlines and milestones
  3. Meeting Expectations (how did we measure up at the end versus expectations at the start?)
  4. Quality of Customer Support
  5. Satisfaction with your Lead Programmer (how happy are you with your lead programmer?)
  6. Recommendation – Likelihood of recommending Emydex to a colleague or friend
  7. Overall Satisfaction

A summary of the scores received across all customers is listed below. In the case of all 6 questions, these scores are higher in each instance than scores and feedback received in our last survey conducted in October 2012

Emydex Overall Quality Satisfaction

Of particular importance is the improvement, in the opinion of our customers with the Overall Quality of the Emydex software system, that has seen satisfaction grow steadily over the past 2 years from a 79% satisfaction rating in October 2011 to a rating of 86% in April 2013.

This may be in part explained by the fact that Emydex now has a separate product development team dedicated to the further development and improvement of the core software platform and modules.

The team have since February 2013 moved to a separate office to give the team ‘head-space’ and also to facilitate growth in both the Project Implementation and Customer Support Teams in Unit 10.

Quality of Solution (usability, Speed, Performance, Bug Free etc.)
Emydex - Quality of Solutions Results

Satisfaction levels with Software Quality

Emydex Soloutions Team

Emydex Product Development Team

The knock-on effect of improvement in overall software quality, is that satisfaction with our Customer Supportteam has also risen in line, most likely as a result of a combination of less bugs being reported in the software, and more staff being added to the Emydex support team that now stands at five full-time dedicated people, soon to be six. One customer comment to highlight came from Simon Fletcher in Moy Park Ballymena, who said “Emydex provide an excellent Product and an excellent service. I wish all our Suppliers/Support operated with the same ethos and work ethic”.

Quality of Customer Support
Emydex - Quality of Customer Support

Satisfaction levels with Customer Support

Customer Support Team

Emydex Customer Support Team

The last metric to highlight relates to Emydex Customer satisfaction levels with their lead programmer, the main software developer tasked with tailoring an Emydex solution to match each customer’s specific business requirements exactly. With Customer Satisfaction with their lead programmer now standing at an 87% satisfaction rating, this demonstrates the level of knowledge our delivery team has of food processing industries, as well as their technical skill levels and abilities.

Satisfaction with Lead Programmer

Satisfaction with Emydex Lead Programmers

Emydex Programmer Delivery Team
Emydex Project Delivery Team

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IT Solutions in the Food Industry Event on 28th May

IT Solutions for the food industry

Recent events concerning horse meat found in the food supply chain have renewed focus once again on the need for integrated Financial, Traceability and Quality Systems to manage the complex food processing supply chain.

The Microsoft Food Industry event on 28th May will feature presentations and integrated demonstrations from 3 leading Irish software vendors, each with their own specialist area of expertise and software systems to help Food Producers manage different aspects of their businesses.

This seminar will be an opportunity to learn how joined up IT systems specially tailored for the Food processing Industries can deliver a "total plant" IT solution enabling:

  • Financial Management & Control
  • Stock Control & Stock Management
  • Production & Traceability Reporting
  • Yield, Costs and Give-away Reporting
  • Factory, line and Operator performance Reporting
  • Quality & Food Safety Management

For Plant Managers & IT Managers

Emydex technology, Simply Dynamics and Safefood 360 provide a fully integrated solution covering Production, Finance and Quality management systems

For Production & IT Managers

Emydex Technology are the leading supplier of Production Management Software Systems to food Processors in Ireland, and count companies such as Dawn Meats, Dunbia Group, Kepak, Liffey Meats, Oliver Carty, Moy Park and Rockabill Fish as customers.

Developed using Microsoft technologies, Emydex's factory floor data capture and Traceability reporting systems are operating in over 40 food processing plants spread over Ireland the UK and France, for some of the largest Food processing companies in Industries such as Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry and Fish.

The system is highly customisable and configurable such that it can be tailored to match the specific business requirements of any food processor.

For Finance & IT Managers

Simply Dynamics is a leading provider of ERP business management software. Amongst our customers we are proud to count Liffey Meats, Oliver Carty, Horgans Delicatessen Supplies, Devenish Nutrition and Flahavans. A Microsoft Gold ERP Partner, we have a single product focus: supplying, modifying, and supporting Microsoft Dynamics Nav. We also develop an extensive range of customised Dynamics Nav software add-ons.

At Simply Dynamics, we are committed to providing the highest quality customer service, working closely with our customers to ensure the success of their ERP systems. We are headquartered in Dublin and have a team of dedicated ERP specialists with multi-disciplinary business backgrounds, and over 100 man years of ERP industry knowledge.

For Quality & Technical Managers

Safefood 360 is a young, innovative technology company dedicated to developing and supplying the global food industry with food safety compliance software solutions that work. Our team is made up of practitioners from both the Food and IT industries who know the needs of our end users because we worked in these roles.

This experience and insight is built into our solutions from day-one making them powerful, intuitive and a pleasure to use. Our solutions allow food processing plants set-up, plan, record and reports on all aspects of food safety management including HACCP, PRP's, management, documents and monitoring.

It is perfect for companies seeking or maintaining certification to GFSI standards, FSMA, retailer and legal compliance.

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Emydex at MeatUp UK 2013

MeatUP UK

Emydex will be exhibiting at the forthcoming MeatUp 2013 exhibition taking place at the NEC Birmingham on 2nd and 3rd of July 2013.

Emydex are sharing a stand (313) with a UK hardware partner MWS Ltd of Leicester.

The exhibition will showcase the Emydex Recipe weighing module running on a RADWAG PUE5.15. PC terminal / weight indicator for whom MWS are UK agents. The recipe module will be configured for burger production.

Also on the stand will be Emydex’s latest OCM packing station software. Again running on a RADWAG PUE5.15.

Demonstrations and presentions will be available on other Emydex Meat Industry software modules.

MWS will be showing a selection of their high quality stainless steel weighing equipment, equipment stands and printer cabinets.

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New Senior Industry Hires

Danny O’Hanlon is a recent new joiner to the Emydex Implementation team managed by Technical Manager, Daniel Simonavicius. Danny holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the National University of Ireland, as well as a Masters in Engineering, Computer Science & Communications from the University of Limerick.

Prior to joining Emydex, Danny worked for 6 years as the sole IT person in McCarrens, a leading Irish Pork primal processing plant that employs over 200 people. Danny’s role covered management of all IT systems in addition to designing and developing software systems needed for various operational requirements including Purchasing, Goods-In and Production systems such as:

  • Weighbridge in-take/Lairage system
  • Kill Line grading system
  • Cut-up system recording all primal weights
  • Real-time yield system
  • Packaging Stock Control scanning system
  • Traceability system
  • Label production to customer requirements

Prior to working in McCarrens, Danny worked as an IT Consultant with the Irish Companies Registration Office (CRO), and as a Software Engineer in Trintech Technologies. He has over 12 years work experience.

“Danny is the type of person we are always on the lookout for in Emydex to further expand our existing team of highly experienced programmers, all whom have an in-depth knowledge of the workings of the food processing industries. There is a steep learning curve, and a lot of Industry specific knowledge required to be able to competently design and deliver tailored software solutions to our customers. Anyone with this level of relevant experience and training is always a very welcome addition to the team”, said David McMahon, Emydex CEO.

Updated August 2013

Emma Flynn

Emma Flynn joined Emydex in March 2013 in the role of Office Manager. Emma has a Bachelor of Business Studies from Dublin City University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Events Management from the Fitzwilliam Institute. Prior to joining Emydex, Emma worked as Alumni Relations Officer in DCU for almost 7 years, where she was responsible for managing the Alumni Relations Programme and worked at a senior administrative level. As part of her role in managing Emydex’s offices, Emma is also involved in assisting the Support Team on a daily basis, and supported the company CEO on Sales & Marketing as well as HR activities.

Patricia Ramos

Patricia Ramos joined Emydex in August 2013 as an Application Support Developer working on the Emydex customer support team. Patricia holds a Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Burgos, and a number of Training Certifications including SQL. and .Net Framework. Prior to joining Emydex, Patricia worked for 6 years as an analyst software developer in the banking sector in Spain.

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Emydex opens New Product Development office

In line with continued growth and customer successes, Emydex this month (March 2013) opened a second office in Northwest Business Park that will focus purely on New Product Development (NPD).

The NPD team, led by Emydex co-founder and CTO, James Grennan and an initial team of three dedicated software engineers have moved to Unit 13, three doors down from Emydex’s main head office in Unit 10.
The existing offices in Unit 10 will now focus entirely on Emydex Customer Implementation projects, led by Daniel Simonavicius, as well as Customer Support, managed by Emydex’s Customer Service Manager, Lorna Daly. Daniel’s team of ten experienced programmers are responsible for the design and implementation of tailored systems for Emydex customers. Once customer systems are live and bedded-in, they are handed over to Lorna’s team of four dedicated programmers to support customer projects in-life.

James and his R&D team have an ambitious twelve month product development roadmap ahead of them to develop such systems as:

Emydex Standardised Systems (ESS): geared toward rollout of Emydex systems to smaller and medium sized food processors, systems that can also be customised and tailored by Emydex Value-added resellers and partners in overseas markets

Emydex On-Demand (EOD): a cloud-based iteration of the Emydex Production Management system whereby the central production server, usually hosted onsite in a customer’s factory is hosted in the cloud on a Microsoft Azure platform. Emydex software will still be loaded onto factory floor hardware devices such as PC terminals, handheld scanners and rugged Toughbook’s as normal. It will just mean all factory floor data captured will be securely stored in a centralised cloud-based production server, accessible from anywhere in the world.

Speaking on the recent move James Grennan commented “the R&D team now has the space and freedom to put some structure around the chaos that can be involved in brainstorming new ideas and designing new products and services. We have space to map our ideas, plans and designs that we didn’t have in Unit 10. Unit 13 gives us the mind-space to really focus on our product development plans in a big way”

David McMahon, Emydex CEO added “The move to Unit 13 frees up space in Unit 10 to extend both the Customer Implementation and Support teams. Unit 13 has enough square-footage to accommodate up to 20 additional people. This gives us some breathing space and room for further growth. Our business plans are to grow to around 40 people by the end of 2014.”

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