Myths vs. Realities in Greenhouse Software

Feedback Drew Lytton, Growmentum CEO, has received from users is that they are saving time from note-taking, data entry, and sending emails. They think and write it once rather than pulling data from somewhere, sending it somewhere else, and then generating an Excel report. | Growmentum

Software for managing the business side of the greenhouse isn’t new. Or is it? If you haven’t explored new software in the last few years, you might be surprised. Many vendors supply purpose-built software solutions aimed at the complexities of growing and selling live, perishable products. But previous computing horror stories and misconceptions abound. The new generation of greenhouse software applies to all business operations, from inventory tracking with RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to forecasting labor needs, sifting through data to generate reports, and serving as the dependable and centralized repository of information for the operation.

Of course, change is hard, and it’s tempting to stick with the old ways. Cody Childers, Chief Technology Officer at Growmentum, shares this perspective: “How many greenhouses have you been to where people just drive around on a golf cart trying to figure out what’s happening? You can have a real-time version of that at your fingertips on any device. Would you rather have a specialized tool or have many people doing it in random ways and hoping they’re right?”

Let’s examine four common myths about new greenhouse software, capabilities, and implementation.

Myth No. 1: Implementation and Training Will Be Painful and Slow

If your last touch point with greenhouse software was trying to learn an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system a half-dozen years ago, you could be forgiven for dreading another two-year implementation period. New greenhouse software is faster to implement and easier to learn.

“I think the biggest misconception is probably around training. People think it will take forever to learn a new system,” says John Beauford, President and CTO at Advanced Grower Solutions. “When facing something you don’t know, it seems bigger. Once you’ve done it several times and walked through some examples, it’s not as bad.”

Beauford explains that customers often fall at two opposite ends of the spectrum: They either think it will be so easy they don’t need training, or so complicated they’ll never get the hang of it. He suggests the truth is more in the middle, and most people adapt pretty easily with a guide to show them the way.

Not all new software has a long install and implementation period. Some new software products can be up and running in a matter of days. Rene Huurman, Product Consultant at Arbré Technologies, talked with us about their inventory solutions.

“The surprising thing is how quickly it can be implemented. I did a big nursery in Canada, and basically in 10 days they were up and running. They couldn’t believe it.”

Myth No. 2: I Need an IT Department Just To Run It

Remember when you bought Adobe and installed it locally? Now you buy the software as a service (SaaS). The same model is moving to greenhouse software. Web-based applications running off the cloud ease the burden on your team and provide a smoother experience.

​​“There’s been a significant shift in software business models over the last few years with the rise of SaaS-based solutions,” says Adam Van Wingerden, CEO of Silver Fern. “The traditional approach involved purchasing a perpetual license, paying maintenance fees, and incurring costs — in the form of billable hours — for customizations. With a SaaS-based model, you’re benefiting from new features, updates, and bug fixes rolled out continuously, keeping your system modern without disruptions or the need to relearn an entirely new system.”

The SaaS model comes with advantages, especially for organizations without dedicated IT personnel. “Software can be actively improved and iterated on without requiring a lot of downtime or bringing people in. Do I need an IT team to implement this? No,” says Drew Lytton, CEO at Growmentum. “Every single time we do a release, our customers are getting the absolute most up-to-date, brand-new version of the software, and it doesn’t require any additional IT overhead from them. It’s a benefit of cloud technologies and where the software industry has gone.”

Huurman says the benefits of cloud-based software are great for everyone, but especially for smaller growers without a dedicated IT person or team.

“Because it’s in the cloud, the efficiencies from an IT implementation point of view are much higher. We basically do everything for you. If you can turn on your phone, you’re good, and you’re off and running. It’s pretty slick how it works.”

Myth No. 3: My Operation Is Too Specialized; We’ll Need Endless Customization

The team at Silver Fern takes pride in knowing they’re building an ERP system that will make life easier for their customers. Here they are at Cultivate’24 (L), and creating a task and knowing your inventory in the greenhouse can be as easy as picking up your smartphone (R). | Silver Fern (L) and Growmentum (R)

That might have been the case if you bought a generalized ERP solution off the shelf 10 years ago. Generic software designed for most businesses doesn’t work well for a greenhouse. However, modern greenhouse software is built from the first line of code to take the complexities of a business that grows live plants into account.

“The biggest myth I hear all the time is there’s no system out there for me because we’re different. We’re too specialized,” Huurman says. However, he finds that isn’t true. He recommends being open-minded to look at your processes and see if there are opportunities to streamline them.

You likely don’t need software to be customized; you probably just need it configured. And that saves you money and headaches down the road.

“A myth in the software world is that every piece of software needs massive, customized implementation that takes six months, 12 months, or even two years. That’s not always true. With our product, we’ve built many things that are configurable. It’s more of a configuration than a customization.” Old-school, massive ERP projects with tons of documentation, specialized features, and custom installs are fading. “Not all software has to work like that,” Childers says.

“A lot of people think they want custom software, but that’s not really what they need,” Lytton says. “ERP systems are not built to do everything. They’re built to do a few things really well. When you start overly customizing them, that’s very expensive and oftentimes it’s not a high success rate. It’s the biggest hesitancy we see with growers — they have battle scars from bad ERP implementations.”

Van Wingerden also highlights a critical mindset shift for businesses: “As much as you can, you need to think about adapting your operational processes to fit the software, rather than customizing the software to match your operations. Over-customization can lead to being version-locked, leaving you stuck ever-boarding with outdated software for five or 10 years, or even longer.” Eventually, the phone call comes: your software is the 2015 version. They’ve cut support for it, and you’ll have to buy a new one at a hefty price. He elaborates further: “By shifting the focus to aligning operational processes with the software, you not only remain current but also avoid costly and disruptive upgrades. It’s a strategy for staying modern and agile.”

Myth No. 4: It’s Just One More Thing I Have To Do

A common pushback is that using software will add time or be inconvenient. If the software isn’t configured, or a customer continues to extract data from the new system to re-enter into old spreadsheets and legacy trackers, that could be the case. But that would be missing the capabilities — and the entire point — of newer software packages.

“One key piece of feedback we’ve received is that people actually spend less time on note-taking and data entry (copying into an Excel sheet) and sending emails. You’re thinking and writing it once rather than pulling it from somewhere, sending it somewhere else, and generating an Excel report. We’re saving you time by giving you a single source of truth,” Lytton says.

Whether solving the problem of version control in spreadsheets, eliminating tedious data gathering, creating in-depth reports automatically, or reducing the opportunity to fat-finger numbers, new greenhouse software is far more capable than ever. Time is money, and these systems can provide better visibility of your business with less time and effort.

“We do a lot of work to help automate things for growers. When you catch yourself, as a grower, doing the same thing again seasonally, monthly, or weekly, that’s a good opportunity to automate it. If they need a specific report every Thursday, we can automate it for them. They click on it and all of the data aggregation is done. We’ve done that for several of our customers just to give them time back,” Beauford says.