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“ ForMS (Forestry Management System) is an innovative, far-reaching business management solution developed by NGIS Australia to meet the rapid growth needs of one of Australia’s largest agri-business operators, Great Southern Plantations.” |
The new, recently deployed, forestry management system has transitioned Great Southern from an unconnected silo-based system into an interconnected spatially enabled architecture. Central to the successful integration of ForMS with Great Southern’s other operating systems is GeoSamba.
The problem
Great Southern‘s core business is the management of hardwood plantations around Australia on behalf of 20,000 investors. The plantations produce a highly sought-after export commodity, essential for the manufacture of paper products. As demand for paper increases, particularly from expanding markets throughout Asia, so too does demand for hardwood woodchips.
Great Southern’s rapid growth over the last decade presented many challenges, Agribusiness Information Manager, Steve Quain explains, “The manual processes of managing the plantations were sufficient when the business operated on a smaller scale, but quickly needed to be automated as we expanded our properties from a WA based operation, to one with plantations across five Australian states.”
In managing the expansion of its 427 ha hardwood plantations in WA to 115,000 ha of plantations across Australia, Great Southern were looking for an innovative solution that would streamline their legacy silo-based system.
The solution
Great Southern’s operations are highly spatial with GIS being used extensively in the management of its plantations. With this in mind, the new forestry management system, ForMS was designed to incorporate business processes with mapping functionality.
To achieve this, GeoSamba Universal, a service oriented business application, was implemented, providing a unique geographic perspective to the management and automation of Great Southern’s business processes (work orders and job requests).
In designing the ForMS architecture, a service oriented approach was utilised that would ensure that as Great Southern’s operations continued expanding, they would be able to share data and applications across their entire organisation.
Benefits
ForMS greatly assists Great Southern in managing its plantations by providing a single system for inputting, storing and tracking all plantation management activities, accessible from any location.
Specifically, ForMS empowers plantation managers with access to detailed business intelligence on tree planting, maintenance, fertilisation and harvesting via a highly sophisticated Service Oriented Business Application.
For example, once a plantation has been scheduled for insect control, a Forestry Manager creates a Work Order and Job Request and allocates it to a Works Program (Financial Budget) for the particular plantation. ForMS automatically identifies all ‘sensitive neighbours’ (sensitive neighbours include people with chemical sensitivities, aquaculture enterprises, vineyards and farms) and generates notifications advising of the scheduled pest control activity. Forestry Managers then receive a report, detailing the local authorities they need to contact regarding spraying.
GeoSamba’s Web service based architecture allowed for the development of a ‘service layer’ within ForMS. Combined with a component-based approach to software development, the service layer gives ForMS longevity and rigor, allowing Great Southern to easily extend the system, adding new functionality as additional components or by incorporating new web services as needed.
For example, Great Southern are expanding their core hardwood plantation operation into vineyards and organic olive projects. As ForMS business processes models are designed for extension and with GeoSamba’s flexible spatial task modelling capabilities this new capability expansion is expected easily and quickly.
Importantly, the integrated GIS and work order system provides Great Southern with an easy and auditable record of compliance with its considerable regulatory requirements. Allowing them to reinforce their position as a responsible manager and exporter with a stake in the environment.
Since its implementation, ForMS has delivered Great Southern significant productivity gains in the management of its plantations. In 1999 Great Southern allocated one team of five managing 7,400ha of tree plantations. In 2005, since the implementation of ForMS, the five team members are now managing 85,000ha of trees, representing a 230% productivity gain.
This productivity gain has been achieved by automating many of the previously laborious, paper-based tasks typical of Great Southern’s legacy system. Time is also saved in financial and compliance reporting with Great Southern’s head office now able to access the federated repository of business data at any time, rather then waiting on each state to fax weekly reports.
Steve Quain says, “ForMS has not only streamlined operational efficiency and increased productivity, but has enhanced our commitment to the sustainable management of resources around the country,” said Mr Quain. “The plantations are long-term projects and ForMS provides the vital tools required to effectively manage our ongoing plantation activities”.
ForMS won the Natural Resources category of the 2005 Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards for its innovation in integrating spatial technologies with business systems. Also a finalist in the WA Industry and Export Awards, ForMS was judged against a different set of criteria to that of APSEA, demonstrating the varied benefits of the system.
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