The deadline for Floriday of 31 March 2021 has been postponed. After consultation with parties in the sector, Royal FloraHolland has concluded that the speed at which it wants to realise 100% digital is excessively ambitious.
„We have also discovered that certain functionalities needed to be able to trade completely digitally are missing in Floriday. The need to further digitise does however remain and Floriday as a platform is widely supported by the sector”, the auction declares.
„We understand and are responding to the criticism and concerns of the market. The rollout of 100% digital is more complex than we estimated in November 2020. In order to fully support trade between growers and buyers through Floriday, a push back of the deadline is inevitable. The signals from the Members’ Council weigh heavily in our deliberations.”
Functionalities
In the coming weeks, Royal FloraHolland will discuss the follow-up approach for the roll-out of 100% digital with various parties in the market. These include the Members’ Council, FPC chairmen, the various software suppliers, Blueroots, Plantform, SLB, VBW and Flora Futura. The aim of these discussions is to determine which functionalities are still needed for users to work with Floriday and what Royal FloraHolland can improve.
On the basis of these discussions, Royal FloraHolland will draw up a clear phased plan and a timeline in which users and software suppliers are given sufficient time to implement Floriday carefully. „Based on these discussions, we will inform growers, buyers, agents and software suppliers by the end of March at the latest what this means in concrete terms. For the time being, there will be no changes to the leniency scheme and you can continue to trade as you are now”, states Royal FloraHolland in a press release.
Complex process
David van Mechelen, CFO Royal FloraHolland says: “First and foremost, we would like to express our appreciation for everyone’s efforts over the past few months. We also take the signals from the market and from our Members’ Council seriously. We are aware of the impact of the changes on business operations in the nurseries and among buyers. The changes require care, familiarisation and more time. The success of our customers’ businesses is our focus. Particularly with the approaching peak period, it is important that they can continue to trade. Floriday is built on the basis of intensive cooperation with groups of growers and buyers. You only notice what has changed or what is missing once you start using it. Digitisation is more than just replicating current practices. It is a complex process that requires significant attention from all parties. It requires a different way of working and thinking. Helping one another is key. We therefore want to slow things down a bit.”
