AMIS Conclusion is developing the Insights and RFH Photo applications for Royal FloraHolland, which offer direct support to the grower and trader. Martien Rölling, Product Owner at Royal FloraHolland, explains: "The Insights application offers growers insight into price and market developments, allowing them to determine their sales strategy. It shows the seller's position and pricing. Based on these insights, the grower determines whether and how many products he wants to bring to the market in the coming days." The Insights application has access to 3 years of historical data and adds about 200,000 transactions every day. These must be available at lightning speed and up-to-date on the mobile applications of the growers and traders.
Processing large amounts of data at lightning speed
To be able to process these large amounts of data in real time, a cloud architecture with Apache Kafka was chosen. Jacco Cijsouw, Principal Engineer at AMIS, says: "The software for reading and processing the transactions is extremely scalable and efficient. Compare it to a postman who can deliver all the letters in an entire city at once. This is especially relevant because the majority of transactions are processed between 6 and 11 a.m. in the morning. This solution makes it very user-friendly for the users of the Insights application because after auctioning they can immediately see what their lot has yielded and what their new position is." Jacco continues: "The Insights application has an attractive mobile user interface, but the real intelligence is under the hood. Because we have set up that part well thought out and future-proof, Royal FloraHolland is now very flexible in which digital services they can offer to their digital users."
The right flower next to the clock
Another important system that AMIS is working on is the RFH Photo app. This allows growers to take photos prior to the auction and link them to the products they want to auction. These photos are shown in real time next to the digital clock on the auction screen at the time of auction. Martien: "The photo app quickly and easily takes high-quality photos that meet the guidelines of Royal FloraHolland. This avoids a lot of manual work and discussions about the realistic representation of products. This is especially relevant for fully digital auctioning." Jacco: "In the process, the system links the photo and the product information at a very early point. This contributes enormously to the quality of the data and the ability to display the right information in the right place (next to the auction clock) in a timely manner. These high-quality photos are also suitable for the buyers' image bank or webshop.
Real-time user experience
Real-time data processing is at the heart of the user experience. Martien: "User experience is often associated with the user interface of an application or a mobile app. The real power lies in getting the right data in the right place in real time. At that moment, data turns into information for the user."
Strengthening the competitive position
Royal FloraHolland is a crucial player in the international trade of flowers and plants. In addition to the physical logistics hub, data plays an increasingly important role in this process. Martien: "Having high-quality data, insight into real-time supply and demand and historical price developments strengthens the competitive position. Not only from the growers but also from Royal FloraHolland in the international floriculture market. Realizing this system requires expertise, experience and a good deal of pragmatic approach because things are always changing in practice. In AMIS Conclusion, we find this quality and focus on getting things done. That is why we have been working with them for many years with great pleasure and success."
