FreshPortal Customer stories

Willem van Maasdijk of FarmDirect

Taking our customers wishes very seriously, fulfilling agreements and being credible is what drives us
Willem van Maasdijk of FarmDirect

We have grown together
Taking our customers' wishes very seriously, fulfilling agreements and being credible is what drives us, says Willem van Maasdijk of FarmDirect: "Throughout the chain we are continuously involved with our product from the grower to the wholesaler and the florist. Naturally with a focus on real service and delivering always fresh and top quality. Being keen on perfect delivery is our starting point and has allowed FarmDirect to become one of the best known importers of beautiful quality premium Ecuador roses. It is nice then to tell that FreshPortal has helped us with this from the very beginning."

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"In January 2012, I started importing flowers as a sole proprietorship. As a total layman, with knowledge of ICT, but no knowledge of the flower business. After a few months, I knew I was looking for some form of automation. Cloud based software, because I wanted to be absolutely flexible. Looking for a software supplier who could provide this I started asking around. But I soon found out that most people I spoke to at the time didn't know what cloud based was. Eventually it was Ton de Jeu of flower wholesaler Ton de Jeu from Amsterdam who brought me into contact with his software supplier FreshPortal. Their software was ideal for me because FarmDirect was still a one-man business at the time and with my laptop I could work anywhere I wanted. This put me way ahead of my time. But the FreshPortal cloud-based software also came in very handy during subsequent company relocations because you did not have to move any servers or special connections. Currently we are located in the flower auction Aalsmeer."

"As a customer from the very beginning of FreshPortal, we have grown along with all the software developments. This did not always go without a struggle, but we have always worked together. The result is there and we can say that we have grown together. We are now users of FreshPortal Platinum, the most comprehensive FreshPortal software package. We have more than sixty links to various exporters and wholesalers. This works excellently and soon the link with Floriday will be added. I see the Virtual MarketPlace (VMP) links for linking supply as the future for 100% digital. I am also very satisfied with the management module. This ensures that I have a dashboard that shows all the important information. Handy is also the accounting link with Exact and the collection of our trade transactions is linked to Ai2. Finally, our webshop is developed by FreshPortal in such a way that customers with their own ERP package can hook into the webshop. With so many possibilities, we can run our business flawlessly. Given all the current developments, I expect the software package to continue to grow in the future, as well as our businesses!"

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Willem van Maasdijk, FarmDirect