CSGA Recognized Once More for the Innovative Transformation of its Seed Crop Certification Business Processes

October 28, 2015

CSGA Recognized Once More for the Innovative Transformation of its Seed Crop Certification Business Processes. As Geoff Molson, Owner of the Montreal Canadians and Molson Coors, looked on, Doug Miller, CSGA’s Operations Manager, Discussed CSGA’s Cutting Edge Automated Business Workflows as an Expert Panelist in a Ricoh Canada Conference.

Doug Miller, Operations Manager at the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA), had Ricoh Canada and other industry executives on the edge of their seat as he explained the remarkable transformation of CSGA’s formerly paper based seed certification system to a fully automated system.  Hosted by Geoff Molson, owner of the Montreal Canadians and Molson Coors, at the Bell Centre in Montreal on October 16, 2015, Miller shared his experience and expertise with other business executives as part of an expert panel which included experts from Bombardier Aerospace and Cégep à Distance.

Under the Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) program for seed crop inspection, announced in the 2012 federal budget, the CSGA needed a system that would efficiently expedite data transfer between the CSGA office, seed growers, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and private seed crop inspection services across the country.  CSGA transformed its entire business process to a paperless, electronic platform using LaserFiche and LincDoc softwares.  In January, 2015 at Anaheim, California, performance of CSGA’s new IM/IT infrastructure was recognized by industry with a LaserFiche Run Smarter Award.  On October 16, 2015, RICOH Canada invited Miller to share CSGA’s innovation experience with other business executives.

“Recognition of our innovative business workflow process and infrastructure, by RICOH Canada and by Laserfiche, reflects the potential market value of CSGA’s investment” says Miller.  “Seed certification is time sensitive.  Seed growers and inspectors need information in a timely manner and with this new system we have seen major improvements in time efficiencies.  Prior to ASD, the average turnaround time from the date of inspection to the time when that report was received by CSGA was 15 days.  In 2015, turnaround time has been reduced to 2.5 days; an improvement of 83%. The CSGA team is appraising crop inspection reports much faster and more efficiently under this new system. In 2015, many reports were appraised on the same day the report was received at the CSGA office. This is a tremendous value to growers awaiting CSGA appraisal notice before harvesting their seed crops.”

This investment improves pedigreed seed traceability, has the potential to develop new services and allows CSGA to track annual production data of more than 2,000 varieties of 1.2 million acres of seed crops produced in Canada. “The crop inspection report provides useful information on disease pressure, objectionable weeds, off-types, purity, presence of seedborne diseases, and the list goes on. In the old paper-based process, that information was being lost once the crop was certified and the report was moved to storage.  Under this electronic system, all of this information is being captured.  We only have two years of data at this point but we will soon be able to analyze multi-year data, and identify national and regional trends and opportunities” says Miller.

 

For more information, contact:
Caroline Lafontaine
Member Services Manager
Canadian Seed Growers’ Association
613-236-0497 x225
clafontaine@seedgrowers.com

The Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA) is a non-profit organization representing the interests of Canadian seed growers. CSGA provides leadership as the only organization to monitor and certify the varietal identity and purity of pedigreed seed for all agricultural crops in Canada except potatoes. Learn more at www.seedgrowers.ca.

Ricoh is a global technology company specializing in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in more than 200 countries and regions and employs 109,000 people worldwide. Ricoh Canada’s head office is located in Toronto and employs over 2,200 employees nation-wide.