Case studies. |
DairyNZ is tasked with supporting the dairy sector:
“Our purpose is to deliver a better future for dairy farmers. It underpins everything we do. The new strategy has been informed by discussions with farmers, who told us we need to focus our effort on the big issues, ensure our services are relevant and accessible, and engage and listen better.”
“Our purpose is to deliver a better future for dairy farmers. It underpins everything we do. The new strategy has been informed by discussions with farmers, who told us we need to focus our effort on the big issues, ensure our services are relevant and accessible, and engage and listen better.”
THE CHALLENGE.
In 2012 DairyNZ set up the Dairy Industry Good Animals Database (DIGAD) in response to legislation mandating that a shared national database be kept, holding specific dairy cow information. The programme for DIGAD’s implementation set out four phases:
Phases one and two were sequentially implemented over a period of four to five years and moved into operational states.
When it came to phases three and four, DairyNZ required specialist software development, project management, solution design and development skills to supplement their operational team. Resolution8 was approached to provide those skills and drive the final phases to completion.
Phases one and two specifically affected DairyNZ and the incumbent commercial database holder. Phases three and four needed to engage more broadly across several commercial lines and competing interests. DairyNZ also requested that phases three and four be completed at the same time.
- Phase 1: migrate the core database from the current commercial organisation to DairyNZ
- Phase 2: migrate the national Animal Evaluation solution to DairyNZ
- Phase 3: create independent breed societies solution that isn’t tied to the current commercial organisation
- Phase 4: enable all herd record providers in the New Zealand market to contribute their data into the core database
Phases one and two were sequentially implemented over a period of four to five years and moved into operational states.
When it came to phases three and four, DairyNZ required specialist software development, project management, solution design and development skills to supplement their operational team. Resolution8 was approached to provide those skills and drive the final phases to completion.
Phases one and two specifically affected DairyNZ and the incumbent commercial database holder. Phases three and four needed to engage more broadly across several commercial lines and competing interests. DairyNZ also requested that phases three and four be completed at the same time.
“The Resolution8 team (Peter, Paul and Simon) have been dedicated and totally professional in helping us solve some difficult challenges with this project.”
HOW WE HELPED.
The Resolution8 team integrated with the DairyNZ DIGAD team, working closely with management, development, and operational staff to define a path to implementing phases three and four. This required considerable stakeholder management at both business and technical areas of the businesses involved. DairyNZ’s vision for the solution steered the direction of the project team to complete the project at hand; Extensions of the existing APIs were designed, older expensive technologies were replaced and simplified, new modern APIs were created, and significant new tools were also created to support the dairy sector. In 2020 the new interfaces were deployed to production, and phase four was implemented along with parts of phase three. We continue to work with DairyNZ to operationalise phase four and complete remaining phase three works.
Resolution8’s technical designs, expertise in project management and other soft skills enabled DairyNZ to:
Resolution8’s technical designs, expertise in project management and other soft skills enabled DairyNZ to:
- Create more cost effective, efficient and maintainable solutions for receiving animal data
- Provide more services to certified data providers (e.g., LIC and CRV Ambreed) to facilitate the transfer of data across the sector
- Set the foundation for future interfaces that are easier to maintain and update
- Re-orient DIGAD from a place where data goes to a place where data can be drawn from to benefit the sector
- Give farmers confidence that regardless of which company is holding their herd information it will all make it into the DIGAD system
- Set the foundations for data quality improvements across all providers