New technologies at NGIA improve business systems

With the increasing pressures on time in today’s world, NGIA believes it is important to evaluate and utilise technologies that are readily available to make staff more efficient in the office or field.

For this reason, the association has invested in handheld personal digital assistants and custom written software for the industry development officers to use when undertaking Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme Australia (NIASA) audits. A similar program is being developed to help with retail audits conducted under the Australian Garden Centre Accreditation Scheme (AGCAS).

NGIA is also evaluating what other software can be used on these devices. Examples include a photo library of potential pests under the Industry Biosecurity Plan, and an irrigation calculator for investment calculations.

As well as this, within the NGIA office a project management database has been developed which keeps a record of all the projects that NGIA has contracted with Horticulture Australia Ltd (HAL) and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF). This ensures at any stage staff can check when reports are due for milestone funding payments and how quickly documents are being processed. With some projects running for up to 36 months, it is critical to be on top of all the major dates.

NGIA acting CEO Robert Prince says these examples of the simple use of technology are making the association more efficient both in terms of time and expenditure of valuable funds.

“I would hope all businesses in the industry are looking at how technology could create more efficiency in this time of labour shortages and increasing wage pressure. It is surprising what can be achieved with a few small changes.”