Plantion partners with Beyonder for AI-driven core system transformation
Plantion, a leading flower auction in the Dutch floriculture sector, has selected Beyonder as its partner for a major system transformation.
With a daily turnover of more than half a million flowers and plants, Plantion is one of the larger floriculture auctions in Western Europe, bringing together growers, florists, garden centers, traders, and other businesses in the landscape.
As part of its digital strategy, Plantion is modernizing the core system that facilitates its auction operations, upgrading from its legacy AS400-based system to a new, and AI-powered system. The transition process is being supported by Beyonder, an IT consultancy firm with six offices in Europe.
Over the years, the legacy system has become more complex due to numerous modifications and integrations. Maintenance became increasingly vulnerable due to a dependency on outdated technology and the associated limited availability of expertise. In addition, the system was hampering innovation – a key source of competitive advantage in the competitive and evolving floriculture sector.
“As Plantion, we want to lead the way and provide optimal service to our members and customers. Our customer focus has led to a complex but highly functional system,” said André van Kruijssen, managing director of Plantion on the case for change.
“To be future-proof, we had to find a way to modernize without compromising continuity. Beyonder’s innovative approach gave us the confidence that this is possible.”
Rebuilding with AI
That approach revolves around rebuilding the existing system – through reverse engineering – but doing so with the latest cutting-edge technologies including AI. Using AI, Beyonder could model the specifics and processes of the legacy system, overcoming the fact that there was no accurate documentation around. AI is also used to rebuilding the blueprint and application into a future-proof version.
“The application of AI in this project is phenomenal. We are seeing not only enormous time savings but also improved scalability and accuracy. This enables us to translate Plantion’s business vision into a robust and future-oriented platform,” said Sebastiaan Sloos, managing director of Beyonder in the Netherlands.
“This collaboration demonstrates that with the smart application of the latest technologies and the right expertise, even the most complex legacy systems are candidates for a successful transformation.”
Beyonder is headquartered in Netherlands, where it has four offices. Its international hubs are in Germany and Norway.
