"OrganicAssistant has grown out of a demand in the marketplace for a central resource of information on organic produce. The FileMaker technology has enabled me to develop a system that lets suppliers upload and manage information about their own businesses and consumers to search for the produce they want – this flexibility has helped to make the website a success."

OrganicAssistant

FileMaker Gets the Organic Seal of Approval

The idea first came to Graham Crisford, managing director of OrganicAssistant while out walking in Scotland. During his trip he met Dr Walter Yellowlees, a GP and proponent of food produced without the aid of unnecessary additives, pesticides and herbicides.

Graham researched the organic produce market and identified two areas of opportunity. He found a huge diversity that exists between the size and types of stockists or organic produce – from large supermarkets to independent producers. Graham also found that due to the certification process of organic produce, a lot of information is available in disparate sources about organic food and production. Graham felt the market could benefit from a central resource, which collated data regarding suppliers, their certification, the produce they offer and the location as well as providing a search function to find exciting, new and unique organic produce.

Before the website could be built, Graham had to investigate the technology available which would be flexible enough to enable him to manage and access the data uploaded onto the website, give the power of entry and amendments to suppliers as well as a separate section for consumers. He selected Cruse Control, a FileMaker developer that offered a solution called Contacts. After downloading several trial versions to test out his prototype, Graham approached Cruse Control to discuss the creation and development of OrganicAssistant.

Graham Crisford comments: "To service the two key audiences in the organic produce market – consumers and suppliers – I needed a technology that would be flexible enough for suppliers to manage their own information but I also wanted to maintain control so that data on the website was not static. The Contacts solution allowed me to customise the information, search and report against data, and define categories to make marketing a simple process."

The website is divided by two modes – one for customers and one for industry. The consumer section of the website categorises the different organic produce and where each item is stocked in the area closest to the consumer. These range from Waitrose to a local organic producer. One of the key features of the technology for Graham was the ability for users to enter their postcode and for their address to be recognised automatically through the Postcode Address File (PAF).

The industry section of the website has 3,000 farmers and growers listed (known as producers) and 1,000 processors (known as manufacturers). Once registered on the website, producers and processors can promote their products, research potential customers or find new suppliers and outlets as well as providing a community for those interested and involved in this market. Organic food is now a £1.6 billion pound industry in the UK and OrganicAssistant provides a central resource for any relevant information.

Graham concludes: "OrganicAssistant has grown out of a demand in the marketplace for a central resource of information on organic produce. The FileMaker technology has enabled me to develop a system that lets suppliers upload and manage information about their own businesses and consumers to search for the produce they want – this flexibility has helped to make the website a success."