A key project completed by Wedigital has been nominated in the 2023 Jersey TechAwards.

The project was recognised for the game-changing role it played in supporting the operations of local Jersey exporter Richardson’s Jersey Royals.

It is one of three island projects to be nominated for the Productivity Award.

Wedigital’s collaboration with one of the island’s leading producers of Jersey Royals has gained plaudits for successfully navigating the existential threat posed to the company’s export operation that came from newly imposed customs requirements in 2022.

The requirements state that all outgoing export shipments are required to be electronically pre-registered with Jersey Post before delivery. The impact of the requirements had potentially disastrous ramifications for exporters lacking the knowledge and means to comply, with a real possibility that it could result in producers ceasing certain operations.

In Richardson’s case, a lack of manpower and resources required to comply manually with the requirements meant such a solution was simply not feasible. So, with the deadline for the switchover just months away, a technological solution was sought to ensure that exporting would be able to continue for the coming season (and beyond).

In response, Wedigital delivered a fully automated workflow from purchase to fulfilment for Richardson’s, automatically registering the items, orders and shipments in real-time as payment was made. It also generated the required documents, invoices and shipping labels, automatically printing these and removing almost all requirements for human intervention across the process.

Integrations with third-party services were established via API requests, enabling an end-to-end solution that simply requires Richardson’s to stick the labels on the boxes once fully processed.

One such integration was with Jersey Post’s Atlas system. The platform provides a way for businesses to register upcoming shipments via a portal or API. Wedigital worked closely with Jersey Post to integrate the sales flow into Atlas; which became a lynchpin of the overall project.

Annare Dougherty of Jersey Post was a key point of contact in the process. Of her experience of working with Wedigital on the project, she said:

“Wedigital were pioneering in creating a fully automated workflow for a local exporter of high volume perishable goods, where such expertise is hard to come by on the island. They worked diligently with our team to deliver a solution we know has delighted our customer.”

The project positions Richardson’s Jersey Royals to continue to expand and sell its produce off-island, facilitating the planned expansion of its customer base to Ireland, the European Union and beyond.

Commenting on the impact of Wedigital’s solution, Richardson’s Jersey Royals owner Doug Richardson said:

“Wedigital did an excellent job of creating a highly effective automated solution, and to an extremely tight deadline as well. I would strongly recommend their services.”