Page 91 - Food&Drink Magazine November-December 2021

MEMBER NEWS
OPAL TRANSITIONS CLOUD TO TAKE OUT RISK
Australian renewable packaging company Opal Group has undergone a major cloud transition after its previous provider, Fujitsu, said it would stop supporting its data storage network.
Opal was advised that part of the business had previously suffered from major outage issues with its data centre provider, and further identified a substandard storage area network and disaster recovery posture.
Opal said that left unattended, it risked the company’s ability to manufacture and deliver products to some of Australia’s largest retail and FMCG companies, who rely on Opal to provide essential goods.
Australian telco Macquarie Telecom and Microsoft Azure stepped in, and migrated huge volumes of data tied to Opal’s most critical operations, including financial systems.
Phil Boon, chief information officer at Opal said the company now has a “direct line” to the “very coders putting together the next generation of services”, and
says the new system will have a “hugely positive influence” on the company, which operates out of 80 sites across Australia and New Zealand.
The Macquarie and Azure team worked closely with Boon’s team, as well as manufacturing technology partner Realtek, which helped manage SAP applications to successfully transition services and workloads into Macquarie’s cloud environment. This was stored within its sovereign Data Centre Campus, and delivered on time and on budget.
Headquartered in Melbourne, The Opal Group, owned by Nippon Paper Group, has 4500 staff, and specialises in sustainable fibre packaging and paper solutions. It exports Australian-made products to 70 countries across the world.
Buoyed by the successful transition and what it says is a much-improved cloud environment, Opal is now looking at how it can leverage Macquarie and Azure’s ecosystem to focus more on applications, and how it can improve its business processes.
QR CODE REPLACES DIRECT DATA LINK
A new procedure for the Herma 500 label applicator uses a QR code to facilitate fast remote fault diagnosis and clearance without requiring direct access to the applicator.
With this industry-wide solution, the encrypted secure transfer of around 300 applicator parameters takes place automatically without any human intervention, and is now a standard feature of the Herma 500. It can also be used to log the device’s current settings.
Developed by Herma, whose local agent is Result Group, the new time-saving method for remote analysis of label applicators allows fault finders to press a button to generate a QR code, which appears on the label applicator’s touchscreen. The user then scans the code with a smartphone or tablet, which opens a webpage of the Herma Service Portal, with the encoded parameter data being automatically sent to the Herma system.
Herma service technicians can then examine and interpret the parameters on their screens in real-time. Undesired settings, possibly selected by mistake, are identified immediately, and the reason for a malfunction can quickly be pinpointed.
RESULT GROUP ENGAGED IN GRAPE TRACEABILITY PILOT
Technology provider Result Group is playing a crucial role in a Victorian Government pilot trial boost Australian table grape traceability for lucrative high-value export markets. The trial is one part of the state government’s $8.4 million investment in supporting agricultural producers grow their export markets, build domestic capabilities, and manage supply chain risk.
Result is working with Australian Table Grape Association which is partnering with Agriculture Victoria to lead the project.
New traceability systems that will be implemented include labelling and integration with cool chain tracking in a bid to leverage the value of Australian export brands.
Result Group will apply unique serialised GS1 Digital Link-enabled QR code labels to export table grapes, allowing the automated collection of data from farm and supply chain. This data can then be shared with consumers to authenticate the food’s precise origin and engage with the brand through an open platform smartphone scan.
The Active Digital Identity embedded in the QR code labels ensures each one is unique and traceable. Labels will also carry critical international traceability data, based on GS1 current standards. This will cover consumer pack units, cases and pallet codes, as well as time and temperature logging, which will be captured through the EVRYTHNG Product Cloud database.
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