Woodrow F. "Woody" Dick Jr. has been a computer and technology consultant to the nursery industry through the American Nursery & Landscape Association for 15 years. I asked him to discuss the future of computer use in the industry.

Q. How common will computers be in the nursery industry in 2000 and beyond?

A. Years of being dead wrong in my answers to questions like this have left me certain of only one thing: regardless of how much more widely used computers become in the nursery industry, the distance between the industry's computer 'haves' and computer 'have nots' will continue to grow for at least another decade, perhaps two.

While some firms have made computers an integral part of their business, a very large part of the industry still shuns them altogether. Still another portion of the industry uses computers as if they were expensive calculators, filing cabinets and typewriters instead of an entirely new way of doing business. In short, while I do expect the use of computers by the industry to continue to grow, I do not expect the disparity in their use to change any time soon.

Q. What computer applications will be available to nurserymen?

A. It is my sincere hope that the same old applications will get better rather than having a more varied selection. I refer specifically to retail point-of-sale software, landscape software, order-entry software for growers and production planning software. I particularly wish that more vendors offered integrated software suites that could handle more than one segment of the industry. As it stands right now, a nursery that has a retail store and a landscape operation has very few choices when seeking a truly integrated system capable of handling both types of operation. I do think, however, that a couple of very neat solutions to this problem may be in the wings.

Q. Will computerization be affordable to the small grower?

A. I hear this question a lot in several different variations. Yes, I think computer price/performance ratios will continue to drop dramatically. As a result, many smaller firms will find computers more affordable. For more than a decade, however, the one most important factor in affordability has not been price. The most important factor has been and, I think, remains the owner's willingness and ability to use and/or manage computers. In some larger operations, this can make a computer very expensive, both in the owner's imagination and in actual fact. In some small two-person offices such as I found when I visited a grower in Rhode Island, however, a computer would be cheap even at twice today's prices. As I see it, the difference in affordability results not from the size of the operation but the attitude and skill of the manager.

Q. Should all growers have Web sites?

A. Web sites have a lot in common with telephones and fax machines in that they are a faster, cheaper means of interacting with customers. This is particularly true when it comes to the functions of advertising, distributing catalogs, responding to inquiries and taking orders. Finally, an especially attractive advantage of a Web site is that it allows a grower to be open for business 24 hours a day.

Unfortunately, the proud owner of a Web site has the same problem as the proud owner of a telephone in the 1920s or a fax machine in the 1980s: the new technology is worth nothing if the intended customers cannot or will not use it. In short, timing is everything and timing is something every grower will have to decide based upon their own customer situation. If I were a grower, however, the length of time it takes to get up to speed with a quality Web site would always be in the back of my mind. As a result, I personally would err on the side of being too far ahead of my customers than too far behind.

Q. How much training will be required to use the new applications? Who will provide training?

A. Over the past few years, most computer applications have become so easy to use that they require little or no training to get started. I expect this trend to continue. The upside of this is that more people are using computers. The downside is that far too many people remain completely unaware that they could double or triple their productivity with a few hours of training. As for who will provide that still very necessary training, my guess is that computers will be doing most of it. As the ability of computers to talk, play movies, show slide shows, etc., increase, a computer training experience may very well rival live training. It certainly will be far less expensive and far less time-consuming.

Q. How should nursery operators prepare for Y2K?

A. First, come to the realization that an awful lot of people are making a huge amount of money by scaring people to death. Second, vow that you will not be one of them. Third, take an inventory of your computer assets. Fourth, check with the manufacturers to receive their Y2K-compliance statement. Fifth, replace or upgrade all assets found to be non-compliant in ways that your business cannot tolerate. For those of you who don't have the time or don't feel quite safe doing all the above entirely on your own, I personally like the software product Norton 2000. Norton 2000 examines your computer and your software to identify potential Y2K problems. It will even go through your spreadsheets and databases to find places where two-digit dates might be a problem. Another neat feature is that Norton 2000 has a built-in database of manufacturer Y2K-compliance statements. It compares its database of compliance statements with your installed software and prints a report of the results. That alone can save a lot of time.

Q. What effect will the Internet and so-called e-commerce have on the way nursery transactions are made?

A. My personal experience with this has been not very extensive, not very recent and not very instructive. I do think, however, that the day is not far away when a paper invoice will be viewed with the same disdain as a stone tablet that had to be carted around in a wheelbarrow.

Q. The labor supply is tight everywhere. What can growers do in terms of computerization that could help alleviate the need for some employees?

A. The two most effective methods are not high-tech. First, make sure you have a system in which data-entry occurs as an inescapable result of doing the job. An owner recently told me, for example, that he had to hire an extra person because it took more than one person to enter handwritten orders into the computer. This owner knew that there had to be a better way and he was right. What was the point in handwriting orders that could have been entered at the same time they were handwritten? With a one-time investment of a few thousand dollars in software, equipment and training, the perennial expense of two employees could be avoided; salesmen would enter the orders themselves.

A related and usually overlooked practice is to hire -- and keep -- employees who are willing and able to work with computers. In most cases, a computer-capable employee with the right tools can do the work of two or even three who lack training, ability and/or motivation. The savings should be obvious but are far too often overlooked by managers who are inclined to take a short-term view when hiring and giving raises.

Q. Are there security risks associated with computers that should be addressed?

A. At one time, I would have said the security risks existed but were negligible for most firms in the nursery industry. Today, however, there is at least one new factor that makes these risks worthy of consideration by nursery managers. Many younger employees have grown up with home computers. As a result, most know enough to be able to poke around where owners would prefer them not to be. Couple this increased knowledge with the fact that home computers have inclined some employees to think of the computer as their private playground and problems can develop. Finally, a large percentage of installers are either completely ignorant of security measures or view small firms as having nothing worth protecting. The end result is a computer system wide open to the mischievous or the merely curious.

© 1999 Branch-Smith Publishing