Capstone IT deploys VMware-hosted MSP solution to streamline data management for booming agribusiness
OSHKOSH, Nebraska – Capstone IT, an IT solutions and staffing company, has successfully deployed a managed service provider (MSP) solution for Oshkosh Heifer Development (OHD), a leading producer of dairy cattle. Hosted on VMware’s Tanzu platform and designed by Capstone IT, the solution has modernized OHD’s existing software platforms into a single, cloud-based application to consolidate and manage colossal production-related data sets. The project effectively automates what was once a time-consuming, manual process, opening the door for OHD’s exponential growth.
Agribusiness generates a massive amount of data, especially when it comes to raising dairy cattle. The details of harvest contracts—including contract creation, tracking incoming receivables from six annual harvests, and paying farmers and vendors for harvest-related expenses—are enough to populate years’ worth of spreadsheets. Factor in the monitoring of individual cows in a herd of more than 25,000 animals—feed intake, health regimens, weight fluctuations, and pregnancy status—and the information becomes much more expansive.
Since its inception, OHD had been tracking this data manually, but as the company grew, the amount of staff time necessary to manually input this information became unwieldy. Leadership saw the need to consolidate data and automate the process. According to Bill Matzke, Chief Nutritionist & Partner for OHD, the ideal solution didn’t exist—yet.
“There just wasn’t a good data analysis package within the dairy industry that could integrate all of the software we use,” he said. “But we received a recommendation from a family member who used Capstone IT’s services to set up a data warehouse for agricultural data. We decided to move forward to bring our complex feed-buying and internal production processes into a usable cost set.”
Capstone IT’s application modernization team immersed itself in the details of OHD’s business over the course of months and established an MSP built on VMware’s Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. Tanzu’s multi-cloud infrastructure provided the ideal platform to simplify operations of the large-scale, multi-cluster Kubernetes environment required by the dairy cattle producer. For example, users of Capstone IT’s custom web application can now seamlessly trace the feed from a specific truck all the way to the individual cow that consumed it. Thanks to this collaboration, OHD is increasingly able to make real-time business decisions and free up time to grow other parts of its business.
“We were amazed at how quickly Capstone IT got acquainted with our industry,” said Marc Braun, CEO & Partner for OHD. “They understood the level of accountability and traceability required in raising dairy cattle, and it spurred them on to create a solution that will push us towards new frontiers within our business.”
Capstone IT has a history of helping agribusinesses make smarter decisions based on hard data, from maintaining salmon waterways to charting disease maps for pig farmers. It’s all part of the company’s mission to help companies of all industries achieve digital transformation—especially those in agriculture that are rich with data but have been overlooked by other providers.
“Most people don’t realize the sheer amount of data generated by companies in the agricultural space,” said Jim Richards, President of Capstone IT. “We’re thrilled to provide OHD with a way to improve its workload through automation, making the business more efficient and sustainable in the process. We look forward to finding new ways to implement VMware’s robust solutions to help other agribusinesses in the future.”
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About Capstone IT
Capstone IT is a national provider of specialized IT staffing services and technology solutions provider based in Omaha. Our specialization in application development, cloud solutions, containerization, and DevOps solutions helps organizations to navigate complex solutions. Capstone believes in serving people through the transformative power of technology, providing businesses with the opportunity to succeed, grow, and do something bigger.
