Stokes Seeds Modernises Forecasting and Inventory Planning with Business Central Insights
Stokes Seeds replaced spreadsheet-driven forecasting and operational reporting with real-time Business Central Insights, helping teams identify customer buying shifts faster, improve inventory utilisation, and make smarter purchasing decisions across 3,000 SKUs.
Key Outcomes
Company Background
Stokes Seeds is one of the largest vegetable seed distributors in Canada and the Eastern United States, supplying commercial growers, market farmers, and home gardeners across North America.
Managing approximately 3,000 SKUs across multiple package sizes, the business operates in a uniquely complex environment where purchasing decisions often need to be made one to three years in advance. This creates significant forecasting, inventory planning, and purchasing reporting requirements within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, particularly as customer preferences can change dramatically from season to season.
The Challenge
As the business expanded across Canada and the U.S., forecasting, purchasing, and inventory management became increasingly complex.
Unlike many inventory-based businesses, Stokes Seeds must forecast demand years in advance while responding quickly to changing customer preferences, seasonal demand fluctuations, supplier lead times, and evolving market trends.
Historically, much of the organisation relied on manual spreadsheet analysis, data extraction, and institutional knowledge held by long-serving employees. This made it difficult to identify customer buying shifts quickly and limited the ability to make proactive decisions.
As Scott Plugers, Chief Financial and Operations Officer at Stokes Seeds, explains:
It's a live product. We're making purchasing decisions one, two, even three years out.
The business needed a Power BI reporting solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central that could provide real-time visibility into purchasing, inventory, sales performance, and forecasting data while making operational insights accessible to non-technical users across the organisation.
Why Business Central Insights?
Stokes Seeds initially explored developing reporting internally but found that internally built reports still required significant manual manipulation and struggled to combine purchasing, inventory, and sales data effectively.
The team wanted to improve forecasting, inventory planning, and purchasing reporting in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central without investing significant time and resources into building and maintaining custom reports.
After being introduced to Business Central Insights through their Microsoft implementation partner, the team quickly recognised the value of having purpose-built reporting designed specifically for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Business Central Insights enabled Stokes Seeds to:
Real-time visibility into purchasing, inventory, and sales trends
Easy drill-down into live Business Central data
Faster access to operational insights
Flexible reporting for different departments and users
Simplified dashboards that encouraged user adoption
Scott commented:
You could see right away that it was a fit.
Our IT team is amazed at how BCI surfaces and presents all this information so simply.
The Solution
Stokes Seeds adopted a phased rollout strategy, initially providing reporting access to leadership and key operational users before expanding to purchasing and sales teams.
Rather than overwhelming users with large numbers of reports, the organisation focused on delivering a small number of high-impact dashboards that addressed critical operational needs.
Purchasing teams gained visibility into:
Short inventory positions
Supplier delays
Customer purchasing shifts
Seasonal buying patterns
Slow-moving inventory
Sales teams gained access to:
Customer margin analysis
Historical buying trends
Product movement patterns
Real-time sales insights
This approach accelerated user adoption while ensuring teams focused on the metrics most relevant to their roles.
Results
Faster Forecasting and Purchasing
Business Central Insights has significantly improved supplier forecasting and purchasing efficiency across the organisation.
Key outcomes include:
1 day saved every forecasting cycle across purchasing and forecasting teams
Improved visibility for one to three-year purchasing cycles
Faster identification of customer buying shifts
Reduced manual reporting effort
According to Scott:
The time savings around supplier forecasting are massive.
Better Inventory Visibility
With clearer visibility into inventory performance, Stokes Seeds has been able to identify slow-moving products earlier and make better use of existing stock.
Results include:
More than 100 slow-moving products identified or recovered
Improved inventory utilisation
Reduced waste from unsold products
Ability to convert excess inventory into ecommerce sales
Greater visibility across 3,000 SKUs
As Scott explains:
BCI helped us identify products we could sell instead of throwing away.
Smarter Operational Decision-Making
The organisation now has faster access to the information required to make operational decisions.
Key benefits include:
Overdue supplier purchase orders identified before they became larger issues
Faster access to answers that previously required manual analysis
Better visibility into seasonal demand trends
Improved collaboration between purchasing and sales teams
Real-time operational insight across departments
As Scott explains:
BCI gives us clear directions every day. It tells us where to focus, where to act, and where we can create value fastest.
Beyond Reporting
Beyond efficiency gains, Business Central Insights has fundamentally changed how Stokes Seeds manages and operates the business.
Previously, teams spent significant time working through spreadsheets to identify problems and opportunities. Today, they have immediate access to the information they need to make informed decisions.
The business can now proactively respond to changing customer buying habits, new product trends, seasonal demand shifts, supplier forecasting requirements, and inventory risks.
BCI has also helped centralise operational knowledge, reducing reliance on long-serving employees and making critical business intelligence accessible across the organisation.
As Scott Plugers explains:
I want staff to have the information themselves so they can make decisions without relying on others.
This shift has enabled teams to become more proactive, identify customer buying trends sooner, and respond faster to changing market conditions.
Looking Ahead
Following the success of Business Central Insights within the Canadian operation, Stokes Seeds is expanding adoption across additional business areas and preparing to extend reporting capabilities into its U.S. operations.
Future priorities include:
Expanding BCI usage across U.S. operations
Further improving supplier forecasting
Enhancing ecommerce inventory management
Increasing purchasing team adoption
Driving more proactive inventory planning
As the business continues to grow across North America, Business Central Insights remains central to helping Stokes Seeds respond faster to changing market conditions and make smarter operational decisions.
As Scott concludes:
I'm a huge advocate for it. It's been tremendous for us.