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Chemicals customer storyCrop nutrient producer

Global crop nutrient producer fosters a strong safety culture with rapid, AI-powered information access from OpenText™ Content Management

Chemicals customer story

About the crop nutrient producer

The company is a global leader in the crop nutrient industry, producing and delivering phosphate and potash on a massive scale. They engage in every phase of the crop nutrition process to serve customers around the world.
Loader moving large piles of red material inside a warehouse
  • Headquarters:
    Southern U.S.
  • Employees:
    ~10,000
  • Operations:
    5+ countries

Summary

Challenges

  • Wanted to maintain worker well-being by equipping them with safety-critical information.
  • Needed to meet regulatory requirements for document retention and disposition across more than 17,000 records.

Solution

  • Built a secure, scalable content management platform.
  • Shifted records seamlessly to the cloud.
  • Supported multiple content management use cases.

Results

  • Equipped employees with rapid access to information
  • Ensured content remains accurate and current
  • Prepared for innovative generative AI capabilities

Challenges

  • Needed an effective way to manage over 17,000 documents, including safety-critical information
  • An international workforce needed rapid access to information
  • Document retention and disposition processes had to adhere to regulatory requirements

This U.S. crop nutrient producer is a global leader in the industry and one of the largest producers of phosphate and potash, used by agricultural customers around the world.

“Our mission is to help the world grow the food it needs,” said the company’s IT systems architect. “Up to 60% of a crop’s yield depends on soil nutrients, and we help customers in more than 40 countries to unlock the full potential of their land.”

The company is involved in every aspect of the nutrient production lifecycle, including the mining, processing, and marketing of phosphate and potash minerals. As many of these activities involve significant hazards, the company makes the safety of its workforce a top priority.

“In certain stages of the production process, we work with toxic chemicals such as sulfuric acid, ammonia, and phosphate,” the IT systems architect continued. “Safety is our number one goal, and we put the wellbeing of our workers above practically everything else we do. To promote a strong culture of safety, it’s crucial for us to carefully document safety-critical procedures and ensure employees are educated and equipped to follow them effectively.”

To help manage process documentation and other key operational and business-related information, enterprise content management (ECM) is a key capability. As well as keeping records up to date, the company must delete certain documents when they reach the end of their legally defined retention period.

The IT systems architect commented, “In total, we have thousands of documents across the business, including standard operating procedures, engineering drawings, maintenance records, and more. To help underpin our culture of safety, we need to make this information available to all our employees.”

A person holding tiny white plastic beads

By building generative AI solutions that leverage data in OpenText Content Management, we’ll be able to empower our teams with safety-critical information faster and more seamlessly than ever.

IT systems architect lead
Global crop nutrient provider

Solution

From the very beginning, this crop nutrient producer has used OpenText™ Content Management to help it connect its global workforce with information—including safety-critical data on asset management.

Products deployed

Services provided

Building a secure, scalable platform

The company originally selected OpenText Content Management for its security and scalability, and the solution continues to be the strategic platform for the organization’s information management needs.

“Over the years, we’ve harnessed OpenText Content Management to deliver a range of innovative use cases,” recalled the IT systems architect. “For example, we have attached QR codes to the machinery at our production plants. Our engineering teams scan these codes with their mobile device and a REST API delivers all the relevant safety documentation from OpenText Content Management direct to their smartphone or tablet.”

He added, “The ability to integrate OpenText Content Management into digital workflows is extremely valuable. We recently rolled out an AI virtual assistant that allows our teams to ask questions such as ‘Do I need to wear steel-toed boots for this task?’ and receive instant answers in natural language based on the information in our safety documents.”

Shifting seamlessly to the cloud

Another reason that OpenText Content Management remains the ECM solution of choice for the company is its flexibility. When the company embarked on a cloud-first transformation, moving OpenText Content Management to the new platform was a straightforward process.

“Shifting OpenText Content Management to the cloud was a big advantage, as it allows us to avoid the cost and complexity of managing on-premises infrastructure and enhance our information security posture by using cloud-native security capabilities,” explained the IT systems architect.

The company regularly partners with OpenText Professional Services for updates and enhancements to OpenText Content Management.

The IT systems architect commented, “One of the big benefits of working with OpenText Professional Services is that we get a direct line to the OpenText product development team, which helps us to get fast answers to our questions and even suggest new features for the product roadmap.””

Supporting new content management use cases

The crop nutrient producer continues to work closely with OpenText to enhance its approach to content management.

“We operate in a heavily regulated industry, which means it’s important for us to retain certain information for a set period,” said the IT systems architect. “With OpenText Core Archive for SAP Solutions, we can manage SAP and non-SAP data and documents in a secure, efficient, and compliant way.”

He added, “Our public affairs team loves OpenText Digital Asset Management. The solution enables them to curate a rich library of video and photo content for use in our marketing and sales processes.”

Green corn plants under a blue sky

Empowering our teams to ask safety-related questions to a virtual assistant is making it even easier for us to disseminate important information to our people. We couldn’t achieve this without a central, trusted repository like OpenText Content Management.

IT systems architect lead
Global crop nutrient provider

Results

With OpenText Content Management, the crop nutrient producer can provide its global workforce with timely access to vital information and deliver AI-powered enhancements that make it even faster and easier for teams to find the insights they need.

Equipped employees with rapid information access

Every month, more than 6,000 employees log into OpenText Content Management, giving them rapid access to more than 17,000 documents. As part of its commitment to a culture of safety, the company is continuously enhancing its approach to delivering information to its teams.

“Empowering our teams to ask safety-related questions to a virtual assistant is making it even easier for us to disseminate important information to our people,” said the IT systems architect. “We couldn’t achieve this without a central, trusted repository like OpenText Content Management.”

He added, “OpenText solutions are helping us to work more efficiently, too. For example, we recently deployed OpenText Content Management for Engineering for our production plant in Brazil, which is helping their procurement department collaborate more effectively and reduce duplication of effort.”

Ensured content remains accurate and current

The crop nutrient producer must regularly review its content to ensure that it remains up to date. By building a digital workflow on top of OpenText Content Management, the company automatically prompts its content owners to review and update documents 30 days before the due date.

“The business was delighted when we rolled out automated document review reminders, as it significantly improves our compliance posture,” said the IT systems architect. “Based on the success of that workflow, we launched another that reminds content owners when a document has reached the end of its retention period, so they know that the record will be deleted unless action is taken.”

Prepared for innovative generative AI capabilities

Looking ahead, the company is planning further enhancements to its OpenText platform. The company is exploring OpenText Content Management for Microsoft 365 to automatically store content from Microsoft SharePoint and Teams to its central repository, and OpenText™ Aviator™ to deploy new AI-powered capabilities.

“As a company, we’re at the cutting edge of AI—we even have an autonomous Spot® robot that performs visual inspections of assets on our factory floor,” concluded the IT systems architect. “By building generative AI solutions that leverage data in OpenText Content Management, we’ll be able to empower our teams with safety-critical information faster and more seamlessly than ever.”

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