By Jayci Cave
As a cooperative, PCCA’s mission is to add significant value to the cotton marketed to its members by being the supplier of choice to our business partners in terms of quality, service and value. Each employee at PCCA plays a special role in making this possible.
The Information Systems (IS) Department works to ensure that every division of PCCA has the technology they need. Along with this, they make sure the gins have the programs and technology necessary to make their jobs easier. Recently, this has included developing programs for scale capture and module tracking.
Scale capture is gin software for call-in, ginning list, turnout adjustment, and scale ticket upload while module tracking allows the gin personnel to track the modules from the field to ginning. John Duncan, AP Systems/Analyst, says that a majority of what he does on a day-to-day basis is related to the gins.
“We develop programs so the gins can monitor the ginning and do the marketing for the producers,” Duncan says. “We try to make that as easy for them as possible. We know their lives are really busy, especially in ginning season, so we make those things they need to get done be quick and easy.”
Not only does the IS staff work to develop new software, they are constantly working to improve existing programs and resolve any problems as soon as possible, and they always try to make enhancements based on the gins’ recommendations. Grower Services and Marketing Communications play a large role in helping communicate the concerns or suggestions from the gins to the IS Department. Even the newest program, module tracking, has a list of enhancements because the gins provided suggestions on how to make it more efficient.
Duncan says he thinks the departments’ willingness to help the gins reflects positively on PCCA because they know that PCCA is here to help them. The main goal for Duncan and his co-workers is to help the gins’ workflow run smoothly.
“We want to enhance their abilities, and we don’t want to get in the way of doing their jobs,” Duncan says.
Debbie Bolding, AP Systems/Analyst Manager, says the department is there to help make gin operations run smoothly no matter what time of the day. The IS Department rotates staff members in order to have a programmer on call every day of the year to offer gins “24-7” assistance should they need help.
“It is very rewarding to help the gins by developing new software that helps them do their jobs more efficiently and effectively,” Bolding says. “Our jobs are to help the gins and their members market their cotton and get the most value.”