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How Pioneer continues specialised seed operations on Exactlly alongside SAP
Pioneer used the full exactllyERP from 2002 to 2018. When the wider organisation implemented SAP globally in 2018 as part of its global policy, selected specialised seed workflows remained on Exactlly. Today, Field Production, Grower Payment and Quality Control continue to operate on Exactlly alongside the wider SAP environment.
Customer Proof
When a global ERP transition does not end every specialised workflow
Most customer stories describe a system being adopted. This one describes what stayed.
Corporate systems standardise
Large organisations commonly move to a single corporate ERP platform across every territory. It is a governance and consistency decision taken at group level, not a judgement about any one process.
Specialised operations continue
Underneath that layer, particular operating processes carry their own requirements, established ways of working and existing integrations. Those requirements do not disappear when the corporate platform changes.
Both can run together
For Pioneer, Field Production, Grower Payment and Quality Control continued on Exactlly after SAP became the broader corporate ERP environment, and the two exchange information.
Why this shape is worth describing
The usual assumption about a global ERP rollout is that it is total: one platform arrives, everything else is retired, and the question is only how long the migration takes. That assumption is what makes Pioneer's arrangement worth writing down, because it is not what happened.
A seed business runs processes that are not variations on general manufacturing. Production happens in fields rather than on a line, the supply side is a population of growers rather than a vendor list, and quality is assessed on biological material. Those processes had been running on Exactlly for sixteen years by the time SAP arrived, with the workflows and the integrations that sixteen years produce.
What Pioneer confirmed is the outcome, not the deliberation: the corporate platform changed, and three specialised seed workflows stayed where they were. Seven years later they are still there, and they exchange information with SAP.
A seed business, and a relationship that began in 2002
Pioneer is Corteva Agriscience's flagship seed brand.
Exactlly's relationship with the Pioneer business in India began in 2002. It was, at the time, Exactlly's first multinational customer. For the sixteen years that followed, through 2018, the organisation ran the full exactllyERP across its operations.
Then the arrangement changed, and what happened next is what makes this story unusual: rather than every workflow moving with the 2018 global SAP implementation, three specialised seed processes stayed on Exactlly.
Twenty-three years after the relationship began, and seven years after the corporate platform changed, Exactlly remains part of how Pioneer's specialised seed operations are run.
- Customer
- Pioneer Seeds, Corteva Agriscience
- Industry
- Seeds & Agriculture
- Exactlly relationship
- Since 2002
- Historical Exactlly use
- Full exactllyERP, 2002–2018
- Current Exactlly use
- Field Production, Grower Payment, Quality Control
- Corporate ERP environment
- SAP, since the 2018 global rollout
- Current model
- Specialised Exactlly workflows alongside SAP
From full ERP, through a global transition, to specialised continuity
The chronology is the story. Each step below is what Pioneer confirmed, in the order it happened.
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2002
The full exactllyERP begins
Pioneer begins using the full exactllyERP. It is Exactlly's first multinational customer.
-
2005
A “Partner in Success” Award
PHI Seeds Ltd., Hyderabad presents La Exactlly Software Pvt. Ltd. with a “Partner in Success” Award, in recognition of contributions to the development and implementation of exactllyERP.
-
2002–2018
Sixteen years of full ERP operation
The business runs on the full exactllyERP environment across that period.
-
2018
Global SAP implementation
The wider organisation implements SAP globally as part of a global policy. The full exactllyERP's role ends with that transition.
-
2018–today
Specialised Exactlly modules continue
Three specialised seed workflows remain on Exactlly and are still in use, integrating with the wider SAP environment.
- Field Production
- Grower Payment
- Quality Control
The turning point in 2018 changed what Exactlly does at Pioneer, not whether it is used.
A “Partner in Success” Award, presented in 2005
Three years into the relationship, Exactlly's work on exactllyERP was recognised with a physical award. It is shown here as it was given — photographed, not recreated, and neither cropped nor retouched.
“In recognition of outstanding contributions made for development & implementation of exactllyERP Business Application Software.”
Engraved beneath 2005, La Exactlly Software Pvt. Ltd. and “Partner in Success” Award. The base of the award is inscribed PHI Seeds Ltd, Hyderabad and carries the Pioneer mark of the period.
The award was presented by PHI Seeds Ltd., Hyderabad in 2005, during the Pioneer era. It is recorded here as recognition given at that time, not as a current endorsement, and PHI Seeds Ltd. is named on this page only as the issuer of this award.
What Exactlly was, and what Exactlly is
These are two different things, sixteen years apart. The page keeps them separate because conflating them would misdescribe the arrangement.
Then · 2002–2018
The full exactllyERP
For sixteen years the organisation used the full exactllyERP environment. That deployment established the depth of the relationship and the operational familiarity that followed. It is history, not a description of today.
Now · 2018 onwards
Three specialised seed workflows
Since the global SAP implementation, Exactlly's role at Pioneer is these three processes and no more. They are the current, confirmed use.
- Field Production
- Grower Payment
- Quality Control
The three retained workflows
Three specialised seed processes stayed on Exactlly through the corporate transition, and remain in use today.
Field Production
Seed production begins in the field, and the processes around it are specific to the seed industry rather than to manufacturing in general. Pioneer's field-production workflow remains on Exactlly and is actively used today.
Grower Payment
Seed production depends on growers, and the commercial relationship with them has to be processed as well as managed. Grower-related payment processing remains one of the specialised Exactlly workflows in current use.
Quality Control
Quality Control (QC) is the third retained workflow, and it too continues to operate on Exactlly today within the specialised seed environment.
Three processes, one operating area
Taken separately, each of the three is a specialised piece of seed operations. Taken together they cover a connected stretch of the business: what happens in the field, what is owed to the growers who produce there, and whether the resulting seed meets the standard required.
That is a coherent operating area rather than three unrelated leftovers, and it is the part of Pioneer's operation that continues to run on Exactlly today.
Specialised Exactlly workflows alongside the wider SAP environment
Two environments, each with its own scope, exchanging information.
Specialised seed operations
Exactlly
- Field Production
- Grower Payment
- Quality Control
Wider corporate ERP environment
SAP
- Corporate ERP platform
- Implemented globally in 2018
- Group-wide standard
How the two relate
The retained Exactlly workflows operate alongside and integrate with the wider SAP environment, exchanging information with it rather than running in isolation. Neither environment sits above the other in this picture. SAP is the corporate ERP platform for the organisation; Exactlly carries three specialised seed processes. Each has its own scope, and the two are connected.
That distinction matters for anyone reading this to understand their own landscape. Coexistence is not a partial migration waiting to be finished, and it is not a system left running because nobody switched it off. It is two environments with different jobs, deliberately kept in contact.
That is also the extent of what this page states about the architecture. The interface mechanism, its direction, its frequency and which environment owns which records are not described here, because those details were not part of what Pioneer confirmed, and describing them without evidence would be guesswork dressed as fact.
Business outcomes
Described qualitatively, as Pioneer described them.
Specialised process continuity
- Selected seed workflows continue in an established specialised operating environment
- No break in the processes at the 2018 transition
- Familiarity built over sixteen years of prior use
Enterprise coexistence
- Retained Exactlly workflows operate alongside the broader SAP environment
- The two environments exchange information
- Specialised operations and corporate ERP each keep their own scope
Field-to-commercial connection
- Field Production remains part of the specialised Exactlly operating model
- Grower Payment remains part of the same environment
- The field side and the grower commercial side sit together
Quality Control continuity
- QC continues within the retained Exactlly environment
- Unchanged through the corporate platform transition
- One of the three workflows in current use
Proof at a glance
Relationship
- Since 2002
- Full exactllyERP until 2018
- Exactlly's first multinational customer
Enterprise transition
- Global SAP implementation in 2018
- Part of a group-level global policy
- Specialised Exactlly use continues
Current Exactlly workflows
- Field Production
- Grower Payment
- Quality Control
Operating model
- Specialised seed workflows
- Integration with SAP
- Enterprise coexistence
Customer recognition
- “Partner in Success” Award, 2005
- Presented by PHI Seeds Ltd., Hyderabad
- For development and implementation of exactllyERP
Related Exactlly capabilities
The pages below cover the product and the sector this story touches. They are general reference material, not a description of Pioneer's configuration.
Specialised operations inside a larger enterprise landscape?
If your business runs specialised processes that need their own operating environment while a corporate platform handles the rest, talk to Exactlly about how the two can work together.