Businesses in the horticulture industry may be surprised to learn that they are nearly as likely to be the victims of a cyber attack as larger, more attention-grabbing businesses such as banks or insurance companies. In fact, a recent study by Verizon found that 46 percent of cyber intrusions were suffered by businesses of less than a thousand employees. One of the major reasons for this is because smaller businesses often lack dedicated, sophisticated cyber protection, leaving them vulnerable to intrusion. These threats can often lead to significant system downtime, often effecting the entire business, directly impacting the bottom line.
This can be especially dangerous for nursery businesses, which have the added complication of your primary product being living plants, meaning disruptions can seriously risk entire inventories, impacting the business for even longer than the initial outages.
Types of Attack, and How to Spot Them
The two most common types of cyber-attack are not new, nor specifically tailored to attacking horticulture industries- Ransomware and Phishing.
Ransomware is malicious software downloaded onto a system, ceding control of operations to a third-party hacker. Once the hackers have control of the system, they demand money to “unlock” it, returning it to a usable state.
Phishing scams are similar, usually triggered by phony text messages or emails, often either asking for sensitive information or containing links to the aforementioned ransomware software. Since these emails come from legitimate looking sources, they can be dangerous for users who are not on alert. A sub-type of this scam is a fraudulent impersonation scam, where a bad actor poses as someone, like a vendor or customer, in order to get sensitive data or other resources.
Employees need to be vigilant and consistent in their safety measures, looking for red flags that reveal the most common scams. External emails, particularly ones from email addresses that seem nonsensical, random, or jumbled, are likely to contain phishing attempts or other forms of attack. Clicking on any links or attachments is highly advised against. Screening phone calls to ensure the validity of the caller can also help guard against impersonation attacks, with experts recommending implementing verification measures for vendors or clients.
Power Your Employees to Protect Your Business
The most effective defense against cyber-attacks is a modern cybersecurity suite. Many small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) operate under the assumption this level of security is a luxury that they cannot afford. This is no longer the case thanks to powerful, agile ERP platforms like Dynamics 365 Business Central, which include state-of-the-art threat detection and prevention powered by Azure, Microsoft’s premiere cloud-based server.
With this powerful platform, SMBs can receive all the protection and expertise from Microsoft’s top experts. Microsoft invests over one billion dollars in cloud security annually, with teams of technicians constantly scanning and analyzing the web for new and evolving threats. Additionally, the cloud-based servers include secure data backup capabilities, meaning that in the unlikely event of a successful attack, costly downtime is massively decreased, especially compared to legacy, on-premises servers. The cloud nature of Business Central also ensures that the security systems are constantly up-to-date and protected from the newest attacks with no user intervention required.
Businesses will also benefit from in-depth and ongoing training for their employees, helping ensure that they do not fall prey to phishing or other digital attacks while performing their duties. Incoming e-mail scanning, encrypted passwords, and secure internet log-ins will all help protect nurseries from digital bad actors.
All a Part of the Package
This enhanced security protection is simply one of the many business-changing benefits of switching to a modern, agile ERP platform. Enavate offers an industry expertise in best practices for nurseries, greenhouse growers, and other horticulture businesses to optimize use of Business Central and gain additional advantages.
Plant Inventory Management - Dynamics 365 Business Central offers tools to help businesses navigate the unique challenge of having living inventory. With functions like crop planning, space optimization, production scheduling, and resource tracking, nurseries will be better equipped to monitor and maintain inventory.
Seasonal Demand Forecasting - Top of the line forecasting tools help nurseries anticipate seasonal demand changes, enabling them to plan production and inventory more accurately, reducing waste.
Supply Chain Management - Tools will allow horticulture businesses to manage and streamline the supply chain and procurement processes, ensuring that seeds, fertilizer, and other vital materials for growers are always available.
Customer Relationship Management - While every business needs CRM capabilities, nurseries with wide customer bases, such as ones that sell directly to individual gardeners, need them more than most. Business Central’s robust CRM tools help nurseries support individual customers for deeper, more profitable relationships.
Sales and Order Management - Sales tracking, invoice generation, and customer support are all optimized and streamlined with Dynamics 365 BC’s powerful financial capabilities.
Scheduling and Task Management - Nurseries will benefit from being able to schedule planting, fertilizing, pruning, and other operational tasks directly from their platform, rather than using a separate, unlinked system. This efficiency and consistency is vital or nurseries to thrive.
Reporting and Analytics – Business Central features a state-of-the-art analytics and reporting suite, allowing businesses of all sizes to create, export, and analyze in-depth visualizations of their system data for quicker, more accurate decision making. Reports can be custom generated, and BC offers an extensive selection of pre-designed reports for businesses that don’t have the time or expertise to design their own. Thanks to the cloud’s always-online nature, the data in the reports is always up to date, allowing for the best, most accurate data to be presented to decision makers quickly.
The Right Platform to Power and Protect
Nursery businesses face unique challenges due to the fact that your products are living, growing organisms. Anything that affects your ability to manage and maintain your products could have drastic repercussions, including cyber attacks and the associated downtime. The best way to avoid this devastating outcome is to prioritize cyber-security in your business solutions. By partnering with Enavate to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can harness the power of Azure’s top of the line cyber-security protection, as well as a plethora of industry-tailored tools to help grow your business.
