Lerøy Seafood Group uses Power Platform to improve reporting and reduce costs by millions of dollars

The Lerøy Seafood Group is a world-leading seafood company with roots dating back to 1899. Today, Lerøy is the third largest producer of salmon and trout in the world. Operations include product development, marketing, sales, and distribution of seafood in over 80 different countries.

Lerøy’s vision is to become the world’s leading and most profitable global supplier of sustainable quality seafood. To help drive that vision, Leroy is also on an aggressive path to digitization – with Power Platform playing a key role. “We’re using Power Platform to dramatically improve the way we share and analyze data,” says Andreas Fauske, Team Lead for Power Platform at Lerøy. He points to a solution development for operations offshore as a prime example.

When a boat gets delayed out on the water, an entire production schedule will often need to be adjusted to maintain operational efficiency. Previously, these adjustments were made manually on a spreadsheet and distributed via email or Teams chat. In just a few weeks, one developer streamlined the process with a simple app built using Power Apps. An employee on a boat can now update their status in a mobile app and the schedule is updated automatically across the network. “Thanks to modern tools such as Microsoft Power Platform, we have enabled the business to create a more frictionless workday, while also increasing our use of existing data and enriching those data with new input from our frontline workers,” says Pål Asle Reiersgaard, Development and Data Warehouse Team Manager at Lerøy. 

What’s also interesting is how makers evolved the app to address a potentially more costly problem. The boats using the app manage fish in offshore pens and must adhere to a strict feeding schedule. If feeding runs off schedule – even by a few hours - the fish lose weight which, in turn, requires the fish to remain longer out at sea to gain the weight back. For an operation the size of Lerøy’s, that extra time can cost tens of millions of dollars a year. By adding a few more fields and features to the existing app, the problem has largely been solved. 

The app now provides the operations team with better visibility into offshore feeding activities - right down to specific cages and fish IDs. If schedules start to go off track, managers and operators are instantly notified and jump into action.  “With a simple app built using Power Apps, we demonstrated to our leadership team just how easy it to do really amazing things with data,” says Andreas Fauske, Power Platform lead at Lerøy. And that’s when Power Platform really started to take off at Lerøy.  

A more structured approach to development

With the go-ahead from management to expand use of Power Platform, the lead development team launched a more structured approach using the Power Platform Center of Excellence Starter Kit. They started with features like the clean-up capability in the kit which identifies orphaned apps with an owner who has moved roles and no longer manages the app. This initiated a successful clean-up project - made even easier by flows (also within the kit) that can transfer ownership of orphaned apps to an active developer within the company. 

The team also set up a custom process for requesting development environments. Employees can first experiment in a default environment. When they are ready to request a production environment, they complete a form in Microsoft Forms to describe the solution they want to build and how they envision solving the problem with Power Platform. That information gets moved into Azure DevOps for tracking. “Every solution we make is documented through Azure DevOps, including all the proposals from the business side. This gives us a total right view of everything we're doing right now,” says Fauske. 

Requests submitted into Azure DevOps initiate a conversation between the employee and the Power Platform team. The team works with the employee to build out a detailed development plan which is then submitted to management for approval. Once approved, the team provides makers with the required environments for development, testing and production along with training and hands-on support for mission critical apps. 

More advanced, mission critical apps

An effective training and support system at Lerøy accelerated Power Platform development, including solutions to other, mission critical challenges. One such challenge: estimating the weight of fish in a pen before they are brought to market. The accuracy of these estimates is driven by a combination of employee experience and data from sophisticated ‘biomass’ cameras mounted on the boats. The problem was that this reporting would often come in from multiple sources – handwritten notes, calls, Teams messages, emailed pictures – and was not always consolidated. 

In just a few months, two developers at Lerøy came up with an effective solution. A mobile app built using Power Apps standardizes the reporting from crews out at sea, including data from their biomass systems. This combined reporting is then sent to Microsoft Dataverse for analysis in Microsoft Power BI. As Fauske explains, “When we started with Power Platform, we made the decision to jump directly into Dataverse as we saw it as the most secure and reliable way to store and manage our data – especially our mission critical data. It was a natural choice for us and it has worked amazingly well.” Additionally, because reporting data is now centralized in Dataverse, analysis can also make use of comprehensive historical data - and adjust estimates based on a crew’s reporting record and other factors. 

The result has been significantly more accurate weight estimates. One of the three farming companies in Lerøy has reported an 11.6% improvement in accuracy since using the app. That translates into a direct savings of $8 million – a cost that previously incurred to compensate for deliveries that were below the originally quoted weight. With more than two-thirds of the company now using the app for reporting, the savings are projected to soar dramatically higher.  

“With Power Platform, we have centralized reporting, significantly reduced costs and enhanced our ability to make data-driven decisions. It’s helping us realize our vision of becoming a world leader in sustainable seafood,” says Anders Storebø, Lead Digital Farming at Leroy. 

Improved governance with Managed Environments

Based on a growing track record of outstanding business results, Lerøy purchased 4,000 Power Apps Premium licenses last year to fuel even more innovation. At the same, the company realized that, with more and more mission critical solutions going live, it was time to add more governance to the development process.

To help drive that rigor, Lerøy enabled Managed Environments - a suite of capabilities that allows admins to better manage, monitor and control Power Platform development. At Lerøy, Managed Environments are used across four production environments – one for each major division of the company - fish farming, trawlers, factories and distribution. 

Fauske and his team have been particularly impressed with capabilities like the solution checker which evaluates solutions automatically against a set of best practices and identifies issues. Fauske also noted how easy it was to implement Managed Environments across all of the company’s production environments. As he explains, “I turned on Managed Environments on a Friday afternoon expecting to get a bunch of calls and questions from developers on Monday. I didn’t receive one call. Our developers adjusted to the new controls instantly.” 

Another wave of Power Platform innovation

Since adding their new governance platform, Lerøy is now set to reap the benefits of a whole new wave of Power Platform development. 

Next up: A health and safety app that will provide more effective training for employees. Previously, health and safety guidance was stored in binders which were often overlooked. With the new app, employees will review training each day and confirm when their reviews are complete. The app will also make it easier for managers to provide updated guidance for new scenarios such as the introduction of new equipment or processes. 

Lerøy is also looking to expand their use of Power Platform products, including Power Pages as well as new investments in Microsoft Copilot Studio and Copilot in Power Apps. As with earlier projects, the focus remains data driven. As Fauske says, “With Power Platform, we’re not just building apps. We’re helping people at Lerøy collect, combine and use data like never before. We have made good progress - and we see opportunities to do even more. It’s an especially exciting time to be working at Lerøy.”