1
Introduction to AgGateway
Spring 2015
2
AgGateway: What it is
• A non-profit, collaborative
membership association
• Focused on helping growers,
retailers and their supply chain
partners improve productivity,
profitability and sustainability.
• AgGateway activities help
companies reduce the cost and
frustration of managing and
exchanging complex data.
• Broad representation across ag
segments
Non-profit funded by:
• Member dues
• Subscriptions
• Activity fees
3
AgGateway’s Mission
To promote, enable and expand
eBusiness in agriculture.
4
eBusiness
Business activities between companies supported by
information and communication technologies
5
Connectivity
Linking information resources
among various computer systems
and their users
6
Standard
Requirements and best practices used
to establish uniform business processes.
7
Why eBusiness?
eBusiness is critical to address:
• Increasing operational complexity
• Need to manage more and more data
• Increasing regulatory requirements
• International and domestic market pressures
And at an even larger level…
• To support demands on agriculture to produce more food with
fewer resources.
8
Growing demand for food –
Growing pressure on agriculture
Source: USDA
9
How ag companies say they’ll address
these challenges:
• Streamlining the supply chain
• Genetics, biotechnology
• Precision agriculture
• Sustainability, food safety practices
Each of these areas requires – or benefits from –
eBusiness solutions
10
What’s the big idea?
To enable the entire agriculture community to use
eBusiness to exchange information to:
• Improve business processes
• Improve productivity throughout the supply
chain – from crop inputs to the farmer
• Streamline the supply chain
• Enhance traceability and food safety
• Support sustainable agricultural practices
11
Focus on implementation
• 1st step: Developing and adopting industry
standards, guidelines and other means to
enable eBusiness
• Critical next step: Implementation
AgGateway is Focused
on Implementation –
Making eBusiness a Reality in the Ag Industry!
12
AgGateway: Who’s involved?
• More than 230 member companies
• Members include ag retailers,
manufacturers of ag inputs (e.g., seed,
crop nutrition, crop protection, feed,
grain, equipment), distributors,
companies supporting precision ag, and software and data
service providers.
• Business and information technology (IT) professionals from
these member companies collaborate on AgGateway activities.
• Companies work together to develop and implement common
industry standards and tools.
AgGateway membership growth reflects
the need/desire for eBusiness
226
203
230
210
162
190
170
141
150
130
118
96
110
90
70
50
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
14
15
What we’re working on at AgGateway
• Precision ag
• Contracts, ordering, shipping and
invoicing in seed, feed, grain,
crop protection, other sectors
• Regulatory compliance
• Paperless fertilizer tonnage reporting to states
• Much more…
The result: eConnectivity helps companies and growers with
strategic planning, inventory and resource management,
traceability, more accurate reporting, better resource
allocation.
16
Streamlining the Supply Chain
17
Order to invoice
• Contracts, ordering, shipping and
invoicing: eConnectivity achieved
between many trading partners within
the seed, feed, grain, crop protection,
crop nutrition and other sectors.
• The benefits: More accurate
reporting, fewer manual errors and
better resource allocation.
18
Precision Agriculture
19
Precision Ag
• Today’s farmers working with
increasing amounts of data, but
often their systems and
equipment can’t exchange that
data easily – the systems can’t
“talk” to each other. This is a
complex problem.
• AgGateway’s Precision Ag Council: More than 120 companies
collaborating on ways growers can better manage data in field
operations, precision water management, telematics, and crop
insurance and compliance reporting.
20
Precision Ag
• Standardized Precision Ag Data Exchange (SPADE) Project,
completed the new ADAPT Toolkit – a set of software tools
designed to simplify field operations data exchange.
• Precision Ag Irrigation Leadership (PAIL) Project, implementing
data exchange in connection with irrigation work orders.
• Result once implemented: growers and
ag retailers able to securely exchange
data between software programs and
systems. Easier for growers to manage
farm resources and focus on profitability.
21
Compliance Reporting and More
22
Paperless Fertilizer Tonnage Reporting
• A successful AgGateway project;
now an industry-wide initiative
• Goal: To achieve paperless
fertilizer tonnage reporting by
the end of 2016.
• Five states are now accepting live
data, two states are working
toward eConnectivity, and
29 states have expressed interest
in engaging.
• See www.FertTon.com
23
Data Privacy and Security
• Farmers are concerned about data privacy,
use and security.
• AgGateway Data Privacy and Security
Committee has published a white paper
that provides a framework that industry
companies can use to help establish the
data privacy and use standards, practices
and procedures for their farm customers or
business operations.
• As with all AgGateway activities, this is a
collaborative effort, distilling ideas and
input from multiple members of the ag
community.
24
How AgGateway operates
25
How is AgGateway organized?
• Small number of staff
• Councils (by industry segment)
• Standing committees
• Standards and Guidelines, Data Privacy
& Security, Membership, Conference,
etc.
• Project teams and working groups
26
AgGateway: a Rough Org Chart
Members
Councils
Project
Board of
Directors
Management
Team
Teams
Committees
27
Currently 7 active councils
28
Councils
• Industry segment councils operate
•
•
•
•
with relative independence.
Each has a chair and co-chair.
Conference calls, face-to-face at
AgGateway meetings.
Decide on and manage the priorities
and project work that make
eBusiness a reality.
The chairs and co-chairs of each
council comprise the overall
AgGateway Board of Directors.
10 Collaborative Committees
30
eBusiness Resources
31
Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS)
• AGIIS is an interactive database that houses
eBusiness data for agriculture.
• AGIIS provides the unique identifiers and
common data elements that allow
companies to “sync” and set the stage for
eBusiness transactions.
• AGIIS does not process transactions; it is a
directory resource that facilitates electronic
communication.
32
AGIIS
• Contains 5 million unique entities, 930,000
licenses used in seed license management,
and over 140,000 ag products - crop
protection chemicals, seed, etc.
• Identifiers used to support key business
transactions such as electronic ordering,
sales reporting, product tracking, etc.
• Records are added and maintained by the
AGIIS user community.
33
How to Access AGIIS?
• Anyone is welcome to search AGIIS for a Global Location
Number (GLN) tied to a business, consumer or location – this
free access is intended to promote and enable eBusiness in ag.
• AgGateway members receive a free search/view only
subscription to AGIIS .
• Complete access to AGIIS requires a subscription. Dues are
based on a combination of corporate revenue and subset size.
More information: “AGIIS” button under “eConnectivity” at
www.AgGateway.org, or contact Members Services at
Member.Services@ AgGateway.org.
34
eBusiness Resources
• There is no fee to access or use the
AgGateway Open Standards. This is
for the shared good of the industry. In
addition, these standards can be used
internationally.
• AgGateway members can access all of
the completed work created by
AgGateway – the standards,
guidelines and formats from the
volunteer councils.
35
For more information…
• www.AgGateway.org houses a great deal of news and
information on AgGateway activities, including a monthly
newsletter.
• Member Services is a centralized resource for AgGateway
members and non-members, to respond to your needs,
questions and requests.
Member.Services@AgGateway.org
or 1-866-251-8618
35
36
Thank you!