Volunteer Profile – Leif Wildman, Software Solutions Integrated

Partner News

Volunteer Profile – Leif Wildman, Software Solutions Integrated

By Paul Schrimpf, Director of Marketing and Communications

Software Solutions Integrated has been a deep and frequent contributor to a number of AgGateway initiatives over the years. In 2023, the Scale Ticket work was of particular interest to the company.

The company wasted no time providing volunteers for the work, including newly hired Grain Specialist Leif Wildman. He supports the grain side of the business by providing recommendations to the development team about how future enhancements may look, and helping the company understand customer needs and concerns.

“The Scale Ticket working group was the first project I was involved in, and that was a project to define the key aspects of the scale ticket needed to transfer information between two entities documenting receipt of a shipment.”

“Leif was a big help in the scale ticket work this year,” says Ben Craker, AgGateway Portfolio Manager. “It’s really great to have some newer faces and fresh perspectives helping to drive these projects, and we’re hoping he’ll continue to contribute as this initiative evolves.”

Wildman wasn’t sure what to expect when he sat in on the first meeting, but he was impressed with the openness of the discussion. “Everyone was very open to ideas from all the various backgrounds we represented,” he says. “Some of us worked in the grain industry directly, and some in the software technology side. So, if someone would share some ideas on how things work in the grain industry, there were others in the group able to perform the tech aspects of getting it set up for the API interface.

“This was the first big industry meeting where I’ve done something like this,” he continues. “There was more sharing of information and working to come up with solutions. I liked going to the Mid-Year Meeting and working on projects … it’s not as much about where the industry in general is heading, it’s a group of experts that are passionate about enhancing the capabilities of the industry, and working together to come up with actual solutions to challenges we are facing.”

Wildman sees one of the big challenges in grain to be the infusion of human error with manual entry at the elevator. “The biggest thing is speed of data and data accuracy. If we can get the industry to come together around a set of data points for scale tickets that allow data to move across different software packages, it will increase efficiency and accuracy when data flows. Currently, elevators receive a stack of paper tickets from truckers at the terminal, which must be hand-entered on their side. We need one centralized API set up so data can flow back and forth without human intervention and error.”

While all participants are naturally protective of their individual processes, Wildman can see where finding and fixing common challenges with collaborative solutions is powerful. “We know it is a labor-intensive process, but it’s worth the work if we can bring solutions that benefit everyone around the table, as well as our customers.”