Boost the Value of Your AgGateway Membership

eConnectivity Matters

Easy Steps to Boost the Value of Your AgGateway Membership

By Wendy Smith, AgGateway President & CEO

Are you getting the most out of your AgGateway membership?

Consider these questions: Are you using the resources available to you through your membership? Are you, or someone from your organization, engaging in board, council, committee, project and/or working group meetings? Are you sharing ideas and eConnectivity “pain points” that you think should be addressed – and how they might be addressed? Have you discussed eConnectivity internally with your company to forge goals that AgGateway teams might help you achieve? Are you getting connected? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then the answer to first question is also no. 

In the next few eConnectivity Matters columns, we’ll talk about relatively easy steps you can take to boost the value of your AgGateway membership. Today, I want to talk about some of the valuable resources available to you as an AgGateway member. You may already be aware of some of these, but I’m often surprised when I talk to a member and they had no idea that “such and such” was available to them. Whether you’re just getting started or an old hand at implementing eBusiness, these resources can help you accomplish your goals.

  • AgGateway Website at www.AgGateway.org is a great resource, with sections devoted to getting you connected, informing you about the various eConnectivity activities in progress or getting started. It also carries information on our annual events – the Mid-Year Meeting and Annual Conference, and a calendar with details on regular council, committee and other working meetings. The home page carries the latest news and events not to be missed. We updated the website for 2017, so if you haven’t been there lately, I encourage you to stop in and take a look.
  • Just getting started? Take the eBusiness readiness survey and we’ll contact you with thoughts on how you can develop a plan of action tailored to your business needs, at no charge. We also have a short webinar on eBusiness readiness that can help your organization understand what you’ll need to do to prepare for eBusiness and a white paper about eBusiness Fundamentals authored by our Standards Director Jim Wilson. Just look under the “Get Connected” tab.
  • Need help with eConnectivity? Check out the Allied Providers Products and Services Directory and enter eConnectivity or connections in the search box. These AgGateway member companies conceive, design, build, deploy and support electronic information management systems and accompanying services. Many have assisted AgGateway members in getting connected and you can hire them to assist you, as well.
  • Want to know which members have reported established electronic connectivity with trading partners and which messages they’ve implemented to help you prioritize your connectivity efforts? Check out the AgGateway Member eConnectivity Directory.
  • We also have Standards, Business Use Cases, and Implementation Guidelines all intended to help you get connected electronically, whether your business is Ag Retail, Crop Nutrition, Crop Protection, Feed, Seed, or Precision Agriculture.
  • Another benefit of membership is the free search/view subscription to AGIIS, also known as the Ag Industry Identification System. Two of the basic building blocks for efficient electronic interactions between you and your trading partners are industry common data elements and unique identifiers, both of which can be obtained through AGIIS. Today, AGIIS contains more than 5.2 million uniquely identified entities and almost 160,000 agricultural products ranging from crop protection chemicals to seed and fertilizer. For more information on AGIIS and how to get started using it, check out the AGIIS webpage or contact Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org or 1-866-251-8618.
  • Member Services – your one-stop shop for any questions you have regarding AgGateway or implementing eBusiness. If they don’t have the answer when you call, they will get it for you and get back to you in a timely manner.
  • Coming Soon – two new resources for AgGateway Members: 
    •  A high-level, Data Security Survey created through the work of the Data Privacy and Security Committee, is intended to provide your organization with a relative assessment of your data security versus other AgGateway members, and against a subset of organizations from across a range of industries. Those that complete the survey will receive feedback that will help clarify ways they can improve their data security. 
    •  A Member Portal, “MyAgGateway”, that will allow you as an AgGateway member to update your profile, edit which AgGateway groups you wish to participate in and get email from; view and pay your invoices, and search the directory to get contact information for other members willing to share their contact information.

There’s much more – including the AgGlossary (AgGlossary.org), ADAPT, the guidelines that will be coming out of the PAIL and SPADE precision ag projects, and Enabling Services, among others. We’ll address some of these resources in future articles. In the meantime, I encourage to take a look at the resources described here. You may find a single tool, idea or feature that opens up a whole new door for you in terms of business efficiency, boosted productivity, and better ties with customers and potential customers! And that’s what AgGateway membership is all about.