eConnectivity Benefits

eConnectivity Benefits

A Message to Share with Ag Retailers, Manufacturers and Distributors

By Brent Kemp, AgGateway Executive Vice President and COO

It's a new spring season - crop nutrient, crop protection and seed products are being applied. Now is the time to think about year-end reporting! If your company or your trading partners aren’t connected for ease of year-end reporting – share this message with them now:

More and more companies are moving to standardized electronic reporting, which allows seamless, electronic exchange of data. This saves time, boosts your efficiencies and inventory control, and enhances customer service.

Imagine having a process and standard reporting format in place that will:
  • Meet supplier's requirements and support your business and your customers.
  • Accommodate customer changes before the year-end reconciliation.
  • Allow you to fix just a few stray exceptions at the end of the season instead of spending long days reviewing errors past the deadline.

Some Ag Retailers are already realizing these benefits by using AgGateway's Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS). Companies throughout the industry use the AGIIS directory to uniquely identify farmers, businesses, drop points, rail locations and more. These identifiers are standard in the industry - they are accepted by most chemical and seed manufacturers, fertilizer manufacturers, distributors and service providers.

With AGIIS identifiers in your system you can:

  • Easily and effectively share common business data with your distributors and suppliers.
  • Reduce internal costs associated with maintaining multiple partners' proprietary codes.
  • Align operational processes like sales and inventory reporting, ordering, delivery receipt, accounts payable and customer billing to reduce overhead and save time.
  • Position your company for supply chain efficiency and participate in traceability and transparency initiatives.

Some aspects of AGIIS are free and open for public use, as part of AgGateway's mission to promote eConnectivity in agriculture. But subscribing to AGIIS brings even more value. Subset creation, combined with data maintenance notifications, keeps your system in sync with your trading partners. You'll know when a customer's demographics change because you'll receive the update from AGIIS. And if a customer tells you first, you can make that change in the system and ensure your partners are aware before the end of the year. 

Subscribers can download full lists of products, including the identifiers used at point-of-sale and in supply chain processes, for import into their local systems. This reduces work needed to keep the product master up-to-date and eliminates risk of keying errors. 

Want to learn more? Here's a video with testimonials from AGIIS users, including several Ag Retailers.   

For more information:  

  • Become an AGIIS subscriber or learn more about how to leverage AGIIS to your company's benefit. Contact AgGateway at Member.Services@AgGateway.org or call us at (866) 251-8618.
  • Check out the AGIIS Fact Sheet, the "How to Get Started" memo, and other helpful resources on the AGIIS webpage. 
  • AGIIS non-subscribers can access and search for identifiers at www.AGIIS.org by clicking on the "Identifier Search" link.
  • Consider joining us at the Mid-Year Meeting June 12-15 in Des Moines, Iowa, which features a half-day Ag Retail eConnectivity Forum for senior retail managers and directors. The forum will focus on the efficiencies and competitive advantages as retailers, manufacturers and distributors move to seamless electronic data exchange.

Prepare now – and become more efficient, effective and competitive, by using industry standards in eBusiness!

2017 May Articles