AgGateway‘s recent annual conference focused on eAgriculture and they’re putting that into action with a new council created to address electronic connectivity issues related to the specialty chemical business.  The council will cover areas of professional vegetation management, pest control services, and turf and ornamental, in addition to subset areas like aquatics and forestry.  The council hopes to improve specific problems between the exchange of business data between these areas and aims to work within the industry to create standards and guidelines for that data.

“As with crop protection, we want to use best practices and set standards for efficient data exchange, in a way that meets the unique characteristics of the specialty chemical business,” said the council’s new chair, Sarah Moster, Manager of Business Analysis and CRM for BASF. “Electronic standardization and coding on products will enhance the accuracy and timing of billing and payments to distributors while also reducing complexity within the industry. Reducing complexity will solve pain points for everyone, improve efficiency and save money.”

The council will begin work to determine 2016 priorities with a conference call on December 17, including incorporating product codes into the Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS), starting the process of using standard product identifiers, and creating consistent industry guidelines for contract-to-invoice and sales reporting. Companies interested in joining the council and participating in the December 17 meeting can contact AgGateway’s member services at member.services@AgGateway.org.

This most recent council makes eight total AgGateway is using to address eAgriculture.  Other councils include: Ag Retailers, Allied Providers, Crop Nutrition, Crop Protection, Grain & Feed, Precision Ag, and Seed.