Digital is redefining how agribusinesses look at data. A new wave of technology trends will help agribusiness leaders become more agile and efficient enterprises, Accenture writes in its white paper "Accenture Technology Vision 2014 for Agribusiness."
Like most industries, agribusiness has a wealth of data available that can improve business decisions, but the data is inaccessible or housed in silos, not flowing through the enterprise. In agribusiness, data is not static. It is used in an circular way, rather than linear. Tech can have a major impact across the agribusiness value chain, maximizing profitability and improving margins.
Accenture identifies six technology trends that show how agribusinesses can plow their biggest challenges using emerging technology:
1. Data Supply Chain
Creating a data supply chain will allow information such as yield, herd health, pricing, weather, soil conditions, product performance, maintenance needs and workforce to flow into systems that can be used in an actionable way, increasing effectiveness. Timely analysis of these parameters is critically important to new product development process, equipment forecasting and management, and exploiting market conditions to extract profitable margins.
Enterprises can create a data services platform that enables movement and makes data visible and accessible. through a virtualized data layer that unifies everything into a single view. The data must be prioritized on the platform–accelerating time-critical data and allowing less relevant data to chug along more slowly. Embedded analytics allow enable both scientists and less-technical users to easily make use of these insights.
2. Digital/physical blur
What's emerging in agribusiness is more than the the Internet of Things. Connected intelligence automates processes and machines, moving agribusiness from reaction toward prediction. Farmers can see up-to-the-minute information on their grain bins or reduce costs through precision farming. Commodity traders gain leverage for contract negotiations and logisitcs leaders can track and optimize warehousing and transportation.
Seize opportunities and go mobile. Extend infrastructure to support smartphone or tablet applications for core business functions. Develop a real-time data analytics infrastructure and proactively addrsss data privacy and security issues to mitigate risk and liability.
3. From workforce to crowdsource
If farming enterprises could extend their workforce beyond their employees–to anyone with an Internet connection–they could leverage unique skills that provide a competitive advantage. If they needed analytics talent, the enterprises could reach out to the crowd for qualified data scientists. Crowdsourcing acquires talent on the fly and pays for skills by the day, hour or solution. Even for large agribusinesses who have these skill sets in-house, crowdsourcing opens the doors to a broader base of talent that may solve a problem more quickly.
Rally the crowd with communities where users can post video or pictures. Establish clear guideslines on how complex tasks should be logically broken down. Adoption is key to crowdsourcing: You must be properly motivated and engage the community. The anonymity of crowdsourcing raises security questions concernring intellectual property. Carefully consider how to manage data privacy.
4. Business of applications
Food production requirements will greatly increase in the next three to five years, and tech can help businesses improve yield. Empowering workers with apps that enhance decision-making will allow integration between commodity trading and risk management. Apps also track equipment logs to indicate when machinery needs repair, and assist emerging market agribusinesses in marketing, tech support and sales.
As larger agribusinesses push for greater IT agility, there will be a shift toward simpler, custom apps. The more quickly an agribusiness can create and launch new apps, the quicker it can innovate, collaborate and build a competitive edge. Apps improve business relationships with producers, processors, manufacturers and seed/fertilizer/crop protection providers.
An enterprise should separate apps from the back-end systems that support them. Resurrect middleware to find modular apps that perform business functions. Combine modular apps, like a puzzle, to implement more complex business activities.
5. Harnessing hyperscale
As the amount of data from the field grows, so will the demand for more efficient data centers. Few agribusinesses have the infrastructure to keep up, and they hit the platteau of "data exhaust." Hyperscale data centers can reduce costs and fuel growth. Hybrid or cloud-based data centers remove bottlenecks in the flow of data and enable networking that conencts all devices and people across the value chain.
Tech innovations, such as low-power CPUs, solid-state data storage and in-memory computing benefit the performance of servers and data centers.
6. Architecting resilience
Agribusiness enterprises must avoid business interruption at all costs. IT infrastructure must be dynamic, accessible and continuous–and designed for resilience under failure. When natural disasters occur, food safety issues can spread. The ability to track and trace products through the value chain becomes more important, especially as agribusinesses must comply with regulatory requirements and manage risk.
Look for security features that leverage existing infrastructure and go beyond compliance. Advanced detection and external threat intelligence capabilities protect vulnerabilities. Implement performance monitoring and failure tracing tools to remediate issues.
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