A guide for evaluating crop planning solutions: Key questions to ask

A guide for choosing the right crop planning solution to streamline your workflow and data, enhance your crop plans and relationships and scale your business.

Crop planning has changed a lot over the years, so it’s only natural that the solutions agronomists depend on have changed too. The industry is moving away from traditional methods which were time consuming and error prone – like relying on fragmented data compiled across spreadsheets and/or multiple systems – and is embracing new, streamlined software solutions. The best of today's technology helps agronomists produce better crop plans with less effort – working smarter to drive efficiency.

If you’re an agronomist, you might already rely on technology in your workflow and day-to-day operations. If you’re frustrated or unimpressed by your current process, it's a good time to make a change. Investing in better solutions could help you gather, analyze and share your data; improve and streamline your workflows and recommendations; and enhance your relationships with growers.

It's a bit of a challenge to choose the right solution(s) for a complex job. If you aren't sure which solutions you should lean on, and are looking for the perfect fit, this guide can help you make a confident choice.

Define success for your business

Sometimes the best way to find your ideal solution to a problem is to visualize the best possible outcome and work your way backwards. To do this, start by picturing what success would look like for your business if you found and applied new solutions to your work.

• Which operational improvements would have materialized?

• Would your solution help drive growth, efficiency or maybe both?

• What would grower satisfaction look like for you?

Take time to note any specific goal outcomes for business growth and efficiency, and get a grasp of the pain points you want to address.

Ask yourself: How will I know this solution is working for my business?

Assess your tech needs and your team's capabilities

You need to define where you’re starting from and what you’re currently capable of to map out where you want to go.

• How do you and/or your team currently work?

• What do your workflows, systems and tools do well and where do they fall short?

• What does your team struggle to do or achieve?

• Is your current system disjointed or streamlined?

It's important to ask tough questions like these as you evaluate your current tech set up and workflow and assess your team’s ability to adopt and integrate new solutions and tech into their work.

Ask yourself: What level of technological integration and what kind of user experience will best serve my team and growers?

Look for a solution that supports grower engagement and success

A solution that can strengthen grower relationships is critical for your success. Today’s growers want to work with agronomists and solutions that they can trust. They also want detailed plans built just for them. That sounds like a tall order if you have a lot of clients.Your crop planning solution should simplify your collaboration with growers and enable you to create detailed, personalized plans for multiple farms and fields. You want a solution that will help your business provide faster, more robust planning options for growers.

Make sure the solution you choose will enhance or enable:

• Plan creation efficiency

• Plan personalization

• Compliant recommendations

• Real-time updates

• Easy report sharing

• Clear communication with growers

• Transparency with growers

Ask yourself: How will this solution help me support, engage with and build trust with my growers over the long term?

Ensure you can use insights from this year to plan for next year

The best crop plans factor in critical data from current and past seasons. You'll want to find a tool that helps you capture and analyze data throughout the current season to refine strategies and make more informed decisions for the future.

In terms of the data you should be able to gather, look for a tool that helps you with:

• Crop scouting reports

• Soil sampling

• Yield monitoring

• Crop performance (which reveals what worked well and where adjustments are needed)

A solution that enables you to gather, centralize and analyze this data can help you set realistic goals, optimize inputs and improve your crop plans for next season.

Ask yourself: Does this solution provide the tools I need to capture and analyze seasonal data so I can optimize next year’s crop planning?

Evaluate potential partnerships – not just products

The solution you choose is critical to your success, but the partner behind that tool is just as important. Take a good look at the vendor behind the curtain. You’ll want a reliable, experienced partner that you can lean on and trust.

Look for a partner that has:

• Skin in the game (ongoing investment in, and enhancement of, their solution should be a priority for them)

• Happy customers

• Extensive industry experience and expertise

• Strong security and data protection

• Solid customer support and care

• Values that align with yours

Ask yourself: Does this provider have the expertise, resources, values and commitment to support my business as we grow?

Confirm compliance with local, state and organizational standards

Compliance is so important for growers, so look for solution features that enable you to make compliant recommendations, maintain accurate records and enable straightforward reporting to simplify audits and inspections.

Ask yourself: Does this solution help me manage compliance, reducing risk and ensuring adherence to regulations?

Assess usability

Your team shouldn’t waste time on tools with frustrating user experience and tedious processes. Look for a user-friendly solution with a straightforward interface, ensuring all of your team members can handle it day to day. Take it for a test drive if you can. You should make the time to assess the quality of training, customer support and the usability for the solution.

Ask yourself: Is this solution easy to learn how to use and work with? Will my team receive the support they need to maximize its potential?

Look for scalability and flexibility

Read more