What is a grain ERP?

The technology sector is just like the grains industry - full of acronyms! You’ve probably heard of ERP, in all likelihood you have used or implemented one. If you are an AgriDigital user you have definitely used an ERP - or Enterprise Resource Planning system.

Operating an agri-supply chain business of any type, whether trader, storage operator, processor, logistics provider or farmer involves a complex set of multi-functional operations across inventory management, customer relationships, finance and accounting, human resources and more. Traditional ERPs are software solutions that aim to integrate these various business functions into one (hopefully) user-friendly system.

A traditional grain ERP is a centralised way of managing all the grain related aspects of your business in one software application. This is exactly what we we set out to do at AgriDigital: replacing manual often paper-based processes and workflows with one digital platform, where all your grain data is only a click away.

The advantages of this approach are clear:

• standardising and streamlining workflows
• reduced costs of operation whilst limiting risk for error and fraud
• knocking down data silos and creating a single source of truth
• better decision-making thanks to greater visibility over key grain data and business functions in real-time
• simplifying employee onboarding and training.
• meeting ongoing and changing regulatory requirements.

Many newcomers to grain ERPs choose to make the change because their businesses are growing and becoming more complex than can be safely managed via manual processes or myriad excel sheets. Others make the shift due to the increasing cost of maintaining and to continuing to develop their own customised software solutions, opting for subscription-based ERPs that are under continuous development with new product features being released regularly by a team of engineers, user experience designers and product managers who are not on their payroll (these are know as SaaS solutions - software as a service).

In the early days of AgriDigital we made a deliberate choice to focus on being a digital grain ERP. This meant that we chose not to develop capabilities in other sectors accounting or customer relationship management. We knew there were already a number of excellent accounting platforms and that if we replicated accounting functionality in the AgriDigital Platform this would be a the expense of our focus on building the very best grain ERP we could for our customers. Similarly for CRM (Customer Relationship Management), we know that automating customer interactions and driving business growth through customer insights is crucial, but it is a whole field of its own with multiple existing solutions.

Our views on this have not changed, but what is changing is the role of the grain ERP. Agri supply chains were not early adopters of digital technologies but over the past decade and especially the last five years we have seen a massive shift in uptake. As part of this maturity and continuing adoption the role of the grain ERP is also changing.

There are three fundamental shifts underway:

1. Connected platforms - Grain ERPs are shifting from standalone software applications only used by a company’s employees to platforms that connect a company and its employees with their customers and suppliers so they can collaborate and do business together faster and with less friction.
2. Growing tech stacks - there really is no such thing as a stop shop in technology, business is just too complicated and competitive advantage comes from differentiation and implementing new technologies like Business Intelligence tools or Artificial Intelligence.
3. Integrations with third party software, hardware and shared data - most companies want to integrate their internal systems with external systems, hardware and machinery (usually driven by third party proprietary software, think weighbridges or John Deere harvesters) and this means creating, shifting, aggregating and extracting data across the lot.

Grain ERPs continue to evolve to meet the challenges of the business requirements of their users and well as the dynamic opportunities presented by continuous technological development.

The concept of a single grain ERP is fast being replaced by smart platforms that continue to focus on core grain supply chain functions as part of a wider set of technologies that bring additional value beyond grain management, or meet user needs via integrations or data that can be synchronised or shared across systems much more efficiently.

At AgriDigital we aim to be the source of truth for grain for our customers. We do not try to be the ‘management accounting’ source of truth or the ‘occupational health and safety’ source of truth although data may be shared across all these systems. For grain businesses thinking about adopting or upgrading their grain ERP it is time to start thinking about all your business management systems and how they work together.

Contact us at hello@agridigital.io if you would like to discuss your grain ERP needs or for a free session to map out your current technology stack.