Editor’s note: This is the third of a series on questions growers should ask before investing in new ag tech. Because fresh produce is a high-value segment of agriculture, there are a lot of options available to spend money on, but asking the right questions before a purchase can save time, money and headache.
OK, you’ve decided on a general genre of new tech that might improve things on your operation. You might even be looking at specific items, systems, services or suppliers. Maybe you’ve even made contact with a seller and are considering something specific. But there are some general questions you should ask about it first.
No. 1: Ask all the detail questions for the future
This is a bit of a cheat because it’s actually a bunch of questions. Still, it helps to think about the nitty-gritty, small-print details that can impact the beginning (and potential end) of your relationship with items of ag tech and the companies that make them before investing.
These questions might include:
- Does the company have a customer success team? Ongoing training for its products?
- For physical tech, what is the warranty? What voids that warranty?
- For apps or programs, what is the subscription model? What’s included in this subscription versus that subscription? What happens if I end my subscription?
- For anything that generates data, who owns that data? Do I have access to it? Who else has access to it?
Charlie Anderson, CEO of autonomous robot company Burro AI, recommends growers look for companies that have customer success teams, i.e. dedicated people whose job it is to make sure their company’s tech works for you and is meeting your needs. It’s especially important they get into the field with clients, he adds.
“If [they’re] not on site, it’s really hard to know what’s actually going on,” he says, pointing to his own company’s emphasis on having Spanish-speaking customer support teams that work directly with grower’s on-the-ground crews.
Steve Mantle — CEO and founder of Innov8.ag, a data-and-AI-focused tech consulting group that works with permanent crop produce growers — says growers should ask a lot of nuanced detail questions for any piece of ag tech that involves data or uses a subscription model. By their very nature, subscription-based services are likely to be transient, so keep the likely end of that relationship in mind with your questions before you ever sign up.
“If I stop subscribing, can I pull the data out?” he gives as an example. “A critical piece that often growers don’t ask is: What does that look like in terms of pulling the data out? Is it actually usable to me in the future?”
Mantle points out there are many different data formats out there, and they aren’t all created equal when it comes to usability. How human-readable is it? How machine-readable is it? Asking questions about data format beforehand could prevent a situation where a company technically turns your data over to you, but functionally leaves you with something unusuable.
No. 2: What happens when something goes wrong?
Along a similar mindset, it’s important to ask questions about what happens when something fails. This again can involve a number of questions growers should ask their supplier before investing:
- Are you (or your service technicians) local?
- What kind of repair or maintenance services do you offer?
- What are the usual maintenance costs and needs of this item?
- How user-friendly is fixing this thing if I need to do it myself?
Dan Ovadya — co-founder and CEO of FloraGen Tech, an ag tech innovation company for the controlled environment agriculture industry — stresses how important it is to ask questions about replacement parts for anything you’re investing in.
“Let’s say you’re going to invest in a very high-end fertigation system,” he offers as an example. “We’re talking water treatment, multiple injectors, a lot of different stock tanks and sensor equipment to monitor pH and EC. And when that stuff breaks in a controlled environment hydroponic system, you have less than 24 hours to correct that problem.”
“If you call up a Dutch company and they’re like, ‘well, it’s a holiday now and we’re out of the office, and we’ll get into you in three weeks,’ no — your crop’s going to be dead by then,” he says.
But even outside the realm of CEA, the question of parts availability can even be something as simple as what sizing system is involved.
“You even start getting into metric system versus U.S. units for things like irrigation,” Ovadya says. “If something breaks and you’re in metric system, you’re not going to [be able to] run down to the hardware store and fix that.”
No. 3: How will this work with what I already have?
Unless you are in the unique positions of either starting a produce operation from scratch or completely revamping your entire operation, you already have tech systems.
Roy Levinson, commercial lead for digital farming and water meters at Netafim North America, stresses that the right new ag tech investment will complement a grower’s existing systems and infrastructure, not clash with it. So, making sure any new tech items will “play nice” with the old is a must.
Speaking from the perspective of irrigation management systems like Netafim provides, he says: “The right system should integrate with your current valves, flow meters and sensors, so you can phase in your tech at the pace you prefer. Technology that builds on your operation’s strengths will serve your operations now and in the long run as it evolves.”
Also speaking from a service perspective of ag tech, Mark Lukenbill — commercial leader at MileMaker, a trucking-focused software solutions arm of Rand McNally — stresses the need to make sure any program or data system you select can grow with you and your operation. For example, if you don’t already have a cloud-based strategy, does the supplier have an on-premises service now with the ability to go to the cloud later?
“That’s something that everybody’s going to have to do at some point,” he says.
He recommends some other questions along a similar line, including:
- Can the app or program be configured to the needs of my business?
- Will I have to change how I do things to use this program/service?
- Will the provider continue to release new features that are going to help my operation keep improving?
“There’s going to be a level where it plateaus,” Lukenbill says of new systems. “I’m going to see savings in that first year, maybe even the second year, but then what about year three through 10?”
No. 4: Will this make me stand out from my competition?
Or, phrased another way: How will this help my relationship with my clients?
Speaking from the world of trucking and logistics, Lukenbill says every single day companies that need to move produce get calls saying, ‘Hey, I can do it better. I can do it cheaper. I can give you better service. Give me a shot.’
“So, what’s going to make you stand out?” he asks. “Is it going to create a competitive advantage with your client? Are there benefits for your client?”
He recommends those looking to invest in new ag tech think about how a potential investment can help their relationship with their clients. He also suggests they think about how they can use that investment in conversations with clients, something like ‘Hey, we’re implementing this new technology, and here’s how it’s going to help me serve you better.”
No. 5: Why am I thinking of investing in THIS new tech?
Chris Higgins — general manager of Hort Americas, a components and materials supplier for CEA growers — says when he was trained in sales, he was taught to focus on why a prospective client wanted to buy something.
“Do they want to buy something because they like to be the leaders in tech?” he asks. “Are they techies? Do they want to buy something because they’ve witnessed their four other neighbors buy it? Do they have a true problem that they need to solve?”
All of these different reasons are justifiable, he adds. But it helps to know what your individual motivations are for any given piece of new ag tech before you purchase or subscribe.
“The right solutions for tech for each company vary. I don’t think there’s one path to success in this, and we’re all comfortable making investments for different reasons,” he says. “So, my closing comment is: Really do it for what’s important to you.”
Catch the rest of the Tech Questions series here:
