Data Analytics: Helping The Ag Supply Chain
December 10, 2015 In today’s highly competitive ag market, having an in-depth analysis of their company information can give agricultural retailers valuable insights for maximizing the performance and success of their operation.
Data management experts say advanced analytics provide a better understanding of customer sales trends, marketing effectiveness, and other key insights that can promote improved growth and profitability.
“Agribusiness input companies often overlook or don’t have time to extract the value from data in their own operations and from business partners,” said, Huong Dishian, founder and data analytics expert at St. Louis-based HD Precision Analytics (HDPA). “Precision analytics can help retailers as well as other companies in the ag supply chain get maximum value for their business processes and set themselves apart from the competition.”
One of HDPA’s clients, GROWMARK, has utilized data analytics for several years to better monitor sales frequently as well as accurately forecast year-end sales for its seed division. “With this information, we can measure how we are performing against historical trends and current-year goals,” explained Mark Thornsbrough, Seed Division Manager at GROWMARK. “This provides GROWMARK and our Member Cooperatives a better understanding of seed order pace compared to seed goals through the late summer and fall seed booking season. This enables us to make marketing decisions as we make a final sales push in December towards hitting our targeted goals.”
Mark Thornsbrough, GROWMARK
Thornsbrough said he believes providing detailed sales data to GROWMARK agricultural cooperatives has helped make them more competitive and has been an important component of the system’s seed growth. The information needed to make timely adjustments, he added, is especially important in the seed business because of its seasonal nature.
“Our mantra is to make it easy for our cooperatives by giving them good, solid tools,” Thornsbrough said. “When we can provide them with good information, they have the ability to make corrections to their business. Working with HDPA has provided our member cooperatives with sales administration tools that are professional and timely, with data that is easy to analyze.”
Other Benefits
Besides supporting sales and forecasting plans, Dishian noted that further dissecting company data offers other advantages such as altering business strategies to align with current trend. One of the top trends is that farmers are expected to see a decline in their net income for the second consecutive year. According to a recent USDA forecast, farmers’ 2015 net cash income is forecasted to fall 21% and net farm income drop by 36%.
She said agribusiness input companies of any size can benefit from applying analytics to their business decisions in such areas as:
- Building targeted sales plans.
- Increasing accuracy with forecasting supply needs.
- Further refining opportunity with existing customers.
- Targeting marketing initiatives.
- Monitoring and measuring marketing effectiveness.
In addition, as the ag tech and data sector is booming, the need to delve into the large amount of information being collected is crucial to farming productivity and performance. Producers looking to purchase inputs want to make informed decisions and ensure return on investment. The ag input retailer, supplier, and distributor community can understand and assimilate their data to help farmers make the right purchase decisions for their operations.
“As technology evolves, the ability to collect and manage data will only continue to expand,” said Dishian. “It is imperative that businesses in the industry explore and shape the data they have for actionable and measurable business decisions. Timing is everything in the ag industry; to be successful you need the right information at the right time.”
For more information, visit hdprecisionanalytics.com.
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