3 Ways Partnerships in Precision Agriculture Make Sense
The digital age has brought many partnerships in agriculture with new access to technology and tools. These strategic partnerships have become a daily discussion in precision agriculture, and for good reason. Partnerships are shaping a new model of business, moving from some of the “old” ways we did things in agriculture, to expanding “new” opportunities as agriculture changes and technology becomes integral into day-to-day operations. It can be difficult to do “everything” yourself as a company, and strategic partnerships open the segments to say, “Hey, you are good at X, and we are good at Y, let’s not reinvent the wheel and create an amazing alphabet of opportunity together.”
Partnerships can help bridge the gap of the holy grail of a complete and integrated management platform for all farm decisions, but also can help create efficiencies in day to day operations and decision making. These collaborations may be around connectivity, software collaboration and development, and product creation — all focusing on how to advance current paradigms into future usable solutions for customers and growers. Where can the value of a partnership in precision agriculture be? There are three key focus areas where partnerships make sense for organizations in precision agriculture in the digital age.
Expanded Portfolios
With a partnership, two or more organizations may enter into an agreement to collaborate on multiple options, including development, integration, and sharing. When organizations come together as true partners, each expands its portfolio to include multiple value propositions. Organizations in a partnership can benefit from opening their offerings to new and different customer segments, while bolstering together sales teams from both sides. New regions can be expanded into and value offerings can be created through product integration or collaboration between the partnered organizations.
Product Line Collaboration
When looking at products in precision ag and for digital ag, new products being created or integrated are very exciting when looking towards partnership models. Company A may be very good at analytics and reporting, where Company B is very good at sensors and hardware. Creating a partnership to report on in field sensors for decision making creates a strong product between the two companies, and also creates synergy for the products that were good on their own but become great with the teamwork and true partnership. These new products and integrations are all around us today in precision agriculture, and the move forward for new opportunities is a great opportunity in itself.
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Strengthen Industry Views
When companies partner, news spreads fast through connected social media and press releases moving through the internet. When organizations partner it shows the strength of commitment by organizations to offer new and unique services and products to customers that otherwise could be difficult to do alone or take extremely high amounts of capital and resources to create or build. Organizations who partner create a view of strength in the marketplace and send messages that they are committed to building new things or creating ease of use for customers.
Many benefits can come from partnerships in the digital age for precision agriculture, and it is critical to evaluate what makes these commitments successful.
What makes a successful partnership?
- Shared visions
- Organizations that have a shared vision for the future can collaborate freely and identify opportunities quickly without friction.
- Engagement at all levels
- Just because a partnership has been announced, doesn’t mean the ground work is over. Engagement must be evaluated at all levels of each organization to ensure tasks are not missed “through the gaps” of the fast pace of partnering. Engagement and buy-in are key for success.
- Identify and maintain goals
- Not only having high engagement is critical for partnering, but also being able to identify which goals are developed, whether for sales, product, or more for the future, these goals must be identified early in a relationship and maintained for success.
In the wave of digitization in agriculture, partnerships have enabled precision agriculture to make fast and impactful strides in creating a world of insightful decision making on farm, field, and acre data. Collaboration has and will continue to create a relationship ecosystem of advancement for agriculture in the years to come.
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