Agriculture is driven by weather and commodity prices – two things far beyond anyone’s control. To succeed, you must be able to survive these unpredictable factors. The problem with $8/bu corn was everyone’s recommendations looked good. It was almost too easy. Now that we’re in a down cycle, it has become survival of the fittest.
So, how does AgTech survive? Whether your company is expanding its services with AgTech, or it’s the core of your business, there are three key survival principles important to keep in mind.
Differentiation
Customers need to quickly and easily understand how your offering is different from the competition. For Geosys, it comes down to our technology – we have a virtual constellation of multiple earth observation satellites paired with a proprietary processing system that allows us to compare data across sources, time and space.
But we’ve also invested in creating differentiated solutions for our customers. A company can differentiate its offering in a few ways, but a customized solution is often an effective one. We work with customers in a variety of ways to tailor a solution that is best for their business.
Scalability
Differentiation loses its value if you can’t scale for growth. All too often companies try to do everything in-house to save money. However, companies need to identify their strengths and weaknesses to best determine where partnering is a more efficient strategy than building something from the ground up.
The right partner can – and should – be able to help your business in multiple ways. From expanding to new geographies to entering new industry segments, the right partner can help your business grow quickly and cost effectively.
SOYL has been a customer of Geosys since 2005 and has taken advantage of various types of customization. Initially, SOYL decided to invest in light customization of our Farmsat® mapping application under its SOYLsense brand and we have partnered with their agronomists to deliver variable rate nitrogen maps in the United Kingdom. As they look to expand their MySOYL digital platform, they worked with us to build a more advanced solution through our Geosys Bridge®API.
Simon Parrington, Commercial Director for SOYL comments, “Geosys has been a long-standing partner and provides unique expertise in the field of imagery acquisition and bulk processing. They have been able to support our growth into many countries and their technology runs seamlessly behind the scenes to support parts of our platform.”
As SOYL has expanded its footprint outside of the United Kingdom, Geosys has helped them move into new markets with our imagery capabilities that span the globe.
“We take great joy in watching our customers grow and expand their digital platforms,” says Matthieu Hyrien, Vice President of Sales for Geosys. “Which is why we’ve always had a strong focus on scalability. It’s not only critical to the growth of our business but to that of our customers.”
Flexibility
The ability to scale is key but you must also have a platform with enough flexibility to meet the ever-changing needs of the industry and continuous advancements in technology.
Our virtual constellation with both private and public satellite sources allows us to adjust the delivered flow of data to meet the local needs of our customers. From daily, low-resolution acquisitions that are global and systematic to medium resolution acquisitions that are local and tasked, Geosys can tailor a program adapted to your business needs.
And our proprietary processing system gives us the flexibility to obtain data from new sources as they become available. So, as new satellite systems launch – such as the EarthDaily constellation – Geosys is ready to immediately process and deliver the data to our customers.
Managing this scale and flexibility in-house would require a significant investment – not to mention the time required to create such a system.
Through differentiation, scalability and flexibility, we see companies growing their AgTech businesses across the globe. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us or visit Our Technology page.
