AgFleet Introduction_Data Manager Module

Now that the 2009 #harvest season is behind us here in the United States, producers and #ag folks that support producers are feverishly planning for the upcoming 2010 season.

As every farmer knows full well, the 2010 season has basically begun, for some last summer! Field information is being tabulated and evaluated, yield history, crop rotation history, fertilization records, marketing information, financials, equipment performance, and overall farm information is, simultaneously, being "closed out" and "opened".

At ZedX we understand and appreciate the complex and inter-connected relationships that a farmer deals with day-in day-out. We strive to deliver value to the farmer first and foremost. All of us in the business of agriculture are successful when we help make the farmer successful. We take this mantra very seriously at ZedX and have leveraged this philosophy in the design of our products and services. There is a quantifiable value in our products and services that each participant in the agri-supply chain can benefit from.



In a series of posts, I will focus on our flagship product, AgFleet (www.agfleet.com). Agfleet has been in the marketplace since 1998 and has since grown to manage over 15 million acres throughout North America. It is a powerful decision-support system that was designed in consultation with growers, dealers, and consultants. It is the only fully web-based product of it's kind, and has been since it's inception. A web-based solution provides significant benefits to the user like:

• Common Communication Platform
• Anytime Anywhere Access
• Standardization of data throughout the process
• Real-time customer support
• NO CD/DVD upgrades
• Operation on multiple PC's without added cost and licenses

There are 10 distinct modules as shown in the diagram below

I will be writing a post on each distinct module over the coming weeks. This post will focus on the Data Manager module. It is the first module you will use and continually interface with throughout the growing season.

1.) Data Manager


"You can't manage what you don't measure." It may be an old management adage; however, it is more pertinent  than ever. The suite of AgFleet modules allows you to measure your key activities so you can better manage your business. The Data Manager module is the backbone of AgFleet. This is where the user can set up grower/user profiles, manage various classes of data associated with production agriculture; from imagery, yield, as-applied, soil, lab analysis, weather, pests, irrigation, and Veris, and create farm related maps and reports.

Data Manager is fully GIS enabled (as is all other modules that benefit from GIS). There is a 2 click up-load process to ingest your existing field boundaries. AgFleet also has NAIP background imagery pre-loaded to allow a user to locate specific fields and manually draw boundaries. This allows for the ultimate in flexibility.

Once in the boundary editor, you can then perform multiple actions to suit your specific needs. Do you have pivots? No problem, there is a tool for that. Are you split planting a field? Easy enough to accomplish with the split polygon tool. Need to scout the field? Just click the To PDA radio button. Want to evaluate a certain hybrid? Spilt the polygon and manage a "field" within a field. All of this, with an intuitive interface so you can spend more time farming and running your business, and less time behind a PC.


The following screenshot details the available tools within the Data Manager module:



As can be seen above, a user can perform multiple tasks as appropriate based on their business. You can export boundary files and upload and process yield, EC, and as-applied files. These uploaded files can then be utilized within the system to create zones and prescription/application files in multiple controller formats; from GSII to Raven to AgLeader. These tools were developed with the idea that efficiencies and ease of use will allow a grower to spend more time "growing" and less time working on the PC.

The ultimate output of the Data Manager module are reports, also called Products. 

The above screenshot details all the reports that are pre-loaded into the system. Each report comes with free customization to add your company information and logo.

As you get ready for the 2010 season, please take some time to review www.agfleet.com. Afterwards, please contact us at the below contact information.

We are providing free demo accounts with pre-loaded data in order to provide a "test-drive" of the service. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for further postings pertaining to each module. Next up will be the Zone Maker module.

Contact Information:

Nate Taylor

taylor@zedxinc.com

814-441-1867

When contacting us, please reference this posting to ensure we know where you found us as well as guarantee your free demo account access.