The Outcome
Square V met with members of Summit Fertilizers' Agronomy team to understand the entire fertiliser sales process - from soil testing to results interpretation to contracting - and to understand how the current software was not meeting the needs of Summit staff when making recommendations to customers.
The initial project was named "inSITE", and aimed to replace the existing software for viewing and interpreting results and creating reports for customers, and also to provide some "wow factor" by allowing the display of analysed results on a map. Summit's existing software included a complex custom agronomic model, which needed to be rewritten and updated, and it was also important to carryover data from the old system to the new system to ensure test history was not lost.
This project was successfully launched in 2018 and has grown over time to include many new features including things like NDVI overlay, paddock boundaries, new reports, customer management and support for multiple farms as well as integration to existing customer and product management systems.
A follow-up project specifically focused on streamlining the internal process of soil test results return within Summit Fertilizers. Square V analysed the existing process which included many manual steps requiring human intervention, slowing the process down substantially. The process was streamlined and automated, removing manual steps by directly connecting systems together and automating tasks such as notifications and emails - this freed up staff to spend less time "fighting fires" and more time focusing on the other more interesting parts of their jobs.
Following the success of the inSITE platform, Square V was also engaged to create Summit's new customer-facing portal SummitConnect, which allows Summit Fertilizers customers to view their current orders, previous collections and loading dockets, tax invoices and statements and inSITE soil and plant test results through an easy-to-use web portal. Square V has also built the Online Ordering system for customers of Summit Fertilizers' sister company Whitfert, which allows customers to order 1t bulka bags of fertiliser directly online including taking payments and booking pick-up appointments.
The software built for Summit Fertilizers connects to a number of different existing systems including:
- Direct connection to Apal Agricultural Laboratory for return of soil and plant test results
- Connection to existing internal systems for customer and product management and appointment setting
- Connection to DataFarming to directly overlay NDVI data over the existing customer results maps
- Connection to payment systems to take payment for Online Ordering platform
The inSITE and SummitConnect platforms are now best-in-class, eclipsing the online offerings of Summit Fertilizers' competitors and others in the industry. Customers have indicated that they find the platform intuitive and easy to use.
