Do Agricultural Companies Really Need Dedicated IT Support?
Do agricultural companies really need dedicated IT support? This question is asked by both executives and Information Technology (IT) professionals. There are many reasons agriculture companies should not ignore IT, but there are even more reasons why agriculture companies need to invest in dedicated IT support. Generally, whether or not agriculture companies need IT support and dedicated IT support is largely based on the size of the company and how data-intensive agriculture operations are.
Agricultural companies need to be more thoughtful about investing in information technology services because not doing so can lead to declining productivity, damage agriculture production, and result in significant loss of revenues. The goal of agriculture companies should be to protect client’s data, enhance productivity, and increase revenue.
Information Technology Support
Information technology support is any department or person that provides assistance with computer-related problems. These problems can include hardware, software, networking issues, email issues, mobile phone issues (apps), etc. IT professionals offer agriculture companies assistance with their hardware (desktops, laptops, servers), software (operating system, antivirus, systems management), and networking hardware.
IT professionals also offer agriculture companies assistance with data security issues such as network forensics, database management, data backup/recovery procedures, etc. For agriculture companies that have staff members who work remotely or at home, IT professionals will assist agriculture companies with the implementation of virtual private networks, remote access solutions, etc.
Agriculture operations are data-intensive by nature. Since agriculture companies need to maintain detailed records of agriculture production information (seeds, chemicals used) and agriculture client information (customer lists), agriculture companies should have a team that focuses on security practices because even losing 1 agriculture client’s data can significantly impact agriculture revenue.
Dedicated IT Support
When agriculture companies think of Information Technology and dedicated IT support, agriculture executives should consider issues such as:
- Do agriculture sales professionals need to manage their own equipment (laptop/mobile) or does an IT professional provide this service?
- How often agriculture sales professionals need a dedicated IT support person in agriculture field?
- Do agriculture companies have software or hardware issues in agriculture field offices?
- What procedures do agriculture companies have when agriculture equipment breaks down in the middle of agriculture production?
- Do agriculture executives have remote access to email, files, meetings, etc.?
In summary, dedicated IT support is a good investment for agriculture companies that:
- need IT support daily or weekly
- have agriculture field offices with agriculture equipment (i.e. laptops, printers)
- experience problems with agriculture equipment at agriculture field office locations
- need to protect client’s data and/or manage client data security issues (network forensics, database management, etc.).
Do agriculture companies need dedicated IT support? The answer is yes, agriculture companies who are serious about agriculture production and agriculture client data protection need to have a team that focuses on Information Technology. Investing in information technology services decreases the chance of agriculture company suffering significant productivity loss, revenue loss, and damage to agriculture production.
Start by thinking about agriculture sales professionals who need to access agriculture client data while they are not in agriculture office.
- Do agriculture companies have employees that work remotely? Do agriculture executives work remotely?
- Can agriculture company access their public cloud services (i.e. Dropbox) or virtual private networks (VPN) when they do not have an internet connection?
- Do agriculture companies have agriculture field office locations?
- Does agriculture company have agriculture equipment at agriculture field office locations (i.e. a laptop or a printer)?
If agriculture company needs dedicated IT support, the next step is to determine how often agriculture sales professionals access their remote IT support person and how agriculture companies can provide quality data security measures.
In agriculture industry, agriculture operations are data-intensive which means that agriculture company’s success is tied to agriculture client relationships, agriculture production records, and also agriculture data protection.
Investing in agriculture IT support has proven to be an excellent investment for companies in the industry because it helps increase productivity, decrease revenue loss due to agriculture equipment failure, and decrease the chance of agriculture company suffering agriculture data loss (i.e. agriculture client relationship loss, agriculture production loss).
It is important that agriculture companies understand the current and projected agriculture business goals to determine if Dedicated IT support can help agriculture company achieve its goal or not. If the answer is yes, then agriculture companies should invest in Information Technology services to help agriculture company accomplish their goals.
