SeedQuest Forum - Roundtable interview

A company’s sales initiatives are only as strong as their supply chain. Ensuring that your supply chain is linked at every possible point is critical. The emergence of the Internet and subsequently, e-Business solutions over the past 10 years, has enabled companies to interact with buyers and sellers like never before. For years, other industries have reaped the benefits of electronic commerce between trading partners. Finally, the agriculture industry is starting to realize the same benefits. Information technology allows companies to transact business with buyers and suppliers in a way that helps them achieve greater operational efficiency and effectiveness.

From a business perspective, Agriculture is an industry experiencing shrinking profit margins at all levels of manufacturing and distribution. Global economic and competitive pressures have resulted in significant changes in the numbers of businesses and farms, and how they do business. Additionally, consumers who are concerned with food safety are continually scrutinizing the production of food and its many inputs. These factors have resulted in consolidations within the industry and in a search for improved efficiency and cost reductions. Many companies are lowering their costs and improving efficiency by utilizing electronic and automated technologies and practices to perform repetitive business tasks between trading partners.

What specific solutions does your company offer?

RAPID, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization that enables agricultural businesses to achieve the economic benefits of e-Business. As such, we have experienced first hand how information technology can help agriculture companies, including those in the seed industry, become more successful.

We have developed the agricultural industry’s first e-business database called the Agriculture Industry Identification System (AGIIS). AGIIS provides a technologically advanced platform containing reliable, accurate and easily accessible industry data, which allows member companies to more effectively communicate their e-Business transactions. AGIIS significantly improves members’ effectiveness within the industry’s complex supply chain by providing unique identifiers and descriptive information for buyers, suppliers and products that are critical to e-Business success. AGIIS stores all of this information in a standard electronic format that is readily accessible to subscribers via the Internet. The AGIIS relational database provides secure access to a common set of identifiers for Trading Partners, Customers, Locations and Products.

RAPID actively enables agri-business to achieve the economic and stewardship benefits of electronic business. RAPID develops and maintains the quality of commonly supported standards, procedures and databases. RAPID also facilitates effective and efficient implementation of electronic business among its members.

For more information about RAPID, Inc., please visit www.rapidnet.org

May 2004