Finding IT Resources in Rural America – How Agriculture Co-ops are Adjusting
Rural areas across the United States are facing a reduction in population as younger generations are steadily leaving for metropolitan centers. This reduction in the rural workforce comes at a large cost to co-ops and ag retailers who need to update and automate systems, but don’t have the ability to hire skilled IT professionals to manage servers, hardware, and infrastructure. Additionally, with cyber-attacks and data breaches becoming more common and more costly, co-ops have a greater need than ever to find a better way to store and protect their data.
In recent years, this issue IT resources for the agriculture industry has come to the forefront and co-ops are making strides in solving their need for IT knowledge and resources through technology.
With cloud-based software solutions, like Levridge and Dynamics 365, co-ops and ag retailers now have the ability to centralize IT resources from rural locations where skillsets are difficult to find and turn their attention to employees that can focus on the day-to-day operations of managing the site and meeting grower expectations.
In the case of using a platform like Microsoft Dynamics 365, when data and applications are stored in the cloud, Microsoft assumes responsibility for managing and maintaining all infrastructure. This eliminates the need for co-ops to purchase, maintain, and support servers at each elevator location. Additionally, Microsoft is responsible for all security monitoring, threat management, intrusion detection, and penetration testing.
With a 99.9% guaranteed uptime, users are able to access their data and systems anywhere, at any time. Even in areas of the country with a large pool of IT professionals, there’s no comparison to the knowledge, support, and resources that Microsoft can provide.
Outside of the benefits provided by the cloud and elimination of on-site hardware, there’s even more value in the ability to streamline your business processes and become more efficient with Levridge. Currently, most ag retailers rely heavily on written documentation and manual entry of data into multiple disparate and siloed software systems. Processing data in this manner means hours, days or even weeks of time, Managers struggle to gain insights into trends, inventory levels, or other actionable data in real-time.
With Levridge and Dynamics 365, information flows seamlessly and efficiently between departments – no matter if your employees are in the field or in the back office. This gives all users insights into real-time data with no lag time.
Increasing efficiency from the field to office to warehouse gives retailers the ability to restructure their teams and do more with available resources. If you’re struggling to manage IT systems scattered throughout the countryside, reach out to our team to learn more about the cutting-edge Levridge agriculture software solution and how you can benefit.
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