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“Lindsey, why haven’t we done this yet?”
After a long car ride from the Minneapolis airport to Bushel’s office in Fargo with Bushel’s CEO Jake Joraanstad, Jimmy Roppolo asks Lindsey Bowers why they have not yet switched over to Bushel Trade.
“Some of those things are like ripping off the band-aid, right? You have been doing something for so many years, for so long that you’re just scared of the change. And it’s not necessarily that what you currently have is great or fabulous, it’s just what you’re used to and you don’t know whether the next thing’s gonna be better,” Bowers explained.
The United Ag team decided to take the plunge, but they didn’t change everything at once. In addition to Bushel Mobile, United Ag was implementing a new Bushel website and transitioned to digitally managing market feeds, courtesy of Bushel Trade. With some strategic change management or deliberate ‘stair stepping’, Bowers smartly led her internal team and her growers through the transition to a new experience.
United Ag Transition plan
[Persona] enters their cash bids in the trade offering, which then flows seamlessly into their app and website.
Today – United Ag is manually managing offers that they get from farmers into the tool.
In the future – United Ag plans to turn on grower-submitted offers right from their app.
“It just works. The connectivity between our ERP and Bushel, and then us and our growers—it’s a very fluid system that just works. But I will say, it is like ripping the band-aid off in the beginning because change can be scary,” said Bowers.
Because United Ag enabled offers in their Mobile App, their growers can see the offers anytime, which brings enhanced communication between their originators and growers.
“And that also reminds the producer that, hey, I did put that offer in. It is still working. I can’t go sell those bushels to somebody else. Or I need to pull that because I just sold something to somebody else.”
For Bowers, the added communication can show her what’s going on with each producer at any time. Other Bushel customers have greater transparency and reduced risk when using grower-submitted offers.
The Trade system enters the offers automatically, reducing slippage, error points, and lost orders. Visibility to offer history means less risk for the grain team and greater convenience for their customers. Bushel Trade™ customers, with mobile offer entry enabled, see 36% of offers submitted through their app.
“Once you get set up and you see what you want to see, then it’s just moving forward,” added Bowers.
Bushel is grateful to folks like Jimmy and Lindsey at United Ag. Are you ready to see how you can take a vacation and still receive offers from your growers? Let’s chat today.