Don't switch off the cloud: Agworld

In response to Farm Weekly article (Network drop-outs keep clients hanging, May 12, 2016), Mr Foley said there were ways around dealing with slow connectivity or poor coverage.

"As the National Broadband Network is rolled out and the Sky Muster satellite is introduced poor internet coverage is not an indefinite problem," he said.

"While it is frustrating for clients such as Graham Laslett, there are ways that growers can continue to use cloud-based software."

Mr Foley said Agworld had been designed with offline and online capacity to ensure growers could still record data offline in the paddock before syncing at home, where there is better internet.

Growers could access the product library offline if they loaded product labels of information locally on their devices to review in the paddock.

"Not having good internet in the paddock doesn't mean you can't use these tools - it's about learning how you make them work on your farm," he said.

Mr Foley said while internet connectivity was a hot topic for people in regional Australia, another significant barrier was older farmers' willingness to adopt the software.

He said agricultural colleges were using cloud-based software in their curriculum, forming an integral part of education for future farmers.

"For the next generation of farmers, this software will be all they know, rather than manual recording of information," he said.

"We find older farmers are willing to adopt the technology but need to be guided by their agronomist to ensure they get the most out of it."

Mr Foley said integration with farm machinery was the next step for Agworld.

He said integration would save time in recording data but also add value to a grower's business.

"Pushing information from one system to another seamlessly allows growers to access data in one central location and gives farmers insights into where they can boost productivity and profitability," Mr Foley said.