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Agriculture serves as the primary source of various food crops. Any supply chain delays can cause price hikes in global commodity markets. Agribusinesses are crucial in avoiding these gaps, and they must ensure maximum efficiency for their front- and back-office functions.
Business process outsourcing (BPO) helps address challenges in the agriculture industry. Service providers employ highly trained and skilled professionals capable of completing non-core tasks more efficiently. These workers are proficient in using advanced technologies to guarantee smooth operations.
How does outsourcing support agribusinesses? Keep reading to learn more about BPO’s role in this sector.
Ways BPO Improves Supply Chain in the Agriculture Industry
As the global demand for agricultural products constantly increases, agribusinesses must also optimize their supply chains to keep up. They must ensure high-quality products without spending too much on their non-core functions and infrastructure.
Recent statistics from Allied Market Research show that the global agriculture supply chain management market will expand to $954 million by 2032 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1%. The necessity for enhanced supply chain visibility and management solutions drives this growth. However, the high cost of handling such systems is expected to impede the sector’s continued expansion.
This is what BPO providers mainly resolve. They provide trained and skilled manpower at affordable prices. They combine expertise with modern solutions and strategies to deliver the following services for streamlined supply chain management:
Optimizing Internet of Things (IoT) Technology
Using advanced technology, specifically IoT, in farming is BPO’s top contribution. Because the need for agricultural products is growing very fast, agribusinesses must ensure uninterrupted supply chain operations. They experience the following issues when disruptions occur:
- Decreased crop harvests
- Degraded quality
- Volatile prices
- Financial losses
- Worsened food insecurity
- Reduced export opportunities
- Misallocated resources
- Environmental impacts
Agribusinesses tap BPO providers to avoid and resolve these problems. Service vendors optimize IoT to advance farming operations. This network of sensors, systems, and cloud solutions enables seamless data collection and sharing.
Providers then use the gathered information to guide clients in making informed decisions on planting, irrigation, crop quality sustainment, and logistics. To further illustrate, here is how BPO companies leverage IoT in the agriculture industry:
- Use sensor-equipped drones to survey farm fields.
- Gather information on crop conditions, such as health status and soil moisture levels.
- Transmit the data to a core cloud-based platform for analysis and visualization.
- Generate insights to predict crop yields, schedule fertilization, and optimize irrigation.
- Deploy autonomous vehicles to transport goods and equipment around the farm.
- Share harvest schedules and crop stock levels with distributors via mobile apps.
Simplify Crop Inventory Monitoring
Service vendors simplify crop inventory monitoring using artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Specifically, they leverage inventory tracking software to monitor crop quantities, conditions, and shelf life. These platforms also help monitor the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals to maintain crop quality and safety.
Furthermore, BPO companies utilize predictive analytics and remote sensing tools to forecast crop harvests. These technologies quickly identify potential risks, such as pest infestations and adverse weather conditions. The resulting insights assist agribusinesses and farmers in planning their inventory levels more accurately.
Enhance Traceability and Quality Control
Service providers help agribusinesses enhance traceability and quality control. Third-party teams optimize AI and blockchain technologies to make this function possible. AI supports model crop storage processes, accelerates logistics, and plans delivery routes.
Integrating machine learning (ML) and IoT with AI leads to robust quality monitoring systems for agricultural products. Meanwhile, strategic outsourcing vendors use blockchain to assist clients in making demand and transaction decisions.
Blockchain tech enables transparent data exchange within an agribusiness network. It helps combat fraud and counterfeiting, ensuring food safety and value redistribution in the agricultural supply chain.
Improve Precision Farming
Deploying IoT, AI, and BPO solutions improves precision farming in the agriculture industry. Service providers use these technologies to deliver data-driven insights to optimize agricultural practices and enhance crop production. They also utilize these systems to accomplish the following:
- Identify soil conditions, weather patterns, and crop health.
- Plan irrigation, fertilization, and pest control.
- Determine whether crops are facing stress, disease, or nutrient deficiencies.
- Recommend strategies for seed spacing, depth, and timing.
- Implement variable rate application techniques to save resources and enhance products.
- Create yield maps for future planting and management.
- Deliver user-friendly dashboards for farm data visualization and reporting.
Provide Cost-effective Contact Center Access
The agriculture industry requires highly trained agents to provide contact center access; BPO companies fulfill that need at affordable fixed fees. Service vendors use cloud-based, omnichannel solutions to let farmers and agribusinesses communicate seamlessly using their preferred communication channels.
Third-party professionals are trained and updated with the latest farming technologies. Hence, they can respond to technical issues surrounding these platforms. BPO agents also possess sound knowledge of crops. These insights guide them in answering inquiries regarding crop growth, harvesting time, and related supply chain challenges.
Streamline Product Sales and Distribution
The rising adoption of automation technologies lets BPO organizations streamline product sales and distribution in the agriculture industry. They deploy AI and ML-based platforms to automate sales processes such as order management, sales forecasting, and lead tracking.
Such technologies also allow providers to help agribusinesses optimize their inventory and shipment routes. This capability enhances the flow of agricultural products from farm to market, ensuring timely deliveries and increased profits.
Ensure Agricultural Data Security
Ensuring agricultural data security is one of the many advantages of working with BPO vendors. In a new risk analysis, the University of Cambridge warned that AI use in agriculture poses potential risks for farms and food security. The institution noted that hackers, such as drones and robotic harvesters, could exploit vulnerabilities in agricultural hardware.
BPO companies take several measures to safeguard sensitive agricultural data while using AI-powered technologies. They implement regular security updates to address known system flaws immediately. Encryption and multi-factor authentication are also part of their strategies for strengthening data protection.
The Bottom Line
BPO companies implement various approaches to help enhance the agriculture sector’s supply chain. They leverage IoT, AI, and automation tools to boost agricultural processes, from crop inventory management to farm data security.
Moreover, support vendors deploy skilled agents to deliver seamless contact center support. Empowered with advanced technologies, these third-party professionals also contribute to the accelerated sales and distribution of agricultural products.
Let’s connect if your agribusiness needs a reliable BPO partner to meet your daily supply chain requirements. Unity Communications has cost-effective labor and infrastructure resources to help streamline your contact center and logistics necessities.
