The Scoop Podcast: Fundamentals of Technology and Keys to Implementation
Dave Swain draws on his experience from application equipment, ag retail and technology roles with his consulting business: Vision Technology Management. On the podcast, he shares where the gaps are in the industry, and the way he advocates for ag retailers and farmers to get the most from their technology.
Swain says he started Vision Technology Management in April of 2022 because he saw gaps in technology.
“The industry probably hasn't done the best job with technology because there's been so much oversold under delivered in the marketplace,” he says. “I don't think it's always been the issue with the sales companies or the products.”
Instead Swain encourages ag retailers, farmers and any users of technology in agriculture to set their expectations and then institute measures of accountability.
“I was one of those customers. I was one of those that made these mistakes of not truly making the best use of the product and implementing it as a part of the business,” he says.
As such he outlines the four types of expectations:
- Unknown
- Known
- Realistic
- Unrealistic
“Too many times a customer–whether because of the salesman or because they just have an expectation of what's going to happen–they have an unknown unrealistic expectation of a product or a service,” he says.
As a productive approach, he encourages clients to:
• Evaluate what you want the tech to do
• Understand what the product is capable of
• Make sure there’s a match up between the business and the action plan
• Be brutally honest in the process
• Access how the adoption is going
• Make adjustments
