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The Argentine countryside continues to be one of the most important productive forces in the country. Despite the fact that today the sector is going through various challenges that range from climate to tax, companies continue to bet on working in the country and, especially, fighting from innovation.

It is that technology already plays a key role in the future of agricultural businesses and today it is one of the tools that producers have to combat challenges -such as the climate- and continue adding value to their industry. The field is no stranger to the digital transformation that almost all companies are going through in all areas. One of the companies that has been betting the most in recent years is the Los Grobo group.

The company specializes in services for agro-industrial food production and export. Last year, according to El Cronista, it was the agricultural company with the best image in the country. To continue strengthening its position, the company has initiated a digital transformation plan that represents a total investment of US$14 million since the project was launched in 2018.

Grupo Los Grobo has been working together with the company Paradigma Sociedad de Soluciones since 2018 in the company's digital maturity process under the name "Los Grobo 4.0". The company's investment seeks to improve four interconnected aspects: a strengthening of the brand; to enhance the innovative aspects of the company, a change in the relationship with the client where there will be more options from the digital, a change in the corporate mindset to incorporate technology into business management (such as business dashboards, performance reports, data culture driven, etc).

"Agriculture has always had technological implementation in the laboratories, in the field, in how the seeds and crops are treated, in the collection, but what is the back office was relegated. There was a decision to make that change in the commercial and support areas , systems, was transversal to the company", explains Rafael Rizzo, Systems Manager at Los Grobo. "A technological change was needed in the bases, in the infrastructure, that's why we incorporated cloud and hybrid data storage. Connectivity was given to remote places, and we began to put together the roadmap with this new infrastructure," adds Rizzo.

From Paradigma, they give an account of how this process began. "It was a foundational job to put the ERP and carry out the digital maturity analysis, that was during 2020. Los Grobo was always innovative in specific business issues and everything that has to do with planting. But it was necessary to understand how it was in the rest of the company, having a strong interest in how the organization and the culture were in terms of digital", comments Carolina Paz Tormo, director of Paradigma.

Forced change?

From the company they consider that although innovation was never absent in the agricultural world, focusing on processes and business is a little more innovative. "The aim was to have a differential with respect to the competition in the market. We were in the average. That was the trigger that we saw to start thinking about what we wanted to do with our clients. We put them in the center and developed from there," he says Rizzo.

But the transformation was not optional. The corporate structure itself pushed for a digital transformation. At Los Grobo they estimate that almost 50% of their population are digital natives who already come to the company with technological skills and who choose where to work based on the challenges and innovation offered by the company. "You have to think about the agricultural business in the next 5 years and prepare the company, both within the company and with the next clients," acknowledges Rizzo.

The change was palpable in several indicators: the company reduced the use of paper printers by 30%, the electronic signature was implemented, which resulted in a reduction in the time from one month for contract signing to 3 or 4 days, over that an automation component is added that, for example, helps the company know when a contract is about to expire. Today, the company even uses artificial intelligence to streamline processes. For example, today the invoices that arrive from your suppliers are analyzed by artificial intelligence to identify which purchase order they belong to and are automatically posted in the ERP. In the same vein, the company is working with chatbots for Systems help desks.

Even when hiring people, technology is being used, which the company considers catapulted them to be listed on the Great Places to Work list. → cronista.com

Automatic translation from spanish.