London, England - July 22, 2014 - F4F Agriculture, a global business dedicated to the farmer-centric digital supply chain, announces it has signed an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with SAP (NYSE: SAP) for the deployment of the SAP HANA® platform. This partnership is the culmination of F4F's experience gained over several years in working with data and interfaces to SAP® solutions. It is expected that F4F'sagricultural expertise and its global open integration platform complemented by SAP's significant agri-market presence will provide a compelling and unique opportunity for manufacturers, distributors and farmers to increase both productivity and profitability through precision-data analytics.
"Enabling farmers to send and receive permissioned data through the supply chain, in return for agronomic recommendations that exactly reflect their circumstances, is fundamental in overcoming the global challenges faced in achieving future crop production targets," said Nick Evans, CEO of F4F Agriculture. "Many global companies currently operating in the agricultural industry are looking to extend their connectivity throughout the supply network. This requires a coordinated and integrated approach to the collection and management of crop- production data. Field-management systems, weather and machinery data need to be accessible in order for suppliers to communicate agronomic best practices down the supply chain, including seed choices, crop nutrition and protection."
F4F operates globally and has spent the last decade delivering data-oriented business solutions to the agricultural and animal-health markets. F4F manages huge volumes of data for its trading partners, providing dedicated services that create valuable insights, gained by analysing everything from simple financial transactions to contracts, inventory, rebates, soil analysis, weight, quality, declarations and bench-marking.
"Much of this data is cleansed, appended, complemented and standardised before being processed by the connected systems, whether farm-based or from a distributor, processor, manufacturer or other connected devices," added Mr. Evans. "Farmers, as both customers and producers, will be at the centre of this new digital supply chain. As an SAP OEM partner, F4F's existing data services are being considerably enhanced to leverage the huge opportunities that it is expected that big agri-data will deliver."
Today, F4F works alongside many of the world's leading seed, crop-protection, fertiliser, grain and animal- health businesses providing innovative integration and connectivity solutions. Its experience and expertise with underlying business processes and the benefits of an open, neutral platform will help ensure the success of new supply-chain initiatives.
The agri-specific connectivity delivered through F4F's Cirrus integration framework and Interlok connectors allows web-enabled systems to be integrated easily into business-solution frameworks. This provides customers with a platform that allows them to work more productively and efficiently together. The in-memory computing capabilities of SAP HANA complement F4F's strategy to enhance its existing real-time data analytics and reporting services in agriculture.
"As SAP continues to innovate with its partners for customer success across various industries, we are pleased to announce this global OEM agreement with F4F Agriculture," said Frank Bunte, vice president, OEM Sales for the Middle and Eastern Europe (MEE) Region, SAP. "Today's announcement is an example of how the SAP HANA platform and our ecosystem of partners can provide a powerful combination for customers seeking to achieve business transformation. Through this partnership with F4F, we intend to increase the value and reach of our portfolio to benefit customers."
