A new app from Openfield now allows users to view their Insight account from their smartphone. Charlotte Cunningham reports.
A brand-new app from Openfield has been been launched, providing access to “grower favourites” from Openfield’s farmer portal, Insight including contracts, loading schedules, Track My Truck, futures prices, a handy chat function and the seed selector tool.
Accessible on a tablet or smartphone farmers can view three years’ worth of account details, including movement periods, contract prices and tonnage.
The loading schedule brings up a smart way to view all planned collections, including variety, tonnage, timing and haulage contact details. “This ensures all the information needed is available for each and every collection helping farmers to plan their time much more effectively,” says Michael Goodyear, head of IT at Openfield.
Quick and efficient
The Track My Truck tool allows farmers to anticipate when a lorry, using Openfield’s tracking tool, is on its way to the farm, he adds. “This feature allows growers to set email or text alerts, informing them exactly how far away a collection is from their farm. This means that farmers can pinpoint where the driver is and ensure everything is ready to make the collection as quick and efficient as possible.”
As well as this, growers can access the London wheat futures and send chat messages so the Openfield team can react quickly to any questions or information that’s required by the farmer.
Another tool included within the app is Openfield’s seed selector. “This enables farmers to select seed varieties by answering a few quick questions. The easy to use functionality reduces the stress of the seed selection process and helps farmers to identify varieties that meet their specific needs, says the firm,” says Michael.
You can also now ask ask Alexa to access a number of the new App’s features. Alexa, the voice-recognition tool that works through Amazon Echo devices, is now happy to tell farmers how the wheat futures are doing, what their Openfield Crop Fund value is and how their loading schedule is looking. There’s also a way to listen to any chat messages which have been received.
“We’re already working on some enhancements, including price alerts and a new fertiliser selector tool which will be added very soon.”
The Openfield App is now available to download from App Store or Google Play by searching for “Openfield Insight”. The Alexa skill can be accessed by downloading the Alexa App.
