USA
March 3, 2011
Source: AgGateway
by Wendy Smith, COO/Executive Vice President
I know it's hard to believe, but AGIIS will be eight years old this August! Initially created to integrate three previously separate databases (the Allied Directory, the North American Purchaser Directory and the Product Directory), AGIIS went into production in August of 2003. Since that time, there have been a lot of changes - AgGateway was created in November 2005, and we've grown from five to eight councils and from the original ten founding members to the 127 members we have today. AGIIS has changed as well as we implemented enhancements to better meet the needs of subscribers, eConnectivity implementation efforts and various industry segments.
However, with the challenges and increasing complexity facing agriculture, and the addition of new Ag industry segments such as Ag Retail, Ornamental Horticulture and Precision AG and others considering participation, we need to continue to improve AGIIS to meet both current subscriber needs and those yet to come, We want to make sure that AGIIS continues to offer value today and into the future, providing subscribers with the unique identifiers and other elements needed to implement eBusiness across the Agricultural Industry.
With that in mind, the Directory Oversight Committee (DOC) has or will initiate the following task forces in 2011:
AGIIS Duplicate (Entities) Task Force (ADTF) started January 2011. This team is focused on establishing AGIIS as the industry benchmark for accurate and trusted information by defining a solution which eliminates existing duplicate entities and prevents the creation of new duplicate entities in AGIIS. They will present their recommendations to the DOC at the 2011 Committees, Councils, and Projects Meeting in Minneapolis in June.
Entity Rules Task Force will kickoff April 4-5 , 2011. The objective of this task force is to review the rules that apply to entities and create a “straw man” of proposed entity rules. The proposed AGIIS entity rules will support the needs for entity identification in eBusiness for all councils. This group will coordinate with the ADTF and will present their recommendations to the DOC at the Annual AgGateway Conference in November 2011.
Product Task Force will hold their Kick Off meeting April 6-7. The objective of this group is to focus on reviewing the current rules, processes, and applications of product related aspects of AGIIS and creating a recommended path forward that will reduce barriers and increase use and value to AGW members and subscribers. This group will also consider the needs of all segments and will coordinate with the Seed Council AGIIS Task Force (focused on products) and with new Ornamental Horticulture Council Adapting AGIIS to Horticulture – Unique Product Definition, Product Trackable Attributes Task Force. This group will also present their recommendations to the DOC at the Annual AgGateway Conference in November 2011.
AGIIS 2.0 Task Force will be initiated no later than July 2011 and will focus on assessing the current and future needs of members versus current AGIIS capabilities/functionality and recommending a path forward to ensure AGIIS provides subscribers value today and in the future. They will take the perspective of “If we were creating AGIIS today, what would it look like.”
More detailed information about each task force and task force updates will be provided in upcoming newsletters. Additional information about the AGIIS Duplicates Task Force is included in a separate article within this newsletter.
In addition, we are creating a webpage on the AgGateway website where information about each task force, as well as meeting notes and work product, will be available to all AgGateway members. If you interested in participating on one of these task forces, please contact Wendy Smith at wendy.smith@aggateway.org.
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