DULUTH, Ga. — AGCO, a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment and infrastructure, is proud to announce a recent highlight in the Harvard Business Review for the company’s work in developing smart farm equipment and solutions. In their article, How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Competition, Michael Porter and James Heppelmann define smart, connected products as having three core elements: physical components, smart components, and connectivity. The authors cited AGCO as a company combining these elements to offer new capabilities and benefits that result in additional value for the customer.

Through AGCO’s available technologies, customers can effectively monitor their fleet, giving them an additional level of support and access to important information that helps to optimize product performance and machine efficiency.

The article goes on to say that companies like AGCO are “intentionally seeking to broaden and redefine” the industry by offering these types of solutions (Porter, M. E. and Heppelmann, J. E. (2014). How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition. Harvard Business Review, 13-14, 18). AGCO has achieved this through a core technology offering, AgCommand, an industry leading telemetry system designed for fleet and asset management that enables increased machine performance, productivity and profitability. AgCommand is part of a suite of products included in Fuse Technologies, AGCO’s next generation approach to precision agriculture and precision machine management, enabling insights into the efficiency, performance and logistics of the entire farm operation and enabling key service offerings to ensure machine uptime.

The authors remarked that companies like AGCO look to “connect not only farm machinery,” but other critical elements of the farm value chain, and how this approach can “optimize overall farm performance” (Porter, M. E. and Heppelmann, J. E. (2014). How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition. Harvard Business Review, 13-14, 18). AGCO accomplishes this with an approach that connects the entire crop cycle from enterprise planning to planting, crop care, harvesting and grain storage. This open approach to precision farming and precision machine management also benefits AGCO customers by developing key partnerships allowing them maximum flexibility in their choices of machinery, farm management and agronomy software, and service providers.

“AGCO is honored to be highlighted by the Harvard Business Review,” said Matt Rushing, VP, Global Advanced Technology Solutions (ATS) Product Line. “We continue to look for and incorporate new technologies that will revolutionize farming while redefining the industry.”

For more information about AGCO’s precision farming offering, visit http://www.AGCOtechnologies.com.