Raven Industries Inc. and SST Software Inc. announced that the companies would build on their strategic alliance, with Raven buying a minority ownership position in SST. Financial terms were not disclosed.

In July 2009, the companies announced a strategic alliance to provide customers with simple, more efficient ways to move and manage information in the precision agriculture market. These solutions include integration of SST's AgX Platform into Raven's Viper Pro and Envizio Pro field computers. SST's AgX Platform is a standardized data structure and reference database that enables efficient in-field record keeping and seamless communication between AgX-compliant software and devices.

"SST's software suite and database structure has proven itself in the marketplace and our approaches to the precision agriculture market complement and build on each other," said Raven President and CEO Ronald M. Moquist. "The use of Raven high speed modems and our field computers will help provide a real-time link to SST's powerful algorithms. We anticipate that the integration of the AgX Platform will add to both company's revenues."

"Raven is a partner that agrees with our mission — providing independent information management services to our ag service providers and their farmer-customers, as they manage field inputs for maximum efficiency," noted David Waits, SST president and CEO. "Raven's robust hardware offerings and ag business perspective will help us to achieve that goal."

Matt Burkhart, general manager of Applied Technology Division at Raven emphasized, "Our ownership position in SST demonstrates our mutual commitment to deepening this strategic alliance. The combination of the AgX platform with our field computers gives growers a platform they can depend on for the foreseeable future."

About SST Software

SST Software is a privately held agricultural software development and information services provider with customers in forty-two U.S. states, eight Canadian provinces, and twenty-two countries. With over 15 years of experience, SST is positioned as the industry leader in the development of site-specific technology infrastructure and applications, and is currently active in developing, processing and delivering user-defined information products to many of the largest and most progressive agricultural service providers in North America.