In Afimilk, we like to make every year a record year, and to expand the envelop of our sales, products, and operations. Yet, in 2021 we are in a tipping point of some unusual endeavors that may make it even more special.
Dealers are our partners, and inseparable cornerstone in our business model. However, Afimilk has also a place in the connection to the end-user: ensure their proper training, help more of them upgrade to new systems, and above all – know them.
Few years ago, we have started a shift from older technologies (Afifarm 3, Afifarm 4, and Afilite/Afilite milk meters) to our current standard – Afifarm 5 and MPC.
In the next years, we will accompany thousands of farms upgrading their old computers and in many cases their milk meters. This is going to be a challenging operation to us and to our dealers. The biggest challenge: getting through it while keeping the customers happy.
However, with the challenge comes a huge opportunity to deliver enhanced value to thousands of farms, renew their connection to Afimilk and open the door to further sales.
Whereas in the past we aimed our training programs to be conducted through the dealers, we now shift to execute full on-boarding program with every new sale, in most of the countries. This is a major shift in the role of the application support staff.
To enhance how we manage relations with customers, we will enhance our infrastructure. A CRM system will help build a powerful database that is the “single source of truth” about customers – their business history, service integration, and assets (Afimilk equipment) installed. We expect this to become the major system that all customer facing people will use – sales and support.
Afimilk is one of the top players in selling smart automation solutions to farms – cow sensors, smart parlors, and herd management software as a high quality and well-integrated solution. Yet, one segment of the market remained out of our reach – broadly distributed simple “standalone” systems (independent of parlor automation).
Two elements made it difficult for us: suitable distribution, and suitable product. 2020 marked a breakthrough in both: On the product side we believe AfiCollar-based system is the right product, and as for distribution – we have signed the first 2 agreement with major players (one in USA and one New Zeeland).
For a few years we are working to prepare ourselves to a major cloud launch. We launched a few mobile apps, monitored, and learn the use patterns. We have connected and uploaded more and more data from 2,000 farms. We started to build tools that help us monitor and diagnose software and hardware problems remotely.
Afi.Cloud 1.0 package will be fully launch in 2021 (in fact, tens of beta customers are already ‘kicking the tiers’ of the first 3 applications); but this is just the beginning: in R&D we shift more and more software resources towards cloud tools, AI, and data analysis.
I’ve no doubt 2021 will be super challenging, and super exciting for us all.
Stay healthy, and very happy new year to you and your dears,
Oren
