SKY First and Customer Needs Drive Product Roadmap

SSI's VP of Product Management, Lynda Pemberton, leads the team responsible for designing and monitoring the company's visionary roadmap. The roadmap serves as a guide for all new developments and enhancements of existing technology, with a focus on customer-driven solutions for Agvance and Energy Force. According to Pemberton, "100% of what we have on our roadmap comes from our customers."

Customer-Driven Tech Enhancements

“Before an idea even hits our roadmap, when we are still in the thought stage, we're going to our subject matter experts, or they are bringing ideas to us. Nothing gets onto the roadmap that hasn't already been discussed with both subject matter experts and with customers,” says Pemberton. Subject matter experts come from a variety of roles at SSI, such as customer support, implementation teams, development, sales, and more. With backgrounds in agriculture, accounting, and technology they have often walked in the customer’s shoes and regularly talk with customers, fully understanding their needs.

A big challenge for the team is prioritizing the timeline, given the many creative ideas and possibilities from customers and subject matter experts. Pemberton explains that “the biggest thing we need from both our team and the customer is to tell us the ‘why.’ Tell us the problem and let us help you figure out how we can solve it. We have a talented team of problem solvers, and the process of finding a solution leads to positively impacting other customers with similar interests.”

What’s Next on the Roadmap

Agvance and Energy Force customers can look forward to exciting developments on the roadmap, with a focus on SKY. According to Pemberton, “Our main goal is doing things in SKY first. We are not stopping our development of the existing Windows application, but we're moving forward. Customers can expect to see new ideas, new functionality, and changes, enhancements, or customizations shared in SKY first.”

A benefit of this approach for Agvance and Energy Force customers is that customers receive more value and see quicker changes with a focus on the web application because programming does not happen twice in both Windows and the web. According to Pemberton, “although our Windows version is a very strong platform, it's built on Windows functionality. It's wonderful and it's full of so many valuable characteristics, but it also has some limitations. By utilizing SKY, we will remove those limitations and catapult forward with improved efficiency.”

Conference Session

To learn more about the roadmap, don’t miss the Product Roadmap session at this year’s SSI customer conference! Lynda Pemberton will present the SKY Unite 24 Product Roadmap general session on the second full day of the conference. Pemberton will discuss significant additions and innovations to help customers enhance their business operations. Learn about the ever-evolving online product roadmap and future development plans for Agvance and Energy Force. Pemberton says attendees will leave understanding that “the roadmap is how we are moving our SKY web application to a great place! SKY is or will soon be valuable to as many roles in our customer companies as possible and people in these roles can gain efficiencies by utilizing the most current functionality.”

Regarding SKY Unite 24, Pemberton says, “We’ve included something for everyone”. Conference attendees come from ag retailers and cooperatives that use Agvance or Energy Force in varied roles and levels of responsibility, as well as companies using the Agvance API. Attendees will learn about tools that enable better management of transactions and communication with customers for growing businesses.

As the conference approaches, Pemberton describes the anticipation. “The excitement is just unreal, in my opinion, leading up to the conference. It’s what I would call a teeter-totter between big excitement, looking forward to seeing our customers, showing them what we’ve got, and then, we want to get this done because people want to see it!” Preparations for the 2024 conference began almost as soon as the 2022 conference concluded. Numerous exciting enhancements are ready to be shared.

The SSI customer conference, SKY Unite 24 will be September 9-11th in Indianapolis. Registration is open! Learn more and register at www.skyunite24.net.