Confirm Use Case and identify additional Use Cases

Josh Wall covered in attached presentation

The group discussed creating a central place to load distributor cross references. This solution would provide a central place for retailers to obtain identifiers needed for electronic messages (i.e. reporting, inventory, ordering, invoicing and etc.). Another benefit of the solution would be a consistent format. There were several questions asked about what fields would be available in the format the following fields were mentioned; Manufacture product code, Distributor product code, UOM, Product Name, Product Description EPA Number.  The consensus of the group is this would need to be defined during a follow-up requirements call if it was decided to move forward with this solution. Josh stated that it would not be the intention of AgGateway staff for the cross reference table enhancement to become AGIIS Product Directory replacement. The group agreed with this statement and felt that this enhancement should be a stepping stone to GTIN adoption and implementation.  Matt Garcia followed-up with the cross reference table should bridge the gap for the Crop Protection segment to adopting GTIN and eventually utilizing AGIIS.  Matt also stated maybe we should have a separate Meet Up focusing on the unique challenges Crop Protection has in adopting and implementing GTIN's and look to develop an action plan on over coming those challenges.  Kelly with GS1 offered additional training from her organization if needed.  A question was asked is the GTIN the appropriate identifier for the Ag Industry or should AgGateway be looking at a different identifier for products. It was mentioned that the GTIN was working great in the Seed industry and meeting needs. It was also mentioned that an end goal for Crop Protection is barcoding and the GTIN is a perfect identifier for bar coding solutions.  A question was asked how the GTIN was being used in the  Channel Integrity Project where the focus was to use Block Chain technology.  Josh did not know the answer to that question but would follow-up with Jim Wilson and Brent Kemp to find out the answer. 

It was also brought up if the Product Catalog Resource could help ease the pinch point Ag Retailers were experiencing with product identification.  Josh stated he was not sure but would be glad to reach out to the Product Catalog team to see if there would be benefit.  Josh also stated that one of the challenges that prevents/delays manufactures to load  products in AGIIS Directory is being able to pull the required information from multiple systems.  This could be a challenge with the Product Catalog API's as well. Also, the product catalog is a fairly new concept and there maybe a limited number of manufactures that currently participate but it is an option worth exploring.

Josh polled the 3 Distributors on the  call (Rosen's, Winfield United and Growmark) to see if they were willing to participate in future discussions around loading distributor product cross references in a central location. All 3 indicated they were willing to participate. Member Services will reach out to additional distributors to gauge interest and willingness to participate in the next call.