Harvest Automation & SBI Software Announce Partnership

Jennifer Zurko

Harvest Automation Inc., an innovator in mobile autonomous robots for agriculture, and SBI Software, a provider of ERP systems to the nursery and greenhouse industry, announced the formation of a partnership to connect Harvest Knowledge robot data systems with the SBI Grower ERP package to develop integrated production optimization tools.

In 2013, Harvest Automation introduced the revolutionary HV-100 plant-moving robots designed to perform a wide variety of the most demanding and critical plant handling tasks, such as spacing, consolidation and collection. In 2014, Harvest Automation will launch “Harvest Knowledge,” a cloud-based data collection system, which will allow robots to link the work that’s being performed to the fields and plants that they’re working with, and to report this information back to growers and production planners to provide a comprehensive view of the work the robots have completed. This process will allow growers and production planners to dramatically reduce human errors and time spent manually adjusting inventory in the field and their inventory management software.

SBI Software’s comprehensive ERP system is designed specifically for the hort industry, extending critical point of task functionalities from their back office program to the grower’s desktop, phone and tablet with their “Any Device Application Suite.”

This collaboration will create a seamless connection between Harvest Knowledge and SBI Grower. By linking these two systems, growers and production managers will have an unprecedented ability to plan work on their operation, getting the right work done, on-time, reducing re-work, eliminating waste and increasing profit margins.

“This partnership marks an historic convergence of mobile autonomous robots and big data for the agriculture industry,” said John Kawola, Harvest Automation CEO. “We’re delighted be working with SBI Software to bring these capabilities to our customers.” GT