EFC Systems Company Feature
It’s a primary principle of logic: provide evidence. So, it made sense that EFC Systems back up their data safety and security practices by becoming Ag Data Transparent (ADT) Certified.
“EFC has always had a strong data management philosophy and we believe being ADT certified provides for an easy, credible way for us to be transparent with our values surrounding data management,” explains Ernie Chappell, Founder and President. “Being a member of ADT is another example of our commitment to support the ag industry and to build trust with our customers, the American consumer, and governmental, regulatory, and other industry groups that are concerned with how their data is managed.”
Ernie began his career as an accountant, became interested in software programming and founded EFC Systems in 1988. Shortly after starting the company, Ernie released Vanguard Ag, an ERP system for distributors. 2004 saw the release of Merchant Ag, an ERP system for ag retailers and service providers. In 2015 and 2017, EFC acquired spatial enabled precision platforms, combined them with added functionality and released FieldAlytics, an industry leading agronomy platform utilized at over 2,000 retail locations in the USA and Canada. Today, EFC Systems’ primary offerings are Merchant Ag and FieldAlytics. These offerings are integrated with each other, and customers can choose to use either or both offerings. EFC Systems’ solutions are used in over 3,000 locations in the United States and Canada and its precision platform has over 25M actively managed acres, touching over 30,000 growers.
According to EFC Systems, the ADT Certification process was a simple way of making their intentions clear. “The [certification] process is well-managed and was what we expected. We started with a full review internally of our policies and the documentation surrounding them. From there, the submission, review and accreditation were completed in a professional, timely manner,” says Steve Dietze, SVP of Business Development. “The process was a valuable exercise to verify that our customer facing policies and agreements are in line with the beliefs of our organization.”
While ADT Certification has proved to be useful evidence of EFC Systems’ data safety and security practices, it has also allowed them peace of mind when working with other ag data companies. Ernie summarizes EFC’s mission, “We strive to be the ‘Swiss Bank’ of data. We intend to facilitate the free and open movement of data with any company our customers choose to do business with today or in the future”.
EFC Systems has only recently become ADT Certified. That being said, they are excited to reap the benefits of providing this evidence of their responsible data management to others.