Overview

pSyngenta, a leading global agriculture company, manages agricultural research and product development in more than 90 countries, helping farmers increase crop production as they strive to feed a rapidly expanding global population and find arable land for growing food. Syngenta develops seeds, agricultural products, and services, while improving biodiversity and sustainability, in order to achieve its mission of bringing plant potential to life. Syngenta chose Smartsheet to support their mission: to help safely feed the world while taking care of the planet. Smartsheet is a leading cloud-based platform for work execution, enabling teams and organizations to plan, capture, manage, automate, and report on work at scale, resulting in more efficient processes and better business outcomes./p

Supernova Award Category

Data to Decisions

The Problem

pSyngenta’s problem is a global one; they need to help produce more food in the next 50 years than has been produced in the last 10,000. Before Smartsheet, Syngenta’s approach to their work was siloed with disjointed, manual processes, and antiquated tools and repositories. The result: A lack of real-time visibility into data, muddled communication for their global workforce, and loss of productivity and efficiency./p pIn the midst of pursuing sustainable food production and improving crop yields, Syngenta has also needed to adapt along with their industry into digital agriculture. This shift required digital technologies to advance all phases of farming — from seed development to monitoring weather to communicating with farmers./p pAs part of this transition, Syngenta needed to effectively and efficiently communicate and share data between research labs, testing farms, product manufacturing and distribution facilities, and corporate headquarters to ensure fast and accurate decision-making. Analysts at Syngenta’s U.S. headquarters needed faster access to experimental data from labs around the world. At test farms and research facilities, safety inspection and reporting were cumbersome, paper-based processes that delayed the cleanup and repair of potentially dangerous conditions. Syngenta’s processes were fractured and inefficient.The company realized it needed to find a tool to help them improve their processes and make better decisions faster./p

The Solution

pSyngenta chose Smartsheet as their work execution platform to streamline projects and processes. With more than 300 licensed users and thousands of collaborators, Smartsheet empowers employees across the company to spend more time focusing on their most important challenge: growing crops to feed the world./p pSmartsheet is a crucial tool for Syngenta’s transition to digital agriculture, providing real-time visibility into their crop production, streamlined collaboration across global teams, and greater agility in their workstreams. Syngenta can complete safety observations on time, efficiently present data and key findings to leadership, and proact on trends, rather than react. Syngenta uses Smartsheet for real-time reporting of research data and images, safety concerns, and project performance and status. Research and field teams use mobile devices to share information, leading to faster issue resolutions and timely decisions about the next stages of agricultural experiments./p

The results

pPrior to adopting Smartsheet, Syngenta utilized tools and repositories that were slow and unorganized. For example, Syngenta used to keep file repositories to connect specific data with pictures of the plants over days or weeks. This was a very slow and manual process. For safety observations, Syngenta routed paper checklists to the appropriate safety teams, which could delay fixing issues that could cause injuries or environmental damage.  Syngenta did not have a way to simplify data and present key findings to their leadership team in a visual way./p pUsers now upload photos and research data together, directly from a mobile device, so analysts have instant access to information from around the world. Syngenta conducts hundreds of safety observations monthly. Smartsheet has eliminated delays through digitized checklists available in real time on desktops and mobile devices. Now, they assign a QR code for each of their sites. When employees are out in the field and see an unsafe condition, they can use their phone to take a picture and submit it immediately and alert the correct safety team through automated repair requests through Smartsheet forms. Syngenta uses Smartsheet dashboards to aggregate and analyze information from multiple locations, showing at a glance if there are performance peaks or problems at a particular worksite. This gives leaders a holistic view of the company’s performance and insight into where to direct more resources or training./p

Metrics

pSyngenta is still quantifying the impact of their work, but they are already seeing vast improvements in the way their work gets done. Syngenta manages agricultural research and product development in more than 90 countries, and Smartsheet has been able to increase transparency and communication from field research teams all the way to executive leadership./p pTo date, Syngenta has also recorded and fixed hundreds of safety hazards globally using Smartsheet. At one site alone, Syngenta had 103 safety observations in three months — whereas the year prior they only had ten. All of this was made possible by Smartsheet. The ability to proact on safety hazards has continued to help create a safe environment for its employees. /p pSyngenta also saves weeks using Smartsheet to organize workplace training programs. Without Smartsheet, Syngenta would have relied on a third-party vendor enrollment program which would result in hefty licensing fees. Once Syngenta understood the power of Smartsheet and how easy it is to use, the way they approached problems completely changed — and Syngenta is solving real-world problems with real impacts such as climate change, loss of land for farmers, and more./p

The Technology

pSmartsheet; specifically reporting, dashboards, forms, mobile application. Dashboards help to accelerate collaboration and provide project owners, stakeholders, and leadership a real-time view into the status of KPIs, accurate data, trends, and summary reports. Smartsheet forms help teams collect data from anyone on any device, and save error-free data in a structured format, including attachments. With Smartsheet mobile, workers get real-time access to view and update data, wherever they are./p

Disruptive Factor

pSyngenta seeks to disrupt the agriculture industry. The global population is increasing by 200,000 people each day. By 2050, our population will reach more than 9 billion people, adding 2-billion-plus people over the next 30 years. Syngenta aims to produce crops to feed our growing population. They support this initiative by managing research and the development of seeds, agricultural products, and services, while improving biodiversity and sustainability./p pThe company’s Good Growth Plan — the agriculture industry’s most ambitious sustainability initiative encompassing six measurable commitments by 2020 – takes into account the need for environmental sustainability, biodiversity, safety, and support for small farms, among others. Using technology, such as one of the world’s most advanced plant growing facilities and newer technologies such as genome editing (i.e., CRISPR), Syngenta is dedicated to collaborating, sharing data, and co-creating with farmers wherever they are located./p pSmartsheet helps Syngenta achieve more: Imagine having all notes, comments, photos, files, and information in a centralized location accessible across any browser, device, and operating system. Smartsheet allows team members to work and collaborate with anyone on entire projects through the secure sharing of information on any device. The result is real-time collaboration that streamlines communication, empowers teams, and drives efficiencies./p

Shining Moment

pWith Smartsheet, Syngenta now has transparency within the organization and is now able to share and see information about seeds and crops in ways they never envisioned. People are working in real time on three continents; they could never have done that before. Syngenta also uses Smartsheet to organize training programs. In a few hours, managers can set up an enrollment site with a registration form, automated alerts for manager approval, notifications, and a roster that updates in real time./p