How to Complete
Your Producer Guide

What Is the Smart Operations Planning Guide?

The Smart Operations Planning Guide is an online form that helps our team understand your operation before we recommend anything. Instead of a generic sales pitch, we start by learning about your specific challenges — where you lose time, where uncertainty costs you money, and where better visibility would change how you make decisions.

When you submit your completed guide, our Customer Success team receives a structured summary of your operation. We use it to build a proposal specific to your farm — not a one-size-fits-all package.

The Eight Sections

The guide is organized into eight sections. You can complete them in one sitting or spread the work across multiple sessions — your progress is saved automatically.

Starting the Guide

No login or account is required. Just open the link and begin. The guide works best on a desktop or laptop computer.

Cover Page — Your Operation Profile

Start by describing your operation. Fill in what you know — estimates are fine, and you can always go back before you submit.

• Farm or Operation Name
• Your name and role (owner, operator, manager, etc.)
• Address and nearest county or city
• Enterprise types — row crop, livestock, grain storage, irrigation, etc.
• Irrigated acres and irrigation method, if applicable
• Facility count — grain bins, barns, equipment shops, fuel sites, etc.
• Acres owned and leased — the guide calculates your total automatically
• Employee count — full-time, part-time, and H-2A seasonal workers

Navigating Between Sections

At the top of the page you will see a row of circles labeled C, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Click any circle to jump to that section. You can move freely — nothing locks, and you can go back and change answers at any time before you submit.

What to Expect in Each Section

Section 1 — What Areas Have Challenges?

Select every area of your operation that creates friction, uncertainty, or extra cost. There are 12 areas — from grain handling and irrigation to labor and data systems. Select all that apply. Your selections here filter what appears in Section 2.

Section 2 — Identify Your Specific Challenges

Based on your Section 1 selections, this section shows detailed challenge lists for each area. Check every challenge that happens on your operation — even occasionally. The more you identify, the more useful your summary will be.

Each area also has a Notes field. Use it to describe a specific incident — what happened, what it cost, how much time it took. For example: "Lost 8,000 bushels in 2023 when a bin fan failed during a heat event — cost us around $42,000." These specific stories are what allow us to build a proposal with real ROI numbers.

Section 3 — Prioritize Your Challenges

Rate each challenge as High, Medium, or Low priority. High means it is actively costing you time or money. Medium means it happens but you have workarounds. Low means it is worth addressing eventually but is not urgent.

Section 4 — What Does "Better" Look Like?

Select the outcomes that matter most to your operation — real-time alerts, remote monitoring, automated reporting, AI-assisted decisions. There is no commitment attached to your selections here.

Section 5 — Your Assets

List the physical assets on your operation that could benefit from connectivity and monitoring. Click each asset type, set the count, and add per-unit details (bin capacity, pivot acreage, herd size, etc.).

As you add assets, a panel on the right side of the screen estimates your connected device count and provides a real-time platform cost estimate. This is for reference — final pricing is determined during your proposal meeting.

Section 6 — Current Technology

Tell us what platforms and tools you already use — John Deere Operations Center, Climate FieldView, AGI BinManager, Valley BaseStation, Beck's Farm Server, and others. This helps us identify integration opportunities and existing gaps.

Section 7 — Your Ecosystem Roadmap

Think about how you would phase a deployment — what you would want to connect first, and what can wait. Phase 1 is your highest-priority starting point. Phases 2 and 3 are your growth path. This section does not commit you to anything — it helps us build a phased proposal that matches your pace.

Save Your Work and Come Back Later

Your progress is saved automatically to your browser as you go — every field you fill in, every checkbox you select, is captured without you doing anything. You do not have to complete the guide in one sitting.

How to Save and Get a Reminder Link

How to Return and Resume

When You Are Ready to Submit

Step 1 — Generate Your Summary

When you are satisfied with your responses, scroll to the bottom of Section 7 and click the gold Generate Emergent Summary button. This compiles everything into a formatted summary you can review on screen before sending.

If anything looks wrong, go back to any section using the navigation circles and make corrections — then generate the summary again.

Step 2 — Submit to Emergent

When the summary looks right, click the gold Send to Emergent button. Enter your email address and click Submit to Emergent.

What happens when you submit:

• Your completed summary is delivered instantly to the Emergent Customer Success team
• You receive a confirmation copy at the email address you provided
• An Emergent team member will contact you within one business day
• Your saved session is cleared from the browser — the guide is complete

Frequently Asked Questions