About Michigan Soybean Committee
The Michigan Soybean Committee has a long standing history of engaging local and international communities to promote soybean farmers in Michigan. The Michigan Soybean Committee (MSC) directs the soybean checkoff. The commodity checkoff was born of Public Act (P.A.) 232 in 1976. When a grower sells soybeans, the first purchaser collects .005 (1/2 of one percent) of the value of the soybeans sold. The assessments are then sent to MSC, which sends half of the dollars collected to the United Soybean Board.
Client
Michigan Soybean Committee (MSC)
The Challenge: Outdated Software Stalled Fund Oversight
When the Michigan Soybean Committee enlisted Switchbox, they’d hoped to replace or improve upon their intranet Project Management software tools, built in Drupal. The software not only sported a stale, unappealing interface that conveyed a poor image of MSC to its users, but it was also woefully insufficient from a reporting standpoint. The hope was that Switchbox could build a custom web portal with a fresh look and feel that would reduce the time needed by their project managers and project managers to oversee the distribution of MSC’s funds.
Another important consideration: Farmers need to be able to access the distribution of funds and the checkoff process in the middle of the field without Wi-Fi, hence the need for the project management portal.
The Solution: Custom Portal for Field-Ready Fund Management
As part of the Discovery process, Switchbox worked with the MSC team to evaluate their existing Drupal intranet system for both functionality and design. From this evaluation, Switchbox created a series of interactive wireframes to map out their vision for an updated system. In the end, a brand new web portal was proposed, using Ruby on Rails, responsive HTML, and a PostgreSQL database. Focuses of Switchbox’s solution included ease of collection and consolidation of data for many different user types with unique needs, including some who would be working in environments without high-speed internet.
The Outcome: Automation Drives Efficiency and Modernization
MSC’s fresh custom web portal allowed them to spend more time with vendors by reducing time necessary to complete administrative tasks. This was achieved by building automations and bulk actions into the software that made processes far more efficient. In addition, the clean and intuitive user interface was a welcome upgrade for users of all types and represented a step towards modernization for the MSC.
The Technology & Services That Went Into Creating Project Management Software
Intranet
Project Management Software
Custom Workflow Management
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