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Grain Price Protection Service is an innovative
marketing and risk management service that provides a support system of education, strategies, and Internet
record-keeping designed to enable a grain elevator's local service providers to deliver individualized risk management
advice to their corn, milo, wheat and soybean producer/customers.
In today's agriculture industry, producers are faced with
increasingly complex marketing choices. That's why many producers seek the advice of local professionals who can offer
them the individualized marketing services they require. GPPS offers local agricultural service professionals
education, risk management tools and ongoing support needed to help their producers/customers make better marketing
decisions.
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The "Advisor" needed a Record Keeping System
to track customer positions and help customers manage their risk. The need to keep track of all the information and report it to the
parties' involved precipitates the need for an Internet driven system. Using this method, GPPS remains in control of all information
and updates, elevator advisors can track/support their customers' use of GPPS, and the local elevators know what is required to help
customers execute GPPS recommendations.
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Not Rocket Science developed the Record Keeping System using
Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) and Active Server Pages (ASP). The customer profile data and transaction records are stored
in a relational database. The application is hosted on a Windows NT 4.0 server.
Generation of reports was a major requirement of the system.
Keeping in mind the goal of creating user-friendly solutions the development group decided on a combination of Chili!Soft's Chili!Reports
and Seagate's Crystal Reports 7.
With Chili!Reports, end users receive the reports in the familiar,
powerful Excel spreadsheet format. Giving the user the freedom to work with the data in a familiar format reduced the number of reports
that the development group had to produce.
Seagate Crystal Reports 7 allowed the
development group to leverage existing reporting skills and knowledge. Crystal Reports also provides ActiveX and Java smart viewers that
are compatible with Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. One of the requirements of the system is to print contracts, mailing labels
and envelopes over the Internet which allows the development group to leverage existing reporting skills and knowledge. Crystal Reports
also provides ActiveX and Java smart viewers that are compatible with Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. One of the requirements of
the system is to print contracts, mailing labels and envelopes over the Internet.
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Outcome |
:: GPPS will remain in control of all information and updates |
:: GPPS's Elevator customer will be able to track/support his/her customer' use of GPPS |
:: Record keeping part of this business is SIMPLE and AUTOMATIC |
:: A database will be used for the "Advisor" to enter his customers' profile information |
:: An electronic contract template for the local elevator will be used when executing transactions |
:: Transactions are stored in a database |
:: Value of un-priced grain is marked to Market |
:: The producers can access their account information from home or office |
:: The proposed Record Keeping System will provide the efficiencies and simplicity needed to grow the business |
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