Case Study
Grain is the Strong Suit

Northern Partners Cooperative has been using Greenstone’s agribusiness software programs since it was formed in March 2009 from the merger of four independent coops.

Northern Partners has 11 locations in north-central Illinois and 1,440 members.

Brian Barnickel, who has served as information systems director at the coop since January 2017, says the merged entity adopted Greenstone’s software programs because of its strength in providing grain origination software. “Grain is their strong suit,” Barnickel says of Greenstone, which is part of Cultura Technologies. Cultura is owned by Constellation Software, Inc., an international vertical market software organization.

Barnickel notes that all the coop’s financial data from its grain, agronomy, fertilizer, seed warehouse and treatment, and energy operations are integrated into Greenstone’s AGRIS enterprise resource planning platform, which provides solutions to operational and financial challenges faced by the coop for its grain contracting, ticket capture, position tracking, and financials.

Grain Operations

Greenstone’s grain program assists with the coop’s grain merchandising, originations, and all the contracts of customers who do business with the coop. That information is shared with Greenstone’s oneWeigh scale automation system. For example, the moisture testing information derived from incoming grain flows directly into oneWeigh, Barnickel states.

As individual customers deliver grain, their accounts are integrated into AGRIS for contracts and settlements, he adds.

Greenstone’s MyGrower program ensures that, as soon as customers deliver grain and leave the scale, all the information from the delivery is available through a secure mobile app or web portal.

Greenstone’s eSign program allows customers to sign contracts electronically, which are stored on AGRIS for accounting purposes. The electronically signed contracts and other features are integrated with all of Greenstone platforms.

Greenstone’s AttachToo feature is an electronic document storage system that saves and stores all customer contracts on Northern Partners’ servers, which are backed up automatically. “It lets everybody sleep better at night,” Barnickel says.

Customer service is done on a personal basis at Greenstone. “I know all their people on a first-name business,” he says, “and their core people have been there a long time. They reach out to me regularly and want to know what needs to be updated or enhanced. They listen to us and make those changes.”

Jerry Perkins, contributing editor

From July/August 2022 Grain Journal Issue

Cooperative

Northern Partners Cooperative

Mendota, IL • 815-539-6772

northernpartners.net

Troy Terzick, CEO

Alan Zehr, CFO

Founded: March 1, 2009

Storage capacity: 10.626 million bushels

Annual volume: 16.5 million bushels

Annual revenues: $147,500,000

Number of employees: 59

Crops handled: Corn and soybeans

Number of members: 1,440

Software Vendor

800-366-2474 • greenstonesystems.com

David Figueroa, Sales Manager

Mike Terning, Product Line Manager

Grain accounting software: AGRIS business management system and MyGrower online customer account access portal and mobile application.

Scale automation software: oneWeigh platform/bulk scale automation systems and binSight automated bin management system.

Operating systems: Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019.

Software features: AGRIS product suite features comprehensive functionality for complete management and reporting, with mobile applications to support grain merchandisers and originators, sales people, and warehouse workers, and numerous integrations to other operational systems.