Press Release / February 21, 2002

Company Brings Value of e-Learning To Agriculture

Ag Technologies International is First e-Learning Company to Focus on Food Production Segment

Imagine the cost savings of turning a three-day classroom meeting into a single day with participants who complete online coursework prior to their attendance. Imagine training that results in better retention. Imagine attending a seminar taught by a biotechnology industry expert in Indiana, without leaving Nebraska. Imagine the need that will exist in agriculture this year - and in five years for additional certifications and training. That imagination is reality for Ag Technologies International (ATI), the first e-Learning and digital technologies company exclusively focused on food production and agriculture.

Founded in 2000, ATI is both showcasing the effectiveness of e-Learning and its need in an environment dominated by industry consolidation, a reduction in the geographic density of farmers, as well as the increased need for training due to regulation and management information.

As an industry, agriculture is at a point in time where information is as critical as the inputs. The question is how do you most effectively transfer that knowledge, says John Ahlberg, president and co-founder of Ag Technologies International. "e-Learning will change how food production businesses educate and transfer knowledge."

Aside from the logistical advantages gained from moving training online, its true success may be in its results. Ahlberg says training participants in an e-Learning environment, as opposed to traditional instructor-led training, are learning more, learning faster and retaining more. A research survey by WR Hembrecht & Co. shows that e-Learning results in a 60 percent faster learning curve and increases information retention rates by 25-60 percent over traditional instructor-led training.

While Ahlberg says e-Learning is not intended to replace face-to-face training, it will be more important as requirements grow for additional training. "Increased regulations and requirements for training are on the rise," says Ahlberg. "For companies searching for solutions that cut costs without cutting productivity, e-Learning is the answer."

In fact in a study by the University of Guelph, senior levels executives at 25 major agricultural companies in the U.S. and Canada say the largest obstacle they face in training employees is the time required to remove people from the workplace. Others cite costs associated with travel, lost production and the training program itself, as the problem. No matter the issue, the cost savings are real with e-Learning. For example, IBM reports to save $400,000 for every 1,000-classroom-days it replaces with e-Learning, cutting their student day cost from $350 to $136 per day. Tom Gray, ATI executive vice president and co-founder, says the positive results of e-Learning will be equally staggering for agriculture.

Considering that the agricultural community uses the Internet at twice the rate of other industries, and companies are managing costs more closely than ever, we see e-Learning growing very quickly in production agriculture, says Gray. "After all, the industry's greatest training experts can't move from town to town without significant costs in time and money. But we can put them online."

Ag Technologies International is a customer focused e-Learning and e-business company working with business-to-business opportunities across the entire food chain. The mission of Ag Technologies is to increase the knowledge of agribusiness and food production professionals and to enhance market and human performance of those they serve. ATI's Learning Performance System is used to facilitate successful e-Learning programs for their business customers. Ag Technologies International is headquartered in Owatonna, Minn.

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