EOS Data Analytics Solutions For The IT Industry

What makes software successful? It has to solve a problem users need to solve, have an easy-to-use interface, and a feature set that is sufficient for a task (or tasks if there are many) and makes it stand out from similar products.

Diana Mistrova, Business Development Manager at EOS Data Analytics, discusses time- and resource-effective ways of expanding the functionality of precision farming solutions and introducing new products to the software market and how EOSDA can be of help in this matter.

What Goals Regarding Cooperating With IT Companies In North America Did The Company Set For 2022?

The primary goal is to allow our partners to make their agricultural software more competitive in terms of functionality. First, IT companies get centralized access to several satellite data sources. Second, businesses can integrate killer features from EOSDA’s off-the-shelf solutions into their products — for example, remote analysis of field conditions with vegetation and moisture indices, field productivity, soil moisture, historical weather data, and a weather forecast.

Please Tell Us About EOSDA’s Customers From The U.S. And Canada.

Currently, the U.S. customers represent 18.30% of our user base; they have added more than 58,000 ha of fields to EOSDA Crop Monitoring since 2019. For understanding, this coverage equals almost 3.5 areas of Washington D.C.

Canadians — including out-of-the-box and white label platform users — are monitoring 11,942 ha of fields, and we’re actively communicating with prospects in Canada to further increase our market share.

How Can EOS Data Analytics Be Of Help To Software Providers?

Typically, vendors who introduce solutions for field data management tend to think the integration of satellite data (like any other type of data) and analysis requires additional human and financial resources.

Companies believe they must gather an in-house data science team, with a data analyst who will search for reliable data sources and tools for obtaining data and a data scientist who will preprocess and transform raw data and train ML models for solving given problems. Not mentioning domain experts who can advise on features for predictive or classification models and help define requirements for data. But there is another, more straightforward way. EOSDA takes on this job, providing tools and knowledge to ensure customers can smoothly integrate necessary functionality and data. For instance, our developers have been working closely with technical writers on detailed and well-structured API documentation. And technical support specialists and account managers are ready to assist customers when they need it.

You Mentioned Several Features Before. Let’s Talk More About Them. What Functionality Do Businesses Consider Crucial To Making A Deal?

Potential customers, first of all, value the opportunity of having centralized access to several satellite imagery data sources. There is no need to look for sites with given satellite images available for download and register at each of those websites — EOSDA provides access to imagery from nine satellites (Sentinel, Landsat, MODIS, SBERS4, NAIP). Our specialists can also integrate additional data sources on demand.

The option to order high-resolution imagery via EOSDA LandViewer is another incentive for collaboration. Customers can obtain daily images with a resolution of 5, 3 or even 0,3–0,4 meters per pixel from seven data sources. Use cases for images with such a level of detail include field and forest management, urban planning, disaster response, and geomarketing.

Among popular features are:

Vegetation indices — numbers quantifying a plant’s vegetation density and health for every pixel in a remotely sensed image. We provide 18 vegetation indices.

Soil moisture — an indication of surface moisture that farmers use to plan or adjust irrigation in periods with insufficient precipitation, detect crop stress, and define areas where rainfall could cause landslides. The feature is available in the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, Nigeria.

Field boundary detection entails identifying field shapes. Crop type classification is usually done on top of this service.

Vegetation and productivity maps — mapping field plots by vegetation density and productivity.

What Partnership Options For IT Companies Do We Offer?

Software providers have three partnership options to choose from:

• API access — the opportunity to integrate features from EOSDA Crop Monitoring into their software. Developers get access to EOSDA Crop Monitoring API and can reach out to the technical support team and an account manager if they have any questions.
• Basic or Advanced white label — EOSDA Crop Monitoring platform with customized interface design and selected features. The Basic option includes the solution’s desktop version. The Advanced option comes with a mobile scouting app and an admin panel for user management (partners can host the panel on their domain.) A company becomes the EOS Data Analytics Partner Program member and gets the right to distribute under its branding.
  Every white-label user also has a dedicated account manager and tech support from EOSDA employees.
• Custom solutions — adding custom features to EOSDA Crop Monitoring or developing a product that can solve a specific task, for example, yield prediction, harvest dynamics monitoring, crop type classification maps, soil type mapping, and field boundary detection. Custom solutions also entail getting access to certain data. We provide soil moisture data beginning 2002, for instance.

Let’s Go Through Every Partnership Option. How Does It Work For The Client?

As for API integration, we typically give a two-week trial so that third-party developers can test the API and see how an integrated feature works in their product. During this phase, our technical specialist keeps in touch with a client if they need assistance. If the client decides to continue using the API, they get a subscription with yearly access to the API.

Implementing any product is impossible without data, so that’s one of the first things specialists will request from a partner who wants a custom solution. Input data include an area of interest, a season for analysis, ground-truth data, or statistics.

Custom projects start from a proof of concept to determine whether or not the product’s idea is feasible. The EOSDA team provides a client with preliminary results (accuracy of solving a problem on a small test area). Both parties discuss project stages, timeframes, cooperation details, and estimated costs. Once agreed on terms, the IT company and EOS Data Analytics sign an agreement, and the project begins. A field boundary classification usually takes one to two weeks, crop classification or yield prediction projects can last throughout a season, and harvesting process monitoring may take two to five weeks. And on solutions like biomass quantity measurement, employees can work for a year.

Before signing a white label agreement, teams discuss the desired level of product customization, a color theme and brand elements for the interface, and features the client wants to have in a white-label solution. Depending on the option (Basic or Advanced) and requirements, the solution can be ready for use in one and half to three months. On the contrary, building software from scratch may take up to two years.

To Sum Up, What Advantages For IT Companies The Partnership With EOSDA May Bring?

Benefits stem from centralized access to satellite imagery data and analytics we provide: Vendors can make their solutions more versatile by integrating features allowing for remote field monitoring. White label, in turn, means much faster time to market than custom software development. Those who need a custom project can rest assured it will be carried out by seasoned researchers, software engineers, and domain experts.

I’d also like to add that regardless of the service a company chooses, it will be able to save time on implementing set goals.