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Closing Case POM MIS John Deere Becomes a Technology Company, and It Is Not All Good News Farming is highly land and labor intensive. In the past, farmers man- aged all the plants in a field approximately the same way. To do this, they had to assume that all plants in a field were at the same growth stage, all were in the same health, and all needed the same nutrients Today, farmers are able to treat individual plants using precision agriculture. Precision agriculture is a farm management approach that uses a number of technologies, including global positioning sys. tems (GPS; see Chapter 8), sensors (see Chapter 8), robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and computer vision (these last five technologies are discussed in Technology Guide 4) to increase efficiency and ensure profitability while protecting the environment. Communications among these technologies will be improved with fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology, expected to be widely deployed by 2020. Founded in 1837, John Deere (www.deere.com) is the largest agricultural equipment manufacturer in the world with 2018 global revenues of $37 billion. Deere is changing its business model by under Boing digital transformation. In the past, Deere generated revenue one time, with each sale. Today, Deere embeds the precision agriculture technologies noted above into its equipment. With these technologies, machines communicate with each other, with the farmer, and with external services, such as satellite mapping and image generation. The machines also generate data that Deere can help the farmer analyze. As a result, Deere can provide additional services after each sale, Creating more continuous revenue flows from each customer, The company began its transformation in 1999 with the acquisi- tion of NavCom Technology for its GPS system. Consequently, Deere began embedding GPS receivers into its large farm equipment, such as tractors and combines, thereby turning the machines into nodes on the Internet of Things (see Chapter 8). The GPS receivers allowed the machines to steer themselves, enabling them to steer more accurate paths within fields with less overlap. As a result, farmers could work longer with less fatigue. Deere then connected its machines into the company's own cloud computing platform, called the John Deere Operations Center see Technology Gulde 3). Through Deere's Center, farmers can mon- itor and operate machinery, check the health of crops, and monitor environmental conditions. Deere's platform can gather and ana- lyze data from onboard sensors to offer predictive maintenance on machines, thereby reducing the possibility of expensive downtime on the machines (see Chapter 12). By July 2018, Deere had more than 70 business partners that could access Deere's platform to help farmers analyze their data. intended to protect telectual property and protect the right internet property holders. The us.Cephe Orice subsequently red ca es peoperty for TPMS Class 21.com ens a variety of types of arvehicles including mechantedfarm Opret Deere posted out that the class 21 emption is for the equip mentes there but prevents owners from tante right to modify software" third parties, such as repair shops or hacerse pued farmer that the manufactures reeded to tot trol access to the equipment's software termachine func tionality, and is compliance and to preserve product These companies provide satte imagery, drone integration aluation, and the tools to which aimers can apply the data The companiet range from smaller drone startups, such as Pre cision Hawk (www.archinhawk.com) and Green Aero Tech (www.greenacrotech.com to giants, such as Monsanto (www.monsanta.com), Syngenta (www.syngesta.com and Durant .dupont.com As part of its continuing effort to change the state of Deere beyond coming technology competent opened up its own innovation Lab in San Francisco in 2017 In September 2017, Deere purchased Blue River Technology www.buerivertechnology.com developer of crop spraying robots that utilize computer vision and machine learning to different ate betwee words and Crops so that farmers spray herbicides only weedsBecause the robot can target weee with squirts of herbicide the we of a postage stamp, it can reduce the amount other farmers use by some 90 percent Blue River is also developing ambot called Lettucelotfor precision lettuce thinning and a drone man system that collects data from fields A Negative consequence of John Deere's Digital Transformation Unfortunately, Deere's transformation has led to a serie consequence. The company is making it difficult for consumers and Independent repair shops to repair today's equipment, which opet ates on copyright-protected software As a result, farmers who buy Deere Tractors can eat the equipment themselves. Instead, they must work with company proved technicians who may take time to arrive and can be expen sive. For example, Deere charges $230, plus 5130 per hour fors technician to come to a farm and plug a USB connector between the tractor and the technician's computer to authorit them and any needed parts. Essentially, Deere sells their tractors to farmers and uses software to control every aspect of the tracto use after the sale. Consequently, many farmers are supporting right to repair legislation. Soch bliks, which have been proposed in 19 te would allow owners to repair their equipment themselves without void- ing warranties or agrements and require equipment manufacturers such as Deere to offer the diagnostic tools, manuals, and other su plies that farmers need to for their own machines. As expected, Deere opposes the right to repair ingllation Interestingly, Apple also opposes the right-to-repot legislation Apple argues that the balls could result in poor repair work or make consumers vulnerable to hace ght to repair advocates say that Apple, which offers iPhone repair services at every Apple Store, wants to maintain control of its share of the approximately 54 billion at phone repair business The Deere controversy had its beginning in the debate over breaking iPhones and other high-tech devices. The legal question underlying this controversy centers on the Digital Milenium Copy Tight Act (DMCA) The DMCA is a U.S.copyright law that criminalces production and dimination of technology, devices, or services intended to cument matures that control access to copyrighted works and also criminalites the act of circumventing an access control. The DMCA originally meant to stop people from pirating music and movies but has arguably been take advantage of by companies in a wide variety of devices containing software After the passage of the ONCA, regulato considered whether there should be exceptions to the insoth cases, consument have the tent to circumvent technical protection measures (TPM Aeth Class 2 motion, Deere began requiring its custom es to ensupdated sdner Licensing Agreement LULA that restricted their to repair or modify the equipment instance requiring them toe Deere certified diagnostic and repair software Despite the Class 21 emption, farmers say that Deere still be Tight control or curs service their equipment in fact Deere locatepe Control Module reading hinction, which fortes farmers to use is services Vietation of the EULA would be considered a breach of contract, men that Deere would have to sue its own customers want to force the FULA Fanote that this problem sa threat to their blibood if the actor breaks at an opportune time. One former stated that he does the time to wait for a desiership employee to come to has and his tractoricularly at harvestine. The farmer went on to say that most a pairs on new equipment require soft downloads Unifarmers fear that Deere could remotely shut down the and there would be nothing that they could do about it The controversy as led to a growing market where farmers and independent repair shops can buy unlicensed alternative software and anocite diagnosent an invitation only paid online fone. Much of these comes from usine. The software being badessors includes the following Deer Services A diagnostic program used by Deere Secher Batteries tractors and can diagnose broken parts ohn Deere Payloadies These les specialty program certain parts of the tractor for sample, the file can customize and fine tune the performance of the chassis engine, and cab John Deelectronic Data Link drivers. This software allows computer conicate with a tractor Also be on the forums are linse key generators, Speed- moders, and cables that allow farmers to connect a tractor to a Computer Demotions of all this software in operation can be found on YouTube Sous Campamerang Bled by the Tractor Monos 21 horas selle So catecher Company, June 2010 Too Santos Trending to be, ay Gago, thereoffing and Ich Thentby2, 2018 Site Why Sort Labo See Meeresgos Million to this Sicon Conceber 6, 2017 Lightower Dentist in pat 1, 2011 Thirt donando in common For 25, 2017 And Me That Yeeech freund Apothee in June 21, 2017 A artimade Fame 000 Sohn Deereford Contract Questions 1. Describe how Deere's digital transformation changed its business model. 2. Describe the various applications that Deere employed in its digi- tal transformation