S1: BCG acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and
S1: their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our
S1: respects to their elders, past and present.
S2: This podcast was brought to you by GE silos.
S3: I think the first thing to do is get comfortable
S3: with being uncomfortable, as they say. Like when things come
S3: in and they're new, we're often bad at it. And
S3: as adults, you don't like that feeling of things being
S3: difficult or harder than they were, and it's just acknowledging
S3: that initially things are going to be harder before they
S3: get easier and just persisting through that. Hello and welcome
S3: back to Shared Solutions by BCG. I'm Janine Batters and
S3: in this episode we're going to be speaking with Agrifocused's .
S2: Carmen Quade who we have had on the podcast before.
S2: And I'm really excited to have again, she's going to
S2: be speaking with us about new technology in the farm
S2: office and how we can use it to not only
S2: make farm office work easier, but also how we can
S2: use it to make better decisions. And so we can
S2: be focusing more on what's important. So thanks so much, Carmen.
S3: Thanks, Janine. Good to see you.
S2: I'm so excited to have you back. And I should say,
S2: if our listeners haven't heard our last podcast with Carmen,
S2: I do recommend you go back and listen to that,
S2: because she is just a wealth of knowledge. And it
S2: was a really popular with our listeners . Carmen, And just
S2: for our listeners that don't know you, can you give us
S2: a little bit of a background on you?
S3: Agrifocused is my side business. My main business is actually our
S3: farming business. So I farm in conjunction with my husband,
S3: and my brother and sister in law are also in
S3: our family partnership. So we're predominantly cropping and we're located
S3: at Tallimba, which is the northern Riverina of New South Wales.
S2: And we've got a lot of qualifications, Carmen, you're very experienced.
S2: Can you just quickly tell our listeners?
S3: So yeah, although they're dating me now, but I started
S3: off with a Bachelor of Business in Agricultural commerce, and
S3: then I've gone on to do a master's in accounting
S3: and had a stint actually lecturing at CSU in agribusiness
S3: and in accounting. And from that that led into my
S3: Agrifocused business now, which is more about direct to the
S3: farmer education rather than to, you know, graduate and undergraduate students.
S2: We're so lucky to have you here today, Carmen. So
S2: can you tell us just for a start. So we're
S2: going to focus on a few things today. We're going
S2: to focus on some new technologies, some things that possibly
S2: some people are doing, but other people aren't. And then
S2: some things that we need to be doing now, definitely,
S2: if we're not doing them. So could you just start
S2: by giving us an overview of what are some of
S2: the things that are on the horizon?
S3: Oh, it's getting really exciting. And I think the whole
S3: focus of it is reducing that mundane day to day
S3: repetitive tasks and automating all of those and more sort
S3: of voice recognition, text recognition. So with our bookkeeping systems,
S3: we see now, like if you're in Xero, someone can
S3: send you an invoice in Xero and it directly loads
S3: all the details into your accounting program. We're going to
S3: see more cross program, so you can send an invoice
S3: from MYOB straight into Xero. Or you can send them
S3: Xero straight back into MYOB or everything like that. So
S3: why would.
S2: You want to do that?
S3: So instead of actually going there and typing in six
S3: bags of dog food, and how many thousand tons of
S3: fertilizer and whatever else, it's all loaded in there for you.
S3: Precoding all of that sort of stuff. It's all happening
S3: in an automated fashion. So it's just about you having
S3: those internal processes to say, yes, we've bought this stuff
S3: and yes, we're ready to pay the bill and we'll
S3: see more of that text and voice recognition stuff. So
S3: basically being able to send a text to your accounting
S3: program and it might say Bill Joe Bloggs for 50
S3: acres or 100 acres worth of spreading at $22 an acre,
S3: and it will do up the invoice and send it
S3: to him. And that's all you have to do. So
S3: that's not very far away in terms of text. It'll
S3: be a little bit longer with voice recognition, but it
S3: won't be far away at all. So it's the equivalent
S3: of ringing your sidekick in the office, in the farm office,
S3: from down the paddock and saying, oh, can you just
S3: sort this out for me? And instead of it being
S3: a person on the other end of the phone, it's AI,
S3: or it's just a text message to an AI enabled
S3: computer program that will eliminate a lot of that admin
S3: for you.
S2: So are you saying, just to clarify, say I went
S2: and ordered some chemical get the invoice. They're going to
S2: send me an invoice from Xero, and I'm going to
S2: be able to put it straight into MYOB , and
S2: I'm not going to need to allocate that.
S3: That'll be where it'll go. You'll set up rules and
S3: things in the first place to, you know, so that
S3: identifies MAP as fertilizer and it identifies urea as fertilizer.
S3: And then that'll be the way that it will go.
S3: So there's certainly some things that are happening now that
S3: people will be doing in terms of directly emailing invoices
S3: into MYOB or Xero or Phoenix and this OCR. So
S3: this optical character recognition is already reading some of those
S3: details in now in most of the programs, it's really
S3: quite capable of picking up the names of the businesses,
S3: the due dates and the amount. There's some programs out there.
S3: Dext is one of them that will read in every
S3: line item of the bill if you want it to.
S3: So those are sort of premium end products at the moment.
S3: But like we know with all technology it starts at
S3: that premium end and then it tends to work down
S3: to the mainstream programs that are available at the average
S3: per month or per annual cost of subscription. So that's
S3: really not very far away at all.
S2: So is Dext a different software or is that a plugin?
S3: Yeah, it's like a plugin that works with Xero and
S3: with MYOB, similar to Hubdoc. You send your invoice into that.
S3: It does some of that early level processing and then
S3: shoots it through into Xero. which is better? It's all
S3: about subscription cost versus time saved. So for a business
S3: that's processing 70 or 90 invoices a month, I think
S3: something like Dext is just a really good option. For
S3: a business that's only doing 10 to 15. It's a
S3: waste of money, and you're better off spending that somewhere else,
S3: perhaps within your farm office or your farm business, because
S3: you're not getting the time savings that you need. So
S3: it's all about, I think, balancing these things off like
S3: any tech, like any tool and saying which one is
S3: going to give me the best bang for my buck.
S3: Eventually they're all going to become very much mainstream, and
S3: we're all going to be getting that same sort of
S3: functionality as those programs continue to develop. Yeah.
S2: So does that mean that I wouldn't have to do
S2: any allocating?
S3: It'll happen. It will happen. Sign me up! And look,
S3: even now there's you can set up rules in your
S3: existing programs so that it always recognizes. And you've probably
S3: got these in place already, but it always recognizes that
S3: electricity bill is to be coded to electricity and your
S3: rates are the same. It's only those really large ones
S3: that tend to be problematic with the multi-product rural suppliers.
S3: So that might be elders or Nutrien or AGnVET or
S3: Delta or whoever you use where they've got potentially 16
S3: different codes on one bill.
S2: They take the time, they're difficult.
S3: So there are some great things that people are doing
S3: now that perhaps are going to become more mainstream in
S3: the future. And there's a lot of people that outsource
S3: their bookwork, but there's an increasing group of people that
S3: are outsourcing it internationally. And I think that's really interesting.
S3: So they've got a VA or a PA that's typically
S3: based in the Philippines doing their farm admin for them
S3: from a different country. So that's sort of a bit
S3: mind blowing for some people. It wasn't all that long
S3: ago where we were individually paying all our bills from
S3: cheque from home and posting them off, and now potentially
S3: the same businesses have got someone based in the Philippines
S3: that they've never met who's doing a lot of that
S3: data processing for them.
S2: Not paying bills, though, just processing it.
S3: Well, depending on the relationship that's got set up, commonly
S3: it's processing. But again, you know, with time and with
S3: secure relationships and more secure connections, some of the banks
S3: are putting barriers in place about those people paying bills
S3: for you. But you know, it will happen. It will
S3: definitely happen because there's people at that corporate end doing it. Now,
S3: as we talk about that drift of technology that eventually
S3: then flows down to the smaller businesses as well.
S2: That's amazing that the trust involved there, I think. Yeah,
S2: it would be great though, wouldn't it, to just go.
S2: You do that.
S3: Yeah. Off you go. Can you do that. Yeah. And
S3: again like the sort of relationship that you would have
S3: with somebody back in the farm office, typically we ring
S3: mum and we get mum to do it for us.
S3: You ring your wife and you get her to do
S3: it for you. So it's that sort of relationship that
S3: you would text or you would have little some communication
S3: channel or a jobs program, and you would just get
S3: them to do those little jobs for you booking motels,
S3: booking in car services, all of that sort of stuff.
S2: That's common.
S3: Yeah. And it will become, I think, more common in
S3: the future. But obviously those people are available domestically based
S3: as well. The difference, I guess, between the international and
S3: domestic is generally the cost. Outsourcing is such a fantastic
S3: way of freeing up time because not only are you
S3: freeing up your own time, you potentially paying someone to
S3: do it that's quicker at it than you are, so
S3: you don't shear your own sheep, because why? You probably could if you
S3: had to. But the reality is that you're going to
S3: be slower at it and probably not do as good
S3: a job. So you pay someone else to do that.
S3: And it's the same when we outsource bookkeeping, we're just
S3: outsourcing to someone that does it quicker than us and
S3: better than us, which frees us up in two ways
S3: the time saved and the fact that it's quicker for
S3: them to do it and then, in the long run,
S3: potentially cheaper for us as well.
S2: And that doesn't actually mean that you might spend less
S2: time in the farm office, does it? And it might
S2: just mean that you're spending more time on those, the
S2: management side of it and looking at your figures and
S2: thinking about, oh, I'm a bit overspending there. Or rather
S2: than just doing the, the allocating.
S3: Oh yes, it's sure. So you move from this whole, oh,
S3: if you think of a finance department in any larger business,
S3: you've got financial admin or a finance officer that's sort
S3: of at that lower end who does data processing, invoicing,
S3: paying bills, payroll and that sort of thing. And then
S3: you might have a management accountant who's actually looking at
S3: which sectors of the business are making money and which
S3: ones aren't, and what needs to be done there. And
S3: then at the top, you've got a chief financial officer
S3: who's dealing more with that strategy sort of piece, modeling
S3: things out, looking at tax implications, looking at business structure,
S3: looking at that sort of 10 to 20 year plan.
S3: So what you find is that as you automate more
S3: of this stuff that's at that finance officer level, it
S3: frees you up to do that bigger picture stuff, the budgeting,
S3: the planning, the scheduling, the comparing enterprises and all of
S3: that sort of thing.
S2: I can't help but compare it to making a cake
S2: for a birthday party. Carmen. Yeah, I find that if
S2: I buy the cake , it ends up looking really nice
S2: because I haven't wasted my energy on making the cake,
S2: if I make the cake, I'm like, ah, can't be bothered.
S2: And it's done. So it's the same as going. Rather
S2: than investing all this energy into something that someone else
S2: can do that doesn't have your brainpower i n the farm space,
S2: we only have a limited amount of time, so making
S2: smarter choices with your time so you can best spend
S2: it where your business needs it.
S3: Yeah. And working to your strengths. I find, though, that
S3: the people that tend to be most reluctant to outsource
S3: stuff are the people that tend to be generally proficient
S3: at a lot of things, and they're the ones that
S3: find it the hardest. So they go, well, I can
S3: cook my own cake. What's she talking about? And I
S3: can do my own books. I can drive my own
S3: tractor and do the services and do all of this.
S3: Those are the people that tend to find it the
S3: hardest to outsource because they're happy with the job they do.
S3: They know how they want the job done. So if
S3: that's you, just have a bit of a think about it.
S3: It's not just about giving away things that you're not
S3: good at. We've all got a limited amount of time.
S3: Sometimes it's about handing over things that yes, you can do,
S3: but in reality you can't do everything.
S2: Which is a great point. I think a lot of
S2: those people that you're talking about become farmers. They they
S2: know how to do a whole heap of stuff and
S2: they know how to do it really well. So I
S2: think that message about just because you can do it
S2: and just because you can do it well, think about
S2: where you are spending that time and where else would
S2: be better to spend that time.
S3: Yeah, exactly. And what brings you the most joy? Does
S3: that bring you joy? Perhaps not, even though you could
S3: do a proficient job at it, but there might be
S3: something else that is just more fulfilling for you. And,
S3: you know, if that's the case, concentrate on that instead.
S2: I love that point. Yeah. What do you enjoy doing
S2: on the farm? Because there's so much to do. We
S2: often think about what we need to do rather than
S2: what do you enjoy doing the most?
S3: Yeah, definitely. So there's other sort of really simple bits
S3: of technology that are available now that we're perhaps not
S3: using to their full potential, and one of those might
S3: just be your printer. So if you've got a fairly
S3: modern printer, it's generally got wireless capability. So you'd be
S3: able to print from your phone. Yeah. If you set
S3: that up, you'll be able to scan directly into a
S3: cloud based document storage system, scan directly to an email,
S3: scan directly into a folder where things stay permanently and
S3: are never touched. So there's lots of capabilities there that people,
S3: I think have got already that might not be exploring.
S2: We scan our farm documents from our phone straight to
S2: MYOB , because then you can't lose a receipt, can you?
S3: Like those things are just great. And then on that
S3: other end, that OCR stuff's coming in. It's reading some
S3: of that information for you and eliminating that part of
S3: the process as well. So it's really, really good. We've got,
S3: you know, batch payments, rules, apps that link in with
S3: lots of programs. And we're seeing a lot more of that,
S3: aren't we? A few years ago it was like, if you're
S3: with Microsoft, Microsoft was trying to take over the world.
S3: Nothing else would work with it. Everything was fighting one another.
S3: And you'd have these glitches between, say, Adobe and a
S3: Microsoft program, and they really wouldn't want to talk to
S3: one another. Whereas now it's all about this connectivity. So
S3: we're getting all of this integration between apps, which is
S3: making things so much easier. So we have one data
S3: set that we're using, and we might have other bits
S3: of software that extract information or allow us to put
S3: in information or allow us to add on some extra
S3: information in there. So can you give me.
S2: An example of that Carmen.
S3: AgWorld, which people quite often use for their cropping? And
S3: we've got Mobble that links in with that. So it's
S3: a livestock system. So they're linked so that you can
S3: make some changes in one and they're reflected in another.
S3: So we've got uh Figured which links in with Xero.
S3: So Figured is a specific ag based software add on.
S3: And there are a number of other cash flow budgeting
S3: programs that are specifically built for agriculture that again link
S3: with Xero and link with other programs as well. So what does Figured do?
S3: So Figured does your management accounting basically came from the dairy industry.
S3: So you know the dairy industry is so data intensive.
S3: And they can work out how many cents of labor
S3: you've got per kilo of milk solids. So but in
S3: a more extensive or a mixed farming enterprise, you're looking
S3: at potentially comparing relative profitability of different crops and different
S3: crops in different years, and you're drilling down to then
S3: allocating some of those overhead costs across a number of enterprises. Again,
S3: more of that management, accounting and budgeting side of things,
S3: rather than just the data entry and the data processing
S3: of invoices and bills and payroll.
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S2: Okay, so I keep interrupting because you keep saying really
S2: interesting things and I'm like, oh, what's that what you
S2: said batching payments too.
S3: Yeah. So that's all of the accounting programs have got
S3: this ability and it's great. So typically someone will get
S3: a pile of bills. They'll go into the internet banking
S3: and they'll pay them one by one, and then they'll
S3: go into their bookkeeping program and they'll go to each line,
S3: which is hopefully being automatically read in by their software,
S3: and they'll go, okay, that matches up with this bill
S3: that I've got here from Nutrien and that was fertilizer.
S3: So I code that. So in batching we reverse it.
S3: So what we do is enter all of the information
S3: into our software program first. So it might be Phoenix
S3: or MYOB or Xero. Any of them do it. We
S3: enter all the information in first and we code it.
S3: And then we go into the bookkeeping program and say,
S3: I want to pay that bill. And the program generates
S3: an ABA file, an Australian Banking Association file. You then
S3: go into your internet banking and it will drop in
S3: 30 or 40 bills with the account numbers, the name
S3: and the amount. And you will do one authorisation to
S3: send all of those bills off all together. So what that
S3: saves is that individual authorisation, the pay bill. And then
S3: it sends you a text message. And then you can
S3: type in the code. And then you want to put
S3: the next one in. And you've got to make sure
S3: that you've updated the account details and all of that
S3: sort of thing. And then you make mistakes, and that's
S3: what takes the time, I think we often don't recognize
S3: as you just transpose two digits, and then you get
S3: to the end of the month and you're trying to
S3: reconcile everything and nothing matches up. So then you've got
S3: to work out where there's an underpayment or an overpayment,
S3: whether the payment was right or the data entry in our
S3: accounting system, when we make mistakes doing batch payments, they're
S3: really consistent. So the mistake is everywhere and the mistake
S3: is exactly the same. And once we work out what
S3: we've done wrong, we only fix it once rather than
S3: going through and fixing it one in that bit, but
S3: not in that. And then again, so things like that,
S3: they're there now. They've been around for years. Um, but
S3: there's still people that may not be using them or
S3: may not be using them to their full capability.
S2: I think I inquired with our bank and they said
S2: that we needed to have a special business profile, or
S2: we had to pay an extra amount.
S3: You mentioned two really good points there, Janine. One was
S3: that there are different internet banking profiles for lots of banks.
S3: So lots of banks will have a generic basically domestic
S3: consumer based internet banking profile. And they will also have
S3: a higher level business banking internet tool. And some farmers
S3: might be just using the domestic version, and the domestic
S3: version will have limited security features. Limited features in terms
S3: of authorizing payments potentially might be a little bit quicker
S3: to use. But will have some limitations. So the the
S3: more professional ones will have more security features like two
S3: factor authentication. They might have some features that enable you
S3: to have staff or outsourced help for some of these things.
S3: So the staff might have authority to upload a payment
S3: file to the bank, but they can't send off the money.
S3: They can get that to a certain point. And then
S3: one person, or perhaps in some corporate fields, they might
S3: say we need two people to authorize a payment. So
S3: they would have the ability for one person to authorize
S3: the payment, and then two other signatories would come in
S3: and authorize that. But they'll often have unlimited amounts of payments.
S3: And that's a really important time saver for people. So
S3: we've all had to pay those really big bills. You
S3: might be limited with internet banking to 20 or $30,000
S3: or $40,000. And you go there one day, $40,000, next day,
S3: $40,000 next day, and then you're counting them up on
S3: your fingers trying to work out whether that tractor is
S3: paid for, with those higher level business banking type internet facilities,
S3: it'll be just one payment.
S2: Do you recommend that?
S3: Definitely. It's a huge time saver and they are more secure.
S3: So they do have a higher level. We've got two
S3: factor authentication to get into them and then two factor
S3: authentication to generate a payment that they yeah they're definitely
S3: well worth exploring.
S2: Yeah. What else, Carmen, what other things are on the horizon?
S3: What else? Look, there's apps for everything. Anything you can imagine.
S3: So if you've got a data collection or a data
S3: recording problem, someone, somewhere has developed an app to solve it.
S3: Like in anything in farming. There's great people out there
S3: just making their own stuff in the shed. And that's
S3: what I really like just to see happen. So I
S3: did a workshop up north last week, and there's one
S3: off the shelf free program called Jotform. And a lot
S3: of people would be familiar with Google Forms, and we
S3: can put some links to these in the show notes.
S3: So one fellow was a contractor. He developed his own
S3: job logging form for his staff. So if they went
S3: out and did some harvesting, it allowed them to jot
S3: down who the person was, who the farmer was, how
S3: many hectares they'd put in, which paddocks they'd done, which
S3: implements they'd used, their starting hours on the machine, finishing
S3: hours on the machine, diesel litres, etc. so he'd personalize
S3: that just to exactly the information that he needed. And
S3: then he got real time access to that information as
S3: soon as the job was done. And then another person
S3: had done a similar sort of Google form to record
S3: fuel usage across their farm and where they were using it,
S3: and that was helping them with their fuel tax rebates. So, look,
S3: there's apps for both of those sorts of things. But
S3: they found a really entry level, low cost solution by
S3: having one standalone form that they used. And a lot
S3: of those have got QR codes that you can generate.
S3: So if you've got perhaps staff that come in and out,
S3: you can just give them the QR code to log in.
S3: And I've got one on my website I've set up
S3: as a visitor register. So QR code on the gate
S3: or QR code on a piece of paper in the shed.
S3: Can you just log into this and log yourself in
S3: as a visitor so you know there's lots of potential
S3: there to either explore what's out there and what's already
S3: been made, or potentially just make your own little thing
S3: in the office that'll do a good enough job for
S3: what you're trying to achieve.
S2: You talked about some of the things that are on
S2: the horizon. I'm pretty excited about some of those things.
S2: What are some things that we can be doing right now?
S2: Carmen in the farm office using new technology.
S3: Oh, look, I think the first thing to do is
S3: get comfortable with being uncomfortable, as they say. Like when
S3: things come in and they're new, we're often bad at it.
S3: And as adults, you don't like that feeling of things
S3: being difficult or harder than they were. And it's just
S3: acknowledging that initially things are going to be harder before
S3: they get easier, and just persisting through that.
S2: That's such a good point. I think because you're right,
S2: it can be quite difficult. And you think, oh, this
S2: is hard and I've made a mistake and I think
S2: it's okay to to make the mistake too, isn't it?
S2: And go, well, I made a mistake. I'm not perfect
S2: at this yet, but I'll get better and asking for
S2: help too.
S3: Oh, definitely. There's so much help out there. There's so
S3: many things are easier than they were. Mistakes are so
S3: easy to fix in anything tech wise. They basically have
S3: dumbed things down quite a bit. Don't be afraid of
S3: breaking stuff. There's nothing, nothing out there that can be broken.
S3: The other thing that you need to do is sort
S3: out your internet connectivity. That's what I've got that down
S3: as number two, but it's probably the number one thing
S3: that you have to do. It is well worth spending
S3: the money on. So we recently had the On Farm
S3: Connectivity program. Round one's finished. Hopefully round two will come
S3: out soon. And there's some grants out there for people
S3: to increase their on farm connectivity. But it's about researching
S3: what you need. What's going to work best for you,
S3: is about making sure that everything around the house and
S3: sheds are good? Or is it about making sure that
S3: you've got greater levels of connectivity in your tractor? Because
S3: that's essentially where you're doing the majority of your office
S3: work because you're on Autosteer. Each farm business is going
S3: to be different in where their priorities are, in terms
S3: of where they want to spend their dollars on internet connectivity.
S3: Do you have any recommendations? There's a great website called
S3: Better Internet for Regional and Rural Australia, and there's some
S3: really good recommendations there about what might suit. We've certainly,
S3: like a lot of people have moved on to Starlink
S3: and really noticed the difference there. And we've beamed that
S3: out to a little shed and to a my little office. And,
S3: you know, there's some just great potential there that we
S3: didn't have even 3 or 4 years ago. And again,
S3: prices are getting cheaper even with the existing Skymuster satellites there.
S3: Before that, you're getting more data. It's cheaper. Things are
S3: just getting better all the time. So it's just about
S3: staying up to date with what's available. The other thing
S3: I think that you need to do, if you haven't
S3: done it already, is sort out email addresses. So with
S3: things like digital signing, it's really important for everybody to
S3: have their own individual email address. Now, lots of people,
S3: when internet first came in, it was Bigpond for all
S3: of us. And you often have a joint email address
S3: with your spouse. You can't get away with that anymore.
S3: We've got to have all got to have individual email
S3: addresses to make sure some of these things work, and
S3: it's well worth having separate email addresses for the farm bills.
S3: It makes it easier for someone to access that if
S3: they need to. So if you're looking to outsource, you
S3: can just say rightio. We'll redirect this particular mail inbox
S3: to you. Or just to keep that. We get so
S3: many emails just to sort of basically draft it and say,
S3: all of these are bills that I need to check
S3: them once a week or so, but these things that
S3: are coming in are likely to be more important. And
S3: I check those on a daily basis.
S2: So you're saying with the auto sign that say two
S2: people in the business, you both need your own email
S2: address to do the auto sign?
S3: Yes.
S2: And you're also saying that you need two email addresses
S2: each for the farm or just personally.
S3: Look, I think it's going to vary person to person
S3: and business to business. I think you need one junk one,
S3: and that's often just a matter of just retiring your
S3: old Hotmail or your an old Gmail address or something
S3: like that. So basically, any time you sign up for
S3: a $25 discount or free shipping on something, you can
S3: just use that email address and then not get bombarded
S3: with the spam mail. That's a really good idea to
S3: start with separating business and personal. So you might have
S3: multiple inboxes and people think, oh, that's so hard to handle.
S3: That's just too much logging in and logging out. It's not.
S3: You can use Gmail or Outlook to actually set them up.
S3: So you just go into outlook and you've got your
S3: 3 or 4 different email addresses there. One of them
S3: you might be checking once a month because it's mainly spam.
S3: One of them you might be checking once a day
S3: because it's mainly important correspondence. Another one you might be
S3: checking just 2 or 3 times a month because it's
S3: mainly farm bills. And again, it's just about being able
S3: to then maintain privacy. If in the future you decide
S3: to outsource some of this. So if you've got one
S3: email address, which is everything, it's really hard then to
S3: give someone the autonomy to say, as each email comes through,
S3: process that in the way that I want it processed.
S3: So you're not there forwarding things all the time.
S2: Otherwise you're really not saving any time, are you? No, you're.
S3: Not, you're not. You might as well be doing it yourself.
S3: And I think that's the point that people come to.
S3: If I've got to forward that email address to them
S3: and then I've got to approve that payment, I may
S3: as well have done the whole thing myself. So it's
S3: about just setting things up so they're easy for other
S3: people as well. Think about that in terms of business
S3: continuity as well. So a lot of us are running
S3: businesses that might be quite large in terms of turnover,
S3: but small in terms of admin capacity, and we don't
S3: have replication in our farm offices. So if we're taken
S3: out or another family member is taken out, that might
S3: mean system shut down. So think about if we quarantine
S3: all of our business email to one email address, we
S3: can quickly redirect something, ring our accountant, engage a bookkeeper
S3: and say look for the next six weeks. Can you
S3: just take over this part of the role and make
S3: sure all my staff get paid and my bills get paid?
S3: It's harder to do that if we've got every single
S3: thing about sport and school and footy and the grain
S3: marketing and the bills and the newsletters and mates emailing
S3: us if that's all in the same inbox, it becomes
S3: a much harder job.
S2: That makes sense. What else, Carmen, can we be doing right now?
S3: Well, the other thing is online safety. And I think
S3: when I've said some of these things, there've been people listening, going, oh,
S3: that sounds frightening. What if I get hacked? You know,
S3: it's all too hard. Your money's all on the cloud anyway.
S3: So realistically, if you're concerned about putting a document in
S3: a Google Drive or a Dropbox, just get over it
S3: because all your money is on the cloud. Just get.
S2: Over it.
S3: It's not in a bank anywhere. No one's guarding it.
S3: There's no one standing outside with a, you You know,
S3: rifle or something. It's all on the cloud. So what
S3: can you do on your end to increase your internet safety?
S3: Multifactor ID on anything where you can switch it on
S3: is so important. So that's when they shoot you a
S3: little text message, and you've got to write that code
S3: back into the program. It's annoying.
S2: My phone auto fills it. Yeah.
S3: It doesn't work so well on the laptop or on
S3: the computer, but I love it when it auto fills.
S3: What I didn't love was a few years back when
S3: we didn't have a booster on the phone, and I'd
S3: have to run outside and climb up to the top
S3: of the cubby house, and then I'd hold my hand
S3: up to get the text message. And then it was
S3: like a race against time to get back into the
S3: office again to type the code in. So look, if
S3: that's still you, just spend the money, upgrade your mobile coverage.
S3: If that's the thing that's stopping you turning on multifactor ID,
S3: or you don't have your Wi-Fi set up properly, make
S3: sure you spend the money to do that.
S2: That's a good point. Time saver not getting into the
S2: cubby house.
S3: Yeah yeah yeah yeah, definitely. So the installing software updates
S3: is really important as well. So when your phone says
S3: it needs to do an update, when your laptop or
S3: your computer says it needs to do an update, click
S3: to do the update. Because what they're not telling you
S3: is that they've found the hackers have found a way
S3: to get in, and they've got a patch that will
S3: protect you. So make sure you keep those up to date. So, Janine,
S3: tell me, are your passwords, your dog's name and a
S3: combination of someone's date of birth?
S2: They're not, I've recently done, a bit of a cyber security
S2: kind of thing. And that's why I've done all the
S2: password authentication - well when all the hacking happened, you know, Medibank.
S2: Yes. And yeah. So I don't anymore. But I can
S2: imagine that a lot of people would probably because there's
S2: so many to remember, there are.
S3: So many to remember. And what we try and do
S3: is by just changing a digit on the end or
S3: just putting capitals on that one, you know, if we
S3: have 5 or 6 goes at it, it will eventually
S3: crack it. And you feel like a bit of a
S3: hacker just by getting in yourself. The reality is that
S3: if we're duplicating passwords, what happens is someone in the
S3: tree gets hacked first and they're generally low stakes. So
S3: it might be just your local shoe shop is set
S3: up online purchasing, and they want you to get an account.
S3: And you sign up for that because you get $10
S3: off or something. They get hacked. And because you've used
S3: your dog's name and your date of birth. They go, ooh,
S3: what's the chance that Janine has also used this password
S3: and this email address for something more important, and they
S3: will eventually get in that way. So duplication is a
S3: really bad idea. We need to use secure and complex passwords.
S3: It's really hard to do that unless you're using a
S3: password keeper program. So there's some great ones out. Yeah
S3: they're amazing. So like 16 digit really complex passwords with
S3: all of the things. And the beauty of it is
S3: when we use that, they're not saying you've used this
S3: password before. They're not saying we need a digit, we
S3: We need a character. You haven't used a capital. The
S3: passwords go through straight away all the time. And again,
S3: a lot of those have got the capability to pre-fill them.
S3: So those password vault programs, KeyPass, keychain, dashlane's one of the
S3: ones I use, there's 4 or 5 of them out there.
S3: That is all they do. You want a program that's standalone.
S3: So yes, Apple have got some capabilities to store passwords.
S3: Google have. But if they go down, the whole ship
S3: goes down. So what you want to do is just
S3: make sure it's a standalone password keeping and password generating
S3: program and be prepared to pay money for it, because
S3: if you're not paying money for it, how are they
S3: getting the money? They need to keep your information safe?
S3: So definitely explore that. They are one of those things
S3: that does make life easier and makes you more secure.
S2: So, Carmen, security, what else can we be doing to
S2: protect ourselves?
S3: Look, I think that in our family, businesses that tend
S3: to be most vulnerable are the older generation and the
S3: youngest generation. So for the older ones, it's about really
S3: keeping in contact. So having those phone calls, just making
S3: sure that if they're worried about a text message that's
S3: come through about a toll, that they don't click on it,
S3: that they give you a call, that you show them
S3: how to block things, that you delete what needs to
S3: be deleted, that they're just really cyber aware, and also
S3: that they're not lonely because one of these things, and
S3: it's not necessarily a farm business thing, it's about the
S3: online romance, friendship, investment, sort of scams. The people that
S3: tend to be the most vulnerable are those that are
S3: the most lonely. So keeping in contact and being a
S3: good family member to our oldies is just important for
S3: so many reasons. But that's one of them. That's such
S3: a good point.
S2: I think there was an article The Barefoot wrote about
S2: that too, and about maybe just go over to your
S2: neighbor and have a cup of coffee.
S3: Yeah, yeah. And if that stops them wanting to meet
S3: up with Sam from Nigeria, that's a great thing because
S3: they know that they've got someone to have a cup
S3: of tea too that's prepared to listen to their problems. Look,
S3: younger generations, it's more about that sort of sextortion type
S3: sharing nudes piece. And again, it's about education again. It's
S3: about conversations again. It's about making people feel happy in themselves,
S3: secure and all of those things so that not, you know,
S3: if something feels a little bit off, they've got the
S3: confidence to just say, no, hold on, wait. That doesn't
S3: feel quite right. So most definitely have those conversations with
S3: your family members.
S2: Is there anything else that you would recommend our listeners
S2: do right now if they're not already doing, whether it's
S2: technology or cyber? Any other advice?
S3: I think it's being open minded and excited about the future.
S3: It's easy to just slip into that zone of thinking, oh,
S3: it's all too hard and everything's changing too quickly. All
S3: of us can fall into that trap, but it's about
S3: just taking on the changes one by one, working out
S3: what needs to be done, and being prepared to make
S3: that investment in learning something for the pay off later on.
S3: We don't learn anything without deliberately making those choices to
S3: learn it. So just step up to the plate and
S3: take it on because you might surprise yourself. It might
S3: be something that you really get into when you're really
S3: good at it.
S2: That is such excellent advice, Carmen. Talking about keeping an
S2: open mind with these new technologies I'm just thinking about
S2: for people that are perhaps doing succession or someone starting
S2: to take the books on from another person in the business,
S2: would you have any advice on how to get that
S2: transition to to go smoothly?
S3: Oh look, the technology transition and the intergenerational issues is
S3: often clashes there. You know, there's often a person within
S3: the business and they're probably the person listening to this
S3: podcast that just wants to move things along really quickly.
S3: So to all the tech people out there that are
S3: keen to make the changes, there's just a few things
S3: to be aware of. One is that if you are
S3: trying to implement change, just make sure that it's got
S3: a fair chance of success. So if you're trying to
S3: get semi-literate truck driver to suddenly be using six different
S3: apps for six different things, it's probably not going to work.
S3: And you've got to look at implementing perhaps some easier
S3: ways to make that work, which might be just screenshots
S3: or still handing in a paper form, even though everybody
S3: else is doing things the digital way. That's perfectly okay
S3: if you're taking something on and you are making some changes,
S3: the person that's taking it on, you've got to trust
S3: them that they're doing the right thing. I think that
S3: becomes a communication thing as well. So if you've got
S3: an older generation saying, oh, look, before we used to
S3: pay every bill, this person used to look over it.
S3: And then I used to ring this and I'd send
S3: a cheque off because that was the safe way of
S3: doing it. Look, things have changed. And it's about really
S3: communicating that we still are doing fundamentally the same thing.
S3: We still have all of the checks and balances in place.
S3: They just don't necessarily look the same as they used to.
S3: But the fundamental things of what we've got going on,
S3: people are getting paid. We're doing it in a secure
S3: fashion we know we're up to financially. All of that
S3: still happening.
S2: That's such a good point. Thank you. Carmen, was there
S2: anything else that you would like our listeners to know?
S3: All just to get out there and explore something, just
S3: to talk to their friends about it and ask them
S3: what they're doing that 's different. It's great. Amongst any community.
S3: We've got some great early adopters out there that are
S3: looking at new things, and between the early adopters, some
S3: of them have caught on to something else before someone
S3: else has done so. My big thing is that if
S3: you've got a problem, someone else has already worked out
S3: the answer to it. It's just about finding what the
S3: answer is.
S2: That's such a good outlook, Carmen. So I do have
S2: one more question. What is the best advice that you've
S2: been given, whether it's on the farm or in life?
S3: Oh, look, I think the big thing is that nothing
S3: lasts forever, you know, and it's just whatever season you're
S3: going through in your life, whatever seasonal conditions you're going
S3: through on farm, whatever it is, it never, ever lasts forever.
S3: So it's just very much about being in the moment
S3: and working out what needs to be done now and
S3: concentrating on that, because before you know it, something else
S3: becomes the highest priority.
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