Business needs of agribusiness companies with SAP

Agribusiness companies that use SAP operate in an environment with very specific operational complexity. Although this ERP provides solid coverage for standard processes such as procurement, logistics, finance, or materials management, the use of SAP in agribusiness companies presents certain system-related challenges that prevent optimal performance of agribusiness processes.

If your company belongs to this sector and operates with SAP, keep reading until the end. In this article, we will explore the issues we have most frequently observed in the agribusiness sector and explain which solutions you should choose for each case.

Main Challenges of the Agribusiness Sector When Using SAP

Agribusiness combines geographically distributed field operations, management of perishable materials, high requirements for traceability and regulatory compliance, and a strong seasonality that concentrates a large portion of activity into short time periods. These characteristics affect not only planning but also the daily execution of processes within SAP.

When these specific characteristics are not addressed properly, SAP software for the agribusiness industry relies excessively on manual processes, spreadsheets, and communications outside the system. This reduces visibility, increases operational risks, and makes real-time decision-making more difficult.

Understanding the real needs of the sector requires analyzing these challenges from an operational perspective and understanding how they can be resolved while maintaining SAP’s standard logic. Let us first examine each challenge in more detail.

Field Operations and Distributed Execution

One of the most defining characteristics of the agribusiness sector is the geographical dispersion of its operations. A large part of the activity takes place in fields, farms, or agricultural facilities far from administrative centers, where material consumption, inventory movements, and operational decisions occur and must be recorded quickly and accurately.

In many agribusiness environments that use SAP, these operations are managed with delays. Movements are recorded manually or communicated later for posting into the system, creating discrepancies between real operations and the information available in SAP. This disconnection affects traceability, complicates planning, and delays decision-making, especially when rapid action is required in the field.

In the context of SAP applied to agribusiness, this limitation results in reduced operational visibility, reliance on informal processes, and delays in critical approvals that directly affect operational continuity.

Management of Perishable Materials

The management of perishable materials is a constant in agribusiness. Seeds, fertilizers, crop protection products, and agricultural raw materials require strict control by batch and expiration date to avoid financial losses, reprocessing, or quality risks.

Although SAP provides standard functionalities for batch and shelf-life management, their effectiveness depends on the quality of master data and the correct execution of movements. In practice, it is common to find poorly defined materials, incomplete batches, or expiration dates that are not proactively controlled.

When these aspects are not properly managed, agribusiness companies using SAP face a recurring problem: issues are detected only when materials have already expired or when traceability must be reconstructed for audits or quality incidents.

Regulatory Compliance and Document Control

The agribusiness sector is subject to increasingly demanding regulatory frameworks, particularly in terms of food safety, traceability, and supplier control. Documentation associated with materials, suppliers, and processes must be available, up to date, and correctly linked to system records.

In many SAP environments within this sector, this information is scattered between the ERP and external repositories, making control difficult and increasing the risk of non-compliance. The lack of structured master data and document management forces companies to dedicate significant resources to manual controls and periodic reviews.

For companies using SAP in the agribusiness sector, this situation represents a constant operational burden and unnecessary exposure to regulatory risks and complex audits.

Seasonality and Intensive Campaigns

Seasonality is a critical factor in agribusiness. Campaigns concentrate large volumes of purchases, approvals, and logistics movements into very short periods of time. During these phases, processes must be especially agile and provide immediate visibility.

Without tools that support these peaks in activity, bottlenecks multiply: incomplete requisitions, delayed approvals, and lack of visibility into purchasing status. The result is a loss of efficiency precisely at the most sensitive moments of the business, when SAP software should facilitate agribusiness operations rather than slow them down.

How Specialized Solutions Address These Challenges in SAP Environments

To respond to these needs, agribusiness companies do not need to replace SAP or resort to expensive custom developments. Instead, they can complement it with specialized solutions that integrate natively and reinforce existing processes. These solutions address each challenge directly, maintaining system coherence and adapting SAP to the operational reality of the sector.

At Innova, we have developed a set of solutions to address different scenarios across the supply chain. It is worth noting that these solutions offer many more functionalities than those described in this article, as we will focus specifically on how they address the needs of agribusiness companies using SAP.

Field Operations: Mobility and Real-Time Execution with SiMA, SiLI, and SiPM

Distributed operations require SAP to be usable directly in the field, without relying on delayed postings or complex system access. In this context, mobility and real-time execution are essential.

• SiMA enables the recording of warehouse movements, goods receipts, transfers, and consumption directly from mobile devices, eliminating paper usage and reducing transcription errors. This ensures that information is recorded in real time and immediately available in SAP, improving traceability and operational visibility in agricultural facilities and distributed warehouses.
• SiLI complements this approach by accelerating critical approvals. It consolidates the information required to make fast and accurate decisions, allowing documents to be approved from any device without direct access to SAP. In agribusiness environments, where decision-makers are often in the field, this agility prevents operational blockages and unnecessary delays.
• SiPM adds an additional layer of planning and operational control, facilitating coordination of activities and resources in distributed environments.

Together, these solutions allow SAP to adapt to field-based work typical of the agribusiness sector, keeping processes active, synchronized, and traceable.

Perishable Materials: Batch Control and Operational Traceability with SiDM Materials and SiMA

Effective control of perishable materials requires proper material master definition and precise execution of movements:

• SiDM Materials manages the material master data in a governed and multidisciplinary manner, avoiding inconsistencies that directly impact production and inventory. Through business rules and validation workflows, it ensures that materials are created with complete and coherent information, including critical data such as batch management and expiration dates. This reduces structural errors that later cause losses, reprocessing, or traceability issues.
• SiMA reinforces this control at the operational level, ensuring that movements are correctly recorded in real time from the point where the operation takes place.

The combination of both solutions enables effective control of perishable materials in SAP, reducing economic losses and improving end-to-end traceability.

Regulatory Compliance: Data Governance and Document Control with SiDM Materials, SiDM Vendors, and SiGO

Regulatory compliance in agribusiness requires rigorous management of master data and associated documentation.

• SiDM Materials and SiDM Vendors govern this data through sector-specific forms and validation workflows that ensure data quality and consistency.

These solutions reduce data dispersion, prevent manual errors, and facilitate change traceability—an essential requirement in regulated environments. Critical information is centralized and validated before impacting operational processes.

• SiGO complements this approach by streamlining tendering processes for campaigns or bulk purchases. It enables offer management using comparison matrices and organized documentation, maintaining a structured and auditable control framework.

Together, these solutions strengthen regulatory compliance in SAP for agribusiness companies, reducing risk and simplifying audits.

Seasons and Campaigns: Agility and Procurement Cycle Visibility with SiTRACK

During agricultural campaigns, visibility across the procurement cycle is essential.

SiTRACK provides complete process traceability, offering visibility into the progress of requisitions, purchase orders, and deliveries from a single point.

This solution facilitates the identification of bottlenecks, improves cross-department coordination, and enables proactive action in response to delays or incidents. In high operational load scenarios, SiTRACK ensures that SAP supports agribusiness seasonality without losing control or traceability.

SiPRO as a Complementary Solution for Supplier Management

In addition to the solutions directly linked to the challenges described above, SiPRO acts as a key complement for strengthening supplier relationships in the agribusiness sector. Through a self-service portal, it centralizes information and provides a transparent communication channel between the company and its suppliers.

SiPRO facilitates access to purchase orders, invoices, and payment statuses, reducing administrative workload and repetitive inquiries. This transparency improves collaboration, especially during campaigns when supplier interaction intensifies and response times are critical.

By integrating with SAP, SiPRO contributes to more efficient and structured supplier relationship management, reinforcing agribusiness supply chain stability without adding technical complexity.

Optimize Your SAP System and Perfectly Adapt It to the Agribusiness Sector

If your business is affected by any of the challenges described above, Innova is available to offer you—without obligation—a demonstration of either a specific solution or the complete solution package, allowing you to choose those that best fit your business needs. An expert will contact you and show you, through practical examples, how the tool works and answer any questions you may have.