With 10 years of experience culminating in 8500 currently registered users and 2M hectares being managed, Omnia is a very different offer compared with when it first launched in 2016. CPM reflects on its evolution and why growers continue to make it their platform of choice.
“I use Omnia every day, it’s just so accessible and easy.” THOMAS TODD
By Janine Adamson
Despite its relatively late entry into an already established market when it launched at Cereals Event in 2016, the past 10 years has seen exponential growth of Omnia, notes Oliver Wood. From the technology itself to the team behind it, the direction of travel has been one-way – on the up.
As it stands today, Omnia has around 8500 registered users covering 2M hectares, with its success hard fought for, he adds. And while Oliver admits the platform’s initial start was steady, taking around three years to secure a firm foothold among the competition, its ramped up quickly since.
“Our initial opening offer was a precision farming with nutrient management solution. Being one of the last companies to develop a product in this space meant it was a noisy environment to compete in,” he recalls.
UNIQUE BENEFITS
On the flip side, this meant Omnia could offer a point of difference early in its incarnation – utilising the cloud, comments Oliver. “This led to our first pivot point. Having put a lot of marketing effort into promoting Omnia’s unique benefits, it started to penetrate the market.
“In addition, our approach has always been to link data to technical advice – offering a product that’s rooted in practical agronomy. I think these are some of the key reasons why growers started to take notice.”
Naturally, this led to Omnia’s next key milestone in 2019/20, when the platform evolved from a mostly precision agriculture tool to addressing a much bigger picture – the world of farm management, offering a suite of tools to support such as the Business Performance Module. “User feedback indicated we had to develop more functionality within Omnia and that the market space had growth potential,” says Oliver.
“Then within two years, we’d fully committed to that direction of travel, which later culminated in the launch of Omnia’s upgrade in May 2024. That essentially formed what the platform is today – an integrated farm management system that delivers more for both the grower and agronomist.”
Omnia’s steady evolution indicates the importance of reading an audience and responding to constructive feedback. For Oliver, who’s been a part of the Omnia team since day one, this has helped to ensure the platform’s longevity.
“Despite the significant upgrade two years ago we’ve never truly gone back to the drawing board; Omnia today is nothing new and the work goes on. While specific functionality has adjusted, the USPs haven’t: Omnia remains powerful, user-driven, easy-to-use, addresses real-life British farm needs, and is cloud-based.
“Comparing where we started 10 years ago with where we are now, and the types of enterprises that use our platform to support managing their businesses, we’re proud. This comes from the talented team that’s behind Omnia, continually driving it forward,” he says.
A widely acknowledged benefit of Omnia is that its support team is UK-based. Again, this has grown considerably during the past decade – from just four individuals in 2016 to today’s head-count of 25, adds Oliver. “All development work takes place in-house, plus we have a team of field-based digital specialists that visit farmers across the country. This all demonstrates Hutchinsons’ significant investment in the system and its subsequent growth.”
Northumberland grower, Thomas Todd, was one of the first users to have sight of Omnia, in fact, he was part of the initial testing phase back in 2014. He’s remained loyal to the service ever since.
With 300ha of arable cropping to manage including winter wheat, oilseed rape, spring barley and vining peas, he says prior to Omnia, the farm’s admin was all paper-based. “We did very little on the computer,” recalls Thomas. “Then when we did, for aspects such as farm QA (quality assurance), we’d print it off and have folders full of paper.”
But with the correct tools presented to him, Thomas says he’s an early adopter of technology, hence his prompt buy-in with Omnia. He adds that key to his confidence has been working alongside Hutchinsons agronomist, George Robson – a fellow advocate of innovation.
ALL-IN-ONE
George notes that in its original guise, Omnia was good for basic recording and elements such as nutrition and variable rate maps, however following the upgrade in 2024, suddenly everything came together. “We no longer had to use an additional platform to address spray recommendations, everything could take place in Omnia.
“Having a full view of each client’s business has transformed my daily routine. I can quickly and easily produce plans for nutrition, seed and crop protection, and see if previous recommendations have been completed.
“In return, clients can view my inspections and recommendations, and we build a mutual understanding of their business and progress forward together,” he says.
George also raises that data entry has simplified significantly. “A single input of data now has multiple uses and is automatically integrated across all modules in Omnia. For example, one photograph is both record-keeping for the grower and evidence for the likes of SFI or QA.”
Thomas agrees that the beauty of Omnia is its simplicity. “Because of the Scout phone app it’s very convenient and can be used on-the-go in the field. I use Omnia every day, whether that’s checking the weather module or variable rate maps; it’s just so accessible and easy. But if I didn’t have Omnia, I’d be lost,” he laughs.
Being a Helix demonstration farm, Thomas can also use Omnia to manage trial work, with all information fed back into the platform. Again, key to delivering this has been his relationship with George, he says. “I’m happy exploring new methods and ways of working, but we assess the new technology together. Some solutions don’t make it, but that’s after adequately screening them as a team.”
TRAINING RESOURCES
While Thomas commends Omnia’s simplicity, he also appreciated the detail that’s within the platform. “For example, the training videos are really good. I’m more than happy to watch one of those then play around to explore the functionality.
“It’s great to see Omnia come alive; I look forward to trialling each module as it’s prepared for release, and then see it launched.”
As someone who’s relatively new to Omnia, mixed farmer Adam Hayward, also a Helix farm, points out that it was free trial of the platform that provided the initial hook. “I won a competition so could see its capabilities first-hand, and compare with the various services we were already using.
“Although I knew of Omnia, and it’s likely I’d have naturally transitioned over time, having the trial sped the process up considerably,” he explains.
For Adam, who oversees 300ha at Bishop Burton in East Yorkshire alongside his father Paul, an outstanding feature of the platform is its mapping provision. “I use this very regularly – often daily – especially to help manage our on-farm trials. It not only makes working life a lot simpler, but it makes it easy to explain to others too.”
He also lists the stock management and spray modules as highlights. “These are good recent additions, so a focus of ours this year will be maximising their use to really get the most from Omnia. Although of course, it’ll mean introducing a new way of working.”
According to Adam, he’s a ‘lover of data’ – looking at more than 20 sources each day. He says in time, he’d like to see more of this integrated into Omnia. “It’s already good but I think if wider detail could be combined too, it would be even better. This could include information from remote weather stations, soil sampling, tissue sampling and N-sensors.
“Of course, a significant benefit of Omnia is that the team behind it listens to user feedback like this and works hard to implement upgrades. It’s an ever-evolving beast and each year there’s something new to learn. It’s clear that investment has been made and hopefully this will continue.”
Having used Omnia for a few years, Adam believes its worth the hype. “I’m very pleased and would certainly recommend it, particularly since the upgrade. Omnia’s steady improvement, backed by an amazing support team, clearly shines through.
“Plus, there’s a lot of uncertainty around other ag management platforms, which has only cemented our decision further.”
As for Thomas’ future with Omnia, being a member of various grower groups for crops such as peas and potatoes, he’s looking forward to improving the efficiency of his reporting. That’s because following more user feedback, development work is currently taking place to automate specialist filtered reports, making Thomas’ wish a near reality.
“Thomas has been highly integrated with the development of Omnia throughout,” states George. “But as with all of our clients – and this is an important point – they retain the rights to their own data,” he concludes.
Hear more from Thomas during the Omnia Farm Show on Thursday, 28 May at 5pm – broadcast live from his farm in Northumberland. Visit here to register: hutchinsons.co.uk/the-omnia-farm-show/
This article was taken from the latest issue of CPM. Read the article in full here.
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