Information and Communication Technologies as a Trigger for the

Development of Companies in the Agro-Industrial Complex

Olga Yu. Antsiferova

and Larisa M. Petrova

Michurinsk State Agrarian University, Internationalnaya Street, 101, Michurinsk, Russia

Keywords: Agriculture, Agro-Industrial Complex, Intellectualization, Digital Technologies, Intensification.

Abstract:

The article discusses the possibility of using digital technologies in the agro-industrial complex.

Unfortunately, many enterprises still use obsolete means of production, simplified technologies, both in

agriculture and in the processing, storage and sale of agricultural products, which reduces labor productivity.

Wherein, the transfer of agriculture to a qualitatively new technical and technological basis that meets modern

trends will have a fruitful effect on the development of the agro-industrial complex and competitiveness.

Global changes in modern reality require the introduction of information and communication, digital

technologies in human resource management processes, including the transfer of managerial competencies to

a remote basis, the rapid development of artificial intelligence, the emergence of breakthrough innovations,

the introduction of basic income concepts, as a result of which the profitability of production will increase.

Reducing the costs of management, interaction with counterparties, receiving and processing information, the

development of remote employment will become a significant reserve for increasing agricultural production

and increasing its competitiveness. Wherein, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of each enterprise,

its economic and natural conditions, specialization, the level of production intensity, the completeness of the

use of the resource potential. The management paradigm is the intensification of production based on

digitalization. The authors substantiate the need for a transition to information and communication, digital

technologies as the basis for achieving effective results in agricultural production. The novelty of the study

lies in the conceptual interest and effective use of cloud technologies, remote work to solve organizational

and economic problems, an increase in labor productivity and an increase in the material interest of the

enterprise team, an increase in profits, and an increase in production profitability.

1 INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this article is to theoretically

substantiate and develop practical recommendations

for the innovative development of enterprises in the

agro-industrial complex using effective forms and

methods of introducing digital information and

communication technologies.

The author's hypothesis is that in the context of a

pandemic, the problem of the operational

implementation of digital technologies has become

aggravated with the aim of a systematic approach to

human resource management.

The methodological basis of the study was the

works of Russian and foreign authors who publish

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0214-8792

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1429-8285

scientific works, the legal framework, and statistical

information.

The study results can contribute to constructive

use in the business process by managers, business

founders.

Organizations of the agro-industrial complex

systematically introduce digital technologies into

their activities. As a result, resource management is

changing and transforming significantly, which

increases the efficiency of production processes. Use

of technologies to increase the mobility of employees,

speed up data processing, cloud databases,

visualization of the results obtained, is considered a

technological breakthrough, which is a new way of

transferring information that erases the boundaries of

distances. The intensification of the agro-industrial

Antsiferova, O. and Petrova, L.

Information and Communication Technologies as a Trigger for the Development of Companies in the Agro-Industrial Complex.

DOI: 10.5220/0011110300003439

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference "COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals" (RTCOV 2021), pages 43-48

ISBN: 978-989-758-617-0

complex on the basis of scientific and technological

progress is one of the most important conditions for

accelerating the economic development of our

country.

2 STUDY RESULTS

One of the main conditions for the successful

implementation of a policy for the effective

development of agriculture and rural areas is to

ensure high rates of agricultural production, using the

latest methods and tools for enhancing human

potential and capital in the field of human resource

management; create a communication environment

that allows to effectively manage the innovative

potential of the organization using the control and

management system. Moreover, each enterprise has

the opportunity to increase the efficiency of

intensification through the use of organizational,

economic and social reserves, and primarily through

the activation of the human factor, ensuring that

everyone in their place works conscientiously and

with full dedication (Petrova, 2021). Along with

scientific and technological progress, labor resources

play a leading role in the development of social

production and increasing its efficiency. The key in

solving the problems of the successful functioning of

an agricultural enterprise is the assessment of the

effectiveness of management and personnel

assessment. “A good economist, instead of trivial

theses, will sit down to study facts, figures, data,

analyze our own practical experience and say: a

mistake is there, it must be corrected this way. A good

administrator, on the basis of such a study, will offer

or will carry out the relocation of persons, changes in

reporting, restructuring of the apparatus, and etc.".

Labor resources are undoubtedly the main element of

production and the main productive force, but only

under the condition of digital transformation of the

enterprise. The departmental project "Digital

Agriculture" notes that the introduction of IT

technologies will reduce costs, reduce production

risks, and also increase labor productivity in

agriculture by half by 2024.

According to the analytical agency in the field of

IT study, CNews Analytics, according to the results

of a traditnal survey of managers of enterprises in

various spheres of the Russian economy, the main

preferences of heads of enterprises in the agro-

industrial complex are visible when using modern IT

solutions (Table 1).

Studies have shown that the priority areas for the

introduction of advanced information technologies in

agricultural enterprises are: autonomous systems, big

data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud

technologies.

With the development of the digital economy, the

efficiency of interaction between business entities

begins to depend less and less on their physical

location, the main transactions between which take

place in the digital virtual environment of cloud

technologies. The efficiency of information exchange

is less and less dependent on the immediate proximity

of the participants in the interaction. The influence of

geographic location on the amount of access to

resources and transport costs is reduced. Saving on

use of common resources affects the reduction in the

share of material costs in the cost of production

(Petrova, 2020).

The increase in information intensity, the

efficiency of the exchange of tangible goods has

become less dependent on the proximity of the buyer

and the supplier. As a result of automation,

information and management processes are separated

from material production: personnel engaged in

intellectual work, as a rule, is located in an area with

Table 1: Rating "IT Trends - 2021": the most demanded technologies.

IT technologies Agriculture Industry Financial secto

Trading Real secto

Generall

Autonomous systems 64 65 2 26 65 29

Internet of thin

s 57 62 12 48 57 63

data anal

tics 54 62 89 86 65 82

Artificial intelli

ence 45 60 73 61 53 69

Cloud solutions 38 54 61 55 47 79

5G networks 19 26 12 15 25 33

Digital twins 17 54 11 11 35 38

Virtual and Au

mented Realit

15 35 5 46 25 33

Peri

heral Com

utin

12 19 11 10 16 11

Blockchain 5 12 37 17 10 19

Quantum technologies 5 7 1 2 6 5

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

a high standard of living, and material production is

arranged in a territory that provides it with cheap

resources. Considering the seasonality of agricultural

production and assessing the results of the employee's

current activities, it became possible to identify and

use its potential for the future, to motivate it to solve

more complex, non-traditional tasks. The construct of

the above changes will be the unification of economic

entities living and located in different territories.

Geographic proximity ceases to affect the long-term

interactions of the subjects.

It is impossible to ignore the important fact that

spatial concentration allows a person to be fully

assessed in accordance with economic feasibility, and

also makes it possible to obtain new knowledge and

turn it into innovation. The unification of companies

engaged in different types of activities, scientific and

educational centers contributes to the development of

each of them: enterprises receive the necessary

knowledge and personnel that meet their needs. An

additional argument in favor of the spatial

concentration of production is the acceleration of the

process of creation and exchange of implicit

knowledge, which is transmitted only in conditions of

frequent personal contacts between people (Nikitin,

A.V., Antsiferova, O.Y., 2018). The communication

exchange of tacit knowledge occurs quite effectively

without interrupting the main work and contributes to

the development of personal and professional

qualities of personnel, taking into account objective

economic indicators and the final result of work.

The result of the introduction of digital

information and communication technologies into the

company's activities will be to reduce the costs of

interaction between its participants, which will

positively affect the profitability of production.

Profitability characterizes the economic viability of

production. Profitability indicators are necessary to

assess the economic efficiency of management and

use of enterprise resources (Anciferova, O.YU.,

Sutormina, E.S., 2019). Analysis of profitability

indicators allows managers and specialists of

agricultural enterprises to determine which types of

products are most profitable to produce on the farm,

where the greatest opportunities to increase the

profitability of production are laid. The higher the

profitability of production, the more opportunities to

carry out scientific and technological progress,

comprehensive intensification of agriculture, solve

social problems of the countryside and increase the

amount of material incentives for workers of

agricultural enterprises for the final results

(Antsiferova, O.Y., Ivanova, E.V., Myagkova, E.A.,

Strelnikov, A.V., Petrov, L.M., 2021).

We offer formulas for calculating savings from

use of digitalization.

The savings in living labor are calculated by the

formulas:

Et = (Ts-Tn) * V, (1

)

where Et is the saving of living labor from the

introduction of a new technique; Тs - labor costs for

1 unit.

products with old technologies without using a

new technique; Тn - labor costs for 1 unit, when

introducing a new technique; V - gross income when

applying a new measure.

Ez = (Zs-Zn) * V, (2

)

where Ez is the saving of production costs; Zs -

production costs for 1 unit of

products with old technologies without using a

new technique; Zn - production costs per 1 unit, when

introducing a new technique; V - gross income when

applying a new measure.

The amount of production cost savings coincides

with the amount of additional net income generated

from the new digital trick.

Profit per man-hour characterizes the cost-

effectiveness of human labor. It is calculated both for

individual types of products and for the economy as a

whole. It is advisable to analyze the amount of profit

per 1 employee in dynamics.

The indicators used to assess the intensification

process are divided into characterizing its level,

effectiveness and economic efficiency. The indicators

of each group, in turn, can be subdivided into main

and additional (private) ones (Kastornov, N.P., 2020).

3 DISCUSSION OF STUDY

RESULTS

Summarizing the study, it can be argued that

agricultural organizations, showing constructivism in

the development of digital technologies in business

processes, will strengthen their competitiveness.

Since what quite recently seemed to be the

prerogative of advanced IT-companies, in a couple of

years it has become an integral part of almost any

modern organization. We offer, for example, to

consider an information system - a Bitrix24 product,

which supports the company's communication

processes, unites the activities of employees within

the organization, helps to build interaction outside –

with customers, partners, suppliers, and etc. Large

Information and Communication Technologies as a Trigger for the Development of Companies in the Agro-Industrial Complex

companies in the agricultural sector add their

employees to the information space.

The first key process within the company is

communication. In the modern world, the opportunity

to correspond with colleagues is provided using a

variety of instant messengers. Bitrix24 makes it

possible to conduct correspondence within the

information portal, with reference to a specific

process in the work of an employee. This means that

all chats are indexed in the portal, and not a single

important corporate correspondence will be lost when

the employee leaves, nothing will be forgotten.

Communication does not end only with chats with

colleagues or video calls directly from the mobile,

working through the simplest processes, the

employee is connected to the information portal,

works in a virtual office with colleagues from

anywhere in the enterprise, country. The personnel

mark the start and end of the working day, see the

current task that is relevant to him/her, work on them,

noting the time spent, attaching the results of

activities for reports, for example, in the form of a

photo. Figure 1.

The next important process is work on tasks and

projects: from the workplace using a computer,

laptop, mobile phone or tablet, work is carried out on

a particular task, the comments indicate the necessary

feedback, the result of the work, photographs are

attached or another note is made about that the task is

completed. A specialized virtual workplace is created

for the employee, when there is nothing superfluous

in it that distracts from his/her main process. The

functionality of smart processes is possible; the

creation of an employee's AMR is his/her virtual

workplace.

The Projects and Groups functionality will allow

to group tasks or plan work within individual projects.

Extensive planning functionality within a project,

various calendars in a project or views in a project

from a list to a Gantt chart to modern milestone views

such as Kanban, allow to conveniently work with

tasks and projects.

An important component is the feeling of the

employee's presence at his/her workplace, the

understanding that from anywhere in the enterprise,

even in an open field, it is possible to be at the

workplace. Employee directories with phone

numbers, e-mail, photos and a separate page for each

employee, the visual structure of the company will

show a person his/her presence in the organization.

Bitrix24 allows to make decisions quickly and

efficiently and ensure their implementation: unity and

clarity of management; consistency of actions of

performers; a clear system of relationships between

the manager and the subordinate; quick response to

directions; personal responsibility of the head for the

results of the unit's actions. Figure 2.

A separate important component for any

agricultural company is working with a base of

customers, suppliers, partners. When the entire

history of interaction with them, including calls,

correspondence through all communication channels

(mail, instant messengers, communication through

social networks, and etc.) is saved in the system. This

functionality is also solved within the framework of

one Bitrix24 product, and is an integral part of it.

Information is recorded in the Bitrix24 CRM system,

CRM stands for customers relationship management

that is, a program for building interaction with

Figure 1: Online office.

Live tape

Chat

room

Disk

Documents

online

Calendar

Working

groups

Time

tracking

Working

reports

HR: structure

and

employees

Business

processes

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

Figure 2: The structure of the management apparatus of an agricultural enterprise.

Figure 3: Management structure of the technological process of dairy production and sales.

customers, in fact, the program reflects the interaction

with all participants external to the company:

suppliers; customers; contractors; partners; other

external organizations and individuals.

An information field is formed, data is

accumulated in one place from different participants

in production processes, production issues are quickly

resolved, and the quality of management decisions is

increasing. Figure 3.

Remote work is becoming a reality in modern

organizations, which gives a serious increase in labor

productivity, an opportunity to improve the quality of

ideas, create a new product (Petrova, L.M., 2020).

4 CONCLUSION

All of the above gives reason to believe that the

general level of willingness to cooperate and

possession of digital technologies allows organizers

of business processes and all participants to quite

Director

Chief

agronomist

Chief Livestock

Officer

Head

Economist

Chief

Accountant

Chief Engineer

Field Brigade

Leaders

Foremen

Manager

of Thrashin

Manager

of Thrashin

Farm Manager

Milking

Machine

Operators

Veterinarian

Head of the Feed

Department

Mechanic

Garage

Manager

Spare Parts

Warehouse

Mana

Specialist in

Energetics

Tractor Crew

Check-Men

Field Crew Check-

Men

Livestock Check-

Men

Accounting

Department

Directo

Chief Livestock

Officer

Head Economist Chief

Accountant

Dair

Plant

Farm Manage

Milking

Machine

erators

Veterinarian

Head of the Feed

Department

Milk Collection

Point

Livestock Check-

Men

Accounting

artment

Information and Communication Technologies as a Trigger for the Development of Companies in the Agro-Industrial Complex

successfully move to a new level of communication

relations (Anciferova, О. Yu., Myagkova, E. A.,

Tolstoshein, K. V., 2018). It is important to

understand that after a long crisis in Russian

agriculture and with a low level of social

infrastructure in the countryside, the process of

introducing digital information and communication

technologies will take place systematically, for a long

time. Due to the existing peculiarities of the

agricultural sector, its special role in the economy and

politics of Russia, for a successful transition to

digitalization of the agricultural sector, it is necessary

to strengthen state support for agriculture and all its

branches, the participation of investors and patrons.

“The economic community, which consists of a set of

interconnected organizations and individuals. The

economic community produces goods and services of

value to the consumer, which are also part of the

ecosystem. Any enterprise ecosystem also includes

suppliers, leading manufacturers, competitors, and

other stakeholders. Over time, they co-evolve their

capabilities and roles and strive to align with the

directions set by one or more of the leading

companies. Those companies that hold leadership

roles can change over time, but the ecosystem leader

function is valued by the community because it

allows members to move towards shared visions in

order to align their investments and find mutually

supportive roles” (Moore, J. F.,1993). Therefore, it is

advisable to use such digitalization techniques such

as Bitrix 24 for large agro-industrial firms, holdings,

and etc.

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Anciferova, O.YU., Sutormina, E.S., 2019. Sovremennoe

sostoyanie i perspektivy razvitiya innovacionnoj

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Michurinskogo gosudarstvennogo agrarnogo

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(RTCOV )