Problems with ICT
Fiona and Thomas relied heavily on friends and family for recommendation about the best software. They also used their prior experience to shortlist packages that they were interested in. They did not trial any products but bought what was considered the best package at the time. The geographical isolation of being on a farm limits the options that they have of receiving on-going support and training on the software packages from the vendors. Thus, reliability of both hardware and software are important. Use of the Internet for software upgrades reduces the time taken in supporting the system, however the rural location does mean that hardware problems can be costly in terms of time lost organising a repair as well as the inconvenience of having the system "down".
One of the problems that the Wards identify in their use of ICTs is the requirement to double handle all information. Virtually all of their on-farm information is gathered "in the field", necessitating documentation first on paper, and subsequently entering it onto the computer at the end of the day. This opens up the possibility of data inaccuracies arising from transcription errors or omissions. Errors could be reduced and duplication of tasks avoided if data could be captured electronically once, at the point of detection out on the farm, rather than transcribed in the farmhouse onto the computer.
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