WoolQ has launched three new functions.

AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation’s online platform WoolQ has released three new features – an industry network forum, My WoolQ for clip details and a ready reckoner for market analysis and results.

AWI launched WoolQ in March 2018 as Australia’s first online wool industry platform allowing wool growers and industry participants to easily harness digital efficiencies across the wool-growing and selling cycle.

WoolQ project sponsor Will Wilson said with the release of WoolQ’s three new tools, the platform now supports all stages of the wool-growing cycle – from planning, through to shearing, testing, appraising, analysing and reviewing.

“WoolQ has been designed to facilitate digital communication and exchange, enabling growers and industry participants to leverage new opportunities.

“The industry network forum has been created as an online meeting place where woolgrowers, classers, brokers and buyers can connect to share ideas, experiences and learnings,” Mr Wilson said.

“My WoolQ is an innovative tool that provides a central archive of growers’ clip information with simple comparative tools to see what’s happening from one season to the next.

“Broker integration is required to access the full suite of My WoolQ tools,” he said.

The ready reckoner tool has two sections – market analysis and market results, AWI said. The ‘market analysis’ tool allowed growers to get an instant estimate of the value of their clip from up-to-date market pricing, while the ‘market results’ function allowed growers to view recent sale prices to benchmark and evaluate their clip performance against similar wool in the market.

“As a secure platform that adheres to the highest security standards, WoolQ is future-proofing the wool industry, creating opportunities, increasing efficiencies and securing the future of the industry,” Mr Wilson said.

WoolQ is a ‘no-brainer’ – grower

Wool grower and WoolQ user Anna Cotton from Tasmania said her experience using WoolQ has been fantastic.

“WoolQ reduces the margin of error because the whole process is step-by-step.

“It also gives the broker or the buyer the ability to look at your profile while you’re shearing and to see what you’re uploading, without necessarily having to be on a visit,” she said.

“The broker or buyer could be sitting in the office in Sydney, Hong Kong or Italy – the opportunities are endless.

“It’s about educating and getting the growers into the 21st century,” Anna said.

“This is a no-brainer.”

Elders district wool manager in South Australia, Stephanie Brooker-Jones said WoolQ assisted brokers with what they already did with clients.

“My firm does a great job of consolidating information and doing reports, but if we can make it simpler, flow better and give growers access to it 24/7, that’s a fantastic development,” she said.

WoolQ can be accessed by any member of the wool industry, from wool growers to classers, through to brokers, buyers and industry associations. Users first need to register and set up their profile at www.woolq.com

Wool Q is available to users anywhere, any time and can be accessed via mobile phones, tablet, laptop or desktop computer – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The WoolQ App is also available via Google Play Store or the IOS App store, which means users can still access and record critical information which will then sync automatically once they’re back in internet range.

To support users as they learn to adopt WoolQ, a customer assistance service is operating at [email protected], or 1800 070 099 and easy-to-follow video tutorials and user guides are also available on www.woolq.com

AWI said the WoolQ portal, formerly known as The Wool Exchange Portal, allows the wool industry to embrace digital opportunities to achieve future growth and efficiency. The WoolQ name emerged from the concept of a Wool HQ – a digital headquarters for the Australian wool industry where information, data, selling choices and trading opportunities are visible and accessible in the one location to wool growers, their agents and other industry professionals in a single online destination. The final phase of development in the WoolQ platform – WoolQ Market — is scheduled for release at the end of 2018, and will offer tools that focus on the selling stages of the cycle.

Source: AWI.