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The tractor of the future will be greener and smarter

The marathon organised by the Carraro Group and the start-up AzzurroDigitale was a smashing success. 

 _The first edition of the “Carraro Blue Wave” generated digital ideas to enhance machinery and concepts for highly-evolved projects in the field of tractors._

Padua, 28 September 2015 – Last Sunday, the "Carraro Blue Wave" marathon came to a conclusion. The event dedicated to innovation and the tractor of the future took place at the Talent Garden in Padua and was organised by the start-up AzzurroDigitale for the Carraro Group. The 16 talented participants were divided into 4 Teams (Red, Blue, White, Yellow) that challenged each other on two briefs. They had just 24 hours to present their ideas and turn them into something concrete. To make the competition more challenging and more importantly, to encourage more operative output, each team was assigned a Tutor who came with noted experience and could guide the participants in the creative Design Thinking methodology. Here are their names: Alberto Paccagnella (Strategy Consulting - Deloitte Consulting), Alice Cassandro (Strategy Consulting - Deloitte Consulting), Susanna De Besi (Polytechnic of Milan, Service Designer - Epoca), Jacopo Pertile (Bocconi University, Digital Consulting -AzzurroDigitale).

First output: the Carraro tractor of the future 

The 4 Teams had just five hours to put together their presentations for the "tractor of the future", which were very interesting. All of them focused on matters related to the IoT (Internet of Things) and the Hu-man Experience / Human Interface. This is because tomorrow's agricultural vehicles will need to "speak" and supply a great deal more information to their users, and it will be important that they do so in a way that is easy to understand. Ideally, they will make the entire agricultural environment (vineyard, orchard, farm) a little bit smarter, giving the various components that make it up the capacity to dialogue among themselves. It's a big challenge, but not impossible.

Second output: the new Web / Mobile strategy and the "human" configurator for Carraro Trattori 

All night, the Team members took turns resting and being awake, devoting their time to preparing a re-sponse to the second brief. This brief called for a detailed and almost fully-functioning concept of a new way for Carraro Trattori to be present on the Web. The output needed to begin with a portal, continue to a series of Apps, and end by completely revising the company's approach to Social Media. The final result was the design of a product configurator that is as highly sophisticated technologically as it is easy for the users to operate, which is fundamental in defining the tailor-made Carraro tractor for potential customers from the initial approach on-line. 

The jury 

The jury convened on Sunday afternoon. Its members included: Tomaso Carraro (Vice President, Carraro Group), Gianni Potti (President, National Organisation for Confindustria's Innovative Services), Stefano Image (Business Head, Carraro Tractors), Marco de’ Francesco (Editor, Corriere Innovazione), Paolo Gubitta (Professor of Business Organisation and Delegate for Placement, University of Padua) and Raffaele Talarico (DLG – German Agricultural Society / Italia).

The winners 

It was not easy to determine the winning Team, especially with the remarkable quality of the output pre-sented that had to be evaluated. The 2,000 € prize was awarded to the White Team, made up of Robert Borghesi, Eda Omeri, Andrè Prandoni Kistner and Giuseppe Pluchino. The winning idea focused on the opportunities the Carraro tractors could capitalise on, taking advantage of the integration with Santerno, the Carraro Group company specialised in power electronics. The Team's project calls for a progressive ap-proach to a new generation of green and smart tractors that have electric traction systems and are inte-grated into eco-friendly farms. It all starts with sensors, expanded applications with IoT technology and a new digital instrument panel that can interface with users, simplifying the vehicle's operations.

_“These two days were full of stimuli and content that we can make ours and that will allow us to take a decisive step forward within a sector that already recognises us for our traditional competencies,"_ said Tomaso Carraro, Vice President of the Carraro Group. _"In a world that is evolving faster and faster, we have to change gears and it has never been as necessary as now to cut across different skills. The 16 talents were a truly important stimulus for us and I am certain that many of the ideas generated, not just those of the winners, will soon be made into practical applications."

_ _“When AzzurroDigitale suggested that we put this event on together and that we be a key player among pioneers, we understood immediately that it would be an excellent opportunity, even though we had no proof,"_ concluded Stefano Image, Business Head of Carraro Tractors.  _"Today, with the results in hand, we can confirm that our expectations were met and that we feel we are just beginning a long process that would be difficult to undertake alone. The creative spirit in these 24 hours is determining a real paradigm shift in how we perceive the tractor of tomorrow."_